The following offences, which fall properly within the limits of this chapter, must be dismissed with very brief notice:

VII. The statute 37 Geo. 3, c. 70, s. 1 (made perpetual by the 57 Geo. 3, c. 7), enacts, that if a person shall maliciously and advisedly endeavour to seduce VII. Inciting to any one serving in her majesty's service by sea or land from his duty and allegiance, or to incite any person to commit any act of mutiny or mutinous practice, he shall be guilty of felony (z). Desertion is punishable under the annual Mutiny Acts.

mutiny.

VIII. Adminis

oaths.

VIII. By the 37 Geo. 3, c. 123, s. 1, it is enacted, that whoever shall administer, or cause to be administered, or shall be present at and consenting to the administering of, or shall take any oath or engagement tering unlawful intended to bind any person in any mutinous or seditious purpose, or to belong to any seditious society or confederacy, or to obey any committee, or any person, not having legal authority for that purpose, or not to give evidence against any confederate or other person, or not to discover any unlawful combination, or any illegal act, or any illegal oath or engage[*131] ment, shall be guilty of felony (a). Also the 52* Geo. 3, c. 104, s. 1, subjects to severe punishment as well the person who administers as the person who takes an oath to commit treason, murder, or other capital felony (b).

IX. The serving a foreign state, which service is generally inconsistent with allegiance to one's natural prince, is restrained by the Foreign Enlistment Act IX. Serving (59 Geo. 3, c. 69), of which s. 1 enacts, that any natural born foreign states. subject of her majesty who, without licence from the crown,

(2) Punishment: penal servitude for life or for not less than five years, or imprisonment for not more than three years.

(a) Punishment: penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven nor less than five years. Compulsion will be no excuse for disobedience to the statute, unless the party, within four days after he has an opportunity, disclose the whole of the case to a justice of the peace, or, if a seaman or soldier, to his commanding officer (s. 2).

(b) The above statute subjects the party administering an oath binding the person who takes it to commit treason, murder, or

any capital felony, to the punishment of death, which was reduced by the 1 Vict. c. 91, s. 1, to transportation for life or not less than fifteen years,-or imprisonment not exceeding three years. The punishment now to be awarded is penal servitude for life, or not less than five years,—or imprisonment for not more than three years.

See the statutes 39 Geo. 3, c. 79, 57 Geo. 3, c. 19, and 2 & 3 Vict. c. 12, as to the prevention of seditious meetings and assemblies; and the 60 Geo. 3, c. 1, for preventing the training of persons to the use of arms, and to the practice of military evolutions and exercise.

current in the United States, or knowingly importing or passing false coin as true, with intent to defraud, is by statute declared felony, and the punishment thereof prescribed. See Act of April 21, 1806, §§ 1, 2; 2 Stat. at Large, p. 404; Act of March 3, 1825, §§ 20, 21; 4 Stat. at Large, p. 121; Act of June 8, 1864, chap. 114; 13 Stat. at Large, p. 120. See as to the punishment for forgery or counterfeiting treasury notes, Act of December 17, 1860, chap. 1, § 12; 12 Stat. at Large, p. 123; Act of February 25, 1862, chap. 33, § 6; 12 Stat. at Large, p. 347.

Congress has given the State courts concurrent jurisdiction in all cases of counterfeiting of the United States coin. See Acts of Congress April 21, 1806, chap. 49; March 3, 1823, chap. 166; March 3, 1825, chap. 296. And the legislatures of several States have passed acts making the offense highly penal. See State v. McPherson, 9 Iowa, 53; Sizemore v. State, 3 Head (Tenn.), 26; State v. Tutt, 2 Bailey (S. C.), 44; Chess v. State, 1 Blackf. (Ind.) 198; Com. v. Fuller, 8 Metc. (Mass.) 313; Moore v. People, 14 How. (U. S.) 13; Fox v. Ohio, 5 id. 410; Prigg v. Com., 16 Pet. 630; Sutton v. State, 9 Ohio, 133; Manley v. People, 7 N. Y. (3 Seld.) 295; People v. Stanton, 39 Cal. 698; 2 Whart. Crim. Law, § 1500. But see State v. Shoemaker, 7 Mo. 177; Matthesin v. State, 3 id. 421; Rump v. Com., 30 Penn. St. 475.

shall take or accept, or agree to take or accept, any military commission, or shall enter into the military or naval service of any foreign prince, state, or potentate, or shall without such leave and licence go to any foreign country, or to any place beyond seas, with intent to enlist or serve in any warlike operation whatever, whether by land or by sea, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. And if any person whatever, in any part of her majesty's dominions, shall procure or attempt to procure any person to enlist or be employed in the land or sea service of any foreign prince, state, or potentate, he likewise shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, or either of them, at the discretion of the court. Further, the 7th section of this statute renders guilty of a misdemeanor any one who shall, without leave and licence from the crown first obtained, equip, furnish, fit out, or arm any ship with intent or in order that it shall be employed in the service of any foreign prince as a trans. port or with intent to cruise or commit hostilities against any state at peace with this country (c).,

[* 132]

X. For the more effectual protection of her majesty's naval stores, the statute now operative is the 30 & 31 Vict. c. 119 (d), which empowers the admiX. Embezzling ralty to apply to such stores specific marks, described in the naval stores. &c. schedule to the act, and enacts as under:

If any person, without lawful authority (proof of which authority shall lie on the party accused), applies any of the said marks in or on any such stores, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor (e).

