utter any such court record or document as above specified. And that the above penalties shall also attach to any person who, as clerk of any court or otherwise, shall knowingly utter any false copy or certificate of any record, or forge the seal, or process, of any court of record (a). There are also provisions on this subject contained in an earlier statute, viz., the 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94, intituled "An Act for keeping safely the Public Records." And by that statute it is enacted, that for any person employed in the public Record Office to certify any writing as a true copy of a record in the custody of the Master of the Rolls, knowing the same to be false in any material part,shall be felony: and he is punishable with penal servitude for life, or not less than three years; or imprisonment for not more than four, nor less than two years (b). Moreover, by 14 & 15 Vict. c. 99 (the "Evidence Amendment Act, 1851"), if any officer authorized or required by that Act to furnish any certified copies or extracts, shall wilfully certify any document as being a true copy or extract, knowing that the same is not so, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and be liable, upon conviction, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding eighteen months (c). -- II. Striking, or other outrage, in the superior courts of justice, in Westminster Hall, or at the assizes, is highly penal. Indeed [by the antient common law before the Conquest, striking in the king's courts of justice, or drawing a sword therein, was a capital felony (d); and our modern law retains so much of the antient severity, as only to exchange the loss of life for the loss of the offending limb. Therefore a stroke or blow in] the superior courts, or courts of assize or oyer and terminer, [whether blood be drawn or not: or even assaulting a judge sitting in the court, by drawing a weapon, without any blow struck ;-is (a) If the court think fit, it may also bind over the offender to keep the peace. (24 & 25 Vict. c. 98, s. 51.) (b) 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94, s. 19; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3. (c) 14 & 15 Vict. c. 99, s. 15. (d) Wilk. Leg. Anglo-Sax. LL. Inæ, c. 6; LL. Canut. c. 56; LL. Alured. c. 7. [punishable with the loss of the right hand (e), imprisonment for life, and forfeiture of goods and chattels, and of the profits of the offender's lands during life (f).] Moreover, not only such as commit actual violence of this description, [but such as use threatening or reproachful words to any judge sitting in the courts, are guilty of a high misprision; and have been punished with large fines, imprisonment, and other corporal punishment (g). And even in the inferior courts of the king, an affray or contemptuous behaviour is punishable with a fine, by the judges there sitting; as by the steward in a court leet, or the like (h).] III. Another species of offence,- somewhat allied to the last, is that of intimidation, or other improper demeanor, practised towards the parties or witnesses in a court of justice. [As if a man assaults or threatens his adversary for (e) Lord Thanet and others were prosecuted by an information filed by the attorney-general, for a riot at the trial of Arthur O'Connor and others for treason, under a special commission at Maidstone. Two of the defendants were found guilty, generally. The three first counts charged (inter alia,) that the defendants did riotously make an assault on one J. R., and did then and there beat, bruise, wound and ill-treat the said J. R., in the presence of the commissioners. When the defendants were brought up for judgment, Lord Kenyon expressed doubts, whether, upon this information, the court was not bound to pronounce the judgment of amputation of the right hand, &c. as required in a prosecution expressly for striking in a court of justice. In consequence of these doubts, the attorney-general entered a nolle proVOL. IV. sequi upon the three first counts; and the court pronounced judgment of fine and imprisonment, as for a common riot.-(Christian's Blackstone.) (f) Staundf. P. C. 38; 3 Inst. 140, 141; Hawk. b. 1, c. 21, s. 3. So it is laid down that a rescue of a prisoner from any of the said courts, without striking a blow, is punishable with perpetual imprisonment and forfeiture of goods, and of the profits of lands during life; but as no actual blow is given, the amputation of the hand is excused. (4 Bl. Com. p. 125.) See as to rescue in other cases, post, p. 309. (g) Harrison's case, Cro. Car. 503. As to the power of the court itself, against which the contempt is committed, to punish it in a summary way, vide sup. vol. 111. p. 380, et post, c. xv. (h) Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 21, s. 11. X [suing him, a counsellor or attorney for being employed against him, a juror for his verdict, or a gaoler or other ministerial officer for keeping him in custody, and properly executing his duty (i):] or if a man endeavours to dissuade a witness from giving evidence, or advises a prisoner to stand mute;-these are all impediments to justice, are high misprisions and contempts of the king's courts, and are punishable with fine and imprisonment. Antiently. indeed, it was held, [that if one of the grand jury disclosed to any person indicted the evidence that appeared against him, he was thereby made an accessory to the offence, if felony, and in treason, a principal; and at this day it is agreed that he is guilty of a high misprision, and liable to be fined