c. 1, and 30 Geo. 2, c. 24, to defraud another of any valuable chattels, by colour of any false token, counterfeit letter, or false pretence, or to pawn or dispose of another's goods without the consent of the owner, is punished by fine and imprisonment (h).

Combinations also Combinations.

Monopolies are by 21 Jac. 1, c. 3, declared to be contrary Monopolies. to law and void, except as to patents, to the authors of new inventions, and certain other patents. among victuallers or artificers, to raise the price of provisions, or any commodities, or the rate of labour, are in many cases severely punished by particular statutes (¿).

liable to a penalty of 5l. The 25th section gives power to the magistrates of certain towns to appoint inspectors within the limits of their jurisdictions. By s. 28 power is given to justices and inspectors to enter shops and inspect weights and measures. By s. 35 persons aggrieved by any order, &c. relating to any matter in this act may appeal to the quarter sessions. By s. 39 all actions brought against any person for anything done under the act must be brought in the manner prescribed in and subject to the provisions of this section. And by s. 40 the plaintiff cannot recover after tender of amends.

(h) By 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 29, s. 53, if any person shall by any false pretence obtain from any other person any chattel, money, or valuable security, with intent to cheat or defraud any person of the same, every such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted shall be liable to be transported for seven years, or to suffer such other punishment, by fine or imprisonment, or by both, as the court shall award; and if upon the trial of any person indicted for such misdemeanor it shall be proved that he obtained the property in question in any such manner as to amount in law to a larceny, he shall not by reason thereof be entitled to be acquitted of such misdemeanor; and no such indictment shall be removeable by certiorari; and no person tried for such misdemeanor shall be liable to be afterwards prosecuted for larceny upon the same facts.

(i) By 6 Geo. 4, c. 129, repealing the laws relating to the combination of workmen, and making other provisions in lieu thereof, it is enacted by s. 3, that if any person shall, by violence to the person or property, or by threats or intimidation, or by molesting or obstructing another, force or endeavour to force any journeyman, manufacturer, or workman employed in any manufacture, trade, or business, to depart from his work, or to return his work before finished, or prevent, or endeavour to prevent, any journeyman, manufacturer, or workman, not hired, from hiring himself to, or from accepting work from any person, or shall use or employ violence to the person or property of another, or threats, molestation, or obstruction to force or induce such person to belong to any club, or to contribute to any fund, or to pay any fine, or on account of his not belonging to any club, or not contributing to any fund, or to pay any fine, on account of his not complying with any rules, orders, &c., made to obtain an advance, or to reduce the rate of wages, or to lessen or alter the hours of working, or to decrease or alter the quantity of work, or to regulate the mode of carrying on any manufacture, trade, or business, or the management thereof, or shall by violence to the person or property of another, or by threats, molestation, or obstruction, force, or endeavour to force, any manufacturer or person carrying on any trade or business, to make any alteration

Exercising a trade without being apprenticed.

To exercise a trade in any town, without an apprenticeship of seven years, was made punishable by 5 Eliz. c. 4 (j).

CHAPTER XIII.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE PUBLIC
POLICE OR ECONOMY.

Irregularity in time of quarantine.

Selling unwholesome provisions.

THE statutes 26 Geo. 2, c. 26, and 29 Geo. 2, c. 8, explain and declare the method of performing quarantine, or forty days' probation, by ships coming from infected countries; and persons disobeying the directions then given, or having the plague on board, and concealing it, are guilty of felony (a). By 51 Hen. 3, st. 6, c. 7, the sale of corrupted wine is prohibited; and by 12 Car. 2, c. 25, s. 11, any brewing, or adul

in his mode of regulating, managing, conducting, or carrying on the same, or to limit the number of his apprentices, or number or description of his journeymen, workmen, or servants; every person so offending or aiding therein, being convicted, shall be imprisoned only, or imprisoned and kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding three calendar months.

(j) Repealed by 54 Geo. 3, c. 96, except as to the customs of London, which remain as before.

