MINORITY

In Politics, the period during which the sovereign in an hereditary monarchy is incapacitated from exercising the supreme authority by reason of not having attained the age prescribed by law; also the state of such incapacity. The royal authority, in hereditary monarchies, never dies; and when a sovereign deceases leaving a succe or below age, it pa es immediately to the person or persons whom the constitution has invested with the authority of regent; as it also does when a king becomes subject to any other incapacity. The term of royal minority is variously regulated by the constitution of different countries. The legal majority of a king of France was fixed at fourteen by an ordinance of Charles V,, which has been since followed in that country; but, as a year commenced is reckoned as accomplished, the actual period at which a king of France begins to govern is the age of thirteen years and a day. The same period is fixed by the laws of Spain and Portugal. By the constitution of Great Britain the sovereign is of full age at eighteen years, as far as can be collected from the statutes pa ed at several times to empower the king to name a regent whenever it has been apprehended that the crown was in danger of devolving on a prince under age. Minority. In Law, the state of an individual of either sex who has not attained the age prescribed by law at which civil rights can be exercised. In England and in France majority is attained on the completion of the 21st year; in Germany on the 25th. The distinctions made by the Roman law between different periods of minority are unknown to our law. MINOR TERM, of a Categorical Syllogism, in Logic, is the subject of the conclusion. The minor premise is thai which contains the minor term. In hypothetical syllogisms, the categorical premise is called the minor. MINOS, in Mythological History, was son of Jupiter and Europa, and king of Crete, and so celebrated as a lawgiver on earth that after his death he was appointed judge of the infernal regions, in whicli office he was a ociated with yEacus and Rhadamanthus. [s. 766]