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ARTICLE 416.

PRINCIPALS AND ACCESSORIES.

Every principal in the second degree in and every accessory before the fact to any felony under the Coining Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 99) is punishable in the same manner as a principal in the first degree is by the Act punishable.

1 24 & 25 Vict. c. 99, s. 35.

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CHAPTER XLVIII

1 MALICIOUS INJURIES TO PROPERTY

ARTICLE 417.

BURNING SHIPS OF WAR, ETC.-FELONY-DEATH.

EVERY one is guilty of felony, and must upon conviction thereof be sentenced to death, who either within this realm or in any of the islands, countries, ports, or places thereto belonging,

wilfully and maliciously sets on fire, burns, or otherwise destroys; or

causes to be set on fire or burnt or otherwise destroyed; or aids, procures, abets, or assists in the setting on fire or burning or otherwise destroying

(a.) any of Her Majesty's ships or vessels of war, whether afloat or building or begun to be built in any of Her Majesty's dockyards, or building or repairing by contract in any private yards for the use of Her Majesty; or

(b.) any of Her Majesty's arsenals, magazines, dockyards, rope-yards, victualling offices, or any of the buildings erected therein or belonging thereto; or

(c.) any timber or materials there placed for building, repairing, or fitting out of ships or vessels; or

(d.) any of Her Majesty's military, naval, or victualling tores or other ammunition of war; or

(e.) any place or places where any such military, naval, or victualling stores or other ammunition of war is, are, or shall be kept, placed, or deposited.

13 Hist. Cr. Law, 188-190.

2 12 Geo. 3, c. 24. The punishment is not altered either by 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 28, or 1 Vict. c. 91. The Court, however, may order the judgment of death to be recorded: 4 Geo. 4, c. 48.

ARTICLE 418.

OFFENCES COMMITTED BY OR IN RELATION TO EXPLOSIVE

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SUBSTANCES.

Every one is guilty of felony, and is liable on conviction thereof in case (a.) to penal servitude for life, in case (b.) to penal servitude for twenty years, and in case (c.) to penal servitude for fourteen years

(a.) who unlawfully and maliciously causes by any explosive substance an explosion of a nature likely to endanger life or to cause serious injury to property, whether any injury to person or property has been actually caused or not;

(b.) who within or (being a subject of Her Majesty) without Her Majesty's dominions unlawfully and maliciously

(i.) does any act with intent to cause by an explosive substance, or conspires to cause by an explosive substance, an explosion in the United Kingdom of a nature likely to endanger life or to cause serious injury to property; or

(ii) makes or has in his possession or under his control any explosive substance with intent by means thereof to endanger life, or cause serious injury to property in the United Kingdom, or to enable any other person by means thereof to endanger life or cause serious injury to property in the United Kingdom,

whether any explosion does or not take place, and whether any injury to person or property has been actually caused or not;

(c.) (i.) who makes or knowingly has in his possession or under his control any explosive substance, under such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he is not making it or does not have it in his possession or under his control for a lawful object, unless he can show that he made it or had it in his possession or under his control for a lawful object. In this case the explosive substance is forfeited.

146 Vict. c. 3, ss. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9.

(ii) In any proceeding against any person for a crime under this clause, such person and his wife, or husband, as the case may be, may, if such person thinks fit, be called, sworn, examined, and cross-examined as an ordinary witness in the case.

Every one is guilty of felony, and is upon conviction thereof liable to the same punishment as if he had been guilty as a principal, who

within or (being a subject of Her Majesty) without Her Majesty's dominions, by the supply of or solicitation for money, the providing of premises, the supply of materials, or in any manner whatsoever, procures, counsels, aids, abets, or is accessory to, the commission of any crime under this Article.

In this Article the expression "explosive substance" includes any materials for making any explosive substance; also any apparatus, machine, implement, or materials used, or intended to be used, or adapted for causing, or aiding in causing, any explosion in or with any explosive substance; also any part of any such apparatus, machine, or implement.

1 ARTICLE 419.

ARSON, ETC.-PENAL SERVITUDE FOR LIFE.

Every one commits felony, and is liable on conviction thereof to penal servitude for life, who unlawfully and maliciously does any of the following acts (that is to say):— (a.) 2 who 3 sets fire to any place of divine worship; 5 or to any dwelling-house, any person being therein;

1 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97.

2 Ibid. s. 1, W.

3 As to what constitutes "setting fire," it is not necessary that flame should be seen: R. v. Stallion, 1834, 1 Moo. 398; but it is not sufficient that wood should be scorched black: R. v. Russell, 1842, Car. & M. 541. It is sufficient if the wood has been at a red heat: R. v. Parker, 1839, 9 C. & P. 45. I suppose the question is whether the thing burnt has or has not begun to be decomposed by the action of fire.

4 "Church, chapel, meeting-house, or other place of divine worship." 5 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 2, W.

1 or to any 2 private building, whether in the possession of the offender or of any other person, with intent to injure or defraud any person;

3 or to any station, engine-house, warehouse, or other building belonging or appertaining to any railway, port, dock, harbour, or canal, or other navigation;

4 or to any public building;

6 or to any stack of corn, grain, pulse, tares, hay, straw, haulm, stubble, any cultivated vegetable produce, furze, gorse, heath, fern, turf, peat, coals, charcoal, wood, or bark, or to any steer of wood or bark;

7 or to any mine of coal, cannel coal, anthracite, or other mineral fuel;

8 or to any ship, whether in a complete or unfinished state; or (b.) who by the explosion of gunpowder or other explosive substance throws down or damages the whole or any part of any dwelling-house, any person being therein, or of any building so as to endanger the life of any person; or

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(c.) 10 who cuts, breaks, destroys, or damages with intent to destroy or render useless any of the goods or articles mentioned below being in any stage of manufacture, or

1 24 & 25 Vict. 97, s. 3, W.

2 Private building means "house, stable, coach-house, out-house, warehouse, office, shop, mill, malt-house, hop-oast, barn, store-house, granary, hovel, shed," fold, farm building, "building or erection used in farming land, or in carrying on any trade or manufacture, or any branch thereof." Many cases are collected in Fisher's Digest, 1634-1637, as to the buildings which fall under one or the other of these terms. But they are all nisi prius rulings, and the matter is too minute to be referred to in detail here. 3 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 4, W.

4 Ibid. s. 5.

Public building means building other than such as are before mentioned, "belonging to the Queen or to any county, riding, division, city, borough, poor law union, parish or place, or to any university or college, or hall of any university, or to any inn of court, or devoted or dedicated, to public use or ornament, or erected or maintained by public subscription or contribution."

6 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 17, W.

7 Ibid. s. 26, W.

8 Ibid. s. 42, W., and see s. 43 and Note 2, p. 367, post.

9 Ibid. s. 9, W.

1) Ibid. s. 14, W.

11 66 Any goods or article of silk, woollen, linen, cotton, hair, mohair, or alpaca, or of any or more of those materials mixed with each other or mixed with any other material, or any framework knitted piece, stocking,