last paragraph a second time; every person pretending to palmistry or to tell fortunes; lodging in any outhouse or in the open air; not having any visible means of subsistence, and not giving a good account of himself; exposing to view, in any street or public place, any obscene print, picture, or other indecent exhibition; wilfully and obscenely exposing his person in any street or public place, or in view thereof, with intent to insult any female; endeavouring, by the exposure of wounds and deformities, to obtain alms; going about to collect alms or charitable contributions under a fraudulent pretence; running away and leaving his wife or children chargeable to the parish; playing or betting in any street or other open and public place, at or with any table or instrument of gaming, at any game or pretended game of chance; having in his custody any pick lock, or other implement, with intent feloniously to break into house or building, or being armed with any gun or offensive weapon, with intent to commit any felonious act; found in or upon any house or building, or in any inclosed yard, garden, or area, for any unlawful purpose; every suspected person or reputed thief frequenting any river or navigable stream, dock, basin, wharf, quay, warehouse, or any street or way adjacent, with intent to commit felony; and, lastly, every person apprehended as idle and disorderly, and violently resisting such apprehension, and being subsequently convicted of being idle and disorderly all these are ROGUES AND VAGABONDS, and a justice of peace may commit such offenders to the house of correction for any time not exceeding three calendar months.

III. Who is deemed an incorrigible rogue?

:

Every person escaping out of confinement before the expiration of the time for which he has been committed under the Vagrant Act; or committing an offence which subjects him a second time to be convicted as a rogue and vagabond; and, lastly, every person apprehended as a rogue and vagabond, violently resisting such apprehension, and being subsequently convicted of being a rogue and vagabond: all these are deemed INCORRIGIBLE ROGUES; and may be committed to the house of correction till the next general or quarter sessions of the peace, and then be further imprisoned for any period not exceeding one year, and, not being a female, whipped.

Any person may apprehend offenders under this act, and constables neglecting to do their duty, or persons hindering them from doing their duty, forfeit £5.

By 31 & 32 V. c. 52, every person playing or betting by way of wagering or gaming in any street, road, highway, or other open and public place, or in any place to which the public are permitted to have access, at or with any table or instrument of gaming, or any coin, card, token, or other article used as an instrument or means of such wagering or gaming, at any game or pretended game of chance, shall be deemed a rogue and vagabond

within the true intent and meaning of the 5 G. 4, c. 83, and as such may be punished under that act, p. 522.

CHAPTER II.

Offences against the Law of Nations.

THE law of nations, or international law, as it was first termed by Mr. Bentham, consists of a system of rules, deduced from usage and the principles of natural justice, intended for the regulation of the mutual intercourse of nations in peace and war. International law is founded, or so intended, on the principle that the different nations ought to do to each other in the time of peace as much good, and in time of war as little harm, as may be possible without injuring their own proper interests; and such law in its entire extent comprehends the principles of national independence, the privileges of ambassadors, consuls, and inferior ministers; the commerce of the subjects of each state with those of others; the grounds of just war and the mode of conducting it; the mutual duties of belligerents and neutrals in regard to search, blockade, the treatment of prisoners, and other incidents pending hostilities; the rights of conquest; the force of an armistice, of safe-conducts and passports; the nature of alliances, and the obligations and construction of treaties.

The chief offences, however, of which the English laws take cognizance, and that fall within our notice, are limited to four kinds,-1. Violation of safe-conducts; 2. Infringement of the rights of ambassadors; 3. Piracy; and, 4. Acts tending to produce war.

As to the first, violation of safe-conducts or passports, it was enacted by 31 H. 6, c. 4, that if any of the king's subjects molest, spoil, or rob any foreigner in amity, league, or truce, or under safe-conduct, the lord chancellor, with any of the justices of either the King's Bench or Common Pleas, may cause full restitution and amends to be made to the party injured. But this act is now repealed.

In consequence of the gradual increase of international commerce and intercourse, the use of passports in time of peace has been mostly discontinued by European States.

The rights of ambassadors are fully protected by the 7 Anne, c. 12, which enacts, that "an ambassador or other public minister, or his domestics, registered in the secretary of state's office, are not to be arrested; if they are, the process is void, and the persons suing out and executing it shall suffer such penalties and corporal punishment as the lord chancellor or either of the chief justices think fit." Neither can the goods of an ambassador or his servant be distrained, whether a foreigner or British subject, provided he is not a merchant or trader within the bankrupt laws.

A resident merchant, who acts as consul to a foreign prince, is not a public minister entitled to the privileges of an ambassador, 3 M. & S. 284.

The third offence against international law is PIRACY; which is a robbery on the high seas, and not in any creek or arm of the sea, such being within the jurisdiction of the adjoining country. The piracy must be on persons in amity with this country and without the authority of any state. Intent is an ingredient in this as in almost every other offence; for a person accused of piracy may show that he captured the vessel, or took the goods, thinking that they belonged to a state at war with England. Those also are pirates, who, owing allegiance to the crown of Britain, during war, commit hostilities against her Majesty's subjects, by colour of any commission from the enemy, or adhere or give aid to the enemy upon the sea. All acts of robbery and depredation on the high seas, which on land would have amounted to felony, are deemed piracies. Boarding a merchant-vessel, though without carrying her off, or seizing any of her goods; or the assisting, trading with, or combining with known pirates, are equally acts of piracy.

Piracy is punishable by 1 V. c. 88, which repeals or amend s former statutes from Henry VIII. to George II. When murder is attempted, or any wound is inflicted dangerous to life, either at the time, before, or after the commission of the offence, the punishment is death; but for simple piracy the punishment is mitigated to transportation for life, or not less than fifteen years, or imprisonment for three years.

