on the person, according to the doctrine of the Roman law, Teli appellatione et ferrum, et fustis, et lapis, et denique omne quod nocendi causâ habetur, significatur.(y) As to the assembling, it was determined upon the repealed statute (19 Geo. 2, c. 34), that it must be deliberate, and for the purpose of committing the offence described in the statute. So that where a set of drunken men came from an alehouse, and hastily set themselves to carry away some Geneva which had been seized by the excise officers, it was thought very questionable whether the object which the Legislature had in view could be extended to such a case; and the Court said, that the words of the statute manifestly alluded to the circumstance of great multitudes of persons coming down upon the beach of the sea for the purpose of escorting uncustomed goods to the places designed for their reception.(z)

Upon a clause of the repealed statute (9 Geo. 2, c. 35, s. 26), by which it was ⚫ enacted, that an assault committed upon any of the officers of the customs and excise should be tried in any county in England, in such manner and form as if the offence had been therein committed, it was decided that the provision

*182] *extended only to revenue officers, qua officers: and a defendant having

been found guilty, on an indictment, of a common assault on the prosecutor, who was an excise officer, the Court of King's Bench arrested the judgment, though the prosecutor was described to be an excise officer, the offence being laid in Surrey, and the venue in Middlesex.(zz)

*183]

*CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH.

OF HINDERING THE EXPORTATION OF CORN, OR PREVENTING ITS CIRCULATION WITHIN THE KINGDOM.

THE 11 Geo. 2, c. 22, s. 1, reciting that persons had assembled in great numbers, committed great violences, and done many injuries, with intent to hinder the exportation of corn, whereby many of his Majesty's subjects had been deterred from buying corn or grain, and following their lawful business therein, to their great loss and damage, as well as to the great damage and prejudice of the farmers and landholders of this kingdom, and of the nation in general, enacts, "that if any person or persons [shall wilfully and maliciously beat, wound, or use any other violence to or upon any person or persons, with intent to deter or hinder him or them from buying of corn or grain in any market, or other place within this kingdom;](a) or shall unlawfully stop or seize upon any wagon, cart, or other carriage, or horse loaded with wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain, in or on the way to or from any city, market-town, or sea-port, of this kingdom; and wilfully and maliciously break, cut, separate, or destroy, the same or any part thereof, or the harness of the horses drawing the same; or shall unlawfully take off, drive away, kill, or wound any of such horses; [or unlawfully beat or wound the driver or drivers of such wagon, cart, or other carriage, or horse, so loaded, in order to stop the same;](a) or shall by cutting of the sacks, or otherwise, scatter or throw abroad such wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain; or shall take or carry away, spoil or damage, the same, or any part thereof;" such offenders, being convicted before two justices of the peace of the country, &c., in which the offence is committed, or before the justices of the peace in open sessions (who are thereby author

(y) Heinec. Antiq. Tit. 1, s. 9.

(z) Hutchinson's case, 1 Leach 343. The Court offered the Attorney-General a special verdict upon this case: but he declined to take it, and the prisoners were acquitted. This construction of the statute as to the assembling being deliberate, and for the purpose of committing the offence, is stated to have been adopted by Willes, J., and Hotham, B., in Spice's case, Old Bailey, December, 1785, and by Heath, J., in Gray's case, Old Bailey, July in the same year; 1 Leach 343, note (a).

(22) Rex v. Cartwright, 4 T. R. 490.

(a) Repealed, see note (d), post, p. 184.

ized and empowered summarily and finally to hear and determine the same), shall be sent to the common gaol, or to the house of correction, there to be kept to hard labor for any time not exceeding three months, nor less than one month; and shall by the same justices be also ordered to be once publicly whipped by the master or keeper of the gaol or house of correction in such city, market-town, or sea-port, in or near to which such offence shall be committed, at the market-cross or marketplace there, between the hours of eleven and two o'clock.

By sec. 2 ["if any person or persons so convicted, shall commit any of the offences aforesaid, a second time;](a) or if any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously pull, throw down, or otherwise destroy, any storehouse or granary, or other place where corn shall be then kept in order to be exported; or shall unlawfully enter any such storehouse, granary, or other place, and take and [*184 *carry away any corn, flour, meal, 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 shall wilfully and maliciously take and carry away, cast or throw out therefrom, or otherwise spoil or damage, any meal, flour, wheat, or grain, therein intended for exportation;" every such offender being convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and transported(b) for seven(c) years; and if such offender shall return before the expiration of the seven years, he or she shall suffer death as a felon without benefit of clergy.(d)

