ief against mistake is
given where parties who have really agreed, or rather their advisers,
fail to express their intention correctly. Here, if the original true
intention is fully proved--as to which the court is rightly
cautious--the faulty document can be judicially rectified.

Disability.

By the common law an infant (_i.e._ a person less than twenty-one years
old) was bound by contracts made for "necessaries," _i.e._ such
commodities as a jury holds, and the court thinks they may reasonably
hold, suitable and required for the person's condition; also by
contracts otherwise clearly for his benefit; all other contracts he
might confirm or avoid after coming of age. An extremely ill-drawn act
of 1874 absolutely deprived infants of the power of contracting loans,
contracting for the supply of goods other than necessaries, and stating
an account so as to bind themselves; it also disabled them from binding
themselves by ratification. The liability for necessaries is now
declared by legislative authority in the Sale of Goods Act 1893; the
modern doctrine is that it is in no case a true liability on contract.
There is an obligation imposed by law to pay, not the agreed price, but
a reasonable price. Practically, people who give credit to an infant do
so at their peril, except in cases of obvious urgency.

Married women were incapable by the common law of contracting in their
own names. At this day they can hold separate property and bind
themselves to the extent of that property--not personally--by contract.
The law before the Married Women's Property Acts (1882 and 1893, and
earlier acts now superseded and repealed) was a very peculiar creature
of the court of chancery; the number of cases in which it is necessary
to go back to it is of course decreasing year by year. But a married
woman can still be restrained from anticipating the income of her
separate property, and the restriction is still commonly inserted in
marriage settlements.

There is a great deal of philosophical interest about the nature and
capacities of corporations, but for modern practical purposes it may be
said that the legal powers of British corporations are directly or
indirectly determined by acts of parliament. For companies under the
Companies Acts the controlling instrument or written constitution is the
memorandum of association. Company draftsmen, taught by experience,
nowadays frame this in the most comprehensive terms. Questions of e