1. Offences, against the public peace, are, I. Riotous assemblies to the number of twelve. II. Appearing armed, or hunting, in disguise. III. Threatening, or demanding any valuable thing, by letter. - All these are felonies, without clergy. IV. Destroying of turnpikes, &c. Penalties: whipping; imprisonment; judgment of felony, with and without clergy. V. Affrays. VI. Riots, routs, and unlawful assemblies. VII. Tumultuous petitioning. VIII. Forcible entry and detainer.-Penalty, in all four: fine, and imprisonment. IX. Going unusually armed. Penalty: forfeiture of arms, and imprisonment. X. Spreading false news. Penalty: fine, and imprisonment. XI. Pretended prophecies. Penalties: fine; imprisonment; and forfeiture. XII. Challenges to fight. Penalty: fine, imprisonment, and sometimes forfeiture. XIII. Libels. Penalty: fine, imprisonment, and corporal punishment CHAPTER XII. 142-153 OF OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC TRADE 154 to 160 1. Offences, against the public trade, are, I. Owling. Penalties: fines; forfeiture; imprisonment; loss of left hand; transportation: judgment of felony. II. Smuggling. Penalties: fines; loss of goods; judgment of felony, without clergy. III. Fraudulent bankruptcy. Penalty: judgment of felony, without clergy. IV. Usury. Penalty: fine, and imprisonment. V. Cheating. Penalties: fine; imprisonment; pillory; tumbrel; whipping, or other corporal punishment; transportation. VI. Forestalling. VII. Regrating. VIII. Engrossing. Penalties, for all three: loss of goods; fine; imprisonment; pillory. IX. Monopolies, and combinations to raise the price of commodities. Penalties; fines; imprisonment; pillory; loss of ear; infamy; and, sometimes, the pains of præmunire. X. Exercising a trade, not having served as apprentice. Penalty: fine. XI. Transporting, or residing abroad, of artificers. Penalties: fine: imprisonment; forfeiture; incapacity; becoming aliens CHAPTER XIII. 154-160 OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC are, I. Irregularity, in time of the 2. Offences, against the public police nishment OF HOMICIDE CHAPTER XIV. Page 161-2 162-175 176 to 203 1. Crimes, especially affecting indivi- 2. Crimes against the person of indi- 3. Homicide is, I. Justifiable. II. Ex- 4. Homicide is justifiable, I. By ne- 6. Felonious homicide is the killing of 161 to 175 7. Killing one's self, or self-murder, is where one deliberately, or by any un 1. Offences, against the public health, 176 177 178 178 182 188 Lawful malicious act, puts an end to his own life. This is felony; punished by ignominious burial, and forfeiture of goods and chattels 8.Killing another is, I. Manslaughter. II. Murder 9. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another; without malice, express or implied. This is either, I. Voluntary, upon a sudden heat. II. Involuntary, in the commission of some unlawful act. Both are felony, but within clergy; except in the case of stabbing 10. Murder is when a person, of sound memory and discretion, unlawfully killeth any reasonable creature, in being, and under the king's peace; with malice aforethought, either express or implied. This is felony, without clergy; punished with speedy death, and hanging in chains, or dissection 11. Peut treason, (being and aggravated degree of murder), is where the servant kills his master, the wife her husband, or the ecclesiastic his superior. Penalty in men, to be drawn, and hanged; in women, to be drawn, and burned CHAPTER XV. OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSONS Page 189 190 191 1. Crimes, affecting the private property 194 203 3. Simple larceny is the felonious tak- 4. Mixed, or compound, larceny, is that 205 to 219 5. Larcenies from the house, by day or 1. Crimes affecting the persons of individuals, by other corporal injuries not amounting to homicide, are, I. Mayhem; and also shooting at another. Penalties: fine; imprisonment; judgment of felony, without clergy. II. Forcible abduction, and marriage or defilement, of an heiress; which is felony: also, stealing, and deflowering or marrying, any woman-child under the age of sixteeen years; for which the penalty is imprisonment, fine, and temporary forfeiture of her lands. III. Rape; and also carnal knowledge of a woman-child under the age of ten years. IV. Buggery, with man or beast. Both these are felonies, without