punishable by penal servitude to the extent of fourteen years (c).

Acts endangering safety of railway passengers:\ felonies,

misdemeanor

ENDANGERING SAFETY OF RAILWAY PASSENGERS.

The following acts are felonious, punishable by penal servitude to the extent of life :

(i.) To put or throw upon or across any railway any wood, stone, or other thing; (ii.) to take up, remove, or displace any rail, sleeper, or other thing belonging to a railway; (iii.) to move or divert any points or other machinery belonging to any railway; (iv.) to make, or shew, hide or remove any signal or light upon or near to any railway; (v.) to do or cause any other thing to be done with intent to endanger the safety of passengers (d); or (vi.) to throw against or into any railway engine, carriage, or truck, any wood, stone, or other thing, with intent to injure or endanger the safety of any person in the train (e). If committed by a young person, these offences may be dealt with summarily and punished by fine or imprisonment for three months; and in the case of a male under fourteen years of age with a whipping (ƒ).

It is a misdemeanor, punishable with imprisonment not exceeding two years, by any unlawful act, or by any wilful omission or neglect, to endanger the safety of any person conveyed or being in or upon a railway, or to aid or assist therein (g).

As to injuries from Furious Driving, v. p. 144.

ASSAULTS, ETC., CONNECTED WITH WRECKS.

those preserv

To assault, and strike or wound any magistrate, Assaulting officer, or other person lawfully authorized in, or on ing, &c., account of his exercising his duty in the preservation wrecks. of any vessel in distress, or any wrecked vessel or goods, is a misdemeanor, punishable by penal servitude to the extent of seven years (h).

To impede any person endeavouring to escape from Impeding a wreck or vessel in distress, or endeavouring to save escape. another, is a felony, punishable by penal servitude to the extent of life (i).

FORCING SEAMEN ON SHORE.

seamen on

For a master or other person belonging to a British Forcing ship wrongfully to force on shore and leave behind, or shore. otherwise wilfully and wrongfully to leave on shore or at sea, any seaman or apprentice, before the completion of the voyage for which he is engaged, or the return of the ship to the United Kingdom, is a misdemeanor (j). So also is it to discharge or leave behind any seaman Unlawfully or apprentice in any place abroad, without obtaining men behind. the proper sanction specified in the Act (k). Each of these misdemeanors is punishable by fine and imprisonment, or may be dealt with on summary conviction, and, in that case, is punishable by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or a penalty not exceeding £100 (1).

ASSAULTS ON OFFICERS.

leaving sea

peace officers.

To assault, resist, or wilfully obstruct any peace Assaults on officer in the due execution of his duty, or any person acting in aid of such officer, or to assault any person with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension

of oneself or of any other person for any offence, is a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment not exceeding two years (m).

Assaults, &c., on clergymeu.

Assaults on,

neglect of,

servants.

ASSAULTS ON OTHERS IN THE EXECUTION OF THEIR DUTY.

Clergymen. By threats or force to obstruct or prevent a clergyman or other minister in or from exercising his functions, or (b) to strike, or offer violence to one so engaged, or (c) to arrest, even upon civil process, one so engaged, to the knowledge of the accused, going to or coming from such performance, is a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment not exceeding two years (n).

Gamekeeper, v. p. 149.

ASSAULTS ON THOSE IN A DEFENCELESS POSITION.

Apprentices or Servants.-Whosoever, being legally apprentices or liable either as master or mistress to provide for any apprentice or servant necessary food, clothing, or lodgings, wilfully and without lawful excuse refuses or neglects to do so, or (b) unlawfully and maliciously does or causes to be done any bodily harm, so that the life of the apprentice or servant is likely to be permanently injured, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is punishable by penal servitude to the extent of five years (o).

Neglecting or ill-using lunatics.

Lunatics. Abusing, ill-treating, or wilfully neglecting a patient in a private asylum, by any person employed therein, or any single patient by any one having charge of or attending upon such lunatic, is a misdemeanor, or punishable on summary conviction by

(m) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 38. v. also 34 & 35 Vict. c. 112, s. 12. For assaulting, &c., officers of the customs, v. p. 121. (n) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 36.

(0) Ibid. s. 26.

forfeiture not exceeding £20 (p). A person who takes a house where a lunatic lives with him, and the household of which he supports, is a person having the charge of a lunatic (g). So, also, is the striking, wounding, ill-treating, or wilful neglect of any lunatic confined in a county or public asylum by any person employed therein (r). A similar provision is made with regard to persons confined in asylums for criminal lunatics (s).

FALSE IMPRISONMENT.

False imprisonment is a misdemeanor at common False imprisonment. law, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both. All that the prosecutor has to prove is the imprisonment; it is for the defendant to justify what he did (t). A count for a common assault is usually added.

to an im

Every confinement or restraint of the liberty of a What amounts person is an imprisonment; for example, by detaining a prisonment. man in the streets. Though a party, on being shewn

a magistrate's warrant, goes willingly at the desire of a constable, this is an imprisonment which the constable may be called upon to justify (u).

We shall see under the title "Arrest" in what cases one person is justified in detaining another (v).

(u) Chinn v. Morris, 2 C. & P. 361.

() As to Indecent Assault, v. p. 181; Assaults in Violation of Trade,

v. p. 127; Spring Guns, &c., v. p. 150.

PART III.

OFFENCES AGAINST INDIVIDUALS THEIR

PROPERTY.

Definition of larceny.

Larceny, simple or compound.

CHAPTER I.

LARCENY.

LARCENY or theft may be defined as "the wilfully wrongful taking possession of the goods of another with intent to deprive the owner of his property in them" (w).

Larceny is either Simple or Compound. Compound, or, as it is termed, "mixed " or " complicated" larceny, differs from simple larceny merely in that the former is

(w) Rosc. 634; Fitz. St. 126. This definition, taken from Roscoe's Evidence in Criminal Cases, with a modification suggested by Sir James Stephen, may not at first sight appear to indicate all the elements of larceny. An ordinary definition is something of this sort: "A taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another of any value, against the will or without the consent of the owner, without any bonâ fide claim of right, with a felonious intent."-Arch. Quarter Sessions. But the definition in the text, besides avoiding certain defects, contains all the essentials set out in the second definition. Thus "without any claim of right by the taker" is included in the part relating to the intent; "against the will of the owner" in "wrongful;' 'carrying away" in "taking possession." As an example of the definitions contained in the recent bill for establishing a Criminal Code we may instance the following definition of Theft:

39 66

"Theft or stealing is the act of fraudulently and without colour of right taking, or fraudulently and without colour of right converting to the use of any person, anything capable of being stolen, with intent

to deprive the owner or any person having any special property or interest therein permanently of such thing, or of such property, or interest;

to pledge the same or deposit it as security;

to part with it under a condition as to its return which the person parting with it may be unable to perform;

to deal with it in such a manner that it cannot be restored in the condition in which it was at the time of such taking and conversion."