money or which they are The 2 Wm. 4, c. 4, s. 1, reciting sec. 1 of the 50 Geo. 3, c. 59, and 2 Wm. 4, c. 4. that "it is expedient that further provision should be made with regard to embezzlement by persons employed in the public service of his Majesty," repeals so much of the said act as is therein recited, except as to any offences against the same committed before the passing of this act, which offences are to be dealt with and punished as if this act had not passed, and enacts, that "from and after Persons in the the passing of this act (13th February, 1832) if any person employed public service in the public service of his Majesty, and entrusted by virtue of such embezzling any employment, with the receipt, custody, management, or control of valuable seany chattel, money, or valuable security, shall embezzle the same, or curities, with any part thereof, or in any manner fraudulently apply or dispose of intrusted, to the same or any part thereof to his own use or benefit, or for be deemed any purpose whatsoever except for the public service, every such guilty of felony. offender shall be deemed to have stolen the same, and shall in England and Ireland be deemed guilty of felony, and in Scotland of a high crime and offence, and on being thereof convicted in due form of law shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be transported beyond the seas for any term not exceeding fourteen years nor less than seven years, or to be imprisoned with or without hard labour, as to the court shall seem meet, for any term not exceeding three years." included under the words " valuable By sec. 2, "every tally, order, or other security whatsoever enti- What to be tling or evidencing the title of any person or body corporate to any share or interest in any public stock or fund, whether of the United Kingdom, or of Great Britain, or of Ireland, or of any foreign state, security." or to any share or interest in any fund of any body corporate, company, or society, or to any deposit in any savings bank, and every debenture, deed, bond, bill, note, warrant, order, or other security whatsoever for money or for payment of money, whether of this kingdom or of any foreign state, and every warrant or order for the delivery or transfer of any goods or valuable thing, shall throughout this act be deemed for every purpose to be included under and denoted by the words "valuable security ;" and that if any person so employed and entrusted as aforesaid shall embezzle or fraudulently apply or dispose of any such valuable security as aforesaid, he shall be deemed to have stolen the same within the intent and meaning of this act, and shall be punishable thereby in the same manner as if he had stolen any chattel of like value with the share, interest, or deposit to which such security may relate, or with the money due on such security, or secured thereby and remaining unsatisfied, or with the value of the goods or other valuable thing mentioned in such security." By sec. 3, "it shall be lawful to charge in the indictment to be preferred against any offender under this act, and to proceed against him for any number of distinct acts of embezzlement or of fraudulent application or disposition as aforesaid, not exceeding three, which may have been committed by him within the space of six calendar months from the first to the last of such acts; and in every such indictment where the offence shall relate to any money or any valuable security, it shall be sufficient to allege the embezzlement or fraudulent application or disposition to be of money, without specifying any particular coin or valuable security; and such allegation, so far as it regards the description of the property, shall Different acts of embezzlement may be charged in the same indictment. As to allega. of the property tion and proof embezzled. Property to be described as the king's. Venue. The indictment need not allege the embezzlement to have been whilst the prisoner was in the service of the crown. be sustained if the offender shall be proved to have embezzled any amount, although the particular species of coin or valuable security of which such amount was composed shall not be proved, or if he shall be proved to have embezzled any piece of coin or any valuable security, or any portion of the value thereof, although such piece of coin or valuable security may have been delivered to him in order that some part of the value thereof should be returned to the party delivering the same, and although such part shall have been returned accordingly." By sec. 4, "in every such case of embezzlement or fraudulent application or disposition as aforesaid of any chattel, money, or valuable security, it shall be lawful in the order of committal by the justice of the peace before whom the offender shall be charged, and in the indictment to be preferred against such offender to lay the property of any such chattel, money, or valuable security as aforesaid in the King's Majesty." By sec. 5, "every offender against this act may be dealt with, indicted, tried, and punished either in the county or place in which he shall be apprehended, or in the county or place where he shall have committed the offence." An indictment upon this statute is sufficient, although it does not allege that the prisoner embezzled the money whilst he was employed in the public service. A count charged that the prisoner, being at a certain time and place a clerk employed in the public service of her Majesty, and by virtue of such employment entrusted with the receipt and custody of money the property of her Majesty, did then and there receive into his possession, by virtue of such employment as such clerk, certain money, the property, &c., and did then and there feloniously embezzle the same, and so did