clergy. V. Assault. VI. Battery; especially of clergymen. VII. Wounding. Penalties, in all three: fine; imprisonment; and other corporal punishment. VIII. False imprisonment. Penalties: fine; imprisonment; and (in some atrocious cases) the pains of præmunire, and incapacity of office or pardon. IX. Kidnapping, or, forcibly stealing away the king's subjects. Penalty: fine; imprisonment; and pillory CHAPTER XVI. 205-219 OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE HABITA- 6. Larceny from the person is, I. By 220 to 222 7. Malicious mischief, by destroying 1. Crimes, affecting the habitations of individuals, are, L. Arson. II. Burglary 220 dikes, goods, cattle, ships, garments, 229 229 239 239 241 243 247 251 280 to 288 OF SUMMARY CONVICTIONS 1. Proceedings in criminal courts are, I. Summary. II. Regular 2. Summary proceedings are such, whereby a man may be convicted of divers offences, without any formal process or jury, at the discretion of the judge or judges appointed by act of parliament, or common law 3. Such are, I. Trials of offences and frauds against the laws of excise and other branches of the king's revenue. II. Convictions before justices of the peace upon a variety of minute offences chiefly against the public police. III. Attachments for contempts to the superior courts of justice CHAPTER XXI. 252 OF ARRESTS 253 256 280 280 281-288 289 to 295 1. Regular proceedings, in the courts of common law, are, I. Arrest. II. Commitment and bail. III. Prosecution. IV. Process. V. Arraignment, and its incidents. VI. Plea and issue. VII. Trial and conviction. VIII. Clergy. IX. Judgment, and its consequences. X. Reversal of judgment. ΧΙ. Reprieve or pardon. XII. Execution 289 2. An arrest is the apprehending, or restraining, of one's person; in order to be forthcoming to answer a crime, whereof one is accused or suspected 3. This may be done, I. By warrant. II. By an officer, without warrant. III. By a private person, without warrant. IV. By hue and cry CHAPTER XXII. 258 OF COMMITMENT AND BAIL 258 Page houses, corn, hay, straw, sea or river banks, hop-binds, coal-mines, (or engines thereunto belonging), or any fences for inclosures by act of Parliament, is felony, and, in most cases, without benefit of clergy 8. Forgery is the fraudulent making or alteration of a writing, in prejudice of another's right. Penalties: fine; inprisonment; pillory; loss of nose and ears; forfeiture; judgment of felony, without clergy CHAPTER XVIII. OF THE MEANS OF PREVENTING OF. 251 to 256 1. Crimes and misdemeanors may be prevented, by compelling suspected persons to give security: which is effected by binding them in a conditional recognizance to the king, taken in court, or by a magistrate out of court 2. These recognizances may be condi- 3. They may be taken by any justice or CHAPTER XIX. gaol OF COURTS OF A CRIMINAL JRISDIC TION 258 to 277 1. In the method of punishment may be considered, I. The several courts of criminal jurisdiction. II. The several proceedings therein 2. The criminal courts are, I. Those of a public and general jurisdiction throughout the realm. II. Those of a private and special jurisdiction 3. Public criminal courts are, I. The coroner. 258-275 4. Private criminal courts are, I. The court of the lord steward, &c. by statute of Henry VII. II. The court of 289 289-295 296 to 299 1. Commitment is the confinement of one's person in prison for safe custody, by warrant from proper authority; unless, in bailable offences, he puts in sufficient bail, or security for his future appearance 2. The magistrate is bound to take reasonable bail, if offered; unless the offender be not bailable 3. Such are, I. Persons accused of treason; or, II. Of murder; or, III. Of manslaughter, by indictment; or if the prisoner was clearly the slayer. IV. Prison-breakers, when committed for felony. V. Outlaws. VI. Those who have abjured the realm. VII. Approvers, and appellees. VIII. Persons taken with the mainour. IX. Persons accused of arson. X. Excommunicated persons 4. The magistrate may, at his discretion, admit or not admit to bail, persons not of good fame, charged with other felo 296 296 208 3. An indictment is a written accusation of one or more persons of a crime or misdemeanor, preferred to, and presented on oath by, a grand jury; expressing, with sufficient certainty, the person, time, place, and offence 