By 2 & 3 V. c. 47. s. 65, the constables of the metropolitan police within their limits, may apprehend without a warrant for a recent and aggravated assault, though not committed in their presence; a power which constables elsewhere are not empowered to exercise.

By 3 & 4 V. c. 50, the board of directors of any canal or navigable river, or their clerk or agent, are authorized to nominate such persons as they think fit to two justices to be appointed to act as constables to preserve the peace on canals and rivers, or railways connected therewith, and within one quarter of a mile thereof.

CHAPTER XIV.

Offences against the Habitations of Individuals.

THE offences that more immediately affect the habitations of individuals are arson, burglary, house-breaking, and stealing in a dwelling-house; but the last will fall under the subsequent head of Theft or Larceny.

I. ARSON.

ARSON is the malicious burning of the whole or part of a dwellinghouse, and, any person being therein, is punishable, by 24 & 25 V. c. 97, s. 2, by penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, solitary confinement, or whipping.

Other offences by fire are referred to the chapter on Malicious Injuries.

A fire through negligence does not amount to arson; but it may form the subject of an action against the negligent person if the property of another be injured thereby.

A person wilfully setting fire to his own house in a town, without injuring or intending to injure another, is a high misdemeanor, though it does not amount to arson; and is punishable by imprisonment and perpetual sureties for good behaviour.

It has been decided that an attempt, or preparation, by a man to set fire to his own house, in a town, though the fire be never kindled, is a misdemeanor; and that every attempt to commit a felony is a misdemeanor; and, in general, an attempt to commit a misdemeanor is an offence of the same nature. The law adopts the maxim of taking the will for the deed, both in treason and misdemeanor.

II. BURGLARY.

Burglary or nocturnal house-breaking, is the breaking and entering of a dwelling-house, any person being therein, and is punishable by 24 & 25 V. c. 96. s. 52, by penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not above two years, with or without hard labour, or solitary confinement.

The statute limits the nocturnal hours by explaining the night to extend from nine in the evening till six next morning; so that the former vague test of ascertaining whether there was sufficient light to discern a man's face is no longer requisite.

No building, although within the same curtilage with the dwelling-house, and occupied therewith, shall be deemed to be part of such dwelling house, for the purpose of burglary, unless there be a communication between such building and dwelling-house, either immediate or by means of a covered and enclosed passage, leading from one to the other.

By s. 58, if any person be found in the night armed with any dangerous or offensive weapon, with intent to break into any house and commit any felony therein, or have in his possession, without lawful excuse, any picklock key, crowbar, and other implement of housebreaking, or have his face blackened or otherwise disguised, or be found by night in any house with intent to commit a felony, such offender is guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding three years. Conviction of such misdemeanor, after a previous conviction either of felony or misdemeanor, renders the offender liable to penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment for not exceeding two years.

To constitute burglary, the breaking must be in the night. 2. It must be a dwelling-house; that is, a place where some person generally or occasionally resides, so that a warehouse or other unoccupied place is not entitled to the same protection. 3. There must be an entry with a felonious intent; the entry may be by taking out the glass, picking or opening a lock, by lifting the latch or flap of a cellar usually kept down by its own weight (Moo. C. C. R. 377); or unloosing any fastening, as of a window, by introducing the hand through a broken pane, or even by stepping over the threshold, provided it is with a felonious intent, that is, to commit a murder, rape, or robbery; all these are burglarious entries. It does not seem, as formerly. that both the entering and breaking out need be nocturnal; if the entering be by day, and the breaking out by night, it is sufficient. It has been decided, even, if a person commit a felony in a house, and break out of it in the night-time, this is burglary, though he were lawfully in the house as a lodger, Reg. v. Wheeldon, 8 C. & P. 747.

If a servant open and enter his master's door with a felonious design, or if any other person, lodging in the same house, or in a public inn, open and enter another's door, with such felonious intent, it is burglary.

If a person conspire with a robber, and let him in, it is burglary in both. So, also, to knock at the door, and upon opening it, rush in, with a felonious intent; or, under pretence of taking lodgings, to fall upon the landlord and rob him.

A chamber in a college, or an inn of court, where each occupant

So

has a distinct property, is the dwelling-house of the owner. even a loft over a stable, used for the abode of a coachman, which he rents for his own use and that of his family, is a place which may be burglariously broken, 1 Leach, 305. A burglary may be also committed in a lodging-room, or in a garret used for a workshop, and rented together with an apartment for sleeping; and if the landlord does not sleep under the same roof, the place may be laid as the dwelling of the lodger. But if I hire a shop, part of another man's house, and work or trade there, but never lodge there, it is no dwelling-house, nor can burglary be committed therein. Neither can burglary be committed in a tent or booth erected in a market or fair, though the owner may lodge there; for the offence can be committed only in permanent edifices.

III. BREAKING INTO HOUSE, SHOP, OR CHURCH.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 96, s. 56, breaking and entering any dwellinghouse, shop, warehouse, or counting-house, and stealing therein any chattel, money, or valuable security, to any value, subjects to penal servitude for fourteen, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not exceeding two years.

