(a.) to seduce any person serving in Her Majesty's forces by sea or land from his duty and allegiance to her Majesty; or

(b.) to incite or stir up any such person to commit any act of mutiny, or to make or endeavour to make any mutinous assembly, or to commit any traitorous or mutinous practice whatever.

ARTICLE 65.

DISCLOSURE OF OFFICIAL INFORMATION.

1 Every one is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for a year with hard labour or to a fine or to both imprisonment and a fine, who does any of the acts hereinafter specified, that is to say:

(1.) (a.) who for the purpose of wrongfully obtaining information

(i.) enters or is in any part of a place belonging to Her Majesty being a fortress, arsenal, factory, dockyard, camp, ship, office, or other like place in which part he is not entitled to be; or

(ii) when lawfully or unlawfully in any such place as aforesaid either obtains any document, sketch, plan, model, or knowledge of any thing which he is not entitled to obtain, or 2 takes without lawful authority any sketch or plan; or

(iii.) when outside any fortress, arsenal, factory, dockyard or camp, belonging to Her Majesty,2 takes or attempts to take without authority given by or on behalf of Her Majesty any sketch or plan of that fortress, etc.; or

(b) who knowingly having possession of, or control over, any such document, sketch, plan, model, or knowledge, as has been obtained or taken by means of any act which constitutes an offence under this Article or the two following Articles, at any time wilfully and without lawful authority communicates or attempts to communicate the same to any person to whom the same ought not, in the interests of the State, to be communicated at that time; or

1 52 & 53 Vict. c. 52, s. 1.

2 This appears to be synonymous with "makes."

(c.) who after having been intrusted in confidence by some officer under Her Majesty with any document, sketch, plan, model or information relating to any such place as aforesaid, or to the naval or military affairs of Her Majesty, wilfully and in breach of such confidence communicates the same when in the interest of the State it ought not to be communicated; or

(2.) who having possession of any document, sketch, plan, model, or information relating to any fortress, arsenal, factory, dockyard, camp, ship, office, or other like place belonging to Her Majesty, or to the naval or military affairs of Her Majesty, in whatever manner the same has been obtained or taken, at any time wilfully communicates the same to any person to whom he knows the same ought not, in the interest of the State, to be communicated at that time.

(3.) Every one is guilty of a felony and is liable to penal servitude for life who commits any offence previously mentioned in this Article; if he intended to communicate to a foreign state any information, document, sketch, plan, model, or knowledge obtained or taken by him, or intrusted to him as aforesaid; or

if he communicates the same to any agent of a foreign

state.

3

ARTICLE 66.

BREACH OF OFFICIAL TRUST.2

Any person guilty of a breach of official trust as herein. after defined

1 "Any act declared by this section to be a misdemeanor are the words of the Act; but quaere whether this applies to (2) which is only made an offence by reference to (1).

2 The Official Secrets Act 1889, by which the offences mentioned in Articles 65, 66, 67 are constituted is so drafted as to be very difficult to understand. Section 1 subs. (1) creates about eighty different offences, all of which in almost every conceivable case are made offences over again with the same penalties attached to them by subs. (2). Subs. 3 makes all of them felonies if a certain condition is proved which is almost certain never to be really absent. Section 2 makes nearly all the same offences, and hardly any others separate substantive offences if committed by certain persons, and attaches to them the same penalties as are provided by section 1 when they are committed by anybody else.

3 52 & 53 Vict. c. 52, s. 2.

E

(a.) if the communication is made or attempted to be made to a foreign state, is guilty of felony and liable to penal servitude for life;

(b.) in other cases is guilty of misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour for not exceeding one year, or to a fine or both.

A person is guilty of a breach of official trust who, by means of his holding or having held an office under Her Majesty, has lawfully or unlawfully either obtained possession of or control over, any, document, sketch, plan, or model, or acquired any information, and at any time corruptly or contrary to his official duty communicates or attempts to communicate that document, sketch, plan, model, or information to any person to whom the same ought not in the interest of the State, or otherwise in the public interest to be communicated at that time.

This article applies to a person holding a contract with any department of the Government or with the holder of any office under Her Majesty as such holder, where such contract involves an obligation of secrecy, and to any person employed by any person or body of persons holding such a contract, who is under a like obligation of secrecy, as if the person holding the contract and the person so employed were respectively holders of an office under Her Majesty.

ARTICLE 67.

INCITEMENT TO DISCLOSURE OF OFFICIAL INFORMATION AND BREACH OF OFFICIAL TRUST.

1

Any person who incites or counsels, or attempts to procure, another person to commit an offence under Acts. 65, 66, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to the same punishment as if he had committed the offence.

1 52 & 53 Vict. c. 52, s. 3.

ARTICLE 68.

MISAPPLICATION OF THE MARK OF A PUBLIC DEPARTMENT.

1 Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment with hard labour for two years, who without lawful authority, proof of which lies on the party accused, applies any of the marks described in the first Schedule to the Public Stores Act, 1875, in or on any stores therein described.

ARTICLE 69.

ASSAULTS ON THE QUEEN.

2 Every one who does any of the acts hereinafter specified is guilty of a high misdemeanor, and is liable upon conviction thereof to be sentenced to seven years penal servitude, and during the period of such imprisonment to be publicly or privately whipped as often (not exceeding thrice) and in such manner as the Court directs; that is to say,

(a.) Whoever wilfully and with intent to injure the person of the Queen or to alarm Her Majesty, or to break the public peace, or so as to endanger the public peace,

(i.) points, aims, or presents at or near the person of the Queen any firearm, loaded or not, or any other kind of

arm; or

3

(ii) discharges at or near the person of the Queen any loaded arms; or

(iii) discharges or causes to be discharged any explosive material near the person of the Queen; or

(iv.) strikes, or strikes at, the person of the Queen in any manner whatever; or

1 38 & 39 Vict. c. 25, s. 4.

25 & 6 Vict. c. 51, ss. 1, 2 (redrawn). I have omitted a few manifestly superfluous words. Draft Code s. 80.

3.66 Any gun, pistol, or any other description of firearms, or of other arms whatsoever."

4"With any offensive weapon or in any other —.”

(v.) throws anything at or upon the person of the Queen; or

(vi.) attempts to do any of the things specified in (ii.) (iii.), (iv.), or (v.):—

(b.) Whoever produces or has near the person of the Queen any 1arm or destructive or dangerous thing with intent to use the same to injure the person of the Queen or to alarm Her Majesty.

ARTICLE 70.

CONTEMPTS AGAINST THE QUEEN.

2 Every one commits a misdemeanor who is guilty of any contempt against the person of Her Majesty, or her royal dignity, by means of any contumelious, insulting, or disparaging words, acts, or gestures.

ARTICLE 71.

SOLEMNISING OR ASSISTING AT MARRIAGE OF A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.

3 Every person commits a misdemeanor who knowingly or wilfully presumes to solemnize, or to assist, or to be present at the celebration of any marriage of any descendant of the body of King George the Second, male or female (other than the issue of princesses married into foreign

1 "Any gun, pistol, or any other description of firearms, or of other arms whatsoever."

2 I have taken the words of the 7th Rep. C. L. C. p. 122, founded on Hawkins, P. C. bk. i. ch. xxiii., which contains much obsolete and even more indefinite and undefinable matter. See, too, 6th Rep. C. L. C. p. 32, and note. Hawkins treats contempts against the judges of the King's Courts under this head. Contempt of Court seems to me hardly to be a branch of the criminal law.

3 12 Geo. 3, c. 11. The punishment is præmunire, as explained by Coke, 1 Inst. 130 a; see 7th Rep. C. L. C., p. 37.