7. every labourer, sailor, or soldier profanely cursing or swearing 1 Hawk. P. C. is liable to forfeit 1s. ; every other person under the degree of Profane sweara gentleman, 2s.; and every gentleman or person of superior ing. rank, 5s. to the poor of the parish; and on a second conviction double; and for every subsequent offence treble the sum first forfeited, with all charges of conviction; and in default of payment may be sent to the house of correction for ten days. Any justice of the peace may convict upon his own hearing, or the testimony of one witness; and any constable or peace officer, upon his own hearing, may secure any offender, and carry him before a justice, and there convict him. Religious imposters, or such as falsely pretend an extra- Religious imordinary commission from heaven, and alarm and abuse the posters. people with false denunciations of judgments, are liable to be fined and imprisoned. Simony, before considered (g), is also an offence against Simony. religion, as involving perjury in the person presented. By 3 Inst. 156. 31 Eliz. c. 6, if any patron for money or any other corrupt consideration or promise, directly or indirectly given, shall present, admit, institute, induct, install, or collate any person to an ecclesiastical benefice or dignity, both the giver and taker shall forfeit two years value of the benefice or dignity; one moiety to the king, and the other to any person who shall sue for the same. If persons corruptly resign or exchange their benefices, both the giver and taker shall forfeit double the value of the money, or other corrupt consideration. And persons who shall corruptly ordain any minister, or procure him to be corruptly ordained, which is the true idea of simony, shall forfeit 40%., and the minister himself 10%., and be incapable to hold any ecclesiastical preferment for seven years. Corrupt elections and resignations in colleges, hospitals, and other eleemosynary corporations, are also punished by the same statute, with forfeiture of the double value, vacating the place or office, and a devolution of the right of election for that turn to the crown (h). Sabbath break Profanation of the Lord's day, or Sabbath breaking, and ing. (g) See ante, p. 202. (h) By 9 Geo. 4, c. 94, engagements for the resignation of ecclesiastical benefices are legalized in certain cases; but such engagement must be entered into before presentation, nomination, or collation of the party entering upon the benefice, and the party mentioned in the engagement to be thereafter presented, nominated, or collated, must be either by blood or marriage, an uncle, son, grandson, brother, nephew, or grand nephew of the patron. The deed of engagement must be deposited with the registrar of the diocese, or peculiar jurisdiction, wherein the benefice is situate, and left open for inspection. Every resignation made in pursuance of the act must state the name of the K K Lewdness. Poph. 208. Having bastard children. drunkenness, are also offences against God and religion, and are accordingly, by statutes, made punishable before magistrates. Open and notorious lewdness, either by frequenting houses of ill fame, which is an indictable offence, or by some grossly scandalous and public indecency, is also punishable by fine and imprisonment. The having bastard children is also considered in a criminal light, for which, by 18 Eliz. c. 3, the mother and reputed father are liable to a temporal punishment, if the child becomes chargeable to the parish (i). Offences against the law of nations cognizable by the English law. Violation of CHAPTER V. OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS. THE principal offences against the law of nations, animadverted on as such by the municipal laws of England, areviolation of safe conducts; infringement of the rights of ambassadors, and piracy. By 31 Hen. 6, c. 4, if any of the king's subjects attempt or safe conducts. offend upon the sea or in any port within the king's obeisance, against any stranger in amity, league, or truce, or under safe conduct; and especially by attaching his person, or spoiling him, or robbing him of his goods; 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. And there is no question that any violation of either the person or property of such foreigner may be punished by indictment in the name of the king, whose honour is engaged in supporting his own safe conduct. Infringement By 7 Ann. c. 12, all process whereby the person of any of the rights of ambassador or other public minister of a foreign prince or state, or of his