(a) These acts are repealed by 6 Geo. 4, c. 78, which consolidates the laws relating to quarantine. The second section directs what vessels shall be liable to quarantine. By s. 8, masters of vessels liable to quarantine are to make signals on meeting other vessels at sea; and on failure thereof, are liable to forfeit 1007. By s. 9, masters of vessels are to hoist certain signals when the plague or other infectious disease is on board, and on failure thereof, are liable to forfeit 100l. By s. 11, on arrival from foreign parts masters are to give to the pilots an account of the places at which they shall have landed and touched, on pain of forfeiting 1007. Pilots are to give notice to masters of vessels of any proclamation, or order in council, since the vessel left England, on pain of forfeiting 100%.; and such commanders shall thereupon hoist proper signals. By s. 14, the mode is prescribed of ascertaining whether vessels be actually infected. By s. 21, persons embezzling goods, performing quarantine, or neglecting or deserting their duty, or allowing persons or goods to leave a lazeret vessel, unless by permission from the privy council, or giving false certificates, shall be guilty of felony, and knowingly injuring goods performing quarantine subjects the offender to a penalty of 100l. and full costs; and by s. 25, persons forging or uttering false certificates are guilty of felony

teration of wine, is punished with the forfeiture of 100%, if done by the wholesale merchant; and 40%., if done by the vintner or retail dealer (b).

marriages.

The offence of clandestine marriages is an offence against Clandestine the public police and economy, or the due regulation and domestic order of the kingdom, and is provided against by 4 Geo. 4, c. 76 (c).

Stiernh. de jure

Sueon. 1, 3, c. 2.

Another offence with regard to matrimony is what is called Bigamy. bigamy, but is more properly polygamy. Polygamy was never 3 Inst. 88. permitted in this part of the world, even from the time of our German ancestors, who, as Tacitus informs us "prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti sunt," and by the laws of ancient and modern Sweden, the offence is punished with death (d). (b) See also 1 Wm. & M. st. 1, c. 24. (c) By 4 Geo. 4, c. 76, all banns must be published in the parish church, or in a chapel, in which banns may be lawfully published belonging to the parish or chapelry where the parties reside; and if they live in different parishes the banns must be published in both parishes. No parson is obliged to publish banns, unless the parties shall, seven days before the time required for the first publication, deliver to him a notice in writing, dated on the day of delivery, of the christian names and surnames, and of the house or houses of abode, and of the time during which they have dwelt there. By s. 9, the marriage must be within three months of the publication of banns. No license can be granted for marriage otherwise than in the parish church where one of the parties has resided fifteen days. And if a caveat be entered against the grant of license, it cannot issue without consent of ecclesiastical judge. One of the parties must swear before the surrogate that there is no impediment of kindred to the marriage, and that one of them has resided in the parish as required by the act; and where either party is under twenty-one, and not a widow or widower, that the consent of parent or guardian (if any) has been obtained. Such consent is necessary; but if it be withheld from undue motives, the chancellor on petition may sanction the marriage. The act 9 Geo.4, c. 31, prescribes the punishment of transportation for forcible abduction of a woman on account of her fortune. By s. 21, persons solemnizing marriages in any other place than a church or chapel, or at any other time than between eight and twelve in the forenoon, unless by special license, or without publication of banns, unless license of marriage be first had, or falsely pretending to be in holy orders, shall solemnize marriage according to the rites of the church of England, shall be guilty of felony, and be transported for fourteen years. And by s. 22, the marriages of persons knowingly and wilfully intermarrying contrary to the statute are void. By ss. 23 and 24, persons under age contracting marriage contrary to the act fraudulently, by making false oath, forfeit the property accruing by such marriage; and all agreements, settlements, and deeds, before and in contemplation of such marriage, as far as the same shall be inconsistent with the provisions of the security and settlement ordered by the court of chancery in such case, shall be void.

But by 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 85, s. 18, any dissenting places of religious worship, certified according to law, may be registered for solemnizing marriages therein. By s. 20, marriages may be solemnized in such registered places in the presence of some registrar and of two witnesses; and by s. 21 marriages may be celebrated before the superintendant registrar, after due notice, and certificate issued, as required by the act. (d) It is remarkable that wherever polygamy prevails, there is an absence of all free

M M

Common nuisances.

197.

By 2 Jac. 1, c. 11, if any person being married do marry again, the former husband or wife being alive, it is felony (e). The first wife in this case cannot be a witness against her husband, because she is the true wife, but the second may, for she is indeed no wife; and so vice versá of a second husband. Common nuisances are a species of offences against the public order and economical regimen of the state; being either the doing of a thing to the annoyance of all the king's subjects, or the neglecting to do a thing which the common 1 Hawk. P. C. good requires. These are indictable only, and not actionable; as it would be unreasonable to give to every man a right of action for what damnifies him in common only with the rest of his fellow subjects. Of this nature are, annoyances in highways, bridges, and public rivers, by rendering the same inconvenient or dangerous to pass, either positively by actual obstructions, or negatively by want of reparations; for both these, the person so obstructing, or such individuals as are bound to repair and cleanse them, or in default of these last, the parish at large, may be indicted, distrained to repair and amend them, and in some cases fined. And a presentment thereof by a judge of assize, or justice of the peace, is in all respects equivalent to an indictment (f). All those kinds of "The equality in the number of males and females born into the world intimates (says Dr. Paley) the intention of God, that one woman should be assigned to

institutions.

one man."

