possession, with intent to utter, penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment for two years. A second offence felony, ss. 11, 12.

To tender or utter as the current gold or silver coin, any foreign coin or medals, with intent to defraud, imprisonment for one year, with or without hard labour or solitude, s. 13.

To make or counterfeit the copper coin of the United Kingdom is felony, subject to penal servitude for seven years or under, or imprisonment for two years, with or without hard labour or solitude. To tender or utter such base coin, subject to imprisonment with or without hard labour or solitude, ss. 14, 15.

To deface, by stamping any name or words on the current gold, silver, or copper coin, imprisonment for one year, with or without hard labour. The tender of such defaced coin, is not a legal tender, and subjects to a penalty of 40s. on leave of the crown officer to prosecute, s. 17.

To make or counterfeit foreign gold or silver coin, penal servitude for not above seven nor less than three years, or imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour or solitude. A like punishment for bringing such counterfeit foreign coin into the kingdom. To tender or utter such foreign coin, imprisonment not above six months, with or without hard labour. A second offence, two years' imprisonment, and a third offence, felony, ss. 18, 21.

To counterfeit foreign coin, other than gold or silver, imprisonment for one year; for a second offence, penal servitude from seven to three years, or imprisonment for two years with hard labour or solitude, s. 22.

Having in possession, without lawful excuse, above five pieces of base foreign gold or silver coin, subjects the same to be destroyed by order of a justice, and the possessor to a penalty of from 108. to 408. for every piece; or, if penalty be not paid, imprisonment for three months in Bridewell.

Making, mending, or having in possession, any coining tools is felony, liable to penal servitude for life or lesser term.

Conveying tools or moneys out of the Mint without lawful authority or excuse is felony, s. 25.

Coin suspected to be diminished or counterfeit may be cut, broken, or bent by any person to whom it is tendered, and the person who offers it to bear the loss; but if found to be of due weight and lawful coin, the person to whom it is offered is liable to receive it at the coinage rate, s. 26.

Any person, by s. 31, may apprehend any person committing any indictable offence, and deliver the offender to a constable. The remaining sections of the act refer to the discovery and seizure of counterfeit coin or tools, to evidence and procedure in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The 22 & 23 V. c. 30, provides for the issue of coin of bronze or mixed metal,

Various acts were in force to restrain the exportation of gold or

silver plate, or bullion; but these are repealed by the 59 G. 3, c. 49, and the gold and silver coin of the realm, and also the bullion produced by melting (but not the clippings, or bullion produced by melting the clippings of the coin), may be manufactured or exported without restraint or penalty.

II. DESTROYING PUBLIC SHIPS OR EMBEZZLING PUBLIC STORES.

By 12 G. 3, c. 24, it was a capital offence to set on fire or destroy any of her Majesty's ships of war, or destroy the queen's arsenals, magazines, dockyards, ropeyards, victualling offices, or materials appertaining thereto; or military, naval, or victualling stores; or to procure, abet, or assist in such offences.

By 39 & 40 G. 3, c. 89, persons other than contractors, receiving or having stores of war in their possession, may be transported for fourteen years; and, by fourth section, defacing marks denoting stores to be the king's property, for the purpose of concealment, is subject to a like punishment. See further, 25 & 26 V. c. 64; 28 & 29 V. c. 112; 30 & 31 V. c. 119, c. 128.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 96, s. 70, if any person employed in the public service of her Majesty, or in the police of any county, city, borough, or district, and intrusted with any chattel, money, or valuable security, fraudulently apply or dispose of the same, he is liable to penal servitude for not exceeding fourteen nor less than three years, or imprisonment for not above two years, with or without hard labour.

Under the words valuable security is included any tally, debenture, deed, bond, bill, note, warrant, or order, evidencing the title to money or to the payment of money.

III. SALE OF PUBLIC OFFICES.

The buying or selling of offices of a public nature has been considered as an offence malum in se, and indictable at common law, 1 Russ. 227.

By 5 & 6 E. 6, c. 16, if any person bargain to sell any office or any part thereof, to receive money or other profit, which office concerns the administration of justice, or the king's revenue or fortresses, or any clerkship in any court of record, he shall lose all right of nomination to such office; and the person offering such money or profit shall be disqualified for the office. Exceptions in favour of the judges, s. 7.

The provisions of this statute have been extended to Scotland and Ireland, and to all offices in the gift of the Crown, and to the principal offices of any department of the government in the United Kingdom and colonies, and to offices, commissions. &c., under the control of the East India Company, 49 G. 3, c. 126.

Bargaining, selling, or being in any manner concerned in the negotiation of such offices for gain, renders the parties guilty of

misdemeanor, subjecting them to fine and imprisonment, ss. 3, 4. Opening or keeping any office for the brokerage of places is a misdemeanor, s. 5. If any person advertise or publish any office as set up for these purposes; or advertise or print the name of any agent or broker for the same, or any proposal relative thereto, he shall forfeit £50, with full costs, ss. 5, 6.

The act does not extend to the sale of commissions in the army for prices fixed by the queen's regulations. But to receive or pay, or agree so to do, a higher sum than the regulated price for the sale or exchange of a military commission, renders the parties guilty of misdemeanor, and forfeits the commission, which may be sold, and half the regulated value (not exceeding £500) given to the informer, and the other half applied as the queen shall direct.

