with the like effect in all respects as if she were unmarried. No bargain or contract made by her in respect to her sole and separate property (except | the gifts or grants of her husband), and in or about the carrying on of any trade or business under any statute of this state, is binding upon her husband, or renders him or his property in any way liable therefor. An action may be maintained against the husband and wife jointly for any debt of the wife contracted before marriage, but the execution on any judgment in such action issues against, and such judgment binds, the separate estate and property of the wife only, and not that of the husband, who is liable for the debts of his wife contracted before marriage to the extent only of the separate property of the wife he has acquired by any antenuptial contract or otherwise. By the laws of 1849, chap. 375, any person holding as trustee for any married woman any real or personal estate or other property, under any deed of conveyance or otherwise, on the written request of such married woman, accompanied by a certificate of a justice of the supreme court, that he has examined the condition and situation of the property, and made due inquiry into the capacity of such married woman to manage and control the same, may convey to such married woman, by deed or otherwise, all or any portion of such property, or the rents, issues, or profits thereof, for her sole and separate use and benefit. All contracts between persons made in contemplation of marriage, remain in full force after such marriage takes place. She can by herself, and in her name, or in the name of any third person, with his assent, as her trustee, cause to be insured for her sole use the life of her husband for any definite period, or for the term of his natural life. The amount

of the insurance may be made payable, in case of her predecease, to her husband, or to his, her, or their children, for their use as provided in the policy, and to their guardian if under age. No man shall bind his child to apprenticeship or service, or part with the control of such child, or create any testamentary guardian therefor, unless the mother, if living, shall, in writing, signify her assent thereto. A mar

ried woman, a resident of this state, and of the age of twenty-one years or more, may execute, acknowledge, and deliver her power of attorney with the like force and effect, and in the same manner as if she were a single woman. In an action or special proceeding a married woman appears, prosecutes, or defends alone, or joined with other parties, as if she were single. It is not necessary or proper to join her husband with her as a party to any action or special proceeding affecting her separate property. A female can devise real property when she has attained the age of twenty-one years; and an unmarried female can bequeath personal property at the age of sixteen years. A widow is endowed of the third part of all the lands whereof her husband was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage. The widow of an alien who at the time of his death was entitled by law to hold any real estate, if she is an inhabitant of this state at the time of such death, is entitled to dower of such estate in the same manner as if such alien had been a native citizen. Any woman, being an alien, who has married a citizen of the United States, is entitled to dower in the real estate of her husband within this state, as if she were a citizen of the United States. Courtesy exists, subject to the common law rules, as to all realty of the wife which remains at her death undisposed of or unbequeathed.

Adoption is the legal act whereby an adult person takes a minor into the relation of child, and thereby acquires the responsibilities of parent in respect to such minor. A married man or woman, not lawfully separated one from the other, cannot adopt a child without the consent of the other, respectively; and the consent of a child, if over the age of twelve years, is necessary to its adoption. A legitimate child cannot be adopted without the consent of its parents, if living, or the survivor of them; nor an illegitimate child without the consent of its mother, if living. But the consent is not necessary of a father or mother deprived of civil rights, or adjudged guilty of adultery or cruelty, and who is from either cause divorced, or is adjudged to be an insane person or a habitual drunkard, or is judicially deprived of the custody of the child on account of cruelty or neglect. Where the parents are dead, or their consent is unnecessary, as stated, consent must be given by an adult person having the lawful custody of the child. The person adopting, the child adopted, and the persons consenting, appear before the county judge of the county in which the person adopting resides, and the necessary consent is thereupon signed, and an agreement is executed by the person adopting, to the effect that the child shall be adopted and treated in all respects as his own lawful

The judge

A

child should be treated. examines all the persons appearing, each separately; and, if satisfied that the moral and temporal interests of the child will be promoted by the adoption, makes an order, in which are set forth at length the reasons for such order, directing that the child shall thenceforth be regarded and treated in all respects as the child of the person adopting. child when adopted takes the name of the person adopting, and the two thenceforth sustain toward each other the legal relation of parent and child, and have all the rights and are subject to all the duties of that relation, excepting the right of inheritance, except that as respects the passing and limitation over of real and personal property under and by deeds, conveyances, wills, devises, and trusts, said child adopted is not deemed to sustain the legal relation of child to the person so adopting. Where a parent has abandoned an infant child, such parent is deemed to have forfeited all claim he or she would otherwise have as to the custody of said child or otherwise; and the judge may make the abovementioned order without the consent of such parent or parents. From the time of the adoption the parents are relieved from all parental duties toward, and all responsibility for, the child so adopted, and have no rights over it.

