Disclosing official secrets. By the Official Secrets Act, 1889, 52 & 53 Vict. c. 52, (t) –

(1.) a. Where a person for the purpose of wrongfully obtaining information

(i.) enters or is in any part of a place belonging to her Majesty
the Queen, being a fortress, arsenal, factory, dockyard, camp,
ship, office, or other like place, in which part he is not en-
titled to be; or

(ii) when lawfully or unlawfully in any such place as afore-
said, either obtains any document, sketch, plan, model, or
knowledge of anything which he is not entitled to obtain, or
takes without lawful authority any sketch or plan; or
(iii) when outside any fortress, arsenal, factory, dockyard, or
camp belonging to her Majesty the Queen, takes or attempts
to take without authority given by or on behalf of her
Majesty, any sketch or plan of that fortress, arsenal, factory,
dockyard, or camp; or

b. where a person knowingly having possession of, or control
over, any such document, sketch, plan, model, or knowledge
as has been obtained or taken by means of any act which
constitutes an offence against this Act at any time wilfully
and without lawful authority communicates or attempts to
communicate the same to any person to whom the same ought
not, in the interest of the State, to be communicated at that
time; or

c. where a person after having been entrusted in confidence by some officer under her Majesty the Queen with any document, sketch, plan, model, or information relating to any such place as aforesaid, or to the naval or military affairs of her Majesty, wilfully and in breach of such confidence communicates the same when, in the interest of the State, it ought not to be communicated;

he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding one year, or to a fine, or to both imprisonment and a fine.

(2.) Where a person having possession of any document, sketch, plan, model, or information relating to any fortress, arsenal, factory, dockyard, camp, ship, office, or other like place belonging to her Majesty, or to the naval or military affairs of her Majesty, in whatever manner the same has been obtained or taken, at any time wilfully communicates the same to any person to whom he knows the same ought not, in the interest of the State, to be communicated at that time, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable to the same punishment as if he committed an offence under the foregoing provisions of this section.

(3.) Where a person commits any act declared by this section to be a misdemeanor, he shall, if he intended to communicate to a foreign. State any information, document, sketch, plan, model, or knowledge obtained or taken by him, or entrusted to him as aforesaid, or if he communicates the same to any agent of a foreign State, be guilty of felony, and on conviction be liable at the discretion of the Court to

(t) See R. v. Guernsey, 1 F. & F. 394.

penal servitude for life, or for any term not less than five years, (u) or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.'

By Sec. 2. (1.) 'Where a person by means of his holding or having held an office under her Majesty the Queen, has lawfully or unlawfully either obtained possession of or control over any document, sketch, plan, or model, or acquired any information, or at any time corruptly or contrary to his official duty communicates or attempts to communicate that document, sketch, plan, model, or information to any person to whom the same ought not, in the interests of the State, or otherwise in the public interest, to be communicated at that time, he shall be guilty of a breach of official trust.

(2.) A person guilty of a breach of official trust shall

a. if the communication was made or attempted to be made to a foreign State, be guilty of felony, and on conviction be liable at the discretion of the court to penal servitude for life, or for any term not less than five years, (v) or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour; and

b. in any other case be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding one year, or to a fine, or to both imprisonment and a fine.

(3.) This section shall apply to a person holding a contract with any department of the government of the United Kingdom, or with the holder of any office under her Majesty the Queen as such holder, where such contract involves an obligation of secrecy, and to any person employed by any person or body of persons holding such a contract, who is under a like obligation of secrecy, as if the person holding the contract and the person so employed were respectively holders of an office under her Majesty the Queen.'

By Sec. 3. Any person who incites or counsels, or attempts to procure, another person to commit an offence under this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be liable to the same punishment as if he had committed the offence.'

By Sec. 4. The expenses of the prosecution of a misdemeanor under this Act shall be defrayed in like manner as in the case of a felony.' By Sec. 5. 'If by any law made before or after the passing of this Act by the legislature of any British possession provisions are made which appear to her Majesty the Queen to be of the like effect as those contained in this Act, her Majesty may, by Order in Council, suspend the operation within such British possession of this Act, or of any part thereof, so long as such law continues in force there, and no longer, and such order shall have effect as if it were enacted in this Act:

Provided that the suspension of this Act, or of any part thereof, in any British possession shall not extend to the holder of an office under her Majesty the Queen who is not appointed to that office by the Government of that possession.

