CHARACTERS. 



595 



ihey marry at an early age ; and I 

 cannot here resist the temptation 

 of citing the testimony of a late 

 foreign author, little known to us, 

 on the characteristics of the Spa- 

 nish Americans. 



•* The females in the Spanish 

 dominions are marriageable at the 

 age of twelve years, and the boys 

 at fourteen ; so that we often see 

 the united ages of a wedded pair fall 

 short of thirty, and the latter con- 

 siders himself only a man when he 

 is a husband. The study or ac- 

 cordance of disposition seldom 

 precedes matrimony ; the sympa- 

 thy of humour is often mistaken 

 for that of feeling and passion ; 

 an eternal attachment is antici- 

 pated, where nothing but a slight 

 and passing fancy in reality exists. 

 They enter the bonds of wedlock 

 as if its duration had an optional 

 limit." 



In all civilized nations, the pa- 

 rents have an absolute authority 

 over their children till a certain 

 age, prescribed by a positive law. 

 In Holland it formerly continued 

 to the age of twenty for the fe- 

 male, and twenty-five for the male. 

 In England bothhavearrivedatthe 

 legal age of pubertyattwenty-one 

 years. In France the minority is 

 limited at twenty-five for the 

 women, and thirty for the men ; 

 though, by a late law, they have 

 the free administration and dis- 

 posal of property at twenty-one. 

 Till that time they are considered 

 under the tutelage of their parents, 

 and every engagement previously 

 contracted of this nature is held 

 null and void. This custom ap- 

 pears to have been wisely esta- 

 blished as a check on the morals 

 and passions of youth, and to frus- 



trate and counteract the snares 

 frequently set for its inexperience. 

 It is not uncommon in Spain for a 

 daughter who has been refused 

 alliance to her choice, and 

 whose connection is opposed by 

 the parents, to take refuge in the 

 house of the curate, or some other 

 respectable secular, where she 

 places herself out of the reach of 

 her natural guardians : the bans 

 are then published threesuccessive 

 Sundays, and though the parents 

 of neither party concur, the cere- 

 mony is performed, unless any 

 degradation to either family be 

 proved. 



To suppress emigration to South 

 America, and hinder persons of 

 bad character from being intro- 

 duced there, it became necessary 

 even for Spaniards to obtain pass- 

 ports in Europe and grants of re- 

 sidence ; and, by the tarifa de 

 gracias, drawn up in 1801, the 

 council of the Indies had the right 

 of disposing of this grant to fo- 

 reign persons, previously natural- 

 ized according to law in Spain : 

 in that case the naturalization act 

 cost 450 dollars, and the passport 

 or certificate of residence, 400 ; 

 but this was granted under some 

 stipulations, particularly as to a 

 similarity of religion. The Spa- 

 niards, who once get established 

 there, seldom return home, though 

 even married before their emigra- 

 tion ; they form new alliances, 

 often leaving theirformer wife and 

 family in poverty in their native 

 villages. Their little ventures 

 they carry out prosper and increase 

 in a country where every neces- 

 sary of life is cheap, and they ac- 

 quire a consistency and import- 

 ance they would lose by revisiting 



2 Q 2 