If any person, with intent to conceal her majesty's property in any naval stores, takes out, destroys, or obliterates, wholly or in part, any such mark as aforesaid, he shall be guilty of felony (f).

If any person, without lawful authority (proof of which authority shall lie on the party accused), receives, possesses (g), keeps, sells, or delivers any naval stores bearing any such mark (h) as aforesaid, knowing them to * bear such mark, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor (i). Similar pro

(c) See Att.-Gen. v. Sillem, 2 H. & C. 431. Punishment: fine or imprisonment, or both; and a penalty of 50%. is imposed on masters of ships and owners for assisting in the offence.

(d) Repealing the 27 & 28 Vict. c. 91, by which many prior enactments in regard to her majesty's naval and victualling stores were repealed, except as to Scotland and Ireland.

(e) Sect. 5. Punishment: imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.

(f) Sect. 6. Punishment; penal servitude for not more than five years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement.

(g) For the purposes of the act, "stores shall be deemed to be in the possession or keeping of any person if he knowingly has them in the actual possession or keeping of any other person, or in any house, building, lodging, apartment, field, or place, open or inclosed, whether occupied by himself or not, and whether the same are so had for his own use or benefit or for the use or benefit of another." S. 13.

[* 133 ]

(h) In order to prevent a failure of justice in some cases by reason of the difficulty of proving knowledge of the fact that stores bore such a mark as aforesaid, s. 12 enacts that, if any naval or victualling stores bearing any such mark are found in the possession of any person not being a dealer in marine stores or a dealer in old metals, and not being in her majesty's service, and such person when taken or summoned before a justice of the peace, does not satisfy the justice that he came by the stores so found lawfully, he shall be liable, on conviction by the justice, to a penalty not exceeding 5.; and if any such person satisfies the justice that he came by the stores so found lawfully, the justice, at his discretion, as the evidence given and the circumstances of the case require, may summon before him every person through whose hands such stores appear to have passed, and if any such person as last aforesaid who has had possession thereof does not satisfy the justice that he came by the same lawfully, he shall be liable, on conviction by the justice, to a like penalty.

(i) Sect. 7. Punishment: imprisonment for any term not exceeding one year, with or without hard labour.

tection has been extended to War Department stores by the 30 & 31 Vict. c. 128.

XI. To the offences already enumerated in this chapter may be added that of unlawfully and maliciously setting fire to any building (other than such as XI. Setting fire to are mentioned in ss. 1-4 of the act concerning malicious injua public building. ries to property, 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97), belonging to the queen, or devoted or dedicated to public use or ornament, which is constituted felony (k); and, lastly,

[* 134]

* XII. The offence constituted by statute 12 Geo. 3, c. 24 (7), of setting on fire, burning or destroying any of her majesty's ships of war, whether built, building, or repairing; or any of the royal arsenXII. Setting fire to ships of war, als, magazines, dock-yards, rope-yards, or victualling offices, or &c. materials thereunto belonging; or military, naval, or victualling stores, or ammunition; or causing, aiding, procuring, abetting, or assisting in, such offence; which is felony still punishable with death (m). (651)

Where the person charged with such a misdemeanor as above-mentioned was at the time at which the offence is charged to have been committed in her majesty's service, or a dealer in marine stores, knowledge on his part that the stores to which the charge relates bore such mark as aforesaid shall be presumed until the contrary is shown (s. 8). And any person charged with such a misdemeanor in relation to stores the value of which does not exceed 51. shall be liable on summary conviction before a justice of the peace to a penalty not exceeding 201., or, in the discretion of the justice, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months, with or without hard labour (s. 9).

With the above statute 30 & 31 Vict. c. 119, certain sections of the Larceny Act (24 & 25 Vict. c. 96) have been incorporated (see s. 15).

(k) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 5. Punishment: penal servitude for life or for not less than five years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping. As to the demolition of public buildings by rioters, see s. 11.

(4) S. 1. See also stat 24 & 25 Vict. c. 115, art. 30.

(m) Stat. 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 28, s. 7.

(651) It may be stated generally as to the offenses of the nature of those enumerated in the foregoing chapter, that they are brought within the jurisdiction of the federal courts by act of congress, and embrace two classes of cases. First, such cases as arise under the Act of March 3, 1825, chap. 65; and see Act of April 5, 1866, chap. 24. Second, cases which, by particular statutes, are expressly made the subjects of federal jurisdiction. As to the latter, see Acts of April 30, 1790; April 20, 1818; March 3, 1825; March 3, 1828; May 8, 1792; March 2, 1819; August 18, 1856. In several of the acts referred to, however, it is provided that nothing therein shall be construed to deprive the courts of the individual States of jurisdiction under the laws of the several States over offenses made cognizable by these acts. See, as to the statutory jurisdiction of the federal courts, 1 Whart. Crim. Law, 174180.

