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344 TRAVELS IN 
The JVeeskammer, or chamber for managing the effects of 
minors and orphans, is one of the original institutions of the 
colony, and is modelled on those establishments of a similar 
kind that are found in every city and town of the Mother 
Country. The nature of their laws of inheritance pointed 
out the expediency of public guardians to protect and manage 
the property of those who, during their minority, should be 
left in an orphan state. In this instance the Dutch have de- 
parted from the civil or Roman law on which their system of 
jurisprudence is chiefly grounded. By their laws of pro- 
perty the estates and moveables of two persons entering into 
wedlock become a joint stock, of which each party has an 
equal participation ; and, on the death of either, the children 
are entitled to that half of the joint property which belonged 
to the deceased, unless it may have been otherwise disposed 
of by will; and here the legislature has wisely interfered to 
allow of such disposal only under certain restrictions and 
limitations. The Dutch laws, regarding property, are more 
inclinable to the interests of the children, than favorable to 
the extension of parental authority. To enable a man to dis- 
inherit a child, he must bring proof of his having committed 
one, at least, of the crimes of children against parents, which 
are enumerated in the Justinian code. 
To guard against abuses in the management of the provi- 
sion which the law has made for minors and orphans, and to 
secure the property to which they are entitled, are the duties 
of the Orphan Chamber. Its authority extends also to the 
administration of the effects, either of natives or strangers, 
