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master shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be imprisoned for such term as the court shall award. And all such offences may be prosecuted by indictment or by information, at the suit of his majesty's attorney-general, in the Court of King's Bench, and may be alleged in the indictment or information to have been committed at Westminster, in the county of Middlesex; and the said court is hereby authorized to issue one or more commissions, if necessary, for the examination of witnesses abroad, and the depositions taken under the same shall be received in evidence on the trial of every such indictment or information.

And by sect. 31, every person who shall counsel, aid or abet the commission of this offence, is liable to be proceeded against and punished as a principal offender.

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15. Assaults, Batteries and Wounding.

An assault and battery or wounding is a misdemeanor, punishable at common law with fine and imprisonment. By 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 23, "if any person shall arrest any clergyman upon any civil process while he shall be performing divine service, or shall, with the knowledge "of such person, be going to perform the same or return"ing from the performance thereof," every such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall suffer such punishment by fine or imprisonment, or by both, as the court shall award.

And by sect. 31, every person who shall counsel, aid or abet therein, shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as a principal offender.

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By the same statute, sect. 24, "if any person shall as"sault and strike or wound any magistrate, officer or other person whosoever lawfully authorized, on account of the "exercise of his duty in or concerning the preservation of any vessel in distress, or of any vessel, goods, or effects "wrecked, stranded or cast on shore, or lying under water," every such offender, being convicted thereof, shall be

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liable to be transported beyond the seas for the term of seven years, or to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, in the common gaol or house of correction for such term as the court shall award.

And by sect. 31, every person who shall counsel, aid or abet the commission of this offence, is liable to be proceeded against and punished as a principal offender.

By the same statute, sect. 25, "where any person shall "be charged with and convicted of any of the following "offences as misdemeanors, that is to say,

"of any assault with intent to commit felony,

66 any assault upon any peace officer or revenue officer "in the due execution of his duty, or upon any person "acting in aid of such officer,

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any assault upon any person with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of the party "so assaulting, or of any other person, for any offence for "which he or they may be liable by law to be apprehended "or detained,

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any assault committed in pursuance of any conspiracy "to raise the rate of wages,"

in any such case the court may sentence the offender to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, in the common gaol or house of correction for any term not exceeding two years, and may also (if it shall so think fit) fine the offender, and require him to find sureties for keeping the peace.

And by sect. 31, every person who shall counsel, aid or abet the commission of any of these offences, is liable to be proceeded against and punished as a principal offender.

By the same statute, sect. 26, assaults on any seaman, keelman or caster, to prevent him from working, or with intent to obstruct the buying or selling of grain, &c. or to obstruct its free passage, is punishable, before two magistrates, with imprisonment, with hard labour, not exceeding three calendar months.

But by sect. 34, the prosecution must be commenced within three calendar months after offence.

By 3 & 4 W. IV. c. 53, s. 61, assaults on customhouse officers or other persons duly employed for prevention of smuggling, are punishable with transportation for seven years, or imprisonment, with hard labour, for any term not exceeding three years.

By 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 27, persons committing any common assault or battery may be proceeded against before two justices, according to the provisions in the act set forth, and shall pay a fine, not exceeding (together with the costs) £5, to the use of the poor.

By sect. 28, such proceedings shall, in certain cases, be a bar to any other proceeding, civil or criminal, for the

same cause.

By sect. 29, the justices shall, in assaults accompanied by attempts to commit felony, or being otherwise a fit subject for indictment, abstain from adjudication, and deal with the case as before the act.

And it is provided that they shall determine no case in which any question shall arise as to the title to lands, tenements or hereditaments, or any interest therein or accruing therefrom, or as to any bankruptcy or insolvency, or any execution under the process of any court of justice.

CHAPTER XIV.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE HABITATIONS OF INDIVIDUALS.

1. Arson.

THIS offence consists in the malicious and wilful burning of the house or out-house of another man.-4 Bl. C. 220.

It must be malicious and wilful. Therefore if an unqualified person by shooting with a gun happen to set fire to the thatch of a house, this is not felony.-1 Hale, 569; 4 Bl. C. 222,

But if a man intending to commit a felony, by accident set fire to another's house, this (as it seems) is arson.Fost. 258.

If intending to set fire to the house of A., he accidentally set fire to that of B., it is felony.-1 Hale, 569.

If a man by wilfully setting fire to his own house, burn also the house of one of his neighbours, so situated that the fire must necessarily have reached it, this is arson.2 East, P. C. 1031.

There must be an actual burning, and merely setting fire does not amount to arson.-4 Bl. Com. 222.

But a burning of any part is sufficient.—Ibid.

The burning must be of a dwelling-house or out-house parcel of a dwelling-house, as barns, stables, &c.-1 Hale, 567.

But the out-house need not be contiguous to the dwellinghouse nor under the same roof.-Ibid.

It must be the house or out-house of another man. Burning a man's own house, if another's is not injured, is not arson; but, if done in a town, is at common law a misdemeanor.-4 Bl. Com. 221.

Arson is felony at common law.-4 Bl. C. 222. (As to the punishment, see the next head.)

2. Maliciously setting Houses, &c. on Fire with intent to injure or defraud, &c.

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By 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 30, s. 2, " if any person shall unlawfully and maliciously set fire to any church or chapel, "or to any chapel for the religious worship of persons dis"senting from the united church of England and Ireland " duly registered or recorded, or shall unlawfully and maliciously set fire to any house, stable, coach-house, outhouse, ware-house, office, shop, mill, malt-house, hopoast, barn or granary, or to any building or erection used "in carrying on any trade or manufacture, or any branch "thereof, whether the same or any of them respectively "shall then be in the possession of the offender or in the possession of any other person, with intent thereby to "injure or defraud any person," every such offender shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall suffer death as a felon.

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(As to the offence of setting fire, as it respects other kinds of property, see the next Chapter.)

By sect. 25, it is enacted that every punishment and forfeiture by this act imposed on any person maliciously committing any offence, whether the same be punishable upon indictment or upon summary conviction, shall equally apply and be enforced, whether the offence shall be committed from malice conceived against the owner of the property in respect of which it shall be committed, or otherwise.

By sect. 26, 27, in the case of every felony punishable under this act, accessaries before the fact are punishable as principals, and accessaries after the fact by imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, in the common gaol or house of correction, and also by solitary confinement, at discretion of the court, for the whole or any portion or portions of such imprisonment.

The offence described by the statute as to setting fire to houses appears not to be precisely the same as arson at common law, (vide sup. 160,) because an "intent to injure,"

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