[the king, is declared a præmunire by statute 13 Car. II. c. 1(v). 6. By the Habeas Corpus Act also, 31 Car. II. c. 2, it is a præmunire, and incapable of the king's pardon, besides other heavy penalties, to send any subject of this realm a prisoner,] subject to certain exceptions in the Act specified, [into parts beyond the seas. 7. By statute 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 24, serjeants, counsellors, proctors, attornies, and all officers of courts practising without having taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy (x), are guilty of a præmunire. 8. By the statute 6 Ann. c. 7, to assert maliciously and directly, by preaching, teaching or advised speaking, that any person, other than according to the Acts of Settlement and Union, hath any right to the throne of these kingdoms, or that the king and parliament cannot make laws to limit the descent of the Crown, such preaching, teaching or advised speaking is a præmunire: as writing, printing or publishing the same doctrines amounted, we may remember, to treason (y). 9. By statute 6 Ann. c. 23, if the assembly of peers of Scotland, convened to elect their sixteen representatives in the British parliament, shall presume to treat of any other matter save only the election, they incur the penalties of a præmunire. 10. The statute 12 Geo. III. c. 11, subjects to the penalties of the statute of præmunire, all such as knowingly, and wilfully, solemnize, assist, or are present, at any forbidden marriage of such of the descendants of the body of King George the second, as are, by that Act, prohibited to contract matrimony without the consent of the Crown (z). Having thus inquired into the nature and several species (v) Vide sup. vol. 11. p. 350. (x) Vide sup. vol. 11. pp. 415, 416. (y) Vide sup. pp. 245, 246. (z) Vide sup. vol. 11. p. 472. Besides the instances of offences subject to the penalties of a præmunire mentioned in the text, three others are enumerated by Blackstone, viz. 1. The offence under 13 Eliz. c. 8, of acting as a broker or agent, in any usurious contract [of præmunire, its punishment may be gathered from the foregoing statutes, which are thus shortly summed up by Sir Edward Coke (a), "That from the conviction the de"fendant shall be out of the king's protection, and his "lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeited to the "king; and that his body shall remain in prison at the king's pleasure; or, as other authorities have it, during "life" (b): both which amount to the same thing, as the king by his prerogative may any time remit the whole or any part of the punishment; except in the case of transgressing the statute of habeas corpus. These forfeitures here inflicted, do not bring this offence within our former definition of felony; being inflicted by particular statutes, and not by the common law. But so odious, Sir Edward Coke adds, was this offence of præmunire, that a man that was attainted of the same might have been slain by any other man without danger of law; because it was provided by law that any man might do to him as to the king's enemy, and any man may lawfully kill an enemy (c). However, the position itself that it is at any time lawful to kill an enemy, is by no means tenable; it is only lawful by the law of nature and nations to kill him in the heat of battle, or for necessary self-defence. And to obviate such savage or mistaken notions the statute 5 Eliz. c. 1, s. 21, provided, that it shall not be lawful to kill any person attainted in a pramunire; any law, statute, opinion, or exposition of law, to the contrary notwithstanding (d). But still such delinquent, though protected, as a part of the public, from public wrongs, can bring no action for any private injury, how atrocious soever; being so far out of the protection of the law, that by unlawful subscriptions. But the law on these subjects is now altered. See as to the first, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 90; as to the second, 31 Geo. 3, c. 32, s. 18; and 7 & 8 Vict. c. 102; as to the third, 6 Geo. 4, c. 91. (a) 1 Inst. 129. (c) Stat. 25 Edw. 3, st. 5, c. 22. (d) The Act in which this declaration of the law is contained, relates chiefly to other subjects, and is among those repealed by 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59, as to which vide sup. vol. 111. p. 64. (b) 1 Bulst. 199. [it will not guard his civil rights, nor remedy any grievance which he as an individual may suffer. And no man knowing him to be guilty, can with safety give him comfort, aid or relief (e).] VII. [Contempts against the sovereign's title, not amounting to treason or præmunire, are chiefly the denial of his right to the Crown, in common and unadvised discourse; for if it be by advisedly speaking, we have seen that it amounts to pramunire (f). This heedless species of contempt, is punished by our law with fine and imprisonment.] VIII. Contempts against the Crown's ecclesiastical supremacy; of which we have had an example in the strange attempt lately made by the see of Rome to establish a hierarchy of its own within this realm, with titles invasive of the rights of our protestant dignitaries. Our law, however, has made provision against all contempts of this description. For, first, it is enacted by 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, s. 24, that if any person, other than the person