felonionsly steal take and carry away the same; and it was objected that the count was bad, as it did not allege that the prisoner embezzled whilst he was such clerk; the allegation of his being clerk was confined to the fact of receiving the money, and did not necessarily extend to the time of the embezzlement. Coleridge, J., "I am clearly of opinion that the indictment is good; if the fact of the prisoner's continuing clerk be necessary to the offence, the indictment, grammatically taken, would perhaps contain a sufficient averment of that fact. But it is by no means clear that an embezzlement (if such a case be possible) after a person ceased to be clerk or servant, of money received whilst he was such, would not be within the act. The statute, in its words, does not necessarily imply that he should embezzle whilst clerk or servant, and if it does so imply it, the indictment which pursues the same terms also implies it." (g) Evidence of acting in the capacity of an officer employed by the crown is sufficient to support an indictment under this statute, and the appointment need not be regularly proved. (h) (g) Reg. v. Lovell, 2 M. & Rob. 236. See this case, ante, p. 165, as to the point whether a servant of the crown be a servant within the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 29, s. 46, 47. (h) Rex v. Borrett, 6 C. & P. 124; Rex v. Townsend, 1 C. & M. 178. See these cases in the next chapter, p. 213. CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST. OF LARCENY AND EMBEZZLEMENT BY PERSONS IN THE POST-OFFICE; LETTERS. THESE offences were formerly punished under the provisions of the 5 Geo. 3, c. 25; the 7 Geo. 3, c. 50; the 42 Geo. 3, c. 81, and the 52 Geo. 3, c. 143; but the 1 Vict. c. 32, after the 1st of August, 1837, repeals the whole of the 5 Geo. 3, c. 25, " except so much thereof as relates to the postage on letters and packets conveyed by the post within the British dominions in America and the West Indies, and to any felony or other offence committed within such dominions ;" the whole of the 7 Geo. 3, c. 50, "except so much thereof as relates to any felony or other offence committed within the British dominions in America and the West Indies ;" the whole of the 42 Geo. 3, c. 81; and so much of 52 Geo. 3, c. 143, "as relates to the post-office." And the punishment of these offences is now regulated by the 1 Vict. c. 36, which came into operation on the 1st of August, 1837. (a) That statute, by sec. 25, enacts, "that every person employed by 1 Vict. c. 36. or under the post-office who shall, contrary to his duty, open Opening or delaying post or procure, or suffer to be opened a post letter, or shall wilfully letters a misdetain or delay, or procure or suffer to be detained or delayed, demeanor. a post letter, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of a misdemeanor, and in Scotland of a crime and offence, and being convicted thereof shall suffer such punishment by fine or imprisonment, or by both, as to the court shall seem meet: provided always, that nothing Proviso. herein contained shall extend to the opening or detaining or delaying of a post letter returned for want of a true direction, or of a post letter returned by reason that the person to whom the same shall be directed is dead or cannot be found, or shall have refused the same, or shall have refused or neglected to pay the postage thereof; nor to the opening or detaining or delaying of a post letter in obedience to an express warrant in writing under the hand (in Great Britain) of one of the principal secretaries of state, and in Ireland under the hand and seal of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland." (a) The previous sections impose penalties on contravening the privilege of the post-office, retaining ship letters, abusing the privilege of newspapers, on masters of ships not taking letter bags, on carelessness and misconduct of persons engaged in conveying or delivering letter bags, letters, Embezzlement, &c., of any letter or packet, felony. Stealing money, &c., By sec. 26, "every person employed under the post-office who shall steal, or shall for any purpose whatever embezzle, secrete, or destroy, a post letter, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of felony, and in Scotland of a high crime and offence, and shall, at the discretion of the court, either be transported beyond the seas for the term of seven years, or be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years; and if any such post letter so stolen or embezzled, secreted or destroyed, shall contain therein any chattel or money whatsoever, or any valuable security, every such offender shall be transported beyond the seas for life." By sec. 27, "every person who shall steal from or out of a out of letters, post letter any chattel or money or valuable security, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of felony, and in Scotland of a high crime and offence, and shall be transported beyond the seas for felony. Stealing letter bags or letters sent by the mail, felony. Stealing letter bags or letters sent by packets felony. Receiving pro- Fraudulently wilfully secreting, &c., any letters, life." By sec. 28, "every person who shall steal a post letter bag, or a post letter from a post letter bag, or shall steal a post letter from a post-office, or from an officer of the post-office or from a mail, or shall stop a mail with intent to rob or search the same, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of felony, and in Scotland of a high crime and offence, and shall be transported beyond the seas for life." By sec. 29, "every person who shall steal or unlawfully take away a post letter bag sent by a post-office packet, or who shall steal or unlawfully take a letter out of any such bag, or