(e) By 9 Geo. 4, c. 31, s. 22, if any person, being married, shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband, or wife, whether the second marriage be in England or elsewhere, every such offender, and every person aiding therein shall be guilty of felony, and liable to be transported for seven years, or imprisoned for not exceeding two years; and every such offence may be inquired of, tried, and punished in the county where the offender shall be apprehended, or be in custody, as if the offence had been committed in that county. But the act does not extend to a second marriage contracted out of England by any other than a subject of her majesty, or to any person marrying a second time whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent seven years, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time, or to any person who at the time of the second marriage shall have been divorced from the bond of the first marriage, or to any person whose former marriage shall have been declared void by the sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction.

(f) The most usual presentment was by a grand jury at common law, or by a justice of the peace, under 13 Geo. 3, c. 78, s. 4, 21, for default in repair of some “highway, causeway, or bridge;” but that act is now repealed by 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 50, s. 1; and by s. 99 it is declared unlawful to take or commence any proceeding by way of presentment (e. g. by a grand jury or justice) against the inhabitants of any parish or other person on account of any highway or turnpike road being out of repair. The above repeal being, without exception, the power of a justice to present any bridge under s. 21 of the repealed act is gone. Dickenson's Quarter Sessions, by Serjeant Talfourd, 4th ed. p. 186. And see the act 5 & 6 Wm. 4, c. 50, s. 96, as to the levying and application of fines for not repairing highways.

nuisances, such as offensive trades and manufactures, which, when injurious to a private man, are actionable, are, when detrimental to the public, punishable by public prosecution, and subject to fine, according to the quantity of the misdemeanor; and particularly the keeping of dogs in a city or market-town, is indictable as a public nuisance. All dis- Salk. 460. orderly inns or ale-houses, bawdy-houses, gaming-houses, stage plays, unlicensed booths, and stages for rope dancers, mountebanks, and the like, are public nuisances, and may, upon indictment, be suppressed and fined (g). Inns may be in- 1 Hawk. P. C. dicted, suppressed, and fined, if they refuse to entertain a traveller without sufficient cause.

198, 225.

By 10 & 11 Wm. 3, c. 17, all lotteries are declared to be Lotteries. public nuisances (h). The making and selling of fireworks Fireworks. and squibs, or throwing them about in any street, is a common nuisance, by 9 & 10 Wm. 3, c. 7, and punishable by fine (i). And the making, keeping, or carriage of too large a quantity of gunpowder at one time, or in one place or vehicle, is prohibited by 12 Geo. 3, c. 61.

Idleness in any person is a high offence against the public Idleness. economy. In China it is a maxim, that if there be a man who does not work, or a woman that is idle in the empire, somebody must suffer cold or hunger, the produce of the lands not being more than sufficient with culture to maintain the inhabitants; and therefore, though the idle person may shift off the want from himself, yet it must in the end fall somewhere. The court of Areopagus at Athens punished idleness, and exerted a right of examining every citizen in what manner he spent his time; the intention of which was, that the

(g) By 3 Geo. 4, c. 114, when any person shall be convicted of keeping a common gaming-house, or common bawdy-house, or a common ill-governed and disorderly house, he may be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for any term not exceeding the term for which they might then have been imprisoned for such offences, either in addition to, or in lieu of, any other punishment which might be inflicted on any such offenders before the passing of the act.

(h) By 42 Geo. 3, c. 119, any person keeping an office for the drawing of any lottery not authorized by parliament, is liable to a penalty of 500l., and to be deemed a rogue and vagabond; and all lotteries called little goes, are declared to be public nuisances; and by a more recent act of parliament state lotteries are now wholly abolished.

(1) This offence may be indicted as a common nuisance, either at common law or under the statute; Rex v. Harris, 4 T. R. 202; and by 3 Geo. 4, c. 126, the making, or assisting in making, any bonfires, or setting fire to, or wantonly letting off, or throwing any squib, rocket, serpent, or firework within eighty feet of the centre of any turnpike road, is an offence, liable to a penalty of 40s., and the damages occasioned thereby.