126 CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH. OF HINDERING THE EXPORTATION OF CORN, OR PREVENTING ITS 66 THE 11 Geo. 2. c. 22. s. 1. recites that persons had assembled in By the second section of this statute, "if any person or persons "so convicted, shall commit any of the offences aforesaid a second entering any "time; or if any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously cond time, or pull, throw down, or otherwise destroy, any storehouse or gra- granaries or destroying nary, or other place where corn shall be then kept in order to be the corn "exported; or shall unlawfully enter any such storehouse, gra- therein, nary, or other place, and take and carry away any corn, flour, vessel, &c. "meal, or grain therefrom; or shall throw abroad, or spoil the and spoiling same, or any part thereof; or shall unlawfully enter on board grain intended for exportaany ship, barge, boat, or vessel, and shall wilfully and mali- tion, guilty of "ciously take and carry away, cast or throw out therefrom, or felony. "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 for seven 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. (a) The statute 36 Geo. 3. c. 9. s. 1. recites 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: and then enacts that if any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously beat, 66 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 king"dom; 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, 66 Persons using violence to from buying corn within the kingdom, or stopping any corn, breaking waggons, &c. carrying corn, or taking off the horses, or beating the scattering or deter others drivers, or or place in this kingdom; or shall wilfully and maliciously taking corn, "break, cut, or destroy, any waggon, cart, or other carriage, to be impri"wherein any such wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain, shall soned. "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 waggon, cart, or such other carriage or horse so loaded, with "intent to stop such wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain; 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 labour for any time not exceeding three months, nor less than one month. The second section enacts, 66 that if any such person or persons so convicted shall commit any of the offences aforesaid a second (a) Section 3, provides that attainder shall not work corruption of blood, loss of dower, or disinheritance: and by section 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 Persons committing these offences a se cond time, or with intent to from corn, &c. &c. and taking therefrom or spoiling corn, &c. guilty of felony, and to be transported. "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. 66 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 Taking such 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.' 66 66 In a case in the Court of King's Bench upon this statute, a This statute is question was made, whether the unlawful administering of an oath not confined by an associated body of men to a person, purporting to bind him to oaths admi nistered for seditious or mutinous purposes. 52 Geo. 3. c. 104. s. 1. Administering unlawful oaths in certain cases felony without clergy. 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) A recent statute has been passed, to render the foregoing act more effectual in respect to oaths of a particular nature. The 52 Geo. 3. c. 104. s. 1. enacts, "that every person who shall in any 66 manner or form whatsoever administer, or cause to be adminis"tered, 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 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 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. oaths by compulsion must disclose the limited time. 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 |