Page images
PDF
EPUB

cond time, or with intent to prevent corn, &c. from being removed, destroying granaries, &c. or taking there

corn, &c. or spoiling the same, or entering any ship,

barge, &c. and

taking therefrom or spoiling corn, &c. guilty of felony, and to be transported.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"time; or if any person or persons with intent to prevent or "hinder any corn, meal, flour, malt, or grain, from being law"fully carried or removed from any place whatsoever, shall wilfully and maliciously pull, throw down, or otherwise destroy, "any storehouse or granary, or other place, in which corn, meal, "flour, malt, or grain, shall be then kept; or shall unlawfully "enter any such storehouse, granary, or other place, and take and carry away any corn, flour, meal, malt, or grain, therefrom; or "shall throw abroad or spoil the same or any part thereof; or shall unlawfully enter on board any ship, barge, boat, or vessel, "and wilfully and maliciously take and carry away, cast, or throw "out therefrom, or otherwise spoil or damage, any corn, flour, "meal, malt, or grain therein;" every person so offending, and being convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and be transported for seven years; and if such offender shall return into this kingdom before the expiration of the seven years, he or she shall suffer death as a felon without benefit of clergy. The section further provides that attainder shall not work corruption of blood, loss of dower, or disinheritance of heirs. And by the sixth section it is provided that nothing contained in the act shall abridge or take away any provision already made by the law of the realm, for the suppression or punishment of any offence whatsoever, mentioned or described in this act; and it is provided also, that no person who shall be punished by virtue of this act shall be punished for the same offence by virtue of any other law or statute whatsoever. (b)

(b) Sections 3, 4, and 5. relate to proceedings against the hundred for

damages done to the properties of persons, by offenders against this act.

CHAPTER THE TWELFTH..

OF ADMINISTERING OR TAKING UNLAWFUL OATHS.

[ocr errors]

portation.

THE 37 Geo. 3. c. 123. s. 1. recites, that wicked and evil disposed persons had attempted to seduce his Majesty's forces and subjects from their duty and allegiance, and to incite them to acts of mutiny and sedition; and had endeavoured to give effect to their wicked and traitorous proceedings, by imposing upon the persons whom they had attempted to seduce the pretended obligation of oaths unlawfully administered. From this preamble it appears as if the statute were mainly directed against combinations for purposes of meeting and sedition: but in the enacting part, after dealing with offences of that description, it goes on in much more extensive terms, and embraces other more general objects. It enacts, "that 37 Geo. 3. any person or persons who shall in any manner or form whatso- c. 123. s. 1. administering "ever administer, or cause to be administered, or be aiding or unlawful oaths "assisting at, or present at, and consenting to, the administering felony, punish"or taking of any oath or engagement, purporting or intended to able by trans"bind the person taking the same to engage in any mutinous or "seditious purpose; or to disturb the public peace; or to be of any association, society, or confederacy, formed for any such purpose; or to obey the orders or commands of any committee or body of men not lawfully constituted, or of any leader or com"mander, or other person not having authority by law for that purpose; or not to inform or give evidence against any associate, "confederate, or other person; or not to reveal or discover any "unlawful combination or confederacy; or not to reveal or "discover any illegal act done or to be done; or not to reveal "or discover any illegal oath or engagement which may have been "administered or tendered to, or taken by such person or persons, "or to or by any other person or persons, or the import of any "such oath or engagement;" shall on conviction be adjudged guilty of felony, and be transported for any term not exceeding seven years; and every person who shall take any such oath or engagement, not being compelled thereto, shall, on conviction, oaths felony, "be adjudged guilty of felony, and may be transported for any transportation. punishable by "term not exceeding seven years."