Persons engaged or assisting in the African slave trade are guilty of piracy, subject to transportation (now penal servitude), or imprisonment, 5 G. 4, c. 113; 1 V. c. 91.

There are provisions for rewarding seamen who act bravely in capturing or resisting piratical vessels, and commanders who are cowardly are punishable by the forfeiture of their wages and six months' imprisonment.

The 6 G. 4, c. 49, for encouraging the capture of piratical vessels, provides that the officers, seamen, marines, and others actually on board any king's ship at the taking or destroying any piratical vessels shall receive the sum of £20 for each pirate taken or killed during the attack, and the sum of £5 for every other man of the crew, not taken or killed, who shall have been alive on board the pirate ship at the beginning of the engagement. But this act is amended by 13 & 14 V. c. 26, in respect of rewards for the capture of pirates, the courts of Admiralty being empowered to determine whether the persons attacked or engaged as pirates were pirates; also the number of pirates and piratical vessels. Property found in possession of pirates belonging to British subjects is to be restored on payment of one-eighth part of its value. Piracies

are triable at the Central Criminal Court, or by commission in any county in England.

Lastly, acts of private persons tending to involve the nation in quarrels with its neighbours are criminally liable. These, however, pertain, as respects England, to its municipal institutes, independent of the law of nations. They have been thus propounded by Sir George C. Lewis in the debate on the Kossuth's Notes: I could not help remembering the opinions that were expressed some years ago in the House of Lords, particularly by Lord Lyndhurst, in 1853, when he generalized the legal doctrine he laid down in the case of the King v. Peltier, that any person who, by any single act or any combined act, tended to embroil this country with any government in amity with her Majesty, is guilty of misdemeanor. That doctrine was laid down in broad terms by Lord Lyndhurst on the 4th March, 1853, and was assented to by several other learned lords."-House of Commons, March 22, 1861.

The jurisprudence in respect to the blockade of seaports in time of war forms among states a rather unsettled division of international law. In England, it has been always held that a blockade to be valid must be effective; that is, there must be a force of ships stationed off the port, or sufficiently near, to cause danger to a vessel attempting to enter. The Americans have followed in this course, and their highest legal authorities have laid down those international laws on a similar basis to that used by Lord Stowell On the Continent they hold a different opinion, for the principle they laid down and acted upon during the war was that the ships should be stationed off the port, and sufficiently near to cause danger. There was only one word different between the two principles, but it was important-it was the substitution of the word "and" for "or." We contend that we may have a fleet cruising along a coast and blockading several ports, but the French interpretation was, that the vessels should be stationary off the port, and sufficiently near to cause danger. The French also thought that each ship attempting to run the blockade should be first warned by the squadron that the port was blockaded, and then if she attempted to run it she might be seized. Discordant views also have been current in respect of privateering: the European states being favourable to its abolition pending hostilities, while the Americans were dissentient, from a politic regard to their long stretch of coast line, and its numerous harbours of refuge.

CHAPTER III.
Treason.

Ar common law, the nature and constituents of high treason were vague and undefined, and acts tending merely to diminish the dignity of or respect towards the crown were held to be within its

scope; so that if a man became popular it was construed to be encroaching on the prerogatives of the sovereign, and held to be treason. But an end was put to constructive treason by the 25 E. 3, c. 2, in which those acts amounting to treason are distinctly specified. The provisions of this statute are confirmed and expanded by 36 G. 3, c. 7, which last is made perpetual, as to sections 1, 5, 6 (the rest is expired), by 57 G. 3, c. 6, s. 1. From these acts the law of treason may be thus stated :—

1. It is treason to compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, or to maim, wound, imprison, or restrain the person of the king, his heirs, or successors; and to express, utter, or declare of such compassing, inventions, devices, or intentions, or any of them. But such compassing, &c., must be manifested by some overt act, as by providing weapons, ammunition, or poison, or by sending letters to excite others to join in the enterprise. In the case of the regicides, the indictment charged that they did traitorously compass and imagine the death of the king. And the taking off his head was laid, among others, as an overt act of compassing.

Overt acts are evidence of intentions or designs in progress; and, according to Mr. Justice Foster, words may be, when uttered in contemplation of a traitorous purpose actually on foot and in prosecution. By the Criminal Law Commissioners an overt act is said to be "any act of conspiring or conferring, or consulting with, or advising, persuading, counselling, commanding, or inciting any person, or any other act, measures, or means whatsoever done, taken, used, or assented to, towards and for the purpose of effecting the traitorous intentions, or act charged."-Fifth Criminal Law Report.

2. To have carnal knowledge of the queen consort, or the king's eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the king's eldest son and heir, is treason. In a criminal intercourse with the queen, it is immaterial whether it be with or without force, but it is high treason in both parties if consenting.

3. To lery war against the king in his realm is treason, by statute of Edward III. as well as the common law. But, as in the first case of treason, there must be an overt act; a mere conspiracy to levy war is no overt act, unless war be actually waged; though, if a war be waged, then the conspirators are all traitors, although they are not in arms. Also this species of treason is incurred by taking arms not only to dethrone the queen regent, but under pretence to reform religion, or the laws, or to remove evil counsellors, or other grievances, real or imaginary.

Upon the trial of Lord George Gordon, Lord Mansfield declared that it was the unanimous opinion of the Court, that an attempt by intimidation and violence to force the repeal of a law, was levying war against the king, and high treason, Doug. 570.