for dice, cards, or other unlawful games, under a penalty of forty shillings for every day and six and eightpence for every time of playing (v). Subsequent statutes included other games under heavier penalties (w). By a later statute (a) the statute of Henry VIII. is repealed as far as it prohibited bowling, tennis, or other games of mere skill. Further provision was also made by the Act of this reign against those who own or keep common gaming houses. The owner or keeper, and every person having the care and management of such house, and also every banker, croupier, and other person in any manner conducting the business of the house, is liable, on conviction before two justices, to a penalty not exceeding £500, in addition to the penalty under 33 Hen. 8; or may be committed to prison for a period not exceeding six months (y).

If any person who has been concerned in the unlawful gaming, on his examination as witness, makes true disclosure to the best of his knowledge, he is entitled to receive a certificate, and is free from all consequences of his unlawful act up to that time (z).

Betting

Betting houses, rooms, offices, or places, are deemed houses. gaming houses within this statute. Persons receiving deposits on bets in such houses incur a penalty of £30, or imprisonment for three months. Exhibiting placards or handbills, or otherwise advertising betting houses, is punished by a penalty of £30, or imprisonment for two months (a). A wooden box in an enclosed space on a race-course, commonly known as "the Ring," is a betting place (b).

(v) 33 Hen. 8, c. 9, s. II.

(w) See 9 Anne, c. 14; 12 Geo. 2, c. 28; 13 Geo. 2, c. 19; 18 Geo. 2. (x) 8 & 9 Vict. c. 109, amended by 17 & 18 Vict. c. 38.

(y) 8 & 9 Vict. c. 109, s. 4.

(z) Ibid. s. 9.

(a) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 119.

(b) Galloway v. Maries, 8 Q. B. D. 275; 51 L. J. (M.C.) 53; 45 L. T. N. S. 763.

Nuisance, the

term is indefinite.

Public and private nuisances

The fact that the entrance of a peace officer is obstructed or delayed, or that the place is found provided with means of gaming, or of concealing instruments of gaming, is evidence that the house is a common gaming house. Penalties are imposed for such obstructions and for certain other offences (c).

COMMON OR PUBLIC NUISANCES.

Another offence of wide and vaguely-defined limits is now to be considered. In its definition its extent is indefinite, but in practice it is confined to certain classes of acts which interfere with the normal state of order and comfort.

Common nuisances are such annoyances as are liable to affect all persons who come within the range of their distinguished. operation. They consist of acts either of commission or of omission, that is, causing something to be done which annoys the community generally, or neglecting to do something which the common good requires. Public nuisances are opposed to private nuisances, which annoy particular individuals only, that is, to which all persons are not liable to be exposed. The distinction. is one based on the extent of the operation of the evil and not one relating to the class of evil; inasmuch as all kinds of nuisances which, when injurious to private persons, are actionable as private nuisances, when detrimental to the public welfare, are punishable on prosecution as public nuisances. It is for the jury to determine whether a sufficiently large number of persons are or may be affected so as to make the nuisance or "public" (d).

Common nuisances not actionable.

common

Common nuisances are indictable as misdemeanors. They do not give rise to civil action by every one who

(c) 17 & 18 Vict. c. 38.
(d) R v. White, 1 Burr. 333.

is subjected to the common annoyance. But if any one can prove special damage, that is, that he is affected in some respect in a way in which the public generally are not, he may pursue his civil remedy and obtain damages.

Another course of proceeding is sometimes available Abatement. in nuisances, namely, abatement or removal of the nuisance by the party's own act.

In private nuisances this is commonly allowed to be done by the party aggrieved; but in public nuisances the right is more confined. They may be abated by boards of health and other public bodies specially authorized under various public Acts (e); but private individuals cannot resort to this course if the abatement involves a breach of the peace; and in any case they can only interfere so far as is necessary to exercise the right of passing, &c.

