LEGAL DEPARTMENT. 607 



Legal Facts of Importance to All 

 Citizens of the Dominion of Canada. 



CONTRACTS. 



What is a Contract ? An agreement enforceable at law between two 

 or more parties to do or not to do some specified thing is called a con- 

 tract. It may be verbal (by word of mouth) or written. 



This subject is a limitless one, for scarcely a day passes without one 

 making a contract. The simplest agreement one with another is a con- 

 tract ; and limitless as they are in number, and varied in their require- 

 ments, they are all governed by ^'ery general rules. 



Contract Not Valid. An agreement to do a thing contrary to law, 

 or a thing forbidden by law, cannot be enforced. As for example : the 

 law in the Province of Ontario regulates the quantity of intoxicating 

 liquor a dealer may sell at any one time, and the hours during which it 

 may be sold. Any agreement contrary to the above law cannot be 

 enforced. 



Things Necessary. There are certain things necessary without which 

 there can be no contract. First, there must be parties to the contract, and 

 they must be legally qualified ; second, there must be a reasonable con- 

 sideration ; third, there must be the thing to be done or not to be done, 

 (subject matter) ; fourth," there must be the consent of all parties to the 

 agreement ; fifth, there must be a time when the contract is to be com- 

 pleted. Thus every contract must have five essentials, parties, con- 

 sideration, SUBJECT matter, MUTUAL CONSENT, and TIME. 



Parties. Those who make a contract must be considered competent 

 to do so in the eyes of the law. The law says that the parties must be 

 of legal age and of sound mind. In Ontario the law regards all persons 

 as infants who are under twenty-one years of age, though in some 

 countries females are made of age at eighteen. A contract made with 



