may be imprisoned; and that, either in addition to or in lieu of any other punishment (h).

[It has been sometimes wished that perjury, at least upon capital accusations, whereby another's life has been or might have been destroyed, was also rendered capital, upon a principle of retaliation (1).] And, indeed, [where the death of an innocent person has been actually the consequence of such wilful perjury, it falls within the guilt of deliberate murder, and deserves an equal punishment; which, it has been said, our antient law in fact inflicted (m). But the mere attempt to destroy life, by other means, not being capital, there is no reason that an attempt by perjury should; much less, that this crime should in all judicial cases be punished with death (n). For to multiply capital punishments lessens their effect, when applied to crimes of the deepest dye; and detestable as perjury is, it is not by any means to be compared with some other offences, for which only death can be inflicted: and therefore it seems already, (except perhaps in the instance of deliberate murder by perjury,) very properly punished by our present law; which has adopted the opinion of Cicero derived from the law of the Twelve Tables, "perjurii pæna divina, exitium; humana, dedecus (o).”]

XVI. Bribery, is the next species of offence against public justice; which is when a judge, or other person

had been abolished in all other cases by 56 Geo. 3, c. 138, was retained for the punishment of perjury and subornation. But it is now altogether abolished by 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 23. Another consequence that attended a conviction for this crime, until a recent period, was a perpetual disability to bear testimony. But by statute 6 & 7 Vict. c. 85, the law with respect to the incompetency of witnesses, on the ground of crime, is altered. Vide sup. vol. 111. p. 634.

concerned in the administration of justice, takes any undue reward to influence his behaviour in his office (p). [In the East, it is the custom never to petition any superior for justice, not excepting their kings, without a present. This is calculated for the genius of despotic countries, where the true principles of government are never understood; and it is imagined that there is no obligation from the superior to the inferior; no relative duty owing from the governor to the governed. The Roman law, though it contained many severe injunctions against bribery,—as well for selling a man's vote in the senate or other public assembly, as for the bartering of common justice;—yet, by a strange indulgence in one instance, it tacitly encouraged this practice; as it allowed the magistrate to receive small presents, provided they did not in the whole exceed one hundred crowns in a year (q),--not considering the insinuating nature and gigantic progress of this vice when once admitted. Plato, therefore, more wisely, in his ideal republic, orders those who take presents for doing their duty, to be punished in the severest manner (r); and by the laws of Athens, he that offered was also prosecuted, as well as he that received a bribe (s). In England this offence of taking bribes is punished, in inferior officers, with fine and imprisonment; and in those who offer a bribe, though not taken, the same (t). But in judges, especially the superior ones, it hath been always looked upon] as particularly heinous; and there is even a tradition that in the reign of Edward III. chief justice Thorpe was hanged for this offence (u). [By a statute of the eleventh year

(p) 3 Inst. 145; Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 67.

(q) Ff. 48, 11, 6.

(r) De Leg. 1. 12.

(s) Pott. Antiq. b. 1, c. 23. (t) 3 Inst. 147.

(u) Blackstone (vol. iv. p. 140) says he was actually hanged; but Lord Coke (3 Inst. 145) denies that Thorpe was hanged, or could be hanged, for this offence; and Lord

of

Campbell, in his Lives of the Chief Justices (vol. i. p. 91), considers the tradition, that sentence of death was actually passed on him, to be unfounded; and to have been invented by Oliver St. John in inveighing against the judges who, in the reign of Charles I., decided in favour of the legality of ship

money.

[Henry the fourth, all judges and officers of the king, convicted of bribery, shall forfeit treble the bribe; be punished at the king's will; and be discharged from the king's service for ever (x). And some notable examples have been made in parliament, of persons in the highest stations, and otherwise very eminent and able, but contaminated with this sordid vice (y).]

XVII. [Another misdemeanor of the same species, is the negligence of public officers intrusted with the administration of justice, -as sheriffs, coroners, constables, and the like, which makes the offender liable to be fined: and, in very notorious cases, will amount to a forfeiture of his office, if it be a beneficial one (z).]

XVIII. [There is yet another offence against public justice, which is a] misdemeanor [of deep malignity; and so much the deeper, as there are many opportunities of putting it in practice, and the power and wealth of the offenders may often deter the injured from a legal prosecution. This is the oppression, and tyrannical partiality, of judges, justices, and other magistrates, in the administration and under the colour of their office. However, when prosecuted, either by impeachment in parliament, or by information in the Court of Queen's Bench, (according to the rank of the offenders,) it is sure to be severely punished with forfeiture of their offices, (either consequential or immediate); together with fines, imprisonment, or other discretionary censure, regulated by the nature and aggravations of the offence committed (a).]

(x) See 3 Inst. 147.

(y) As to the offence of bribery and corruption at parliamentary elections, vide sup. vol. 11. p. 390. As to bribery in municipal elections, see 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 54. As to bribery of custom house officers, see 16 & 17 Vict. c. 107, s. 262; of excise officers, 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 53, s. 12. As to bribery of officers of the Court

of Chancery, see 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 94, s. 41. As to bribery of public officers in the East Indies, see 33 Geo. 3, c. 52, s. 62.

(2) Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 66; and see R. v. Pinney, 3 B. & Ad. 946; R. v. Neale, 9 Car. & P. 431.

(a) Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 68 ; and see R. v. Holland, 5 T. R. 607.

XIX. [Lastly, extortion is an abuse of public justice; which consists in any officer's unlawfully taking, by colour of his office, from any man, any money or thing of value, that is not due to him, or more than is due, or before it is due.] The punishment for this misdemeanor [is fine and imprisonment, and sometimes a forfeiture of the office (b).]

(b) See 3 Edw. 1, c. 26; 3 Inst. 145; R. v. Gilham, 6 T. R. 265; R. v. Jones, 2 Camp. 131. As to extortion by British subjects in the East Indies, in receiving gifts, see 33 Geo. 3, c. 52, s. 62; Re Capt. Douglas, 3 Q. B. 825; Douglas v. Queen, 13 Q. B. 74. By 1 & 2

Will. 4, c. 56, any judge or other officer in Bankruptcy, taking other than his lawful fees shall forfeit 5001., and be incapable of holding office. And see on the subject of extortion in general, Bac. Abr. tit. Fees; Jac. L. Dict. Extortion, &c.

CHAPTER X.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC PEACE.

WE are next to consider offences against the public peace (a); in our consideration of which, however, it is to be understood, that those are passed over which more immediately and properly range themselves under other divisions of the work,—such as offences against the person and the like. Those at present in question, are of two sorts; amounting either to actual breaches of the peace, or only to acts provocative of a breach of the peace by others. Actual breaches of the peace are also either felonious, or not felonious. [The felonious breaches of the peace are strained up to that degree of malignity, by virtue of several modern statutes; and particularly,

I. The riotous assembling of twelve persons or more, and not dispersing upon proclamation. This was first made treason by statute 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 5; when the king was a minor, and a change of religion to be effected. But that statute was repealed by the first Act of Queen Mary, among the other treasons created since the twenty-fifth year of Edward the third; though the prohibition was in substance re-enacted, with an inferior degree of punishment, by statute 1 Mar. st. 2, c. 12; which made the same offence a single felony. These statutes specified, and particularized, the nature of the riots they were meant to suppress; as, for example, such as were set on foot with

(a) At a former place we remarked, after Blackstone, that crimes "almost always include a breach of the public peace" (vide

sup. p. 131), but the crimes spoken of in this chapter, are those which are directed more particularly against the public peace.