present Edition are not inconveniently different in size. The chapters relating to Perjury, Conspiracy, Libel, and Bigamy have therefore been placed among the offences affecting the Government, the Public Peace, and the Public Rights, and will be found in Vol. I.; while the law relating to offences against the Person will be found together with the chapter on Threats and Threatening Letters in Vol. III. The law relating to offences against Property will be found as before in Vol. II. The Penal Servitude Act of 1891, which provides that, in every case where a sentence of Penal Servitude may be imposed, a term of not less than three years, or in lieu thereof, imprisonment for not more than two years, may be given, and which repeals sec. 2 of 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47, has enabled the Legislature to repeal so much of the provisions in the Consolidation Acts as relate to these limitations. This repeal has been effected by Statute Law Revision Acts passed, for the most part, while this work has been in the press. The words in the Consolidation Acts have therefore been retained in the text with a note calling attention to the fact that they have been repealed, but that the punishment remains in effect the same. The power to inflict the punishment of Solitary Confinement has also been repealed by the same Acts, that mode of punishment having for some years passed fallen into disuse. A new departure has been taken in the introduction of notes affording (it is hoped) some guide to the sources from which information may be obtained as to the state of the law in America upon the particular subject treated of in the text. It cannot be doubted that, while the American lawyers and legislators have in the main derived their laws from English sources, yet English lawyers have constantly found that they may learn much from the expansion or moderation (as well as from the interpretation) of the law by the American Courts and Legislatures. The difficulties, however, which an Englishman has to encounter in dealing with American statutes or cases are very great. The mere mass and number of them in the different States is enormous, and the conflict of statutes and decisions is very perplexing. Moreover, in dealing with the judgments of the American Courts, an English lawyer is under a great disadvantage, because it is almost impossible for him to ascertain and weigh accurately the authority of the decision which he is reading. The Editors have therefore thought that it would be impossible in a work like 'Russell on Crimes' to do more than indicate the sources from which interesting light may be obtained by the inquirer upon any topic under discussion; and to this end they have availed themselves in a large degree of Mr. Bishop's most ingenious and lucid book on the Criminal Law.' The American reader of 'Russell on Crimes' will doubtless not be content to rely upon the notes without referring to Mr. Bishop's book; and the Editors wish to warn their English readers that where that book is cited they should refer to the passage in Mr. Bishop's book, as well as to the cases in the note, before adopting any decided opinion upon the American Law. The high estimate which has been formed in America (as well as in England) of Mr. Bishop's book has made it an authority upon American Law; but resort must be had to the book itself before the reader of the notes to this Edition of 'Russell on Crimes' can be assured that he has apprehended Mr. Bishop's view upon the point in question. All that the Editors have attempted to do is to indicate some of the sources of information from which an American or English reader may derive assistance upon points where the English and American Law appear to be in any degree at variance. To have attempted more than this to have incorporated the American Law with the text, or even to have discussed the American Law in detail in the noteswould have produced nothing but confusion, unless the 1 New Commentaries on the Criminal Law, by J. P. Bishop, Sth Ed.: Chicago, T. H. Flood & Co., 1892. whole scheme and character of the work were to be entirely altered. The statutes and cases have been brought up to the end of the year 1895; and every care has been taken to make the Indexes as convenient and exhaustive as possible. H. S. TEMPLE, January, 1896. PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. EDITED BY C. S. GREAVES, ESQ., Q. C. IN preparing this Edition for the press, the system adopted by the Author has been followed as nearly as could be; and the statutes and cases have been introduced in a manner similar to that which the Author himself pursued in preparing the Second Edition; but although the Editor has used his best endeavours to keep the work within as narrow limits as were consistent with giving a full and correct statement of the statutes and cases, which the twenty-two years since the last Edition have produced, yet the number of those statutes and cases is so great as to render a third volume unavoidable. This the Editor extremely regrets, but he felt himself bound to adhere to the plan of the Author, and the more especially as that plan affords to the reader the fullest and most useful view of the enactments and decisions. Great difficulty has been experienced in many instances in giving a faithful representation of the decisions. The marginal notes have been so rarely found to be warranted by the cases themselves, that they have generally been omitted; and the Editor has endeavoured, so far as the reports enabled him, to give such a statement of the facts, the decision, and the grounds of it wherever they appeared, as to enable the reader to understand what the decision, as reported, really is; but many cases are so loosely and inaccurately reported that this has been no easy task, and very probably the Editor has not always succeeded in his attempt. Nor can it be doubted that, in some instances, the reports themselves neither fully nor faithfully represent the facts or the decision. As the work is confined to indictable offences, and does not treat of criminal procedure, the statutes relating to the summary conviction of offenders have not been introduced. At the beginning of the First Volume a chapter has been introduced which contains certain general provisions applicable to many of the offences treated of in the work. This has been done in order to facilitate the reference to these provisions wherever it may be necessary. The cases marked MSS. C. S. G.' are from the Editor's collection. The Editor would be doing great injustice to himself if he were not to express the very deep sense he entertains of the great honour which was done to him by the very flattering manner in which his labours in the last Edition were appreciated, not only in Her Majesty's dominions, but also in the United States. He has endeavoured in this Edition to shew the sense he feels of the honour done to him by rendering it as complete and perfect as he was able. It has been also a matter of great gratification that during the time this work has been passing through the press, the Editor has been able to lend his humble assistance towards the completion of the new Code of Criminal Law for the State of New York; for which he has received as flattering an acknowledgment as possible from the Commissioners, who have shewn so much ability in the preparation of that great work. The Editor cannot but express the hope that such mutual interchanges of goodwill in the endeavour to ameliorate the law, may exert a strong tendency to promote those feelings of amity which ought ever to subsist between the kindred nations of Great Britain and the United States; nor can he help thinking that they who, amid the din of arms, where generally the laws stand in abeyance, have sedulously devoted themselves to the amendment of their laws, must be deeply impressed with the truth contained in the beautiful lines, 'Pax optima rerum Quas homini novîsse datum est; pax una triumphis |