[dinary commission from heaven; or terrify and abuse the people with false denunciations of judgments. These, as tending to subvert all religion, by bringing it into ridicule and contempt, are punishable by the temporal courts with fine, imprisonment, and infamous corporal punishment (z).]

VIII. Simony is also to be considered as an offence against religion, [by reason of the sacredness of the charge which is thereby profanely bought and sold.] Its nature and the punishment to which it is subject having been already described in a former part of this work,-where we treated of the endowments and provisions of the Church (a), —it will be unnecessary to recur to them in this place, and we shall pass on to consider

IX. Profanation of the Lord's Day, (commonly, but improperly, called sabbath breaking,) which is a ninth offence of the class now in question. For as it is deemed, by the best authorities on religious subjects, to be a violation of the divine law, under the new as well as the old dispensation, so there is a [notorious indecency and scandal, in permitting any secular business to be publicly transacted on that day, in a country professing Christianity:] and it is found, in fact, that a [corruption of morals usually follows its profanation.] It is unquestionable, besides, that [the keeping one day in seven holy, as a time of relaxation and refreshment, as well as for public worship, is of admirable service to a state, considered merely as a civil institution. It humanizes, by the help of conversation and society, the manners of the lower classes; which would otherwise degenerate into a sordid ferocity, and savage selfishness of spirit. It enables the industrious workman to pursue his occupation in the ensuing week with health and cheerfulness; it imprints on the minds of the people that sense of their duty to God so necessary to make them good citizens, but which yet would be worn out and effaced (z) Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 5, s. 3. (a) Vide sup. vol. 111. p. 76.

[by an unremitted continuance of labour without any stated times of recalling them to the worship of their Maker; and therefore the laws of King Athelstan, forbade all merchandizing on the Lord's day, under very severe penalties (b); and by the statute 27 Henry VI. c. 5, no fair or market shall be held on Good Fridays or on any Sunday, except the four Sundays in harvest,] and unless for necessary victual, [on pain of forfeiting the goods exposed to sale (c). Also by statute 1 Car. I. c. 1, no persons shall assemble, out of their own parishes, for any sport whatever upon this day; nor, in their parishes, shall use any bull, or bear, baiting, interludes, plays, or other unlawful exercises or pastimes,-on pain that every offender shall pay three shillings and fourpence to the poor.] Moreover, by statute 29 Car. II. c. 7, no tradesman, artificer, workman, labourer, or other person whatever, is allowed to do any work of their ordinary calling upon the Lord's day, works of necessity and charity only excepted,-on pain that every person, of fourteen years, so offending shall forfeit five shillings. And, by the same Act, no person shall publicly expose to sale any wares whatever upon the Lord's day, upon pain of forfeiting the goods; nor any drover, or the like, travel or come into his inn or lodging, upon pain of forfeiting twenty shillings; nor any person serve or execute any process, (except for treason, felony or breach of the peace): and such service or execution, if made, shall be void to all intents and purposes whatever (d). Also, by 21 Geo. III. c. 49, any

(b) C. 24.

(c) The exception as to Sundays in harvest-time, is repealed by 13 & 14 Vict. c. 23.

(d) See also as to carriers, 3 Car. 1, c. 1; as to fish-carriages, 2 Geo. 3, c. 15; as to bakers, 34 Geo. 3, c. 61; 50 Geo. 3, c. 73, s. 3; 1 & 2 Geo. 4, c. 50, s. 11; as to bakers in London, 3 Geo. 4, c. cxvi. s. 16; as to watermen, 11 & 12 Will. 3, c. 24, s. 13;

as to watermen on the Thames, 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. lxxv.; as to killing game on Sunday, 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 32, s. 3. And see, as to the construction of statute 29 Car. 2, c. 7, Sandiman v. Breach, 7 Barn. & Cress. 96; R. v. Whitnash, ibid. 596; Peate v. Dicken, 5 Tyr. 116; Scarfe v. Morgan, 1 H. & H. 292; Beaumont v. Brengeri, 5 C. B. 301.

house which shall be used for public entertainment or public debate on the Lord's day, and to which persons shall be admitted by the payment of money, shall be deemed a disorderly house: and subject to the punishment which the law provides in the case of houses of that description (e). And lastly, (as we found occasion to mention elsewhere,) there are enactments prohibiting the sale of liquors at public houses within the hours of divine service, on any Sunday, Christmas day, Good Friday, or on any fast or thanksgiving day, unless to a lodger in the house, or to a bona fide traveller. By 18 & 19 Vict. c. 118, in case of such prohibited sale, the penalty of a sum not exceeding 51. is imposed for every offence, to be recovered on summary conviction before a justice of the peace. And every separate sale contrary to the law, is to be deemed a separate offence. And similar provisions (the forfeiture, however, being limited to forty shillings) are contained in the 23 Vict. c. 27, with regard to the refreshment houses introduced by that Act (ƒ).

(e) As to disorderly houses, vide post, c. XII.

(f) Vide sup. vol. 111. pp. 306, 308.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS.

[ACCORDING to the method marked out in the preceding chapter, we are next to consider the offences more immediately repugnant to that universal law of society, which regulates the mutual intercourse between one state and another: those, at least, which are particularly animadverted on, as such, by the English law.]

The law of nations, to which we have before had occasion briefly to advert (a), is a system of rules, [established by universal consent, among the civilized inhabitants of the world (b); in order to decide all disputes, to regulate all ceremonies and civilities, and to ensure the observance of justice and good faith, in that intercourse which must frequently occur between two or more independent States, and the individuals belonging to each: being founded upon this general principle, that different nations ought, in time of peace, to do to one another all the good they can: and in time of war, as little harm as possible, without prejudice to their own real interests (c). And as none of these States will allow a superiority in the other, therefore neither can dictate or prescribe the rules of this law to the rest; but such rules must necessarily result from those principles of natural justice, in which all the learned of every nation agree,] and to which all civilized States have assented.

[In arbitrary States this law, whenever it contradicts, or is not provided for by the municipal law of the country, is (c) Sp. L. b. 1, c. 7.

(a) Vide sup. vol. I. P. (b) Ff. 1, 1, 9.

25.

[enforced by the royal power; but, since in England no royal power can introduce a new law, or suspend the execution of the old, therefore the law of nations, wherever any question arises which is properly the object of its jurisdiction, is here adopted in its full extent by the common law, and held to be the law of the land. And those Acts of Parliament, which have from time to time been made to enforce this universal law, or to facilitate the execution of its decisions, are not to be considered as introductive of any new rule, but merely as declaratory of the old fundamental constitutions of the kingdom, without which it must cease to be a part of the civilized world. Thus, in mercantile questions, such as bills of exchange and the like, and in all marine causes, relating to freight, average, demurrage, insurances, bottomry, and others of a similar nature, the law merchant is constantly adhered to (d).

But though in civil transactions, and questions of property, between the subjects of different States, the law of nations has much scope and extent, as adopted by the law of England; yet the present branch of our inquiries will fall within a narrow compass, as offences against the law of nations can rarely be the object of the criminal law of any particular State. For offences against this law, are principally incident to whole States or nations; in which case recourse can only be had to war, which is an appeal to the God of hosts, to punish such infractions of public faith as are committed by one independent people against another; neither State having any superior jurisdiction to resort to upon earth, for justice. But where the individuals of any State violate this general law, it is then the interest as well as duty, of the government under which they live, to animadvert upon them with a becoming severity, that the peace of the world may be maintained. For in vain would nations, in their collective capacity, observe these universal rules, if private subjects were at liberty to break

(d) As to the law merchant, vide sup, vol. 1. p. 56.