Breaking and entering a church, chapel, or any building within the curtilage, subjects to seven years' penal servitude, or two years' imprisonment with hard labour or solitude.

But the term curtilage, used in the act, is not easily defined; it would seem, from Hawkins, to be the common fence or boundary, including any outhouse or barn within the homestead.

Definition. The legal meaning of the terms breaking and entering, in housebreaking and stealing, differs from the popular sig nification of the words. It is not necessary that force or violence, in the popular sense, should be used. The breaking is complete by merely drawing a latch, or opening a window and putting in a hand; or if any offender crawl down the chimney, or fraudulently induce a domestic servant to admit him into the house; or procure admission by a fraudulent ejectment, or false pretence of taking lodgings; each would be a breaking in law. For an entry, it is enough, without the employment of force in the ordinary meaning, merely to insert an instrument through the window or over or under the threshold.

CHAPTER XV.

Offences against Private Property.

THE chief enactments of the criminal law were formerly directed to the restraint of violence, and intended more to protect the person from outrage, than property from depredation. Lawless force.

not fraud, was then the prevalent characteristic of crime. The increase of riches, and the fact that the ferocious and vengeful passions of our nature are more under the control of reason and mental culture, have given a new complexion to the criminal calendar, as evinced in the diminution of personal and the increase of property offences. In consequence of this social revolution, the most arduous task of the modern legislator is not to protect the persons of individuals from open or atrocious assault, but their possessions from crafty, insidious, and fraudulent appropriations. The numerous and increasing class of offences directed against the security of private property will be treated of under the following heads :

FORGERY is the fraudulent making or altering a written instrument, to the detriment of another person. The capital punishment annexed to the higher class of offences, under this head, has been mitigated, and, by 24 & 25 V. c. 98, is penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour or solitary confinement.

To constitute forgery, it is not necessary the whole instrument should be fictitious. Making a fraudulent insertion, alteration, or erasure, in any material part of a true document, by which another may be defrauded; the fraudulent application of a false signature to a true instrument, or a real signature to a false one; and the alteration of the date of a bill after acceptance, by which its payment may be accelerated—are forgeries.

If a note be made payable at a banker's who fails, it is forgery to introduce a piece of paper over the name of the banker who has failed, containing the name of another banking-house, 2 Leach, 1040. Expunging an endorsement on a bank-note with a liquor unknown, is held to be an erasure within the statute. The name of a fictitious person or acceptor of a bill with the signature of the writer is a forgery.

The essence of forgery is an intent to defraud, and, therefore, the mere imitation of another's writing, the assumption of a name, or the alteration of a written instrument, where no person can be injured, does not come within the definition of the offence. Neither does the using a fictitious name, though for the purpose of concealment and fraud, amount to forgery, unless it were for that precise species of fraud of which the forgery forms a part, Russ. & Ry. C. C. 269.

Whether the fraud be effected on the party to whom the instru

ment is addressed, or whose writing is counterfeited, or upon a third person, who takes it upon the credit it assumes, is immaterial; nor is it of consequence whether the counterfeited instrument be such as, if real, would be effectual to the purpose it intends, so long as there is sufficient resemblance to impose upon those to whom it is uttered. Thus, the fabrication of an order for the payment of a sailor's prize-money is forgery, though it be invalid, as wanting the requisites prescribed by law, 2 Leach, 883. Lastly, to complete the offence, the instrument forged should be parted with, or tendered, or offered, or used in some way to get money or credit upon it. Delivering a box, containing, among other things, forged stamps, to the party's own servant, to be forwarded by a carrier to a customer in the country, is an uttering, 4 Taunt. 300. But merely showing a man an instrument, the uttering of which would be criminal, is not an uttering.

The 24 & 25 V. c. 98, consolidates and amends the statute law of England and Ireland relating to indictable offences by forgery. Offences and their punishments are classified as under:

Great Seal and Sign Manual.-Whoever shall forge, counterfeit, or knowingly utter the great seal of the United Kingdom, the queen's privy seal or signet, the royal sign manual, or the seals of Scotland or Ireland, or knowingly utter forged impressions thereof, is punishable by penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour or solitary confinement.

Wills, Power of Attorney, Stock.-To forge, alter, offer, or utter any will or codicil; or to forge, alter, or utter any power of attorney or other authority, to transfer any share or interest in any stock, annuity, or other public fund, transferable at the Bank of England or the Bank of Ireland; or falsely and deceitfully to personate the owner, and receive any dividend payable in respect of such share or interest, or procure or assist in the commission of any of such offences in all these cases the offender is liable to penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for two years, with or without hard labour or solitude.

To forge, alter, offer, or utter an exchequer hill, debenture, India bond, Bank of England or Ireland note, bill of exchange, promissory note, warrant, order, undertaking for the payment of money, or an assignment, endorsement, or acceptance thereon, is punishable with penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for two years with or without hard labour. So is clerks making false entries in the books in which the accounts of public stock are kept at the Bank of England or Ireland; or fraudulent transfers in any other name than the true owner's; forging a transfer of any public stock, or stock of any public company established by charter or act of parlia

ment.