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of his estate to the value of £10, or books, &c. relating thereto, with intent to defraud his creditors, shall be guilty of felony, and liable to transportation for life or not less than seven years, or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding seven years, in any common gaol, penitentiary house, or house of correction,

By 32 Geo. II. c. 28, if a prisoner charged in execution for any debt under £100 (enlarged to £300 by 33 Geo. III. c. 5), neglects or refuses, on demand, to discover and deliver up his effects for the benefit of his creditors, it is felony, punishable with transportation for seven years.

3. Usury.

This offence consists in an unlawful contract, upon the loan of money, to receive the same again with exorbitant increase.-4 Bl. C. 156.

By 12 Anne, st. 2, c. 16, all contracts of this description are totally void, and the lender forfeits treble the money borrowed-one half of the penalty being given by the statute to the prosecutor, and one half to the king.

Such penalty may be enforced by a qui tam action of debt within one year after the offence committed.

It is doubtful whether an indictment lies upon the statute; and an indictment for usury, if maintainable, is at least not an ordinary mode of proceeding.-Com. Dig. Usury, C.; 1 Russ. 411.

It seems, too, that the quarter sessions have no jurisdiction over the offence.-2 Salk. 680; 1 Russ. 411.

It is clear that no indictment lies for making an usurious contract only, where there has been no loan or receipt of interest upon it.-1 Russ. 411.

16, if any scrivener

By the same statute, 12 Anne, st. 2, c. 16, if or broker takes more than 5s. per cent. procuration money, or more than 12d. for making a bond, he shall forfeit £20, with costs, and suffer imprisonment for half a year.

By 53 Geo. III. c. 141, s. 8, to procure or solicit any person under twenty-one to grant an annuity, or shall advance or procure to be advanced money to him on consideration of his granting an annuity after twenty-one, is a misdemeanor, punishable by fine, imprisonment, or other corporal punishment.

By sect. 9, to take more than 10s. per cent. for procuring any money to be advanced on any life annuity within the act, is a misdemeanor, punishable with fine and imprison

ment.

4. Cheating.

The offence of cheating, at common law, is the fraudulent obtaining the property of another by any deceitful and illegal practice or token (short of felony), which affects or may affect the public.-2 Russ. 293.

But it seems that it must be such as common prudence could not have guarded against.—Ibid. 297.

And an imposition on an individual, in a merely private transaction, is not indictable at common law.-Ibid. 293.

At common law the offence is a misdemeanor, punishable with fine and imprisonment.-Ibid. 297.

Some cases of fraud are provided against by statute, among which are the following:

1. Selling by False Weight and Measure.

The statutes on this subject are 35 Geo. III. c. 102— 37 Geo. III. c. 143, as to weights; 36 Geo. III. c. 86, as to butter; 55 Geo. III. c. 43, as to measures; and 5 Geo. IV. c. 74 (amended by 6 Geo. IV. c. 12), as to weights and measures. By the 5 Geo. IV. c. 74, an uniformity of weights and measures is established.

This offence is a misdemeanor at common law, punishable with fine and imprisonment, (Arch. 242; 2 Russ. 289,) and also punishable by statute, in certain cases, with pecuniary forfeitures.

By 9 Geo. IV. c. 61, s. 19, all persons licensed to sell

excisable liquors by retail, to be consumed on their premises, shall, if required, use the standard measures, under penalty of forfeiting the illegal measure and a sum not exceeding 40s., besides all other penalties.

2. False Pretences.

By 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29, s. 53, if any person shall, by any false pretence, obtain from any other person any chattel, money or valuable security, with intent to cheat or defraud any person of the same, every such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be 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 or imprisonment, or both, as the court shall award: Provided always, that if upon the trial of any person indicted for such misdemeanor it shall be proved that he obtained the property in question in any such manner as to amount in law to larceny, he shall not, by reason thereof, be entitled to be acquitted of such misdemeanor; and no such indictment shall be removeable by certiorari; and no person tried for such misdemeanor shall be liable to be afterwards prosecuted for larceny upon the same facts.

And see sect. 4 of the same act (cited supra, p. 65,) as to the place and mode of imprisonment for all offences punishable under the act.

In some cases the fraud practised is ground for a civil action only, and no indictment as for a false pretence can be supported. See 2 Russ. 298, and the cases cited by Mr. Ryland, 4 Bl. Com. 158, n. (13).

3. Offences as to Characters of Servants.

By 32 Geo. III. c. 56, personating a master and giving a false character to a servant, or asserting in writing that a servant had been hired for a period of time or in a station, or was discharged at any time, or had not been hired in

any previous service, contrary to truth, and a person offering himself as a servant, pretending to have served where he has not served, or with a false certificate of character, or altering a certificate, or pretending not to have been in any previous service, contrary to truth, are offences punishable, on conviction before two justices, by a forfeiture of £20.

5. Forestalling the Market

is described by the repealed act of 5 & 6 Ed. VI. c. 14, as the buying or contracting for any merchandize coming on the way to the market, or dissuading persons from bringing their goods or provisions there, or persuading them to enhance the price when there.

It is a misdemeanor at common law, punishable with fine and imprisonment.-4 Bl. C. 158.

6. Regrating

is described by the same statute to be the buying of corn or other dead victual in any market, and selling it again in the same market or within four miles of the place.

This is also a misdemeanor at common law, punishable with fine and imprisonment.-Ibid.

7. Engrossing

is described by the same statute as the getting into one's possession or buying up large quantities of corn, or other dead victuals, with intent to sell them again.—Ibid.

This is also a misdemeanor at common law, punishable with fine and imprisonment.

But by 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 26, assaults with intent to obstruct the buying or selling of grain, or the free passage thereof, are punishable summarily before two magistrates by imprisonment and hard labour.

And see, as to offences of this kind, 1 Russ. 169; 1 East, 143; and 3 M. & S. 67.

8. Monopolies.

A monopoly is a license or privilege allowed by the king for the sole buying and selling, making, working, or using of any thing whatsoever, whereby the subject in general is restrained from that liberty of manufacturing or trading which he had before.-4 Bl. C. 159.

By 21 Jac. I. c. 3, such monopolies are declared to be contrary to law, and void, except as to patents not exceeding the grant of 14 years to the authors of new inventions, and except also patents concerning printing, saltpetre. gunpowder, great ordnance and shot; and monopolists are punished with the forfeiture of treble damages and double costs to those whom they attempt to disturb-and if they procure any action brought against them for these damages to be stayed by any extra-judicial order, other than of the Court wherein it is brought, they incur the penalties of a præmunire.

9. Combination among Victuallers to raise the Price of Provisions and other Commodities.

These (as conspiracies, vide supra, 70,) are by the common law, misdemeanors, punishable with fine and imprisonment.

10. Unlawful Interference with Journeymen or
Manufacturers.

By 6 Geo. IV. c. 129, s. 2, persons compelling journeymen to leave their employment or to return work unfinished, preventing them from hiring themselves, compelling them to belong to clubs, &c., or to pay fines, or forcing manufacturers to alter their mode of carrying on their business, are punishable with imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any time not exceeding three months, and may be convicted in a summary way before justices of the peace.

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