shall unlawfully open any such bag, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of felony, and in Scotland of a high crime and offence, and shall be transported beyond the seas for any term not exceeding fourteen years." Sec. 30,"with regard to receivers of property sent by the post and stolen therefrom," enacts, " that every person who shall receive any post letter or post letter bag, or any chattel or money or valuable security, the stealing or taking or embezzling or secreting whereof shall amount to a felony under the post-office acts, knowing the same to have been feloniously stolen, taken, embezzled, or secreted, and to have been sent or to have been intended to be sent by the post, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of felony, and in Scotland of a high crime and offence, and may be indicted and convicted either as an accessory after the fact or for a substantive felony, and in the latter case, whether the principal felon shall or shall not have been previously convicted, or shall or shall not be amenable to justice; and every such receiver, howsoever convicted, shall be liable to be transported beyond the seas for life." Sec. 31, reciting that "post letters are sometimes by mistake deretaining after livered to the wrong person, and post letters and post letter bags are delivery by lost in the course of conveyance or delivery thereof, and are detained mistake, any letter, &c., and by the finders in expectation of gain or reward," enacts, "that every person who shall fraudulently retain, or shall wilfully secrete or keep or detain, or being required to deliver up by an officer of the post-office, shall neglect or refuse to deliver up a post letter which ought to have been delivered to any other person, or a post misdemeanor. letter bag or post letter which shall have been sent, whether the same shall have been found by the person secreting, keeping, or detaining, or neglecting or refusing to deliver up the same, &c., that have been lost, a or by any other person, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of a misdemeanor, and in Scotland of a crime and offence, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be punished by fine and imprisonment." (b) votes or pro &c., a misdemeanor. Sec. 32, "for the protection of printed votes and proceedings in Stealing, &c., parliament and printed newspapers sent by the post," enacts, "that any printed every person employed in the post-office who shall steal, or shall for ceedings in any purpose embezzle, secrete, or destroy, or shall wilfully detain or parliament, delay in course of conveyance or delivery thereof by the post, newspapers, any printed votes or proceedings in parliament, or any printed newspaper, or any other printed paper whatever sent by the post without covers, or in covers open at the sides, shall in England and Ireland be guilty of a misdemeanor, and in Scotland of a crime and offence, and being convicted thereof shall suffer such punishment by fine or imprisonment, or by both, as to the court shall seem meet." (c) degree, and By sec. 35, "in the case of every felony punishable under Principal in the post-office acts, every principal in the second degree, and every the second accessory before the fact, shall be punishable in the same manner as accessories, the principal in the first degree is by the post-office acts punishable; how to be and every accessory after the fact to any felony punishable under the punished. post-office acts (except only a receiver of any property or thing stolen, taken, embezzled, or secreted,) shall, on conviction, be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years; and every person who shall aid, abet, counsel, or procure the commission of any misdemeanor punishable under the post-office acts shall be liable to be indicted and punished as a principal offender." 66 commission By sec. 36, every person who shall solicit or endeavour to pro- Endeavouring cure any other person to commit a felony or misdemeanor punish- to procure the able by the post-office acts shall in England and Ireland be guilty of any crime. of a misdemeanor, and in Scotland of a crime and offence, and being thereof convicted shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years." Sec. 37, "for the more effectual prosecution of offences committed Venue. against the post-office acts," enacts, "that the offence of every offender against the post-office acts may be dealt with, and indicted and tried, and punished, and laid and charged to have been committed in England and Ireland, either in the county or place where the offence shall be committed, or in any county or place in which he shall be apprehended or be in custody, as if his offence had been actually committed in that county or place, and if committed in Scotland either in the high court of justiciary at Edinburgh or in the circuit court of justiciary to be holden by the lords commissioners of justiciary within the district where such offence shall be committed, or in any county or place within which such offender shall be apprehended or be in custody, as if his offence had been actually committed there; and where an offence shall be committed in or upon or in respect of a mail, or upon a person engaged in the conveyance or delivery of a post letter bag or post letter, or in respect of a post letter bag or post letter, or a chattel or money or valuable security sent by the post, such offence may be dealt with and (b) This provision is similar to the 42 Geo. 3, c. 81, s. 4, (now repealed); and would meet such cases as Rex v. Mucklow, R. & M. C. C. R. 160, ante p. 58. (c) Sec. 33 relates to forging the handwriting of the receiver-general in England or Ireland, and will be found in chap. 38; and sec. 34 relates to the forgery of franks. |
