children by a judgment duly pronounced, in cases in which they may be admitted to prove their paternal or maternal descent;

2. They must prove in a satisfactory manner that they stand absolutely in need of such alimony for their support.

ART. 259. Although alimony must be proportioned generally with the wants of the person claiming and with the resources of the person owing the same, nevertheless that allowed to the natural children of colour shall never exceed what is absolutely necessary to ensure them their board and lodging, and to enable them to learn to read and write, and a trade.

ART. 260.-The obligation of giving such alimony ceases, when the natural child is able to earn his subsistence, by labor, or whenever his father or mother have caused him to be instructed in an art, trade or profession fit to procure him a sufficient livelihood, unless some continual sickness or infirmity prevents such child from working for his subsistence.

This debt of alimony ceases likewise to be due from the estate of the natural father or mother, whenever either of them has provided during his or her life a sufficient maintenance for his or her natural child, or have made to him donations or other advantages which may be sufficient for that purpose.

ART. 261.-The other rules established respecting alimony to be granted to legitimate children, take place likewise with respect to natural children except so far as they may be contrary to the foregoing provisions.

ART. 262.-Alimony is due to bastards, though they be adulterous and incestuous, by the mother and her ascendants.

TITLE VIII.

Of Minors, of their Tutorship, Curatorship and Emancipation.

CHAPTER I.

of Tutorship.

SECTION I.

General Dispositions.

ART. 263.—The minor, that is, the male who has not arrived to the full age of fourteen years, and the female who has not arrived to the full age of twelve years, are both as to their person and their estate, placed under the authority of a tutor.

Above that age, and until their majority or emancipation, they are placed under the authority of a curator. ART. 264.-There are four sorts of tutorships: Tutorship by nature;

Tutorship by will;

Tutorship by the effect of the law;

Tutorship by the appointment of the judge.

ART. 265.—Tutorship by nature takes place of right; every other kind of tutorship must either be confirmed, or given by the judge,

ART. 266. For every sort of tutorship, the tutor is

accountable.

SECTION II.

of Tutorship by Nature.

ART. 267.The father is, during the marriage, administrator of the estate of his minor children.

He is accountable both for the property and revenues

of the estates, the use of which he is not entitled to by law, and for the property only of the estates, the usufruct of which the law gives him.

This administration ceases at the time of the majority or emancipation of the children.

ART. 268.-After the dissolution of marriage by the death of either husband or wife, the tutorship of the minor children belongs of right to the surviving mother or father;

This is what is called tutorship by nature.

ART. 269.—Tutors by nature are bound to cause an inventory to be made, and an under tutor to be appointed, but they are not compelled to give security.

ART. 270.-If at the time of the death of the husband, the wife shall be pregnant, a curator shall be appointed to the unborn child; and at the birth of that posthumous child, such curator shall be of right the under tutor.

ART. 271.-The mother is not compelled to accept the tutorship of her minor children, but in case she refuses, she shall be bound to fulfil the duties of a tut or, until she has caused a tutor to be appointed.

The mother, who refuses the tutorship of her children, retains the superintendence of them, and the care of their education. The tutor, in such a case, is merely entrusted with what concerns the administration of their property.

ART. 272.-If the mother, who is tutrix to her children, wishes to marry again, she must, previous to the celebration of the marriage, apply to the judge in order to have a meeting of the family called for the purpose of deciding whether she shall remain tutrix.

If she shall neglect to call such a meeting, she shall be ipso facto deprived of the tutorship, and together with her husband shall be auswerable in solidum for all the consequences of the mal-administration of the tutorship unduly kept by her, and the state of the husband shall

be tacitly mortgaged as a security for that responsibility from the date of the celebration of the last marriage.

ART. 273. When the meeting of the family shall retain the mother in the tutorship, her second husband becomes of necessity, the co-tutor, who for the administration of the property, subsequently to his marriage, becomes bound jointly with his wife.

ART. 274.-The father is of right the tutor of his natural child acknowledged by him. The mother is of right the tutrix of her natural child not acknowledged by the father.

The natural child, acknowledged by both, has for tutor, first the father, in default of him, the mother.

SECTION III.

Of the Tutorship by Will.

ART. 275.-The right of appointing a tutor, whether a relation or a stranger, belongs exclusively to the surviving father or mother.

This tutorship is called testamentary tutorship, because generally it is given by testament, but it may likewise be given by any declaration by the surviving father or mother, executed before a notary and two witnesses.

ART. 276.-The mother, who is married again, and who is not maintained in the tutorship of the children of her preceding marriage or marriages, has no right to appoint a tutor to them.

ART. 277.-The tutor by will is not compelled to accept the tutorship to which he is appointed by the father or mother, if there are relations of the minors entitled by law to the tutorship in preference to him.

But if he refuses the tutorship, he loses in that case all the legacies and other advantages, which the person who appointed him may have made in his favor under a persuasion that he would accept this trust.

ART. 278.-The judge may refuse to confirm the tutorship given by the surviving father or mother, if he deems it conducive to the interest of the minor, provided it be by and with the advice of the assembly of the family.

And in this case a tutor is appointed to the minor agreeably to the rules hereafter prescribed.

ART. 279.-The father or mother of the natural child acknowledged by either of them, can chose a tutor for him, whose appointment, to be valid, must be approved by the judge.

ART. 280.-If the parent, who died last, has appointed several tutors to the children, the person first mentioned shall be alone charged with the tutorship, and the second shall not be called to it, except in case of the death, absence, incapacity or displacing of the first, and in like manner as to the others in succession.

SECTION IV.

Of the Tutorship by the Effect of the Law.

ART. 281.-When a tutor has not been appointed to the minor by the surviving father or mother, or if such tutor having been appointed, has not been confirmed or has been excused, then the judge ought to appoint to the tutorship the nearest ascendant in the direct line of the minor.

ART. 282.-In case there shall be more than one ascendant in the same degree, in the direct line, but of different sexes, the tutorship shall be given to the male.

ART. 283.-In case there shall be more than one ascendant in the same degree, in the direct line, and of the same sex, the judge shall appoint one of them as tutor by and with the advice of the meeting of the family.

ART. 284.-The grand mother of the minor is the only woman who has a right to claim the tutorship by