Smuggling. 6 Geo. 4, c.108. four others, found with goods with any goods liable to forfeiture under this or any other Act relating to the revenue of customs or excise, or in company with one other person within five miles of any navigable river, carrying offensive arms or weapons, or disguised in any way, every such person shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall liable to foron conviction of such offence be transported as a felon for the feiture, or in company with space of seven years; and if such offender shall return into one other person the united kingdom before the expiration of the said seven carrying arms or years, he shall suffer as a felon, and have execution awarded disguised, to be against him as a person attainted of felony, without benefit of deemed guilty clergy. of felony. Persons assault ing officer by force or violence may be transported, &c. Sect. LIX. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall by force or violence assault, resist, oppose, molest, hinder or obstruct any officer of the army, navy or marines, being duly authorized and on full pay, or any officer of cus toms or excise, or other person acting in his or their aid or assistance, or duly employed for the prevention of smuggling, in the due execution of his or their office or duty, such person being thereof convicted shall be adjudged a felon, and shall be transported for seven years, or sentenced to be imprisoned in any house of correction or common gaol, and kept to hard labour for any term not exceeding three years, at the discre tion of the court before whom the offender shall be tried and convicted as aforesaid. Indictment for being found with Goods, under the 58th Section. Evidence. You must prove the finding of the prisoner with the uncus Smuggling. tomed or prohibited goods, and that he had more than four 6 Geo. 4, c. 108. other persons with him. Some evidence must be given that the goods in question were liable to forfeiture; and it should be remembered, that if the individuals be known to the grand jury, as by their having given evidence before them, the prisoner will be entitled to an acquittal. Indictment for being Armed in company within five miles of a Dorsetshire, [As in the last precedent to the ¶] [with one B. &c. Jdeceased] with one other person, to the said jurors unknown, within five miles from a certain navigable river, called the [Thames] was then and there feloniously found, the said A. then and there feloniously carrying an offensive weapon, to wit, [a gun] [or, pistol]* [or, the said A. being then and there disguised, that is to say, having his face blackened and disguised] against the form of the statute, &c. and against the peace, &c. Evidence. The offence charged must be proved in evidence, namely, the carrying the gun, or the being disguised; and further, that the prisoner was in company with another, and that he was so within five miles of a navigable river. Indictment for Assaulting Officers engaged in the prevention of Smuggling. Dorsetshire, The jurors, &c. that A. late of, on, &c. with to wit. force and arms, at, &c. in and upon one B. being then and there an officer of the [excise] of our said lord the King, and then and there acting in the due execution of his duty as such officer as aforesaid, then and there feloniously In a second count say "he the said A. and the said other persons then and there feloniously carrying and being armed with [guns and other weapons respectively, &c.] [or, having their faces respectively blackened and disguised.]" Smuggling. did make an assault, and him the said B. feloniously and by force did resist, oppose, molest, hinder and obstruct in the 6 Geo. 4, c. 108, execution of his said duty, against the form of the statute, &c. and against the peace, &c. 6 Geo. 4, c. 108. Penalty on per sons making sea. Evidence. You must prove that the prisoner assaulted the officer, and that the prosecutor was in the execution of his duty. The appointment of the officer need not be further proved than that he has acted as such. MISDEMEANORS. SMUGGLING ACT. 6 Geo. 4, c. 108. Sect. LII. And be it further enacted, That no person shall, after sunset and before sunrise, between the twenty-first day signals to smug- of September and the first day of April, or after the hour of gling vessels at eight in the evening and before the hour of six in the morning at any other time in the year, make, aid, or assist in making, or be present for the purpose of aiding or assisting in making of any light, fire, flash or blaze, or any signal by smoke, or by any rocket, fireworks, flags, firing of any gun or other firearms, or any other contrivance or device, or any other signal in or on board or from any vessel or boat, or on or from any part of the coast or shore of the united kingdom, or within six miles of any part of such coasts or shores, for the purpose of making or giving any signal to any person on board any smuggling vessel or boat, whether any person so on board of such vessel or boat be or be not within distance to see or hear any such light, fire, flash, blaze or signal; and if any person, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this Act, make or cause to be made, or aid or assist in making any such light, fire, flash, blaze or signal, such person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and it shall be lawful for any person to stop, arrest and detain the person or persons who shall so make, or aid or assist in the making, or who shall be present for the purpose of aiding or assisting in Smuggling. making any such light, fire, flash, blaze or signal, and to carry and convey such person or persons so offending before any two or more of his Majesty's justices of the peace residing 6 Geo. 4, c. 108. near the place where such offence shall be committed, who, if they see cause, shall commit the offender to the next county gaol, there to remain until the next court of oyer or terminer, great session or gaol delivery, or until such person or persons shall be delivered by due course of law, and it shall not be necessary to prove, on any indictment or information, that any vessel or boat was actually on the coast; and the offender or offenders being duly convicted thereof shall, by order of the court before whom such offender or offenders shall be convicted, either forfeit and pay the penalty or forfeiture of one hundred pounds, or, at the discretion of such court, be sentenced or committed to the common gaol or house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for any term not exceeding one year. Sect. LIII. Provided always, and be it further enacted, Proof of a signal That in case any person be charged with or indicted for having not being intended, to lie on made or caused to be made, or been aiding or assisting in the defendant, making, or been present for the purpose of making or aiding or assisting in making any such fire, light, flash, blaze or other signal as aforesaid, the burthen of proof that such fire, light, flash, blaze, noise or other thing, so charged as having been made with intent and for the purpose of giving such signal as aforesaid, was not made with such intent and for such purpose, shall be upon the defendant against whom such charge is made or such indictment is found. Sect. LIV. And be it further enacted, That it shall be law- Any person may ful for any person whatsoever to put out and extinguish or put out and exprevent any such light, fire, flash or blaze, or any smoke, tinguish and signal, rocket, firework, noise or other device or contrivance prevent signals. so made or being made as aforesaid, and to enter and go into and upon any lands for that purpose, without being liable or subject to any indictment, suit or action for the same. Smuggling. 6 Geo. 4, c. 108. Indictment for making unlawful Signals under this Section. The jurors for our lord the King upon their present, that A., late of the parish of Dorsetshire, mariner, and B., late of the same place, between sunset on the same day and [next day] that is to say, on the mornabout three o'clock, to wit, ing of the said day of day of. Evidence. The time, although sufficiently laid in the indictment by the foregoing statement, must however be proved in evidence, namely, that the day in question was between the 21st of September and the 1st of April, and that the offence was committed between sunset and sunrise. * In a case upon this statute at Launceston, where the indictment laid the offence to have been committed between sunset of the 8th and sunrise of the 9th of March, it was objected for the prisoners, that as the prosecutor was not bound to the day laid, and as there was no separate allegation or averment of the time, they must be acquitted. Time, it was said, was here of the essence of the offence, and required distinct and substantive averments in the words of the statute. Littledale, J. however, held, upon motion in arrest of judg ment, that he was bound to take judicial notice that the time laid in the indictment, was in fact within the period mentioned in the statute. The learned Judge had previously intimated, that the proper time for taking such an objection was in arrest of judgment, or by writ of error. Mood. & Malk. 163, Rex v. Brown and others. + Material. |