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Taking such

This statute is not confined

In a case in the Court of King's Bench upon this statute, a question was made, whether the unlawful administering of an oath by an associated body of men to a person, purporting to bind him to oaths admi

[blocks in formation]

nistered for

seditious or mutinous purposes.

not to reveal or discover an unlawful combination or conspiracy of persons, nor any illegal act done by them, (a) was within this statute; the object of the association being a conspiracy to raise wages and make regulations in a certain trade, and not to stir up mutiny or sedition. It was contended, that the words of the statute, however large in themselves, must be confined to the objects stated in the preamble; and could not have been intended to reach a case where it was plain that the fact arose entirely out of a private dispute between persons engaged in the same trade, and was confined in its object to that alone: and that the general words therefore must be construed with relation to the antecedent offences, which are confined in their objects to mutiny and sedition. But the Court, though they did not upon the particular circmstances feel themselves called upon to give an express decision, appear to have entertained no doubt but that the case was within the statute. (b)

52 Geo. 3. A recent statute has been passed, to render the foregoing act c. 104. s. 1. more effectual in respect to oaths of a particular nature. The 52 Administering unlawful oaths Geo. 3. c. 104. s. 1. enacts, "that every person who shall in any in certain cases 66 manner or form whatsoever administer, or cause to be adminisfelony without<<tered, or be aiding or assisting at the administering of any oath

clergy.

"or engagement, purporting or intending to bind the person taking "the same to commit any treason or murder, or any felony punish"able by law with death," shall, on conviction, be adjudged guilty of felony, and suffer death as a felon without benefit of clergy: " and every person who shall take any such oath or engagement, "not being compelled thereto," shall, on conviction, be adjudged ation for life. guilty of felony, and be transported for life, or for such term of years as the Court shall adjudge.

Taking such oaths felony

and transport

Persons taking

oaths by compulsion must disclose the

limited time.

66

But persons taking the oaths mentioned in either of these acts by compulsion must make a full disclosure of the fact, and the circumstances attending it, within a limited time, in order to be same within a justified or excused. The second section of the 37 Geo. 3. c. 123. enacts, "that compulsion shall not justify or excuse any person taking such oath or engagement, unless he or she shall, within "four days after the taking thereof, if not prevented by actual "force or sickness, and then within four days after the hindrance produced by such force or sickness shall cease, declare the same, 66 together with the whole of what he or she shall know touching "the same, and the person or persons by whom, and in whose presence, and when and where, such oath or engagement was "administered or taken, by information on oath before one of his "Majesty's justices of the peace, or one of his Majesty's principal "secretaries of state, or his Majesty's privy council; or in case "the person taking such oath or engagement shall be in actual

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

(a) The oath was, "You shall be "true to every journeyman shearman, "and not to hurt any of them, and you "shall not divulge any of their se"crets; so help you God."

(b) Rex v. Marks, 3 East. 157. Lawrence, J. said, "It is true, that the pre"amble and the first part of the enact

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors]

"service in his Majesty's forces by sea or land, then by such in“formation on oath as aforesaid, or by information to his commanding officer." The statute 52 Geo. 3. c. 104. s. 2. contains a similar enactment as to the oaths or engagements within that act, except that the words "fourteen days" are substituted for "four days."

an oath.

By the fifth section of the 37 Geo. 3. any engagement or obliga- What shall tion whatsoever in the nature of an oath, and by the sixth section be deemed of the 52 Geo. 3. any engagement or obligation whatsoever in the nature of an oath purporting or intending to bind the person taking the same to commit any treason or murder or any felony punishable by law with death, shall be deemed an oath within the intent and meaning of those acts, in whatever form or manner the same shall be administered or taken; and whether the same shall be actually administered by any person or persons to any other person or persons, or taken by any person or persons without any administration thereof by any other person or persons.

are to be

With respect to persons aiding and assisting at the adminis- Persons aiding tering or taking these unlawful oaths, the third section of the 37 and assisting Geo. 3. enacts, that persons aiding and assisting at, or present deemed prinand consenting to, the administering or taking of any oath or cipals. engagement before mentioned in that act; and persons causing any such oath or engagement to be administered or taken, though not present at the administering or taking thereof, shall be deemed principal offenders, and tried as such; although the person or persons who actually administered such oath or engagement, if any such there shall be, shall not have been tried or convicted. A similar enactment is contained in the fourth section of the 52 Geo. 3. with respect to persons aiding and assisting at the administering of any oath or engagement mentioned in that act; and persons causing any such oath or engagement to be administered, though not present at the administering thereof: such persons are to be deemed principal offenders, and, on conviction, to be adjudged guilty of felony, and to suffer death without benefit of clergy, although the person or persons who actually administered the oath or engagement, if any such there shall be, shall not have been tried or convicted.

