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already born; thus the inheritances which devolve to them before their birth, and which may belong to them, are kept for them, and curators are assigned to take care of their estate for their benefit.

ART. 30.-Posthumous children are those who are born after the death of their father.

ART. 31.-Persons of insane mind are those who do not enjoy the exercise and use of reason, after they have arrived at the age at which they ought, according to the course of nature, to possess it, whether the defect results from nature or accident. This defect disqualifies those who are subject to it, from contracting any species of engagement, or from managing their own estates, which are for this reason placed under the direction of a Cu

rator.

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ART. 32.-Persons who, by reason of infirmities, are incapable of managing their own affairs, have their sons and estates placed under the direction of Curators. ART. 33.-Persons labouring under the disabilities stated in the two preceding articles, are not, on this account, deprived of any right or advantages, which, notwithstanding such infirmity, they can enjoy. They retain their estates, their capacity for inheriting, and such branches of the paternal power as are compatible with their situation.

ART. 34.-Age forms a distinction between those who have, and those who have not sufficient reason and experience to govern themselves and to be masters of their own conduct. But as nature does not always impart the same maturity and strength of judgment at the same age, the law determines the period at which persons are sufficiently advanced in life to be capable of contracting marriage, and of forming other engagements.

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ART. 35.-A slave is one who is in the power of master to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and his labor: he can

do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any thing but what must belong to his master.

ART. 36.-Manumitted persons are those who having been once slaves, are legally made free.

ART. 37.-Slaves for a time or statu liberi, are those who have acquired the right of being free at a time to come, or on a condition which is not fulfilled, or in a certain event which has not happened, but who, in the mean time, remain in a state of slavery.

ART. 38.-Freemen are those who have preserved their natural liberty, that is to say, who have the right of doing whatever is not forbidden by law.

ART. 39.-Emancipation and the other ways which free the son or daughter of family from the father's authority, regard only the effects which the civil law gives to the paternal power, but changes in no respect those that are derived from natural right.

ART. 40.-Males who have not attained the age of fourteen years complete, and females who are under twelve, are under the age of puberty; and sons who have attained fourteen years complete, and daughters the age of twelve complete, are distinguished by the name of adults.

ART. 41.-Minors are those of both sexes, who have not yet attained the age of one-and-twenty years complete; and they remain under the direction of tutors or curators till that age. When they have arrived at it, they then are said to be of full age.

TITLE II.

Of Domicil and the manner of changing the same.

ART. 42.-The domicil of each citizen is in the parish wherein his principal establishment is selected.

The principal establishment is that in which he makes his habitual residence; if he resides alternately in several places and nearly as much in one as in another, and has not declared his intention in the manner hereafter prescribed, any one of the said places where he resides may be considered as his principal establishment, at the option of the persons whose interests are thereby affected.

ART. 43.-A change of domicil is produced by the act of residing in another parish, combined with the intention of making one's principal establishment there.

ART. 44. This intention is proved by an express declaration of it before the judges of the parishes, from which and to which he shall intend to remove.

This declaration is made in writing, is signed by the party making it, and registered by the judge.

ART. 45.-In case this declaration is not made, the proof of this intention shall depend upon circumstances. ART. 46.-A citizen accepting a temporary and precarious office, or one from which he may be removed at pleasure, retains his ancient domicil, if he has not evinced a contrary intention.

ART. 47. An acceptance of an office conferred for life or during good behaviour, implies an immediate transfer of the domicil of the officer to the parish in which he is required to exercise his functions.

But public officers, who perform duties throughout the State or in a district composed of several parishes, preserve the domicil they had before their appointment, unless they manifest a contrary intention.

ART. 48.-A married woman has no other domicil than that of her husband: the domicil of a minor not emancipated is that of his father, mother, or tutor; a person of full age, under interdiction, has his domicil with his curator.

ART. 49.-Persons who have attained the age of majority, and who labor constantly with, or serve others,

have the same domicil as those with whom they labor or serve, provided they reside with them.

TITLE III.

Of Absentees.

CHAPTER I.

Of the Curatorship of absentees.

ART. 50.-When a person possessed of either moveable or immoveable property within this State, shall be absent, or shall reside out of the State, without having appointed somebody to take care of his estate, or when the person thus appointed dies, or is either unable or unwilling to continue to administer that estate, then and in that case, the judge of the place, where that estate is situated, shall appoint a curator to administer the same.

ART. 51. In the appointment of this curator the judge shall prefer the wife of the absentee to his presumptive heirs, the presumptive heirs to the other relations, the relations to strangers, and creditors to those who are not otherwise interested, provided however that such persons be possessed of the necessary qualifications.

ART. 52.-The Curator appointed to the absentee shall take an oath well and faithfully to fulfil the duties of his administration and to give an account of it to those who have a right to demand it.

It is further his duty to cause a good and faithful inventory, with an appraisement of the property entrusted to his keeping, to be made by the judge or by any notary public duly authorised to that effect by the judge, and to give a good and sufficient security to the amount of this inventory for his administration.

ART. 53. The curator of the absentee has no other

power than that of administering the estate of the absentee, without having a right to alienate or mortgage the same, under any pretence whatsoever.

He is moreover bound, with respect to this administration, by the same obligations, responsibility and mortgage by which tutors are bound, and he has a right to the same annual compensation for his services.

ART. 54.-So long as this curatorship continues, all suits in which the absentee is interested, shall be prosecuted by or against the curator.

ART. 55.-The curatorship of the absentee ends:

1. When the absentee, or person residing out of the State, appoints an attorney in fact for the administration of his estate, whether it be the person who was appointed other person.

curator or any

2. When after a certain time, without hearing of the absentee, his heirs cause themselves to be put provisionally in possession of his estate, in conformity with the law.

ART. 56. The curator of the absentee is bound to give an account of his administration, as soon as it ends, either by the appointment of an attorney in fact by the absentee, or the putting into provisional possession of his heirs.

ART. 57. If a suit be instituted against an absentee who has no known agent in the State, or for the administration of whose property no curator has been appointed, the judge, before whom the suit is pending, shall appoint a curator ad hoc to defend the absentee in the suit.

CHAPTER II.

Of the putting into provisional possession the heirs of an Absentee.

ART. 58.-When a person shall not have appeared at the place of his domicil or habitual residence, and when such person shall not have been heard of for five years,

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