domestic, or domestic servant, may be arrested, ambassadors. person for whom made, and is void, unless the person in favor of whom the bond of resignation is given be presented within six months. (i) By 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, the acts relating to the liability and punishment of the putative father, and punishment of the mother of illegitimate children, are repealed, and the mother of illegitimate children is now bound to maintain them until they are sixteen years old; but an order may be made by the court of quarter sessions on the putative father for the maintenance and support of a bastard, if the evidence of the mother be corroborated in some material particular by other testimony; and by a more recent statute, 2 & 3 Vict. c. 85, such order may be made by the justices at petty sessions, with the right of appeal on the part of the putative father to the quarter sessions. See on this subject the acts 4 & 5 Wm. 4, c. 76, ss. 57, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, and 2 & 3 Vict. c. 85. And see ante, p. 61 to 64. or his goods distrained or scized, is void, and all persons prosecuting, soliciting, or executing such process, are liable on conviction to punishment. Piracy consists by the common law, of those acts of robbery Piracy. and depredation upon the high seas, which, if committed upon 100. land, would amount to felony there. But by 11 & 12 Wm. 3, 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 7, some other offences are made piracy. As if any natural born subject commits any act of hostility upon the high seas, against others of his majesty's subjects, under colour of a commission from any foreign power. And any commander or other seafaring person betraying his trust or running away with any ship, boat, ordnance, ammunition, or goods, or yielding them up voluntarily to a pirate, or conspiring to do these acts: or any person assaulting the commander of a vessel to hinder him from fighting in defence of his ship, or confining him, or making, or endeavouring to make a revolt on board; shall for each of these offences be adjuged a pirate, felon, and robber, and shall suffer death, whether he be principal, or merely accessary, by setting forth such pirates, or abetting them before the fact, or receiving or concealing them or their goods after it. By 8 Geo. 1, c. 24, the trading with known pirates, or furnishing them with stores or ammunition, or fitting out any vessel for that purpose, or in any wise consulting, combining, confederating, or corresponding with them; or the forcibly boarding any merchant vessel, though without seizing or carrying her off, and destroying or throwing any of the goods overboard, shall be deemed piracy; and such accessaries to piracy as are described by 11 & 12 Wm. 3, c. 7, are declared to be principal pirates, and all pirates convicted by virtue of this act are made felons. And the commanders or seamen wounded, and the widows of such seamen as are slain in any piratical engagement, are entitled to a bounty, and such wounded seamen to the pension of Greenwich hospital. If the commander shall not defend his ship, if she carries guns or arms, or shall discharge the mariners from fighting, so that the ship falls into the hands of pirates, he shall forfeit all his wages, and suffer six months' imprisonment. And by 18 Geo. 2, c. 30, any natural born subject or denizen, who in time of war shall commit hostilities at sea against any of his fellow subjects, or shall assist an enemy on that element, is liable to be tried and convicted as a pirate. (a) (a) See now the recent act 7 Wm. 4, and 1 Vict. c. 88, repealing so much of 28 Hen. 8, Of high trea son. CHAPTER VI. OF HIGH TREASON. TREASON, proditio, in its very name, which is borrowed from the French, imports a betraying, treachery, or breach of faith. The statute 25 Edw. 3, c. 2, defines the offences which are Gravin. Orig. deemed high treason; as the lex Julia majestatis among the 1, s. 34. 1 Hal. P. C. 101. 3 Inst. 7. 1 Hal. P. C. 106. 3 Inst. 7. 1 Hal. P. C. 104. Compassing and imagining synonymous terms. 