to have or undergo judgment of life and member, do become felonies thereby, whether the word felony were mentioned or not. 1 Haw. c. 40. § 1. 36. But an offence shall never be made felony, by the Body and construction of any doubtful and ambiguous words of a sta- goods. tute; and therefore if it be only prohibited under pain of for feiting body and goods, or of being at the king's will for body, lands, and goods, it shall amount unto no more than a high misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment or the like. Id. §2. 37. All felonies by the common law have the benefit of Benefit of clergy; therefore where a statute enacts a felony, and felony, and says, clergy. the offender shall suffer death, clergy lies notwithstanding, and is never ousted without express words. 3 Inst. 73. 2 Haw. c. 33. § 24. 38. Saving of dower in a statute making an offence felony, Forfeiture of is superfluous; for by the 1 Ed. 6. c. 12. § 17. dower is not dower. lost by the felony of the husband. 39. Where any complaint shall be made before a justice, Costs. and a warrant or summons shall issue in consequence thereof; the justice, upon hearing and determining the matter, may award costs to either party: but if the conviction be upon a penal statute, and the penalty amounts to 5. or upwards, the costs shall be deducted out of the penalty. c. 19. 18 G.3. 40. Upon an indictment or other criminal prosecution, Damages. no damages can be given to the party grieved: but it is every day's practice in the court of King's Bench, to induce defendants to make satisfaction to the prosecutors, by intimating an inclination on that account to mitigate the fine due to the king. 2 Haw. c. 25. §3. 41. Where a statute gives treble damages, the justices are Treble danot to assess the damages, and then treble them; but the mages. jury ought to find the damages, and then the justices are to treble them. Cro. Car. 449. 42. In all cases where a justice is required by any act of Distress and parliament to issue a warrant of distress for the levying of sale. any penalty inflicted, or any sum of money directed to be paid by such act: it shall be lawful for such justice granting the warrant, therein to order and direct the goods distrained to be sold within a certain time to be limited in such warrant, so as such time be not less than four days, nor more than eight days, unless such penalty or sum of money, together with reasonable charges of taking and keeping the distress, be sooner paid. And the officer making such distress, may deduct the reasonable charges of taking, keeping, and selling the said distress; and the overplus (if any) shall be returned to the owner on demand. (Except only in cases of distress for quakers' tithes and church-rates.) 27 G.2. c. 20. - .1 Second offence. Commence parliament. 43. An act inflicting a penalty for a second offence, must always be understood, after conviction and judgment for the first offence; and the second offence must be committed after the first conviction, and judgment thereupon given: for it doth not appear to be an offence, until judgment by proceeding of law be given against the offender. 2 Inst. 468. And the indictment for a second offence, must recite the record of the first conviction; and upon the evidence, the record of the first conviction must be proved: but the matter of the first conviction shall never be re-examined, but must stand for granted. 1 Hale, 686. 44. By stat. 33 G. 3. c. 13. The clerk of the parliaments ment of acts of shall indorse on every act of parliament, immediately after the title, the day, month, and year, when the same shall have received the royal assent; and such indorsement shall be taken to be a part of such act, and to be the date of its commencement, where no other commencement shall be therein provided. 48 G. 3. c. 106. 4 G. 4. c. 35. By stat. 48 G. 3. c. 106. Where any bill shall be introduced into any session of parliament, for the continuance of any act which would expire in such sessions, and such act shall have expired before the bill for continuing the same shall have received the royal assent, such continuing act shall be deemed to have effect from the date of the expiration of the act intended to be continued, except it shall be otherwise provided in such continuing act. But nothing herein contained shall extend to affect any person with any punishment, penalty or forfeiture, by reason of any thing done, or omitted to be done contrary to the provisions of the act continued, between the expiration of the same, and the date at which the act continuing the same shall receive the royal assent. By stat. 4 G.4. c. 35. Trustees and commissioners under acts of parliament may meet to carry such acts into execution although they have not met according to the direction of such 45. Acts of parliament, in what they are silent, are best expounded according to the use and reason of the common law. Per Parker, Ch. J. in Rex v. Simpson, 1 Str. 45. i Table and Erplanation Of Abbreviations of the Names of Books, cited as Authorities, or referred to, in this Work. Carth. Liber Assisarum. Atkyns's Reports. Bacon's Abridgment, edit. of 1798. Barlow's Justice. Barnardiston's Reports. Barnes's Notes of Practice. Barnewall & Alderson's King's Bench Reports. Bingham's Common Pleas Reports. Barrington's Observations on the Statutes. Bosanquet & Puller's Reports in Common Boscawen on Convictions. Bott's Poor Laws, by Const. Bott's Poor Laws continued to Hil. T. 1814. Broderip & Bingham's Reports, C. P. Brook's Abridgment. Brown's Chancery Cases. Brownlow & Goldesborough's Reports. Buck's Cases in Bankruptcy. Buller's Nisi Prius. Bulstrode's Reports. Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, 8th edition, by Tyrwhitt. Burrow's Reports. Burrow's Settlement Cases. Caldecott's Reports of Settlement Cases. Caldwell's Treatise on Arbitrations, 1817. Calthorp's Reports. Campbell's Nisi Prius Reports. Canons of the Church, made in 1603. Carthew's Reports. Cas. temp. Hardw. Cases tempore Hardwicke, in King's Bench. Cases tempore Ld. Chancellor Talbot. Chitty's Criminal Law. Chitty on the Game Laws, &c. Christian on the Game Laws. Clapham's Points of Sessions Law, 1818. Coke's Entries. Croke's Reports temp Charles. Crown Circuit Companion, edit. of 1811. D'Anver's Abridgment. Degge's Parson's Counsellor. Dehany's Turnpike Acts. Dickenson's Justice, edit. of 1813. Doctor and Student. Dodson's Reports in the High Court of Admiralty. Douglas's Reports, edit. of 1813. Dow's Reports of Cases in the House of Lords. East's King's Bench Reports. East's Pleas of the Crown. Equity Cases abridged. Espinasse's Nisi Prius Reports. Reports temp. Finch, in Chancery. Fitzherbert's Natura Brevium. Foley's Poor Laws. Fortescue's Reports. Foster's Crown Law. A |