*CHAPTER IX.

[* 135]

OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE.

THE order of our distribution will next lead us to take into consideration such criminal acts as more especially affect the commonwealth, or public polity of the kingdom: these, however, as well as offences which are peculiarly pointed against the lives and security of private subjects, are also offences against the sovereign as the paterfamilias of the nation: to whom it appertains by his regal office to protect the community, and each individual thereof, from every degree of injurious violence, by executing those laws, which the people themselves in conjunction with him have enacted; or at least have consented to, by an agreement either expressly made in the persons of their representatives, or by a tacit and implied consent presumed and proved by immemorial usage.

The class of crimes which we have now before us, is subdivided into such a number of inferior and subordinate species, that it would much exceed the bounds of an elementary treatise, and be insupportably tedious to the reader, were I to examine them all minutely, or with any degree of critical accuracy. I shall therefore confine myself principally to general definitions, or descriptions of these various offences, and to the punishment inflicted by law for each of them; with now and then a few incidental observations: referring the student for more particulars to other voluminous authors; who have treated of these subjects with greater precision and more in detail, than is consistent with the plan of these Commentaries.

* Crimes more especially affecting the commonwealth, may be dis[* 136] cussed under four heads:-as offences against public justice, against the public peace, against public trade, against the public health and safety, morals and economy: of each of which we will take a cursory view in the order indicated.

First, offences

First, then, of offences against public justice: some of which against public are felonious; others only misdemeanors. I shall begin with those that are most penal, and descend gradually to such as are of less malignity.

justice.

Forgery (a) is a very heinous offence, sometimes directed against public justice, of which several species should here be noticed.

I. As to forging her majesty's seals, it is enacted that, "Whosoever shall forge or counterfeit, or shall utter, knowing the same to be forged or counter

Forging the great seal, privy seal, &c.

feited," the great seal of the United Kingdom, her majesty's privy seal, any privy signet of her majesty, or her majesty's royal sign manual, or "shall forge or counterfeit the stamp or impression of any of the seals aforesaid, or shall utter any document or instrument whatsoever, having thereon or affixed thereto the stamp or impression of any such forged or counterfeited seal, knowing the same to be the stamp or impres

(a) "To forge is metaphorically taken and forgeth what fashion or shape he will." from the smith, who beateth upon his anvil 8 Inst. 169.

sion of such forged or counterfeited seal, or any forged or counterfeited stamp or impression made or apparently intended to resemble the stamp or impression of any of the seals aforesaid, knowing the same to be forged or counterfeited, or shall forge or alter or utter knowing the same to be forged or altered, any document or instrument having any of the said stamps or impressions thereon or affixed thereto," shall be guilty of felony (b).

&c.

[*137] *II. Embezzling or vacating records, or falsifying certain other proceedings in a court of judicature, is likewise a felonious offence against public justice; as to which it is enacted by statute 24 & 25 II. Injuries to records, and fal- Vict. c. 96, s. 30, that whosoever shall steal, or shall for any fraudusifying proceedings of courts, lent purpose take from its place of deposit for the time being, or from any person having the lawful custody thereof, or shall unlawfully and maliciously cancel, obliterate, injure, or destroy any record, writ, rule, order, or original document of any court of record, or relating to any matter, civil or criminal, in any such court, or any bill, petition, answer, order, decree, or original document of or belonging to any court of equity, or relating to any cause or matter therein, or any original document in anywise relating to the business of any office under her majesty, and being in any office appertaining to a court of justice, or in any of her majesty's palaces, or in any government or public office, shall be guilty of felony (c).

As to records, process, and instruments of evidence, it is also enacted by statute 24 & 25 Vict. c. 98, s. 27:-that "whosoever shall forge or fraudulently alter, or shall offer, utter, dispose of, or put off, knowing the same to be forged or fraudulently altered," any record, writ, process, rule, order, or original document of any court of record, or any bill, petition, process, rule, answer, decree, or original document of or belonging to any court of equity or court of admiralty, or any document or writing, or any copy thereof, used or intended to be used as evidence in any such court as aforesaid, shall be guilty of felony (d).

* Also by s. 28 of the same statute:-Whosoever, being the [* 138] clerk of any court, or officer having the custody of the records of any court, or his deputy, "shall utter any false copy or certificate of any record, knowing the same to be false; and whosoever, other than such clerk, officer, or deputy, shall sign or certify any copy or certificate of any record, as such clerk, officer, or deputy; and whosoever shall forge or fraudulently alter, or offer, utter, dispose of, or put off, knowing the same to be forged or fraudulently altered, any copy or certificate of any record, or shall offer, utter, dispose of, or put off any copy or certificate of any record having thereon any false or forged name, handwriting, or signature, knowing the same to be false or forged; and whosoever shall forge the seal of any court of record, or shall forge or fraudulently alter any

(b) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 98, s. 1. Punishment: Penal servitude for life or for not less than five years.-or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement.

As to fine and sureties for keeping the peace on conviction for a misdemeanor or felony under the above act, see s. 51.

years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confine

ment.

(d) Punishment: penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven years and not less than five years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary

(c) Punishment: penal servitude for five confinement.