authorized by law, shall assume or use the title of archbishop of any province, bishop of any bishopric, or dean of any deanery, in England or Ireland, he shall forfeit for every such offence 1007. And by 14 & 15 Vict. c. 60, a like penalty is imposed upon any person who shall procure from the see of Rome, or publish or put in use within the united kingdom, any bull for constituting archbishops or bishops of pretended provinces or sees; or upon any person other than the person authorized by law, who shall assume or use the title of archbishop, bishop, or dean of any city, town, place, or territory in the united kingdom,-whether it be the city, town, place, or territory of any province, see, or deanery of the united kingdom or not. IX. Contempts against the royal palaces [have been always looked upon as high misprisions; and by the antient law before the Conquest, fighting in the king's palace or (e) Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 19, s. 47. (f) Vide sup. p. 267. [before the king's judges was punished with death (g). So too, in the old Gothic constitution, there were many places privileged by law-" quibus major reverentia et securitas debetur, ut templa et judicia, quæ sancta habebantur, arces et aula regis, denique locus quilibet præsente aut adventante rege (h)."] And with us, by the statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 12, malicious striking in the king's palace wherein his royal person resides, whereby blood is drawn, was punishable by perpetual imprisonment and fine at the king's pleasure, and also with the loss of the offender's right hand, the solemn execution of which sentence is prescribed in the statute at length (i); but by 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 1, the part of this Act which inflicted the above punishment, is repealed. It appears, however, to be a contempt of the kind now in question to execute the ordinary process of the law, by arrest or otherwise, within the verge of a royal palace, or in the Tower; unless permission be first obtained, from the proper authority (k). X. The maladministration of such high officers as are in public trust and employment, is ranked by Blackstone among contempts against the sovereign or his government. [This is usually punished by the method of parliamentary impeachment; wherein such penalties short of death are inflicted, as to the wisdom of the house of Lords shall seem proper; consisting usually of banishment, imprisonment, fines or perpetual disability. Hitherto also may be referred the offence of embezzling of public money, called among the Romans peculatus; which the Julian law punished with death in a magistrate, and with deportation or banishment in a private person (1). With us it is not a capital crime; but subjects the committer of it, at common law, to a dis (g) 3 Inst. 140; LL. Alured. cap. 7 and 34. (h) Stiernh. de Jure Goth. I. 3, c. 3. (i) See Knevet's case, 11 Harg. St. Tr. 16. (k) See Elderton's case, Ld. Raym. 978; R. v. Stobbs, 3 T. R. 735; Winter v. Miles, 1 Camp. 475; S. C. 10 East, 578; Sparks v. Spink, 7 Taunt. 311; Batson v. M'Lean, 2 Chit. Rep. 51; Bell v. Jacobs, 1 M. & P. 309. (2) Inst. lib. 4, tit. 18, par. 9. [cretionary fine and imprisonment.] And by statute 50 Geo. III. c. 59, s. 2, it is now provided, that if any officer entrusted with the receipt or management of the public revenues, shall knowingly furnish false statements or returns of the monies collected by him, or the balances left in his hands, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and be fined and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, and for ever rendered incapable of holding any office under the Crown. And we have seen that special provisions are in force with regard to the stealing or embezzlement by persons, in the service of the Crown, of any chattel, money or valuable security in their possession, or coming under their control, by virtue of their employment (m). XI. To the same class of offences, must be referred that of selling public offices; as to which it is provided by 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 16, (confirmed and extended by 49 Geo. III. c. 126,) that persons buying or selling, or receiving or paying money or reward for, any office in the gift of the Crown (with certain exceptions); and persons receiving or paying money for, or soliciting or obtaining, any such office, or making any negotiation or pretended negotiation relating thereto; and persons opening or advertising houses for transacting business relating to the sale of any such office;-shall, respectively, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor (n). XII. Offences relating to the coin. And, first, of offences relating to the coin of this realm. These are now comprised in the stat. 24 & 25 Vict. c. 99, (intituled "An Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law of the United Kingdom against Offences relating to the Coin"); which repeals, as far as the united kingdom (m) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 96, ss. 69, 70. Vide sup. pp. 213, 214. (n) As to this statute, see Hopkins v. Prescott, 4 C. B. 578; Sterry v. Clifton, 9 C. B. 110. See also 6 Geo. 4, cc. 82 and 83, by which the sale of offices in the Queen's Bench and Common Pleas are prohibited; and see 17 & 18 Vict. c. 102, as to election bribery, by gift of any office. |