IV. SERVING FOREIGN STATES.

By 59 G. 3, c. 69, if any natural-born subject of the king enter into the service of any foreign state without the license of his Majesty, or order of council, or royal proclamation; or if any person within the dominion of Great Britain, hire, or attempt to hire, any person to enlist in the service of any foreign state, such person is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable with fine or imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the court. The officers of the customs are empowered, on information upon oath, to detain any vessel having persons on board destined for such foreign service. Masters of vessels, knowingly having on board persons so engaged, to forfeit £50 for each individual. Persons fitting out any vessel without license, are guilty of a high misdemeanor, and the ship and stores become forfeited. Even the assisting any foreign state with warlike stores, without license, is declared a misdemeanor, punishable with fine and imprisonment.

By 1 V. c. 29, the queen may grant to any officer, not being a natural-born subject, but who, at the time of passing the act held the queen's commission in any other regiment, and was allowed to retain the same, the rank of colonel, major-general, or general; and grant that aliens may enlist in her Majesty's service; but the number of foreigners serving together at any one time in any regiment not to exceed one for every fifty natural-born subjects; and no such soldier to be capable of holding any higher rank than that of non-commissioned officer.

CHAPTER V.

Misprision and Contempt.

ANOTHER class of offences, directed more immediately against the government and course of justice, is entitled Misprision and

Contempt, and includes those offences which are next under the degree of treason or felony.

Misprision of treason consists in the bare knowledge or concealment of treason, without any degree of assent thereto; if there be any semblance of participation therein, the offence is much more serious; as if a person goes to a treasonable meeting, knowing beforehand that a conspiracy is intended against the queen; or being in such company once by accident, and having heard such treasonable conspiracy, meets the same company again and hears more of it, but conceals it; this is an implied assent in law, and makes the concealer guilty of actual high treason.

By 1 & 2 Phil. & Mary, c. 10, to keep secret any treason committed or intended to be committed, is punishable with loss of profits of lands during life, forfeiture of goods, and imprisonment for life.

Misprision of felony is the concealment of a felony, which a man knows but never assented to; for if he assented, this makes him either principal or accessory.

Concealing of treasure trove, which belongs to the queen or her grantees, is also a misprision, which was formerly punishable with death; but this, as well as the two preceding cases of misprision, are now punishable only by fine and imprisonment.

Contempts are such positive misprisions as consist in the commission of something which ought not to be done; among which the first and principal is the maladministration of public officers, by the embezzlement of the public money or otherwise. This is usually punished by parliamentary impeachment; and, although not a capital offence, subjects the delinquent to fine, imprisonment, exile, or perpetual disability for public office.

For the better punishment of malversation in office abroad, it is provided by 42 G. 3, c. 85, that all offences committed by any person employed abroad in the public service, in any station, civil or military, may be prosecuted in the Court of Queen's Bench in England; and, besides the punishment which the party would have suffered for the same crime in England, he is made liable, at the discretion of the court, to be adjudged incapable of ever serving her Majesty again.

To accept a pension from a foreign prince, without the consent of the crown, is a contempt of the queen's government. So it is to drink to the pious memory of a traitor, or for a clergyman to absolve persons at the gallows who persist in the treasons for which they suffer. To give out scandalous stories concerning the queen, or falsely assert that she labours under the affliction of mental derangement, is criminal, and an indictable offence.

Threatening or reproachful words used to a judge sitting in the courts are a high contempt, punishable with fine, imprisonment, and corporal infliction. A judge sitting at the Nisi Prius has the power of fining even a defendant conducting his own defence to a

criminal charge for contempt of the court, in uttering offensive matter in the course of that defence, 4 B. & A. 329.

If a man assault or threaten his adversary for suing him, a counsellor or attorney for being employed against him, a juror for his verdict, or a gaoler or other ministerial officer for keeping him in custody, he is liable to fine and imprisonment.

To endeavour to dissuade a witness from giving evidence, to disclose an examination before the privy council, or to advise a prisoner to stand mute, are all impediments of justice, and high contempts of the queen's courts, punishable with fine and imprisonment. It is also a high misprision, subject to fine and imprisonment, for a grand juror to disclose to a person indicted the evidence that appeared against him.

The power of courts of equity in cases of contempt is regulated by 1 W. 4, c. 36; and the poor and ignorant are no longer subject to indefinite imprisonment, neither can the merely obstinate so readily impede the course of justice. Under this act, where a party neglects from any cause to do what is required of him, the court is empowered to act for, and then compulsorily to discharge him. Imprisonment can only be used to gain an end, and that end gained, it will cease. Whenever a party omits to apply for his discharge, the court may release him, and pay the costs of the contempt out of any funds belonging to him over which it has power; or make them costs in the cause against him; or discharge him from contempt, and leave him in custody for the costs, which may afterwards be cleared under the Bankrupt Act.

CHAPTER VI.

Unlawful Societies, Oaths, and Sedition.

THESE form the last class of offences directed against the government which it will be necessary to notice, and which for the most part were unknown to our ancestors, having been chiefly made the subject of criminal jurisprudence by modern acts of parliament. The statutes and parts of statutes relative to the description of offences included in this chapter, which have expired or been repealed, we shall pass over, and only notice such provisions as remain in force.

I. POLITICAL SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS.

The 39 G. 3, c. 79, was directed against certain associations, called societies of United Englishmen, United Scotsmen, United Irishmen, and The London Corresponding Society, and provides that every political society shall be deemed an unlawful combina