l as males, full age was not
till twenty five years[s]. Thus, by the constitutions of different
kingdoms, this period, which is merely arbitrary, and _juris
positivi_, is fixed at different times. Scotland agrees with England
in this point; (both probably copying from the old Saxon constitutions
on the continent, which extended the age of minority "_ad annum
vigesimum primum, et eo usque juvenes sub tutelam reponunt_[t]") but
in Naples they are of full age at _eighteen_; in France, with regard
to marriage, not till _thirty_; and in Holland at _twenty five_.

[Footnote q: Salk. 44. 625.]

[Footnote r: Pott. Antiq. l. 4. c. 11. Cic. _pro Muren._ 12.]

[Footnote s: _Inst._ 1. 23. 1.]

[Footnote t: Stiernhook _de jure Sueonum._ _l._ 2. _c._ 2. This is
also the period when the king, as well as the subject, arrives at full
age in modern Sweden. Mod. Un. Hist. xxxiii. 220.]

3. INFANTS have various privileges, and various disabilities: but
their very disabilities are privileges; in order to secure them from
hurting themselves by their own improvident acts. An infant cannot be
sued but under the protection, and joining the name, of his guardian;
for he is to defend him against all attacks as well by law as
otherwise[u]: but he may sue either by his guardian, or _prochein
amy_, his next friend who is not his guardian. This _prochein amy_ may
be any person who will undertake the infant's cause; and it frequently
happens, that an infant, by his _prochein amy_, institutes a suit in
equity against a fraudulent guardian. In criminal cases, an infant of
the age of _fourteen_ years may be capitally punished for any capital
offence[w]: but under the age of _seven_ he cannot. The period between
_seven_ and _fourteen_ is subject to much incertainty: for the infant
shall, generally speaking, be judged _prima facie_ innocent; yet if he
was _doli capax_, and could discern between good and evil at the time
of the offence committed, he may be convicted and undergo judgment and
execution of death, though he hath not attained to years of puberty
or discretion[x]. And sir Matthew Hale gives us two instances, one of
a girl of thirteen, who was burned for killing her mistress; another
of a boy still younger, that had killed his companion, and hid
himself, who was hanged; for it appeared by his hiding that he knew he
had done wrong, and could discern between good and evil; and in such
cases the maxim of law is, that _malitia supplet aetatem_.