fore a notary public, judge, justice, or clerk of a court of record, a declaration in writing, that she intends carrying on business in her own name, and on her own account, setting forth the nature of the business, trade, profession, or art. After signing and acknowledging her declaration, and causing it to be certified by the officer, before whom she makes it, she will then place it with the recorder of the county, where she intends acting as sole trader, after which she is to have a copy of the declaration advertized in some newspaper published in the county. After this is done, she becomes a sole trader, and can act as such. Her liabilities as sole trader are the same as those of every other trader. She can sue and be sued, her property may be attached and her son arrested, as any other debtor. She is also liable for the maintenance of her own children, while sole trader.

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She will be entitled to the benefit of the law exempting certain property from execution-to a homestead, if her own, and her husband have none; and to the redemption law and the bankrupt law.(a)

The wife may dispose of her property by will, if the husband consents thereto. And where, by a marriage contract entered into before marriage, she acquired the right to dispose of her separate, or separate and common property, during coverture, she can do so by will.(6)

DIVORCE.

Husband and wife may be divorced from bed and board, or bonds of matrimony, for natural impotence, existing at the time of marriage; where the female, at the time of marriage, was under the age of fourteen, and was without the consent of parent, guardian, or other person having the legal care and custody of her person, and not ratified after she shall arrive at such age; where either party has been guilty of adultery, (but if known to the other, and after so known, they have cohabited together as man and wife, it ceases to be a cause for divorce,) and where the act of adultery was done by collusion of the other party, that will destroy the cause. (b) 1 California Statutes, 177.

(a) 3 California Statutes, 101.

The application must be by the innocent party, not the guilty one.

For extreme cruelty in either party; for habitual intemperance; wilful and continued desertion, by either party, for the period of two years.(a)

For wilful neglect of the husband for the period of three years, he having the ability to provide the common necessaries of life.

Where the consent of either party was obtained by force or fraud, upon the application of the injured and innocent. party; where either party has been convicted for felony, and punishment is not less than imprisonment for two years.

These are the causes for which a divorce from bed and board, or from the connection as man and wife, can be obtained. If from bed and board only, the parties cannot marry again; but if from the marriage connection, they can.

Where the husband is a citizen of the state, has deserted and abandoned his wife, and left no property or means to support her, she, having no means of her own to do it with, is in truth in a sad condition, and if her contracts were not valid, and if she could neither sue nor be sued in her own name, she would, in many instances, suffer for the means to live; but now, by the law authorizing married women to be sole traders, and subject to all the rights and duties of debtor and creditor, she is put into a condition to do something to gain a living; and so soon as the stated time passes, she can be freed from her husband, by a divorce from bed and board, or from the connection altogether.

The applicant must be a resident of the state six months immediately preceding the application. Where the application is founded on material impotency at the time of marriage, it must be made within two years thereafter, or it will be barred; and if so made, it must be by the injured party. Where the cause for a divorce granted is adultery of the wife, the legitimacy of the children born before the act of adultery complained of, is not to be affected by it.

The court, during the pendency of the action for divorce,

(a) Laws of 1853, p. 70.

or at the final hearing thereof, may provide for the support of the wife, and support and education of the children of the marriage, as shall seem right and proper; and at any time may vary or modify such provision as the interest of the parties may require, the court having full discretion and power in the matter.

The admission or statements of either party, or default of the defendant, is not sufficient to ground the judgment of divorce upon. The applicant is to prove the facts alleged as cause for the divorce. In doing it, the testimony of the parties, or either of them, is not admissible. The district court of the district where the applicant resides has exclusive jurisdiction in the action.(a)

In treating of divorce, I have but given what I think a true construction of the statute on the subject. There is no subject upon which there are greater variety of opinions than upon this. In some countries, it is held that a marriage in a foreign country is subject to the lex loci contractus, and if by that law the marriage cannot be dissolved, it cannot in any other, giving due regard to the rights of the parties.

In some countries the contract is looked upon as of a divine nature, and cannot be dissolved except by the act of God. In some other countries the law is as I have given it. But in all the rights to property which either party acquires by a marriage contract, if valid where made, will attach to and be valid in whatever country the property is carried to, or is situated.

In looking at the nature of the marriage contract, it cannot be claimed for it that its performance is implied to be where entered into or celebrated; but the true implication is, that its performance is to be in the future, and wherever the parties may happen to be, or in whatever country they may take up their residence; in that view the lex loci contractus, or place where it was celebrated, cannot apply. Our state considers the contract of a civil nature, and subject to a dissolution by her law, where parties come within her jurisdiction and the cause is sufficient to do it.

(a) 2 California Statutes, 186.

CHAPTER VII.

PARENT, CHILD, MINOR, GUARDIAN AND WARD.

I SHALL not treat of the natural, moral, and social rights and obligations of the relation of parent and child, but only to the extent that our law enforces them.

The father is entitled to the control and custody of his child until it arrives at the age of majority, which is fixed at twenty-one years. (a) The parent is entitled to the labor and services of his child during his or her minority, and to the guardianship in case the child shall be possessed of any property; and until a guardian is appointed, he is entitled to the control of his child's property, as the natural guardian.(6) If the father dies, and the mother is living and unmarried, she is entitled to the guardianship. If the father dies or abandons his children, and their mother is living, she is entitled to the custody, control and tuition of the child, and to the right of recovery for injury to or death of the child.(c)

The power and authority of the ruling parent over the child allows him or her to inflict reasonable punishment, to compel obedience to the lawful commands of such parent; and such power may be delegated to another, such as tutor or schoolmaster. Where the child is injured, and whether it occasions pecuniary loss or not to the parent, for the want of the services of the child, the parent having control of such child can maintain an action and recover damages against the person who caused the injury-whether the services of the child were of such character that to the parent they were valuable, as labor, or not.

A person who shall seduce a daughter, is liable for seduction to the parent; or one who shall assault a child is liable

(a) 3 Black. Com. 140; 2 Kent. Com. 208. (b) 1 California Statutes, 268.

(c) 2 Cal. Stat. 52.