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11. Assaults to the Obstruction or Prejudice of Trade. By 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 25, where any person shall be charged with and convicted of any assault committed in pursuance of any conspiracy to raise the rate of wages, 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.

By section 26, if any person shall unlawfully and with force hinder any seaman, keelman, or caster from working at or exercising his lawful trade, business, or occupation, or shall beat, wound, or use any other violence to him, with intent to deter or hinder him from working at or excising the same, or if any person shall beat, wound, or use any other violence to any person, with intent to deter or hinder him from selling or buying any wheat or other grain, flour, meal, or malt, in any market or other place, or shall beat, wound, or use any other violence to any person having the care or charge of any wheat or other grain, flour, meal, or malt, whilst on its way to or from any city, market, town, or other place, with intent to stop the conveyance of the same, every such offender may be convicted thereof before two justices of the peace, and imprisoned and kept to hard labour in the common gaol or house of correction for any term not exceeding three calendar months; provided always, that no person who shall be punished for any such offence by virtue of this provision shall be punished for the same offence by virtue of any other law whatsoever.

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CHAPTER XI.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE PUBLIC POLICE OR ECONOMY.

1. Offences against the Plague or Quarantine Acts.

By 1 Jac. I. c. 31, if any person infected with the plague, or dwelling in any infected house, be commanded by the mayor or constable, or other head officer of his town or ville to keep his house and shall disobey it, he may be forced by the watchman to obey, and if any hurt ensue by such enforcement the watchmen are indemnified.

And if such person so commanded to confine himself goes abroad and converses in company, if he has no plague sore upon him he shall be punished as a vagabond by whipping, and be bound to his good behaviour, but if he has any infectious sore upon him, uncured, he shall be guilty of felony.

By 6 Geo. 4, c. 78, the method of performing quarantine is prescribed.

By section 21, all parties guilty of deserting their duty, or officers permitting any person or goods to leave a lazaret vessel, or giving false certificates, are guilty of felony.

By section 25 any persons altering or forging any certificate, or publishing any false certificate, are to be deemed guilty of felony.

By section 28 consuls or vice-consuls are empowered to administer oaths in cases respecting quarantine; and by section 29 parties making false oaths, or procuring others to do so, touching quarantine, are to be punished as in cases of perjury or subornation of perjury.

2. Offences against the Cholera Acts.

By 2 & 3 W. IV. c. 10, s. 1, it shall be lawful for the lords and others of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, or any two or more of them, (of whom the Lord President of the Council, or one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State for the time being shall always be one,) by any order to establish, and again, from time to time, by any order to revoke, renew, alter, and vary all such rules and regulations, or to substitute any new rules and regulations for the prevention, as far as may be possible, of the spreading of the disease called the Cholera, or Spasmodic or Indian Cholera, in England and Wales, or any part thereof, or for the relief of any person suffering under, or likely to be affected by, the said disease, and for the safe and speedy interment of any person or persons who may die of the said disease.

By section 3 any person who shall violate or wilfully infringe any such order, or who shall refuse or wilfully neglect or omit to act in obedience to any such order, or who shall resist the lawful execution thereof, shall for every such offence be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall also incur a penalty not exceeding £5, nor less than £1, provided always, that no person against whom any such penalty shall be so recovered, or shall have suffered the imprisonment awarded for non-payment thereof, shall be liable to be indicted or proceeded against in respect of the same offence as for a misdemeanor.

By 3 & 4 W. IV. c. 75, the above act is continued until the end of the then next session of parliament.

3. Selling Unwholesome Provisions.

This is a misdemeanor at common law.-3 M. & S. 11; 2 East, P. C. 822; 4 Camp. 12.

By 51 Hen. 3, st. 6, the sale is prohibited of corrupted wine, contagious or unwholesome flesh, &c.

By 12 Car. II. c. 25, s. 11, any brewing or adulteration of wine is punished with the forfeiture of £100 if done by the wholesale merchant, and £40 if done by the vintner or retail trader.

By 1 W. & M. st. 1, c. 24, s. 20, selling adulterated wine, or adulterating it, is punishable with fine and imprisonment.

By 31 Geo. II. c. 29, s. 21, and 37 Geo. III. c. 98, s. 21, adulterations of bread, corn, meal or flour, are prohibited, under heavy penalties.

4. Clandestine or irregular Marriages.

By 4 Geo. IV. c. 76, s. 21, persons solemnizing marriages contrary to the act in any other place than a church or chapel, or without banns or license, or under pretence of being in holy orders, shall be transported for 14 years. By section 22, all marriages solemnized under any of these circumstances shall be null and void.

By section 23, where marriages are solemnized between parties under age, contrary to this act, by false oath or fraud, the offender shall forfeit all property accruing from the marriage.

By section 29, persons convicted of making, or causing to be made, any false entry in any register book, or any license relating to any marriage, or altering, forging, or counterfeiting, or assisting in altering, &c., or causing to be altered, &c. any such entry or license, or destroying or causing to be destroyed any such register book, shall be transported for life.

5. Bigamy.

By 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 22, "if any person being married shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife, whether the second marriage shall have taken place in England or elsewhere, every such of fender and every person counselling, aiding or abetting such offender shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted

thereof shall be 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 any term not exceeding two years; and any such offence may be dealt with, inquired of, tried, determined and punished in the county where the offender shall be apprehended or be in custody, as if the offence had been actually committed in that county: Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall extend to any second marriage contracted out of England by any other than a subject of his majesty, or to any person marrying a second time, whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent from such person for the space of seven years then last past, and shall not have been known by such person to be living within that time; or shall extend to any person who, at the time of such second marriage, shall have been divorced from the bond of the first marriage; or to any person whose former marriage shall have been declared void by the sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction."

In a prosecution for this offence, the first wife is not a competent witness to prove any part of the case either for or against her husband; but the second wife is.-1 Hale, 393.

The prosecutor is bound to prove a valid celebration, and proof of cohabitation will not suffice.-1 Phillimore, 288; Arch. 477.

But it is not necessary to produce the register, or prove banns or license. The evidence of a person present will suffice. Arch. 477.

If the first or second marriage was celebrated in this country, the offence is not committed unless it were a valid marriage within the provisions of the marriage act, 4 Geo. IV. c. 76. (But, N. B. that the marriage act excepts the case where both parties are Jews or Quakers, and extends to no part of the United Kingdom except England.)

If the first or second marriage took place abroad, circumstances should be proved sufficient to enable the jury

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