ation, he forfeits 100l. and his employment; and is for ever made incapable of bearing any public office: and every person collecting fuch tools or utenfils, in order to export the fame, fhall, on conviction at the affifes, forfeit fuch tools and alfo 200%. (10)

(10) By the ftatute 21 Geo. III. c. 3. if any perfon fhall put on board any ship, not bound to any place in Great Britain or Ireland, or fhall have in his cuftody, with intent to export, any en. gine, tool, or implement, ufed in the woollen, cotton, linen, or filk manufactures, he fhall forfeit the fame, and alfo the fum of 2007. and shall be imprisoned twelve months and till the forfeiture is paid. And every captain and custom-houfe officer, who fhall knowingly receive fuch an article, or take an entry of it, fhall forfeit 2001. By 22 Geo. III. c. 6o. if any perfon fhall entice or encourage any artificer, employed in printing callicoes, cottons, muslins, or linens, to leave the kingdom, he shall forfeit 500l. and be im. prifoned one year. And perfons who export, or attempt to export, any engines or implements ufed in that manufacture, fhall forfeit 500l. Captains of fhips, and cuftom-houfe officers, conniving at thefe offences, forfeit 100l. and become incapable of holding any office under the crown.

By the 25 Geo. III. c. 67. any perfon, who entices or encourages an artificer in the iron and fteel manufactures, to leave the kingdom, fhall forfeit 500 and be imprifoned for one year. And perfons who attempt to export any inftruments fpecified by name in the 26 Geo. III. c. 89. fhall forfeit 2001. and be imprifoned one year. And captains and custom-house officers, conniving at the offence, are fubject to the fame penalty, and become incapable of exercising any public employment.

VOL. IV.

CHAPTER THE THIRTEENTH.

OF

OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC HEALTH, AND THE PUBLIC POLICE OR OECONOMY.

HE fourth fpecies of offences, more efpecially affecting the commonwealth, are fuch as are againft the public health of the nation; a concern of the higheft importance, and for the prefervation of which there are in many countries fpecial magiftrates or curators appointed.

1. THE first of thefe offences is a felony; but, by the bleffing of Providence for more than a century paft, incapable of being committed in this nation. For by statute 1 Jac. I. c. 31. it is enacted, that if any perfon infected with the plague, or dwelling in any infected houfe, be commanded by the mayor or conftable, or other head officer of his town. or vill, to keep his houfe, and fhall venture to disobey it; he may be enforced, by the watchmen appointed on fuch melancholy occafions, to obey fuch neceffary command: and, if any hurt enfue by fuch inforcement, the watchmen are thereby indemnified. And farther, if fuch perfon fo commanded to confine himself goes abroad, and converfes in company, if he has no plague fore upon him, he shall be punished as a vagabond by whipping, and be bound to his good behaviour: but, if he has any infectious fore upon him, uncured, he then fhall be guilty of felony. By the ftatute 26 Geo. II. c. 26. (explained and amended by 29 Geo. II. c. 8. (1),) the

(1) And further enforced and regulated by 28 Geo. III. c. 34. method

:

method of performing quarantine, or forty days probation, by ships coming from infected countries, is put in a much more regular and effectual order than formerly, and masters of ships coming from infected places and difobeying the directions there given, or having the plague on board and concealing it, are guilty of felony without benefit of clergy. The fame penalty alfo attends perfons efcaping from the lazarets, or [162] places wherein quarantine is to be performed; and officers and watchmen neglecting their duty; and perfons conveying goods or letters from fhips performing quarantine (2).

2. A SECOND, but much inferior fpecies, of offence against public health is the felling of unholesome provifions. To prevent which the ftatute 51 Hen. III. ft. 6. and the ordinance for bakers, c. 7. prohibit the sale of corrupted wine, contagions or unwholesome flesh, or flesh that is bought of a Jew; under pain of amercement for the first offence, pillory for the fecond, fine and imprisonment for the third, and abjuration of the town for the fourth. And by the ftatute 12 Car. II. c. 25. § 11. any brewing or adulteration of wine is punished with the forfeiture of 100% if done by the wholesale merchant; and 40%. if done by the vintner or retail trader. These are all the offences which may properly be faid to respect the public health.

V. THE laft fpecies of offences which especially affect the commonwealth, are thofe against the public police and oeconomy.