The 36 Geo. 3, c. 9, s. 1, reciting that persons had assembled themselves in great numbers, and committed great violences, with intent to hinder the passage of corn and grain from place to place, whereby the necessary circulation of corn and grain within the kingdom might be prevented; enacts, that if any person or persons shall [wilfully and maliciously beat, wound, or use any other violence to or upon any person or persons with intent to deter or hinder him or them from buying of corn or grain in any market, or other place within this kingdom;](e) or shall unlawfully stop or seize any wheat, flour, malt, or other grain, in or on the way to or from any city, market-town, or place in this kingdom; or shall wilfully and maliciously break, cut, or destroy any wagon, cart, or other carriage, wherein any such wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain, shall be loaded, or the harness of any horse or horses drawing or carrying the same; or shall unlawfully take off from any such carriage, or drive away, kill, or wound, any such horse or horses; [or unlawfully beat or wound the driver or drivers of any such wagon, cart, or such other carriage or horse so loaded, with intent to stop such wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain;](e) or shall, by cutting of the sacks or otherwise, scatter or throw abroad any such wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain; or shall take or carry away, destroy, spoil, or damage, the same or any part thereof; such offenders being convicted before two justices of the peace of the county, &c., wherein the offence is committed, or before the justices of the peace in open sessions (who are thereby authorized and empowered summarily and finally to hear and determine the same), shall be sent to the common gaol, or house of correction, to be kept to hard labor for any time not exceeding three months, nor less than one month.

By sec. 2 [if any such person or persons so convicted shall commit any of the offences aforesaid, a second time;](e) or if any person or persons with intent to prevent or hinder any corn, meal, flour, malt, or grain from being lawfully carried or removed from any place whatsoever, shall wilfully and maliciously pull, throw (a) Repealed, see note (d), post, p. 184.

(b) Penal servitude by the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, s. 2, ante, p. 4.

(c) And not less than three years by the same Act, ante, p. 4. Principals in the second degree are punishable like principals in the first degree; and as to accessories, see ante, p. 67, et seq.

(d) Sec. 3 provides that attainder shall not work corruption of blood, loss of dower, or disinheritance; and by sec. 4 no person, who shall be punished for any offence by virtue of this Act, shall be punished for the same offence by any other law or statute. Secs. 5, 6, 7, and 8, relating to actions by persons against the hundred for damages done to their properties are repealed by the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 27; and so much of this statute as relates to any person who shall beat, wound, or use any other violence to any person or driver, and so much thereof as makes any second offence felony, is repealed by the 9 Geo. 4,

e. 31.

(e) Repealed, see note (i), post.

down, or otherwise destroy, any storehouse or granary, or other *place, in *185] 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(f) for seven (g) 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. (h) 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 law or statute whatsoever.(i)

any other

By the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 39, "Whosoever shall beat, or use any violence or threat of violence to any person, with intent to deter or hinder him from buying, selling, or otherwise disposing of, or to compel him to buy, sell, or otherwise dispose of, any wheat or other grain, flour, meal, malt, or potatoes, in any market or other place, or shall beat or use any such violence or threat to any person having the care or charge of any wheat or other grain, flour, meal, malt, or potatoes, whilst on the way to or from any city, market-town, or other place, with intent to stop the conveyance of the same, shall, on conviction thereof before two justices of the peace, be liable to be imprisoned and kept to hard labor in the common gaol or house of correction for any term not exceeding three months: provided that no person who shall be punished for any such offence by virtue of this section shall be punished for the same offence by virtue of any other law whatsoever."

*186]

*CHAPTER THE TWELFTH.

OF ADMINISTERING OR TAKING UNLAWFUL OATHS.

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 endeavored 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 mutiny 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 any person or persons who shall in any manner or form whatsoever administer, or cause to be administered, or be aiding or assisting at, or present at, and consenting to, the administering or taking of any oath or engagement, purporting or intending to bind the person taking the same to engage in any mutinous or

(g) See note (c), supra.

(f) See note (b), supra. (h) Quære, whether the punishment for returning from transportation under this Act is altered by the 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 67, post, p. 612.

(i) Secs. 3, 4, and 5, relating to proceedings against the hundred for damages done to the properties of persons, by offenders against this Act, are repealed by the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 27. So much of this statute as relates to any person who shall beat, wound, or use any other violence to any person or driver, and so much thereof as makes any second offence felony, is repealed by the 9 Geo. 4, c. 31.

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 commander, 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 (a) for any term not exceeding seven(b) years; "and every person who shall take any such oath or engagement, not being compelled thereto, shall, on conviction, be adjudged guilty of felony, and may be transported (a) for any term not exceeding seven (b) years."

