union of the sexes at an immature age,[1] and the restrictions against divorce; but climate and national characteristics must be considered, and even more so the caste distinctions whose great social barriers are a standing encouragement of illicit relations. So tolerant is the public to the prevalent looseness, that pseudo-wives find the doors of almost any family open to them, while husbands not infrequently maintain several households without much attempt at concealment. A redeeming feature in all this, however, is the comparative absence of mercenary motives, love being the impelling cause.
Spanish laws were not very strict in these respects, as we have seen, nor the more liberal republicans; [2] but a better tone is spreading with foreign influence,[3] as manifested also in more guarded utterance on delicate subjects, perhaps with a tendency to that extreme English euphemism which only intensifies the significance. The smoking habit among women is declining, and the government has taken steps to check obscene songs and disorders attending wakes and other reunions.[4]
A greater measure is the institution of civil marriage,[5] in accordance with the spirit of the liberal constitution of 1857, and on the ground that the clergy fostered immorality by their exorbitant fees and
- ↑ These are among causes pointed out by Mexicans, in Id., cxlii., pt iii. 23; Mexican supplement to Dicc. Univ., x. 329–31. The civil marriage law of 1859 limits the marriage age at 12 and 14 for women and men respectively, but exacts guardians' consent when the parties are below the ages of 20 and 21.
- ↑ I need here only instance one of 1818, wherein the king recommends admonitions and fines rather than more severe measures. Fernando VII., Decretos, 228-9. Republican efforts relied even more to exhortation, as instancel in Méx., Col. Ley., 1848, i. 47-8; yet they sought to check the indulgent regard for the claims of illegitimate children. Laws of Mexico state, for example, had favored inheritance by natural descendants, but they were annulled by the general government. Id., 1853, 27.
- ↑ Notwithstanding the loose personal conduct of foreign residents.
- ↑ Arrillaga, Recop., 1834, 544–5, 554-6. Unnatural crimes are rare, and comparatively few public prostitutes exist; a fact which leads a native writer to draw some flattering conclusions, Instit. Geog. Estad., i. 25-6, forgetting that the general laxity obviates certain social evils.
- ↑ By law of July 23, 1859. Arch. Méx., Col. Ley., iv. 116-32, with regulations.