All lands within the state are allodial, and the people of the state, in their right of sovereignty, possess the original and ultimate property thereto; and all lands the title to which

fails from defect of heirs, reverts or escheats to the people. Where lands become vested in an infant, the guardianship of such infant, with the rights, powers, and duties of a guar

dian in soccage, belong (1) to the father; (2) to the mother, if there be no father; (3) failing both of these, to the nearest and eldest relative of full age, not being under any legal incapacity, and as between relatives of the same degree of consanguinity males are preferred. Testamentary or other guardians duly appointed in terms of law supersede said guardians. Every citizen of the United States is capable of holding land within the state, and of taking by descent, devise, or purchase. Where

not modified by statute, the common law governs as to aliens who cannot take by devises. Property devised to aliens descends to heirs, and if there are no heirs, to the residuary legatees. Any resident alien who has purchased and taken by deed or devise any real estate within the state, and who has filed in the office of the secretary of state a deposition declaring his intention of becoming a citizen, may grant and devise such real estate to any citizen of the United States, or to any alien resident of the state, in the same way and to the like effect, and to and for the same purposes, as if such alien were a citizen of the United States; but no resident male alien of full age shall hold any lands so granted or devised to him as against the state, unless he make and file the deposition as stated.

The real estate of every person who dies without devising the same descends thus

1. To his lineal descendants;
2. To his father;

3. To his mother; and

4. To his collateral relativessubject to certain prescribed rules and regulations, of which some are as follows:-Direct descendants, all of equal degree of consanguinity to the intestate, take in equal parts, however remote that common degree is. Living children and the descendants of deceased children take the

inheritance; but the latter inherit only the share which their parent would, if living, have received. This last rule applies in every case where the descendants are of unequal degrees of consanguinity; and it is the same where the inheritance goes to brothers and sisters, 66 as if all such brothers and sisters had been the brothers and sisters of the intestate." Failing descendants and brothers and sisters of the intestate and their descendants, and failing the father, if there are no brothers and sisters or any of them of the father of the intestate, and no descendants of them, the inheritance descends to the brothers and sisters of the mother of the intestate and to their descendants as stated. In all cases not specially provided for by law, where the inheritance has come to the intestate on the part of his mother, it descends to the brothers and sisters of the mother and to their descendants; and if there be no such brothers and sisters and descendants of them, then the inheritance descends to the brothers and sisters of the intestate's father and their descendants. Where the inheritance has not come to the intestate on the part of either the father or mother, it descends to the brothers and sisters both of the father and mother of the intestate in equal shares and to their descendants. case of the death without descendants of an intestate bastard, the mother inherits, and if she be dead the inheritance descends to the relatives of the intestate on the part of the mother as if the intestate had been legitimate. Relatives of the halfblood inherit equally with those of the whole blood in the same degree, and their descendants inherit as stated, unless the inheritance came to the intestate by descent, devise, or gift of some one of his ancestorsin which case all those who are not of the blood of such ancestor are ex

In

cluded from such inheritance. In all cases not provided for by law, the inheritance descends according to the course of the common law. Children and relatives who are illegitimate are

not entitled to inherit. But by the laws of 1855, chap. 547, illegitimate children, in default of lawful issue, may inherit real and personal property from their mother as if legitimate.

Where the deceased has died intestate, the surplus of his personal estate remaining after payment of debts is distributed to his widow, children, or next of kin, in terms of the provisions of law. The following are the rules:

1. The widow gets one-third, and two-thirds go to the children and such persons as legally represent predeceasing children, by equal portions.

2. Where no children nor legal representatives of them, one moiety to the widow, and the other to the next of kin.

3. Where there is a widow and no descendant, parent, brother or sister, nephew or niece, the widow takes the whole; but if there be a brother or sister, nephew or niece, and no descendant or parent, the widow gets the whole if not over $2000; or if over that sum, in addition to her moiety, $2000, and the remainder goes to the brothers and sisters and their representatives.

4. Where no widow, the whole is distributed equally among the children and such as legally represent them.

5. Where no widow and no children, and no representatives of a child, the whole goes to the next of kin in equal degree to the deceased and their legal representatives.

6. Where no children, no representatives of them, and no father, but a widow and a mother, the widow gets her moiety, and the other is divided equally among the mother and the brothers and sisters, or the representatives of such brothers and sisters; and where there is no widow,

the whole is distributed in the same

manner.

7. Where there is a father, but no child or descendant, the father takes a moiety if there be a widow, and if there be no widow, the whole.

8. Where there is a mother and no child, descendant, father, brother, sister, or representative of a brother or sister, the mother, if there be a widow, takes a moiety, and the whole if there be no widow. If the deceased has been an illegitimate, and has left a mother and no child or descendant or widow, the mother takes the whole, and is entitled to letters of administration in exclusion of all other persons; and, if the mother be dead, the relatives of the deceased on the part of the mother take in the same manner as if the deceased had been legitimate, and are entitled to letters of administration in the same order.

9. Where the descendants or next of kin are all in equal degree, their shares are equal.

10. Where they are of unequal degree of kindred, they take according to their respective stocks, so that those who take in their own right receive equal shares, and those who take by representation receive the share to which the parent whom they represent, if living, would have been entitled.

11. No representation is admitted among collaterals after brothers' and sisters' children.

12. Relatives of the half blood take equally with those of the whole blood in the same degree; and the