1 Hal. P. C. 107. Romans, promulgated by Augustus Cæsar, comprehended all the ancient laws before enacted to punish transgressors against the state. This statute declares it to be high treason “to compass or imagine the death of the king, or his queen, or of their eldest son and heir." A queen regnant is within the words of the act, but her husband is not. The king here intended being the king in possession, without any respect to his title. And a king de facto, and not de jure, is within the meaning of the statute; but a rightful heir of the crown, or king de jure, and not de facto, who has never had plenary possession of the throne, is not within the statute; and a king who has resigned his crown, such resignation being admitted and ratified in parliament, is no longer the object of treason. The compassing or imagining the death of the king, are synonymous terms; the word compass signifying the purpose or design of the mind or will (a), and not as in common speech the carrying such design into effect. But it cannot possibly fall under judicial cognizance, unless it be demonstrated by some open or overt act. The statute expressly requires that the accused "be thereof, upon sufficient proof, attainted of 1 Hawk. P. C. some open act by men of his own condition." But the taking any measures to render such treasonable purposes effectual as assembling and consulting on the means to kill the king, is a sufficient overt act. 38. 1 Hal. P C. 119. As to words spoken. By the common law and the statute of Edw. 3, words spoken amount only to a high misdemeanor, and no treason. But if the words be set down in writing, it argues a more c. 15; 11 & 12 Wm. 3, c. 7; 4 Geo. 1, c. 11, s. 7; 8 Geo. 1, c. 24, and 18 Geo. 2, c. 30, as relates to the punishment of piracy, and declares the punishment both with regard to principals and accessaries. Persons guilty of piracy with murder, to suffer death; and if piracy only, to be transported for life, or not less than fifteen years, or to be imprisoned for not ecxeeding three years. Every principal in the second degree, and every accessary before the fact, to be punishable as the principal in the first degree; and every accessary after the fact to be imprisoned for not exceeding two years. (a) By the ancient law compassing, or intending the death of any man, demonstrated by some evident fact, was equally penal as homicide itself (3 Inst. 5).—Original note to Bl. Com. v. 4, p. 78. deliberate intention; and it has been held, that writing is an Violating the king's com panion, &c. 3 Inst. 9. Feud. 1. 1, t. 5. Ibid. t. 21. Levying war. 1 Hawk. P. C. 37. 1 Hal. P. C. 131. It is also treason "if a man levy war against the king in his realm," either by taking arms to dethrone the king, or under pretence to reform religion or the laws, or to remove evil counsellors or other grievances, whether real or pretended. To resist the king's forces is a levying of war. (b) A bare conspiracy to levy war does not amount to this species of treason; but if particularly pointed at the person of the king or his 3 Inst. 9. government, it falls within the first, of compassing or imagining Foster, 211. the king's death. 213. the king's enemies. Adhering to the king's enemies, by giving them aid and Adhering to comfort in the realm or elsewhere, is high treason. But this must also be proved by some overt act. And by enemies are here understood the subjects of foreign powers with whom we 3 Inst. 10. are at open war. Giving assistance to foreign pirates. Foster, 219. The giving assistance to foreign pirates in invading our coasts, is also treason; but to relieve a rebel fled out of the kingdom, is no treason; for the statute is taken strictly, and a rebel is not an enemy; an enemy being the subject of some foreign prince, owing no allegiance to the crown of England. 1 Hawk. P. C. And if a person be under circumstances of actual force or constraint, through a well grounded apprehension of injury to 38. (b) In the case of war levied directly against the queen, all persons assembled and marching with the rebels are guilty of high treason, whether they are aware of the purpose of the assembly, or aid and assist in committing acts of violence or not. R. v. The Earls of Essex and Southampton, Moor. 621, unless compelled to join and continue with them pro timore mortis. Fost. 216, 217; 3 Inst. 10; 1 Hale, 49. 51, 139. But in the case of a constructive levying of war, those only of the rabble who actually aid and assist in doing those acts of violence which form the constructive treason are traitors; the rest are merely rioters. See R. v. Messenger, et al. 70, 79; 1 Sid. 258; 2 St. tr. 585, 594; Archbold's Criminal Pleading and Evidence, by Jervis, 7th ed. 464. And see the case of Frost and Others lately tried at Monmouth for high treason, and the arguments and judicial decisions on the point reserved at the trial, with respect to the due delivery of a copy of the indictment and list of the jury, according to and at the time prescribed by the statutes, and see post, chapter 27. |