The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1875-03-25
Manageable Ages In Europe.

Reports from the British representa-.
tives abroad showing the earliest age at
which marriages can he legally solemn
lied in each of the States of the Cont
nent of Europe have been presented to
the House of Commons, in pursuance of
their address dated June Is, 1874. In
Austria the age of discretion, both for
males and females, is fourteen, and this
period of life must be reached on both
sides before marriage can be valid. In
Hungary, however, the marriage laws are
entirely ecclesiastical, and males of the
Roman Catholic confession cannot con-
tract marriage till they have completed
their fourteenth year, nor females till
they are twelve years of age. The
Orthodox Greek Church follows the same
rule; but Protestants consider males
under the age of eighteen and females
under the age of fifteen unable to con-
tract valid marriages. In Cisleithanis
Jews are subject to the civil law; but in
Hungary there is no restriction as to
the age at which they may marry. In
Russia eighteen years for males and
sixteen for females are the periods of life
at which marriage may be legally con
tracted. In Turkey there is no general law
on the subject of marriageable ages. The
Italian law fixes eighteen years for males
and fifteen years for females as the earli-
est time of life at which marriages may
be solemnized. Prussia, by the statute
of December, 1872, sanctions marriage in
the case of males on the completion of
their eighteenth year, and the fourteenth
year in the case of females, no exception
being allowed to these provisions. The
law in France states the earliest age at
,S<,1, Ho4 - L.
eighteen years in the case of males and
| of dispensation are reserved by the CODE
Under the old monarchy boys could mar
| ry at the age of fourteen and girls at
twelve, as underancient Roman and even
Athenian law. The Belgian code is the
same as the French in determining the
| ages of eighteen and fifteen severally as
| tuOse at which men and women may
marry, and in leaving Ri ht OF dispe9-
| satiOn. In Greece males cannot marry
| before fourteen years of age, nor females
before twelve; while in the Ionian
Islands sixteen and fourteen years are
respectively the legal ages. A bill
has been, or is about to be,
introduced into the Athenian Cham
Der, appointing fifteen as the ear.
Hest age for males and twelve for fe-
males. By the law of June, 1870, the
legal ages of marriage in Spain are four
teen for males and twelve for females.
1t is the same in Portugal, with this
qualification: that mlnors-that is, per.
sons of either sex under twenty-one
years of age-cannot contract marriage
without consent of their parents. In
Saxony the legal age for the marriage of
males is eighteen, for females sixteen
years. According to the amended para
graph of the new German Civil Mar.
riage bill the ages would be respectively
twenty and sixteen years, instead of
eighteen and fourteen as in the draft of
the bill. In Roumania the legal age for
marriage is eighteen years in the case of
males and fifteen in that of females
There is much variation of the marriage
law in Switzerland as to the ages of con-
tracing parties, which in some Cantons
is as high as twenty years for males and
seventeen for females, and in others as
low as fourteen for males and twelve for
females. Consent of parents is also re-
CURED up to twenty-five years in Uri, in
Schaffhouse, in Appenzell, IN Tessin and
in Geneva