In the indictment it is sufforth the pur

ficient to set

Both the statutes provide that it shall not be necessary to set forth in the indictment the words of the oath or engagement; and that it shall be sufficient to set forth the purport of such oath or engagement, or some material part thereof. (c) Upon an indict- port of the ment on the 37th Geo. 3. the fourth count charged, that the oath or endefendants administered to J. H. an oath "intended to bind him gagement. "not to inform or give evidence against any member of a certain "society formed to disturb the public peace for any act or expres"sion of his or their's, done or made collectively or individually in or out of that or other similar societies, in pursuance of the "spirit of that obligation ;" and the eighth count stated the oath to be "intended to bind the said J. H. not to give evidence against any "associate in certain associations and societies of persons formed "for seditious purposes:" and the other counts stated the objects of the oath administered, and the objects of the society, differently (c) 37 Geo. 3. c. 123. s. 4. 52 Geo. 3. c. 104. s. 5.

Evidence.-
It is not ne-
cessary to pro-
duce a paper

from which it
is supposed
that the oath
was read.
And parole
evidence may
be given to
explain the

nature of the oath.

Place of trial.

Persons tried not liable to be tried for

the same fact as high trea

son.

But persons offending against these acts may be

tried for high treason, if not

tried under the acts.

57 Geo. 3.

and more generally, adapted to several prohibitory parts of the statute. Upon objection taken at the trial to the generality of the statements in the indictment, Lord Alvanley was of opinion, that the act intended that it should be sufficient to allege and prove what the object of the oath and engagement was, without stating any words at all; and that the offence being described in the words of the act, was well described: but that supposing the objection made to the generality of the counts was good, which he did not admit, yet that in the fourth and eighth a material part of the oath or engagement was set forth according to the clause of the act. The point was submitted to the Judges, who, without giving any opinion against the other counts, all agreed that at any rate the fourth and eighth counts were good. (d)

Where the witness, swearing to the words spoken by way of oath by the prisoner when he administered it, said that he held a in his hand at the time when he administered the oath, from paper which paper it was supposed that he read the words; it was held, that parole evidence of what he in fact said was sufficient, without giving him notice to produce such paper. (e) And where the oath on the face of it did not purport to be for a seditious purpose, though it was objected that no parole evidence could be given to shew that the "brotherhood" mentioned in it was of a seditious nature, it was held that declarations made at the time by the party administering such an oath were admissible to prove the real object of it. (f)

Both the statutes, 37 Geo. 3. and 52 Geo. 3. provide, that offences committed on the high seas, or out of the realm, or in England, shall be tried before any court of oyer and terminer or gaol delivery for any county in England in such manner and form as if such offence had been therein committed; and that offences committed in Scotland shall be tried either before the justiciary court at Edinburgh, or in any of the circuit courts in that part of the united kingdom. (g)

It is also provided by both these statutes that any person who shall be tried and acquitted or convicted of any offence against the acts, shall not be liable to be prosecuted again for the same offence or fact as high treason, or misprision of high treason. And further, that nothing in the acts contained shall be construed to extend to prevent any person guilty of any offence against the acts, and who shall not be tried for the same as an offence against the acts, from being tried for the same as high treason, or misprision of high treason, in such manner as if those acts had not been made. (h)

By a statute, very recently passed, the 57th Geo. 3. c. 19. s. 25. it is enacted, that all societies or clubs, the members whereof shall be required or admitted to take any oath or engagement, which Societies tak shall be an unlawful engagement within the 37th Geo. 3. c. 123. or the 52d Geo. 3. c. 104. or to take any oath not required or autho

c. 19. s. 25.

ing unlawful oaths, &c. to be deemed unlawful combinations and confederacies.

(f) Id. Ibid.

(d) Rex v. Moors and Others, 6 East. 421.
419. note (b). The defendants were
tried at Lancaster Summer Assizes,
1801; and the opinion of the Judges
was given in Michaelmas Term, 1801.
(e) Rex v. Moors and Others, 6 East.

(g) 37 Geo. 3. c. 123. s. 6. 3. c. 104. s. 7.

52 Geo.

(h) 37 Geo. 3. c. 123. s. 7, 52 Geo. 3. c. 104. s. 8.

« EelmineJätka »