and imprisoned (k).] So as regards the jurors, the offence may be committed, which is described in the books as embracery; that is, [attempting to influence them corruptly to one side, by promises, persuasions, entreaties, money, entertainments, and the like. The punishment for this misdemeanor in the person embracing and the juror embraced is,] by the common law,— and also by statute 6 Geo. IV. c. 50, s. 61,— fine and imprisonment (1). IV. A fourth offence of the same general character is, obstructing a lawful arrest, or, generally, the execution of lawful process. [This is, at all times, an offence of a very high and presumptuous nature: but more particularly so, when it is an obstruction of an arrest upon criminal process and it hath been holden that the party opposing (i) 3 Inst. 141, 142. Blackstone remarks (vol. iv. p. 126), that these offences, when they proceeded further than bare threats, were punished in the Gothic constitutions with exile and forfeiture of goods; and he cites Stiernh. de Jure Goth. 1. 3, c. 2. (k) See Barr. on Statutes, 212; 27 Ass. Pl. 44, s. 4, fol. 138; Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 21, s. 15. (1) The false verdict of jurors, whether occasioned by embracery or not, was antiently considered as criminal; and therefore severely punished by means of the writ of attaint. [See 3 Bl. Com. pp. 388, 402; 6 Geo. 4, c. 50, s. 60; sup. vol. 111. p. 659, n. (c).] [such arrest, becomes thereby particeps criminis ; that is, an accessory in felony, and a principal in treason (m). Formerly one of the greatest obstructions to public justice, both of the civil and criminal kind, was the multitude of pretended privileged places, (especially in London and Southwark,) where indigent persons assembled together to shelter themselves from justice,-under the pretext of their having been antient palaces of the Crown or the like (n). But all of these sanctuaries for iniquity are now demolished, and the opposing of any process therein is made highly penal, by the statutes 8 & 9 Will. III. c. 27; 9 Geo. I. c. 28; 11 Geo. I. c. 22 ;] and 1 Geo. IV. c. 116: which enact, [that persons opposing the execution of any process in such pretended privileged places within the bills of mortality, or abusing any officer in his endeavour to execute his duty therein, so that he receives bodily hurt;] and all persons aiding and abetting such opposition; shall be guilty of felony. The principal provisions, however, as regard the offence now under consideration, are contained in the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, ss. 18, 38, which we had occasion to notice in reference to offences against the person; and to that part of the work the reader is accordingly referred (o). V. Escape and Prison-breach. An escape of a person, lawfully arrested for crime (whether felony or misdemeanor), by gaining his liberty before he is delivered by course of law, [is also an offence against public justice (p). And the officer permitting such escape, either by negligence or connivance, is much more culpable than the prisoner, the natural desire of liberty pleading strongly in his behalf, though he ought in strictness of law to (0) Vide sup. pp. 164, 181. (m) Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 17, s. 1. (n) Such as White Friars, and its environs; the Savoy; and the Mint, in Southwark. Some further information on the subject of the law of sanctuary will be found, post, c. xxi. (p) Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 17, s. 3; c. 19, ss. 2, 3. As to evidence of escape, breach of prison, and rescue, see 4 Geo. 4, c. 64, s. 44. [submit himself quietly to custody, till cleared by the due course of justice. Officers, therefore, who after arrest negligently permit a felon to escape, are punishable by fine (r); but voluntary escapes, by consent and connivance of the officer, are a much more serious offence: for it is generally agreed that such escapes amount to the same kind of offence, and are punishable in the same degree, as the offence of which the prisoner is guilty, and for which he is in custody; whether treason, felony or trespass. And this, whether he were actually committed to gaol, or only under a bare arrest (s). But the officer cannot be thus punished] as for felony (t), [till the original delinquent hath actually received judgment; or been attainted upon verdict, confession, or outlawry, of the crime for which he was so committed or arrested; otherwise it might happen that the officer might be punished for felony, and the person arrested and escaping might turn out to be an innocent man. But before the conviction of the principal party, the officer thus neglecting his duty may be fined and imprisoned for a misdemeanor,] and may be kept to hard labour besides (u). We may add here, that an escape permitted by a private person, is an offence of the same description as one permitted by an officer. For if any person has another in his lawful custody, as for crime committed, and suffers him to escape before he is delivered over to the proper authority, such person is liable to the same punishment as already stated in the case of a gaoler or other officer (x). As for the prisoner himself, breach of prison (y), or even conspiring to break it (z), was felony at the common (r) 1 Hale, P. C. p. 600. (s) Ib. p. 590; Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 19, s. 22. (t) It is said, however, he is punishable, in the case of treason, where the party escaping has been actually guilty of treason, whether he has been attainted of it or not. |