302 4. An information is, I. At the suit of the king and a subject, upon penal statutes. II. At the suit of the king only. Either, 1. Field by the attorney-general ex officio, for such misdemeanors as affect the king's person or government: or, 2. Filed by the master of the crown-office (with leave of the court of King's Bench) at the relation of some private subject, for other gross and notorious misdemeanors. All differing from indictments in this: that they are exhibited by the informer, or the king's officer, and not on the oath of a grand jury 307-312 5. An appeal is an accusation or suit, brought by one private subject against another, for larceny, rape, mayhom, arson, or homicide which the king cannot discharge or pardon, but the party alone can release 312 CHAPTER XXIV. OF PROCESS UPON AN INDICTMENT 318 to 320 1. Process to bring in an offender, when indicted in his absence, is, in misdemeanors, by venire facias, distress infinite, and capias; in capital crimes, by capias only and, in both, by outlawry 318-320 2. During this stage of proceedings, the indictment may be removed into the court of King's Bench from any inferior jurisdiction, by writ of certiorari facias: and cognizance must be claimed in places of exclusive jurisdiction 320 CHAPTER XXV. OF ARRAIGNMENT, AND ITS INCI DENTS 322-331 1. Arraignment, is the calling of the CHAPTER XXVI. 332 to 341 OF PLEA, AND ISSUE 1. The plea, or defensive matter alleged by the prisoner, may be, I. A plea to the jurisdiction. II. A demurrer in point of law. III. A plea in abatement. IV. A special plea in bar: which is 1st, auterfoits acquit; 2dly, auterfoits convict; 3dly, auterfoits attaint; 4thly, a pardon. V. The general issue, not guilty 332-341 2. Hereupon issue is joined by the clerk of the arraigns, on behalf of the king 341 365 to 374 OF THE BENEFIT OF CLERGY 1. Clergy, or the benefit thereof, was originally derived from the usurped jurisdiction of the popish ecclesiastics; but hath since been new modelled by several statutes 2. It is an exemption of the clergy from any other secular punishment for felony, than imprisonment for a year, at the court's discretion; and it is extended likewise, absolutely, to lay peers, for the first offence; and to all lay commoners, for the first offence also, upon condition of branding, imprisonment, or transportation 3. All felonies are entitled to the benefit of clergy, except such as are now ousted by particular statutes 4. Felons, on receiving the benefit of clergy, (though they forfeit their goods to the crown), are discharged of all 365 371 372 4. Forfeiture to the king is, I. Of real estates, upon attainder :- in high treason, absolutely, till the death of the late pretender's sons; -in felonies, for the king's year, day, and waste ;in misprision of treason, assaults on a judge, or battery sitting the courts; during the life of the offender. II. Of personal estates, upon conviction; in all treason, misprision of treason, felony, excusable homicide, petit larceny, standing mute upon arraignment, the above-named contempts of the king's courts, and flight 381-388 5. Corruption of blood is an utter extinction of all inheritable quality therein: so that, after the king's forfeiture is first satisfied, the criminal's lands escheat to the lord of the fee; and he can never afterwards inherit, be inherited, or have any inheritance derived through him CHAPTER XXX. OF REVERSAL OF JUDGMENT 388-9 390 to 392 2. A pardon is a permanent avoider of the judgment by the king's majesty in offences against his crown and dignity; drawn in due form of law, allowed in open court, and thereby making the offender a new man 3. The king cannot pardon, I. Imprisonment of the subject beyond the seas. II. Offences prosecuted by appeal. III. Common nuisances. IV. Offences against popular or penal statutes, after information brought by a subject. Nor is his pardon pleadable to an impeachment by the commons in Parliament CHAPTER XXXII. OF EXECUTION 1. Execution is the completion of human punishment, and must be strictly performed in the manner which the law directs 2. The warrant for execution is sometimes under the hand and seal of the Judge; sometimes by writ from the king; sometimes by rule of court; but commonly by the judge's signing the calendar of prisoners, with their separate judgments in the margin. 396 398 403 403 403 |