352 EESOUECES OF CALIFOENIA. 



any of it except the homestead ; a deed or mortgage for which 

 without her signature and seal, is absolutely void. The hus- 

 band cannot convey his interest unless she conveys her in- 

 terest at the same time. The husband has the management 

 of the separate property of the wife too, but, if she desire it, 

 she may ajDply to a court and have the property placed in the 

 charge of any trustee whom she may select. For a valid sale 

 of the wife's separate property, husband and wife must join. 



The laws of California, like the customs and trade, do not 

 favor the perpetuation of wealth in families. There is no right 

 of primogeniture. All children inherit equally. The eldest 

 son gets no more than the youngest. Public opinion runs 

 with the law. The rich man who should express an intention 

 to give all his property to his eldest son, merely because of 

 his seniority, would be hated. Entails are forbidden. A man 

 cannot tie up lands in the country for more than ten years, or 

 town lots for more than twenty. How different is all this 

 from the state of affairs in Europe ! There, at least in some 

 parts of the continent, all the property goes to the eldest son ; 

 property is entailed in the family for many generations ; the 

 debtor is subject to imprisonment ; there is no release for in- 

 solvents ; the property of the woman is by marriage vested 

 absolutely in the husband, and does not revert by inheritance 

 to her blood relatives by her death ; the limitations for com- 

 mencing law-suits are very long, and sales, if not made at the 

 market price, or contracts, if made so that one party appears 

 to have obtained an advantage of the other, may be rescinded. 

 The habits and opinions of the people give strength to their 

 laws ; and wealth once in a family is almost as certain to be 

 transmitted through many generations by inheritance in Eu- 

 rope, as its loss in the second or third generation is certain in 

 the new states of America. 



§ 248. Tenure 0/ ianc/.— Four-fifths of the land in Califor- 

 nia is owned by the federal government, which acquired it 

 from Mexico by treaty. This federal land lies in the mineral 

 regions, and in all the unsettled districts of the state. Most of 



