shall knowingly send or deliver any letter or writing, with or without a name or names subscribed thereto, or signed with a fictitious name or names, letter or letters, threatening to accuse any person of any crime punishable by law with death, transportation, pillory, or any other infamous punishment, with a view or intent to extort or gain money, goods, wares, or merchandizes from the person or persons so threatened to be accused, shall be deemed offenders against law and the public peace; and the court before whom such offender or offenders shall be tried, shall, in case he, she, or they shall be convicted of any of the said offences, order such offender or offenders to be fined and imprisoned, or to be put in the pillory or publicly whipped, or to be transported for the term of seven years, as the court in which any such offender or offenders shall be convicted shall think fit and order; and whereas it is expedient that a lesser degree of punishment should be provided for the offence of sending threatening letters, in the cases mentioned in the two first recited acts, and that the same degree of punishment should be inflicted in the cases mentioned in the last recited act, and be extended to persons accessary to the said offences: be it therefore further enacted, That from and after Recited acts, the passing of this act, so much of the said re- late to sendcited acts of the ninth year of the reign of King ing threatenGeorge the First, and of the twenty-seventh and repealed, and thirtieth years of the reign of King George the ing such Second, as relates to the sending and delivering so far as re ing letters, persons send letters, and their accessaries, to be liable to transportation or imprisonment. letters in the cases therein respectively mentioned, shall be and the same is hereby repealed, save only as to offences committed before the passing of this act, as to which the said acts shall continue in force; and that from and after the passing of this act, if any person shall knowingly and wilfully send or deliver any letter or writing, with or without any name or signature subscribed thereto, or with a fictitious name or signature, demanding money or other valuable thing, or threatening to kill or murder any of his majesty's subjects, or to burn or destroy his or their houses, out-houses, barns, stacks of corn or grain, hay or straw, or shall knowingly and wilfully send or deliver any such letter or writing, threatening to accuse any of his majesty's subjects of any crime punishable by law with death, transportation, or pillory, or of any infamous crime, with a view or intent to extort or gain money, security for money, goods or chattels, wares or merchandize, from the person or persons so threatened, or shall procure, counsel, aid, or abet the commission of the said offences, or of any of them, or shall forcibly rescue any person being lawfully in custody of any officer or other person for any of the said. offences, every person so offending, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be transported beyond the seas for life, or for such term, not less than seven years, as the court shall adjudge, or to be imprisoned only, or to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in the common gaol or house of correction, for any term not exceeding seven years. (1) (1) The whole of this act is repealed by stat. 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 27. s. 1. "except so far as relates to any person who shall send or deliver any letter or writing, threatening to kill or murder, or to burn or destroy," as above mentioned, shall be accessory to any such offence, or shall forcibly rescue any person being lawfully in custody for any such offence." Indictment for sending a threatening Letter. BERKSHIRE, to wit: The jurors for our lord the king upon their oath present, that Joseph Styles, late of the parish of in the county of Berks aforesaid, labourer, on the third day of November, in the fifth year of the reign of our sovereign lord William the Fourth, by the grace of God of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland king, defender of the faith, at the parish aforesaid, in the county aforesaid, knowingly, wilfully, and feloniously did send ["send or deliver"] to John Nokes a certain letter [“ letter or writing"] directed to the said John Nokes, by the name and description of , with a certain [fictitious] name, ["name or signature," to wit, the name of [or" without any name or signature"] subscribed thereto, threatening to kill and murder the said John Nokes, ["to kill or murder any of his majesty's subjects, or to burn or destroy his or their houses, outhouses, barns, stacks of corn or grain, hay or straw,"] the said John Nokes being then and there one of his said majesty's subjects; and which said letter is as follows, that is to say: [here set out the letter verbatim]; against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace of our lord the king, his crown and dignity. [Care must be taken to set out the letter correctly, for any material variance would be fatal.] Evidence. To maintain this indictment : 1. The prosecutor must produce the letter, and prove that he received it. When afterwards read, it will be for the jury, under the direction of the judge, to say whether it contains the threat mentioned in the indictment. Where the letter was thus: "Sir,-You are a rogue, thief, and vagabond, and if you had your deserts, you should not live the week out; I shall be with you shortly, and then you shall nap it, my banker; have a care, old chap, or you shall disgorge some of your ill-gotten gains, watches and cash, that you have robbed the widows and fatherless of: don't make light of this, or I'll make light of you and your's; I am your Cut Throat:" it was objected that this contained no express threat to kill or murder, and if any such threat could be implied from it by the aid of explanation, that explanation should appear on the face of the indictment by way of innuendo: but Patteson, J., held the indictment to be sufficient; the letter very plainly conveyed a threat to kill and murder; no one who received it, could have any doubt as to what the writer meant to threaten. Rer v. Boucher, 4 Car. & P. 563. 2. Prove that the prisoner sent or delivered the letter to the prosecutor, knowing the purport of it. It is seldom that direct evidence can be given of the sending; the jury have generally to presume it from circumstances. That it is in the handwriting of the prisoner is, if unexplained, a strong circumstance, from which the jury may fairly infer that he sent it. Proof that he sent it to another person, with intent that such person should send or deliver it to the prosecutor, will support the allegation that he sent it to the prosecutor. By the judges in Rex v. Paddle, R. & R. 484. So, where the prisoner dropped a letter, directed to the prosecutor, into the prosecutor's premises, where it was likely to be found either by the prosecutor or some person who would deliver it to him: this was holden by the judges to be a sending of the letter. Rex v. Wagstaff, R. & R. 398. In Rex v. Harrie, 6 Car. & P. 105, an application was made to Bolland, B., at the Old Bailey, on the part of the prisoner, that the letter, which was the subject of the prosecution, should be deposited in the hands of the clerk of arraigns, and that the prisoner's witnesses should be allowed to inspect it before the trial; which was granted accordingly. 3. Let the letter be read. Care must be taken that it correspond exactly with the statement of it in the indictment; for a material variance would be fatal. 5 GEO. IV. c. 18. An Act for the more effectual Recovery of Penalties before Justices and Magistrates on Conviction of Offenders; and for facilitating the Execution of Warrants by Constables. [31st March, 1824.] WHEREAS by several acts, certain penalties and forfeitures are imposed on persons for offences committed against the directions of such acts, which are directed to be recovered before any justice or justices of the peace, or any magistrate or magistrates, within their respective jurisdictions; and on non-payment thereof, such penalties and forfeitures, together with the reasonable costs and charges attending the several convictions, are directed to be levied by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of the offender or offenders, by warrant under the hand and seal of such justice and magistrate respectively; and whereas no power is given to such justices and magistrates, on conviction of such offenders, to detain him, her or them in custody till return is made to the warrant of distress, for the purpose of ascertaining whether such offenders have any goods and chattels to satisfy such penalties, forfeitures, costs and charges, whereby such offenders frequently escape any punishment for their offences for remedy whereof, may it please your majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spi |