Imatges de pàgina
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Persons offending against this statute may be proceeded against either in a summary way before one justice or more, who may fine £20 or imprison for three calendar months, or be prosecuted by indictment, and upon conviction the court may transport for seven years, or imprison for any time not exceeding two years.

The act, however, contains exceptions as to declarations approved by two justices and registered as in the act provided, and also as to regular lodges of Free Masons.

By 51 Geo. III. c. 65. s. 2, if any justice or other magistrate, before whom any person shall be convicted under the 39 Geo. III. c. 79, shall see cause to mitigate the penalty, he may mitigate the same to any sum not less than £5 exclusive of costs.

By 52 Geo. III. c. 104, every person who shall administer or cause to be administered, or be aiding or assisting in the administration of any oath or engagement intending to bind the party sworn to the commission of any treason, murder or capital felony, shall be guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy; and every one taking the same, not being compelled, shall be guilty of felony, and be transported for life or for such time as the court may decide.

By the same act, persons compelled to take oaths are not exonerated unless they discover the same within fourteen days.

By 57 Geo. III. c. 19, s. 25, societies established, or thereafter to be established, taking unlawful oaths, &c. within 37 Geo. III. c. 123, or 52 Geo. III. c. 104, or requiring oaths, tests, or declarations not required by law, or electing committees, delegates, &c. and persons becoming members of such societies shall be deemed guilty of unlawful combinations within 39 Geo. III. c. 79, and proceeded against accordingly.

By 60 Geo. III. and 1 Geo. IV. c. 1, all meetings and assemblies of persons for the purpose of being trained or of practising military exercise, are prohibited under pain. of transportation for seven years or imprisonment for two

years, and persons attending such meetings are liable to fine and imprisonment not exceeding two years.

18. Printing and Publishing Newspapers
contrary to Law.

By 38 Geo. III. c. 78, s. 7, if any person shall knowingly and wilfully print or publish, or sell, vend or deliver out any newspaper, such affidavit of the names, &c. of the printers, publishers and proprietors, and other particulars as required by the act, not having been duly signed, sworn and delivered, he shall forfeit for every such act done £100.

By sect. 10, there shall be printed in some part of every newspaper, the true name, addition and place of abode of the printer and publisher, and a true description of the place where printed; and in case any person shall knowingly and wilfully print or publish any such newspaper not containing these particulars, he shall forfeit £100.

By sect. 17, the printer and publisher of every newspaper shall, on every day of publication or in six days after, deliver to the commissioners of stamps one of the papers so published, signed by the printer or publisher in his handwriting, with his name and place of abode, &c. to be kept by the commissioners, under penalty of £100 for every neglect to deliver as aforesaid.

By sect. 18, if any person shall knowingly and wilfully print or publish any newspaper not duly stamped, he shall forfeit, besides other penalties, £20 for every such news

paper.

By s. 19, every person receiving any such newspaper incurs the like penalty.

By sect. 20, every person sending any such newspaper out of Great Britain forfeits £100 for every such offence.

By sect. 24, any person printing or publishing in a newspaper in England anything tending to excite hatred and contempt of his majesty and the constitution and government, as having been previously printed or pub

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lished in some foreign paper which hath not been so printed or published, shall be imprisoned from six to twelve months, and liable to such other punishments as may be inflicted on high misdemeanors.

By 39 Geo. III. c. 79, s. 15, every place for lecturing, debating or reading books, newspapers, &c. where money shall be paid, &c. shall be deemed a disorderly house unless previously licensed, and the persons paying or receiving the money shall forfeit £20.

By sect. 23, every person having a printing press or types shall give notice to the clerk of the peace, and obtain a certificate, on penalty of £20 for keeping or using the same without notice and certificate, or using them in any place not expressed in the notice.

By sect. 25, letter-founders and printing-press makers shall give notice to clerk of the peace of their intention to carry on such business, and obtain certificate, under penalty of £20 for carrying on such business without notice.

By sect. 27, every person who shall print any paper or book meant to be published, shall print on the front of every paper, if the same shall be printed on one side only, and upon the first and last leaves of any paper or book consisting of more than one leaf, his name and the name of the city, &c. square, street, &c. in which his place of abode is, on penalty of £20 for every copy published contrary to such regulation.

By sect. 29, printers shall keep a copy of every paper they print, and write or print thereon the name of their employer, under penalty of £20 for neglect so to do, or for refusing to produce the same to a justice of peace.

By sect. 33, if any justice of the peace shall, from information on oath, have reason to suspect that any printing-press or types are used or kept contrary to the act, he may, by warrant, direct any constable, &c. to enter the house, &c. and search for the same, and to seize and carry away every printing-press found therein, with types and other articles, and all printed papers.

By 60 Geo. III. and 1 Geo. IV. c.9, all pamphlets and

60

OFFENCES INJURIOUS TO KING OR GOVERNMENT.

papers containing any public news, intelligence or occurrences, or any remarks or observations thereon or upon any matter in church or state, printed in any part of the United Kingdom for sale, and published periodically or in parts or numbers at intervals not exceeding twenty-six days, where any number shall not exceed two sheets or shall be published for sale for less than 6d. exclusive of duty, shall be deemed a newspaper within 38 Geo. III. c. 78, and within 55 Geo. III. c. 185, imposing stamps on newspapers, and all other acts relating to newspapers; and such publications and newspapers in general are also by the said act subjected to other regulations.

And see further as to newspapers 16 Geo. II. c. 26, s. 5; 29 Geo. III. c. 50, s. 9; 6 Geo. IV. c. 119; 11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV. c. 73.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE.

1. Stealing or Obliterating Records.

By 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29, s. 21, if any person shall steal, or shall for any fraudulent purpose take from its place of deposit for the time being, or from any person having the lawful custody thereof, or shall unlawfully and maliciously obliterate, injure or destroy any record, writ, return, panel, process, interrogatory, deposition, affidavit, rule, order, warrant of attorney, or any original document whatsoever, of or belonging to any court of record, or relating to any matter, civil or criminal, begun, depending or terminated in any such court, or any bill, answer, interrogatory, deposition, affidavit, order or decree, or any original document whatsoever, of or belonging to any court of equity, or relating to any cause or matter begun, depending or terminated in any such court, every such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable, at the discretion of the court, to be transported beyond the seas for the term of seven years, or to suffer such other punishment, by fine and imprisonment, or both, as the court shall award; and it shall not be necessary in any indictment for such offence to allege that the article, in respect of which the offence is committed, is the property of any person, or that the same is of any value.

By sect. 4, the imprisonment for all indictable offences

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