The expression " British possession " means any part of her Majesty's dominions not within the United Kingdom.'

(u) Now three years; see 54 & 55 Vict.

c. 69.

(v) Now three years; see 54 & 55 Vict.

c. 69.

By Sec. 6. (1.) This Act shall apply to all acts made offences by this Act when committed in any part of her Majesty's dominions, or when committed by British officers or subjects elsewhere.

(2.) An offence under this Act, if alleged to have been committed out of the United Kingdom, may be inquired of, heard, and determined, in any competent British court in the place where the offence was committed, or in her Majesty's High Court of Justice in England or the Central Criminal Court, and the Act of the forty-second year of the reign of King George the Third, chapter eighty-five, shall apply in like manner as if the offence were mentioned in that Act, and the Central Criminal Court as well as the High Court possessed the jurisdiction given by that Act to the Court of King's Bench.

(3.) An offence under this Act shall not be tried by any court of general or quarter sessions, nor by the sheriff court in Scotland, nor by any court out of the United Kingdom which has not jurisdiction to try crimes which involve the greatest punishment allowed by law.'

By Sec. 7. (1.) A prosecution for an offence against this Act shall not be instituted except by or with the consent of the AttorneyGeneral.

(2.) In this section the expression Attorney-General' means the Attorney or Solicitor General for England; and as respects Scotland, means the Lord Advocate; and as respects Ireland, means the Attorney or Solicitor General for Ireland; and if the prosecution is instituted in any court out of the United Kingdom, means the person who in that court is Attorney-General, or exercises the like functions as the Attorney-General in England.'

By Sec. 8. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires Any reference to a place belonging to her Majesty the Queen includes a place belonging to any department of the Government of the United Kingdom or of any of her Majesty's possessions, whether the place is or is not actually vested in her Majesty;

Expressions referring to communications include any communication, whether in whole or in part, and whether the document, sketch, plan, model, or information itself or the substance or effect thereof only be communicated;

The expression 'document' includes part of a document;

The expression model' includes design, pattern, and specimen ; The expression' sketch' includes any photograph or other mode of representation of any place or thing;

The expression office under her Majesty the Queen,' includes any office or employment in or under any department of the Government of the United Kingdom, and so far as regards any document, sketch, plan, model, or information relating to the naval or military affairs of her Majesty, includes any office or employment in or under any department of the Government of any of her Majesty's possessions.'

By Sec. 9. This Act shall not exempt any person from any proceeding for an offence which is punishable at common law, or by military or naval law, or under any Act of Parliament other than this Act, so, however, that no person be punished twice for the same offence.'

CHAPTER THE SIXTEENTH.

OF BUYING AND SELLING OFFICES.

CONCERNING the sale of offices of a public nature, it has been well observed, that nothing can be more palpably prejudicial to the good of the public, than to have places of the highest concernment, on the due execution whereof the happiness of both king and people depends, disposed of, not to those who are most able to execute them, but to those who are most able to pay for them; nor can anything be a greater discouragement to industry and virtue than to see those places of trust and honour, which ought to be the rewards of persons who by their industry and diligence have qualified themselves for them, conferred on those who have no other recommendation than that of being the highest bidders; neither can anything be a greater temptation to officers to abuse their power by bribery and extortion, and other acts of injustice, than the consideration of having been at a great expense in gaining their places, and the necessity of sometimes straining a point to make their bargain answer their expectations. (a) The buying and selling such offices has therefore been considered an offence malum in se, and indictable at common law. (b) In a case of an indictment for a conspiracy to obtain money, by procuring from the lords of the Treasury the appointment of a person to an office in the customs, it was proposed to argue that the indictment was bad on the face of it, as it was not a misdemeanor at common law to sell or to purchase an office like that of coast-waiter. But Lord Ellenborough, C. J., said that if that were to be made a question, it must be debated on a motion in arrest of judgment, or on a writ of error; but that, after reading the case of R. v. Vaughan, (c) it would be very difficult to argue that the offence charged in the indictment was not a misdemeanor. And Grose, J., afterwards, in passing sentence, said that there could be no doubt but that the offence charged was clearly a misdemeanor at common law. (d)

The case of R. v. Vaughan was an attempt only to bribe a cabinet minister and a member of the Privy Council to give the defendant an office in the colonies. (e) And where the defendant, who was clerk to the agent for the French prisoners of war at Porchester Castle, took bribes in order to procure the exchange of some of them out of their turn, it appears to have been made the subject of an indictment. (f)

(a) 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 67, s. 3. Bac. Abr. tit. Offices and Officers.

