Memoir of the Chisholm

SO HIS LETTERS, &C.
proportionately less than those of the tutor.
A pupil, for instance, cannot subscribe any
legal instrument ; for subscription imports
consent, of which a pupil is presumed in-
capable : but, after he has become a minor,
it is properly himself who acts ; the curator
does nothing more than concur with him, or
consent to his deeds ; and, consequently, a
deed signed by the curator only, without the
minor, is as truly void as one subscribed by
the minor only, without the curator. The
minor, in fact, acts for himself ; and his cu-
rator's concurrence is simply the protection
which the law casts around his inexperience.
These provisions of the Scottish law will at
once explain the reason why, on the attain-
ment of his minority, that is, in his fifteenth
year, the Chisholm should have been called
upon to exercise his judgment upon two sub-
jects which were then proposed to his consi-
deration by his curators or guardians. The
one was connected with his father's debts,
which were of considerable amount ; and the
other, the remission of some rents, which
his tenantry in the Highlands had petitioned
him to make. His curators were naturally