In one case a question was made, whether the unlawful administering of an oath by an associated body of men to a person, purporting to bind him not to reveal or discover an unlawful combination or conspiracy of persons, nor any illegal act done by them, (c) was within this statute; the object of the association being a con*spiracy 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, [*187 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 circumstances feel themselves called upon to give an express decision, appear to have entertained no doubt but that the case was within the statute.(d)

So where sixteen persons, with their faces blackened, met at a house at night, having guns with them, and intending to go out for the purpose of night poaching, and were all sworn not to betray their companions, and it was objected that this oath was not within the statute, as it was not for a mutinous or seditious object, and that the statute only prohibited those oaths of secrecy which related to some illegal act, and that the word "illegal" imported a criminal act and not a mere civil trespass, whereas it was a mere civil trespass which was contemplated at the time when the oath was administered, it was held that the oath was within the statute; and as to the assembly itself, and its object, it was impossible that a meeting to go out with faces thus disguised, at night, and under such circumstances, could be other than an unlawful assembly: in which case, the oath to keep it secret was an oath prohibited by the statute.(e) So where an oath was administered to the members of a trades' union, binding them not to make buttons for less than the lodge prices, and not to divulge the secrets of the lodge, it was held that this was an oath within the statute, for to administer an oath or engagement not to reveal the secrets of any association is within the 37 Geo. 3, c. 137, as explained by subsequent statutes, not because it has reference to any matter respecting wages, but on the ground that every association of that kind, bound together by an oath, not to disclose the proceedings of that society, is for that reason an unlawful combination within the statutes.(ƒ) So where an oath not to reveal what they saw or heard was administered by

(a) Penal servitude by the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, s. 2, ante, p. 4.

(b) And not less than three by the same Act, ante, p. 4.

(e) 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 secrets; so help you God."

(d) Rex v. Marks, 3 East 157. Lawrence, J., said, "It is true that the preamble and the first part of the enacting clause are confined in their objects to cases of mutiny and sedition; but it is nothing unusual in Acts of Parliament for the enacting part to go beyond the preamble; the remedy often extends beyond the particular act or mischief which first suggested the necessity of the law."

(e) Rex v. Brodribb, 6 C. & P. 571 (25 E. C. L. R.), Holroyd, J. (f) Rex v. Ball, 6 C. & P. 563 (25 E. C. L. R.), Williams, J.

members of an association, which was formed for the purpose of raising wages by a general strike on the part of its members, and for other purposes in furtherance of that design, it was held that it was within the 37 Geo. 3, c. 123.(g)

The 52 Geo. 3, c. 104, s. 1, which was passed to render the foregoing Act more effectual in respect to oaths of a particular nature, enacts, "that every person who

*188] shall in any manner or *form whatsoever administer, or cause to be admin

istered, or be aiding or assisting at the administering of any oath or engagement, 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, on conviction, be adjudged guilty of felony, and suffer death as a felon without benefit of clergy;(h) and every person who shall take any such oath or engagement, not being compelled thereto," shall, on conviction, be adjudged guilty of felony, and be transported (hh) for life, or for such term of years as the court shall adjudge.

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 justified or excused. The 37 Geo. 3, c. 123, s. 2, 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, 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 service in his Majesty's forces by sea or land, then by such information on oath as aforesaid, or by information to his commanding officer." The 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."

By the 37 Geo. 3, c. 123, s. 5. any engagement or obligation whatsoever in the nature of an oath, and by the 52 Geo. 3, c. 104, s. 6, 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.

If the oath administered was intended to make the party believe himself under an engagement, it is equally within the Act, whether the book made use of be a testament or not.(i) So the precise form of the oath is immaterial; it is an oath *189] within the meaning of the Acts, if it was understood by the party tendering and by the party taking it, as having the force and obligation of an oath (k) With respect to persons aiding and assisting at the administering or taking these unlawful oaths, the 37 Geo. 3, c. 123, s. 3, enacts, that persons aiding and assisting at, or present or consenting to, the administering or taking of any oath

(g) Rex v. Loveless, 1 M. & Rob. 349; s. c., 6 C. & P. 596, Williams, J. See Rex v. Dixon, 6 C. & P. 601 (25 E. C. L. C.), Bosanquet, J.

(h) But this punishment was abolished by the 1 Vict. c. 91, s. 1, by which, and sec. 2 (ante, p. 141), and the 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, s. 2, the punishment now is [penal servitude] for life, or for any term not less than [three] (ante, p. 4) years, or imprisonment, with or without hard labor, in the common gaol or house of correction for any term not exceeding three years, and solitary confinement for any portion or portions of such imprisonment, or of such imprisonment with hard labor, not exceeding one month at a time, or three months in the course of one year.

(hh) Penal servitude as stated in the preceding note.

(i) Rex v. Brodribb, 6 C. & P. 571 (25 E. C. L. R.), Holroyd, J., where an account book called The Young Man's Best Companion, was used.

(k) Rex v. Loveless, M. & Rob. 349, Williams, J.