The principal classes of public nuisances will be briefly noticed:

Nuisances to

i. Nuisances to highways, bridges, and public rivers. These annoyances may be either positive, by actual ob- highways, &c. struction; or negative, by want of reparation. In the latter case, only those persons are liable whose duty it is to keep the roads, &c., in repair. The former class consists of a variety of offences, for example, laying rubbish on the road, digging trenches in it, diverting part of a public river, &c.

ii. Carrying on offensive or dangerous trades or manu- Offensive trades, &c. factures.-Manufactures which are injurious to the health or merely offensive to the senses are nuisances; and it is no defence that the public benefit outweighs the public annoyance (f). But if a noxious trade is already established in a place remote from habitations and public roads, and persons come and build near, or

(e) v. 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55.

(f) R. v. Ward, 5 L. J. (K.B.) 221.

Houses, as nuisances.

Lotteries.

a new road is made, the trade may be continued (g). The presence of other nuisances will not justify any one of them; but a person cannot be indicted for setting up a noxious manufacture in a neighbourhood in which other offensive pursuits have long been borne with, unless the inconvenience to the public is greatly increased (h). No length of time will legitimate this or other kinds of nuisances, but the consideration of time may sometimes concur with other circumstances to prevent the character of nuisance from attaching (i).

Nuisances which affect the public health are dealt with in the numerous statutes which treat of that subject.

iii. Houses, &c., which interfere with public order and decency. The following places are nuisances, and, upon indictment, may be suppressed, and their owners, keepers, or ostensible managers punished by fine or imprisonment, or both-Disorderly inns (j) or alehouses; bawdy houses; gaming and betting houses (k); unlicensed or improperly conducted playhouses, booths, stages for dancers, and the like.

Prosecutions for keeping a bawdy house or gaming house fall within the provisions of the Vexatious Indictments Act (1).

iv. Lotteries.

All lotteries were declared by statute (m) public nuisances. State lotteries were, however, authorized by successive Acts of Parliament until 1824,

(g) R. v. Cross, 2 C. & P. 483.

(h) R. v. Neil, 2 C. & P. 485; v. R. v. Neville, Peake, 91.

(i) Weld v. Hornby, 7 East, 199.

() If a traveller is refused entertainment without sufficient cause,

the inn is liable to be treated as a disorderly inn.

(k) v. p. 137.

(1) v. p. 359.

(m) 10 & 11 Wm. 3, c. 17. See also 42 Geo. 3, c. 119, s. 2; and Taylor v. Smetten, 52 L. J. (M.C.) 100.

when they were discontinued, the State being thus enabled without inconsistency to enforce the already existing law against other lotteries.

nuisances.

v. A vast number of other Acts, &c., have been de- Miscellaneous clared public nuisances; for example, exposing in a public thoroughfare persons afflicted with infectious disease; allowing mischievous dogs to go abroad unmuzzled, provided that, if they were not of a description to be generally dangerous, the owner was aware of their nature; keeping fierce animals in places open to the public; keeping hogs near a public street; keeping a corpse unburied; making great noises in the street at night; eaves-dropping, that is, "listening under walls or windows, or the eaves of a house, to hearken after discourse, and thereby to frame slanderous and mischievous tales;" common scolds; and in general anything which is an appreciable grievance to the public at large.

There are two cases at least where there might be a Who is liable. doubt as to the person who is criminally responsible for a nuisance. The landlord is liable if he erects a building which is a nuisance, or the occupation of which is likely to produce a nuisance. The master or employer is liable for a nuisance caused by the acts of his servants if done in the course of their employment.

ADULTERATION AND UNWHOLESOME PROVISIONS.

Obviously there is no undue interference on the part of the State, when it characterizes as a crime the adulterating food or dealing in unwholesome provisions.

The law as to adulteration is contained chiefly in the Adulteration, Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1875 (n). Mixing, or

(n) 38 & 39 Vict. c. 63, which applies equally to the case of a purchase by a private individual under section 12 and by the public officer mentioned in section 13 of the Act. Parsons v. The Birmingham Dairy Company, 9 Q. B. D. 172; 51 L. J. (M.C.) 111; 30 W. R. 748.

&c.