CHAPTER XXXI OFFENCES CONCERNING PAUPERS ARTICLE 287. PROMOTING MARRIAGES 1 EVERY officer of any parish, union, or place is guilty of a misdemeanor who endeavours to induce any person to contract a marriage by threat or promise respecting any application to be made or any order to be enforced with respect to the maintenance of any bastard child. ARTICLE 288. DESERTION OF PAUPERS. 2 Every one is guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds, and in default of payment to imprisonment for three months, who being employed in the execution of a warrant duly issued under the authority of 24 and 25 Vict. c. 76 or 8 and 9 Vict. c. 117. (relating to the removal of paupers out of England) wilfully deserts any person mentioned therein before he or she is conveyed to the place of destination. 17 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 8. CHAPTER XXXII *OFFENCES AS TO LUNATICS AND ASYLUMS ARTICLE 289. OFFENCES COMMITTED IN RESPECT OF LUNATICS. EVERY person is guilty of a misdemeanor who 1 (a.) except under the provisions of this Act receives or detains a lunatic, or alleged lunatic, in an institution for lunatics, or for payment takes charge of, receives to board or lodge, or detains a lunatic or alleged lunatic in an unlicensed house; or 2 (b.) receives or detains two or more lunatics in any house not being an institution for lunatics or a workhouse, except under the provisions of this Act; or 3(c.) being the manager of any hospital or licensed house, or any person having charge of a single patient, omits to send to the Commissioners the prescribed documents and information upon the admission of a patient, or to make the prescribed entries, and give the prescribed notices upon the removal, discharge or death of a patient; or 4 (d.) makes a wilful misstatement of any material fact in any petition, statement of particulars, or reception order under the Lunacy Act 1890; or in any medical or other *By 53 Vict. c. 5, s. 325, the secretary of the Commissioners, the clerk of the visitors, and the clerk of the visiting committee may prosecute for offences under this Act; also such proceedings may not be taken except by order of the Commissioners, or of visitors having jurisdiction or with the consent of the Attorney-General. The second part of the section seems to render the decision in Anderson v. Hamlin, 1890, 25 Q. B. D. 221 inapplicable. 153 Vict. c. 5, s. 315 (1). 2 Ibid. s. 315 (2) (3). 3 Ibid. s. 316. 4 Ibid. 317 (1) (2); a prosecution for this offence must be by order of the Commissioners or by the direction of the Attorney-General, or the Solicitor to the Treasury. certificate, or in any statement or report of bodily or mental condition under this Act; or 1(e) in any book, statement or return knowingly makes any false entry as to any matter as to which he is, by the Lunacy Act 1890, or the rules under it, required to make any entry; or 2(f) being the manager of an institution for lunatics or the person having charge of a single patient, omits to send to the coroner notice of the death of a lunatic within the prescribed time; or 3(g) obstructs any Commissioner or Chancery or other visitor in the exercise of the powers conferred by the Lunacy Act 1890, or any other Act; or +(h.) being a manager, officer, nurse, attendant, servant, or other person employed in an institution for lunatics, or any person having charge of a lunatic whether by reason of any contract, or of any tie of relationship, or marriage or otherwise, ill-treats or wilfully neglects a patient. 5 Every manager, officer, nurse, attendant, or other person employed in any institution for lunatics (including an asylum for criminal lunatics) or workhouse, or any person having the care or charge of any single patient, or any attendant of any single patient, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to be imprisoned with hard labour for two years, who carnally knows, or attempts to have carnal knowledge of, any female under care or treatment as a lunatic in the institution, or workhouse, or as a single patient. 153 Vict. c. 5, s. 318. 2 Ibid. 319. 3 Ibid. 321. 4 Ibid. s. 322. 6 Ibid. s. 324. No consent or alleged consent of the female is a defence to an indictment for the above offence. (૨ ARTICLE 290. OTHER BREACHES OF THE LUNACY ACT. Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor who 1(a.) presents a petition as to a lunatic after another as to the same lunatic has been dismissed, without stating the facts with regard to the previous petition and its dismissal so far as they are within his knowledge, and obtaining from the Commissioners in Lunacy at his own expense, and presenting with the petition, a copy of the reasons for dismissing the previous petition; or 2 (b.) contravenes the provisions of section 40 of the Lunacy Act 1890 as to the employment of mechanical means of restraint; or 3(c.) being a manager omits to send a copy of a Commissioner's minute as to a doubtful patient, or being a clerk, neglects to communicate the same to the visitors; or (d.) for the purpose of obtaining a licence or a renewal of a licence supplies any untrue information to the Commissioners or justices; or 5 (e.) keeps a house wherein there are two or more lunatics, or has the care or charge of the lunatics therein after the lapse of two months from the expiration or revocation of the licence; or 6 (f.) being the superintendent of any hospital, receives or detains any lunatic therein contrary to the provisions of the Lunacy Act 1890 or the terms of the complete certificate of registration; or 7 (g.) being the superintendent of a registered hospital knowingly permits any lunatic to be detained or lodged in any building not shown on the plans; or 8 (h.) is the superintendent of a hospital where lunatics are detained or kept after the day appointed for closing it. 1 53 Vict. c. 5, s. 7. 3 Ibid. s. 197. 5 Ibid. s. 222. 7 Ibid. s. 233. 2 Ibid. s. 40 4 Ibid. 214. 6 Ibid. s. 231. 8 Ibid. s. 237. CHAPTER XXXIII. * LIBELS ON PRIVATE PERSONS. ARTICLE 291. DEFINITION OF LIBEL. THE word "libel" means (a.) the offence defined in this Article; (b.) anything by the publication of which the offence is committed. 1 Every one commits the misdemeanor called libel who maliciously publishes defamatory matter of any person, or body of persons, definite and small enough for its individual members to be recognised as such, in or by means of anything capable of being a libel in the second sense of the word. 2 The publication of a libel on the character of a dead person is not a misdemeanor unless it is intended to injure or provoke living persons. *See Note X. 1 The best modern statement on the law of libel is by Lord Blackburn in Capital and Counties Bank v. Henty, 1882, 7 App. Ca. 741, at pp. 769– 788. See also my History of the Criminal Law, vol. ii., pp. 298-395 and 1 Hawk. P. C. 542. As to what can be a "libel" see Article 292. As to "publishes," see Article 294; “maliciously," see Article 295. 2 As to libels on the deal, see R. v. Topham, 1791, 4 T. R. 126; also R. v. Labouchere, 1882, 12 Q. B. D. at pp. 322-4. In February, 1887, I tried the case of R. v. Ensor at the assizes at Cardiff. The case was of a newspaper libel on a political opponent who had been dead for three years. It led to an assault by the dead man's sons upon the supposed libeller. I directed an acquittal on the ground that no evidence was offered to show that the libel in any way referred to any living person. I ought to have added, but I did not do so clearly, that there was no evidence that the defendant wished to provoke the sons of the deceased. It was not even stated that he knew of their existence. I thought that an actual intent to injure (I should have added) or to provoke or annoy the sons was essential to the offence, and that a mere tendency to provoke or constructive intention inferred from the fact that the libel was calculated to hurt the feelings of any surviving relations of the deceased was not enough. I have altered the wording of this article accordingly. |