(b) Stockwell v. North, Noy, 102, Moor, 781, S. C.

(c) 4 Burr. 2494.

(d) R. v. Pollman, 2 Campb. 229.

(e) 4 Burr. 2494. A criminal information VOL. I.- - 28

was granted against the defendant for offering the Duke of Grafton, then First Lord of the Treasury, the sum of £5,000 as a bribe to procure the reversion of the office of clerk of the Supreme Court of the island of Jamaica. (ƒ) R. v. Beale, cited in R. v. Gibbs, 1 East, R. 183.

But it has been endeavoured to prevent the mischiefs of buying and selling offices, by several statutes.

The 12 Rich. 2, c. 2, enacted, that the chancellor, treasurer, keeper of the privy seal, steward of the King's house, the King's chamberlain, clerk of the rolls, the justices of the one bench and of the other, barons of the Exchequer, and all other that shall be called to ordain, name, or make, justices of the peace, sheriffs, escheaters, customers, comptrollers, or any other officer or minister of the King, shall be firmly sworn that they shall not ordain, name, or make, any of the above-mentioned officers for any gift or brokage, favour or affection; nor that none which pursueth by himself, or by other, privily or openly, to be in any manner of office, shall be put into the same office, or in any other, but that they make all such officers and ministers of the best and most lawful men, and sufficient to their estimation and knowledge.' (g)

The 50 & 51 Vict. c. 55, s. 19, provides that a sheriff shall not let to farm his county or any part thereof.' (h)

But a principal statute relating to this subject is the 5 & 6 Edw. 6, c. 16, (i) which, for the avoiding corruption which might thereafter happen in the officers, in places wherein there is requisite to be had the true administration of justice or services of trust, and to the intent that persons worthy and meet to be advanced should thereafter be preferred, enacts, that if any person bargain or sell any office, or deputation of office, or take any money or profit directly or indirectly, or any promise, &c., bond, or any assurance to receive any money, &c., for any office or deputation of office, or to the intent that any person should have, exercise, or enjoy any office or the deputation of any office, which office, or any part or parcel thereof, shall in anywise concern the administration or execution of justice, or the receipt, controlment, or payment of the King's treasure, rent, revenue, &c., or any the King's customs, or the keeping the King's towns, castles, &c., used for defence, or which shall concern any clerkship in any court of record where justice is ministered; the offender shall not only forfeit all his right to such office or deputation of office, but also shall be adjudged a person disabled to have, occupy, or enjoy such office or deputation. The statute further enacts, that such bargains, sales, bonds, agreements, &c., shall be void; (j) and provides that the Act shall not extend to any office whereof any person shall be seised of any estate of inheritance, nor to any office of the keeping of any park, house, manor, garden, chase, or forest. (k) It provides also that all judgments given or things done by offenders, after the offence and before the offender shall be removed from the exercise of the office or deputation, shall be good and sufficient in law.

(a) For the exposition of this statute, see the Earl of Macclesfield's trial, 6 Sta. Tri. 477 16 Howells Sta. Tri. 767.

(h) By s. 27. ‘A person shall not directly or indirectly by himself or by any person in trust for him or for his use buy, sell, let, or take to farm the office of under-sheriff, deputy sheriff, bailiff, or any other office or place appertaining to the office of sheriff, nor contract for promise or grant for any valuable consideration whatever any such office or place, nor give promise or receive any

valuable consideration whatever for any such office or place.' Any person acting in contravention of the section not being an under sheriff, deputy sheriff, bailiff, or sheriff's officer is to be punished as if he were such. As to the punishment, see s. 29, ante, p. 423.

(i) Repealed, so far as regards the revenue of customs, or offices in the service of the customs,' by 6 Geo. 4, c. 105, s. 10. (j) Sec. 3.

(k) Sec. 4.