(2) If the captain quits the fhip himself, or permits any other perfon to quit it, he forfeits 500l. and every other perfon quitting it fhall fuffer fix months imprisonment, and shall forfeit 2001. It has been decided in a late cafe that if a pi'ot leaves the fhip contrary to an order of the king in council, though perhaps liable to the last mentioned penalty, yet under the first clause of 26 Geo. II. c. 6. which contains a general prohibition without any specific penalty, he may be punished at the discretion of the court; and in that cafe the defendant was ordered to be imprisoned for a year, 4 T. R. 206. See the regulations and directions, which are numerous, for the performance of quarantine, in 3 Burn. tit. Plague.

By the public police and oeconomy I mean the due regulation and domeftic order of the kingdom: whereby the individuals of the ftate, like members of a well-governed family, are bound to conform their general behaviour to the rules of propriety, good neighbourhood, and good manners; and to be decent, induftrious, and inoffenfive in their respective ftations. This head of offences muft therefore be very mifcellaneous, as it comprizes all fuch crimes as especially affect public fociety, and are not comprehended under any of the four preceding fpecies. Thefe amount, fome of them to felony, and others to mifdemefnors only. Among the former are,

1. THE offence of clandeftine marriages: for by the ftatute 26 Geo. II. c. 33. 1. To folemnize marriage in any other place befides a church, or public chapel wherein banns have been ufually publifhed, except by licence from the archbifhop of Canterbury and, 2. To folemnize marriage in fuch church or chapel without due publication of banns, or [163] licence obtained from a proper authority ;-do both of them not only render the marriage void, but fubject the perfon folemnizing it to felony, punished by transportation, for fourteen years: as, by three former ftatutes, he and his affiftants were fubject to a pecuniary forfeiture of 100 l. 3. To make a falfe entry in a marriage register; to alter it when made; to forge, or counterfeit, fuch entry, or a marriage licence; to caufe or procure, or act or affift in fuch forgery; to utter the fame as true, knowing it to be counterfeit; or to deftroy or procure the deftruction of any register, in order to vacate any marriage, or subject any person to the penalties of this act; all thefe offences, knowingly and wilfully com mitted, fubject the party to the guilt of felony without benefit of clergy.

2. ANOTHER felonious offence, with regard to this holy eftate of matrimony, is what fome have corruptly called

6 & 7 W. III. c. 6, 7 & 8 W. III. c. 35. 10 Ann. c. 19 § 176.

bigamy, which properly fignifies being twice married; but is more justly denominated polygamy, or having a plurality of wives at once. Such fecond marriage, living the former hufband or wife, is fimply void, and a mere nullity, by the ecclefiaftical law of England: and yet the legislature has thought it just to make it felony, by reafon of its being fo great a violation of the public oeconomy and decency of a well ordered ftate. For Polygamy can never be endured under any rational civil establishment, whatever specious reafons may be urged for it by the eastern nations, the fallacioufnefs of which has been fully proved by many fenfible writers but in northern countries the very nature of the cli- [164 ] mate feems to reclaim against it: it never having obtained in this part of the world, even from the time of our German ancestors, who, as Tacitus informs us, "prope foli barba"rorum fingulis uxcribus contenti funt." It is therefore punished by the laws both of antient and modern Sweden with death 4. And with us in England it is enacted by ftatute 1 Jac. I. c. 11. that if any person, being married, do afterwards marry again, the former husband or wife being alive, it is felony; but within the benefit of clergy. The first wife in this cafe fhall not be admitted as a witnefs against her husband, because the is the true wife; but the second may, for she is indeed no wife .at all: and fo, vice versa, of a second husband. This act makes an exception to five cafes, in which fuch fecond marriage, though in the three first it is void, is yet no felony f.

b 3 Inft. 88. Bigamy, according to the canonifts, confitted in marrying two virgins fucceffively, one after the death of the other, or in once marrying a widow. Such were efteemed incapable of orders. &c ; and by a canon of the council of Lyons, A. D. 1274, held under pope Gregory X. were omni privilegio clericali nudati et coercioni fori fecularis daifti. (6 Decretal. l. 12.) This canon was adopted and explained in England, by flatute 4 Edw. I. ft. 3. c. 5. 3 and bigamy thereupon became no uncommon counterplea to the claim of the be. nefit of clergy. (M. 40 Edw. III 42.

O 3