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

under the act may be with or without hard labour, in the common gaol or house of correction, and the offender may be also kept in solitary confinement for the whole or any portion or portions of such imprisonment, or of such imprisonment with hard labour, as to the court in its discretion shall seem meet.

2. Falsifying Proceedings in a Court of Judicature.

By 11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV. c. 66, s. 11, causing a fine, judgment, &c. to be enrolled in the name of a person not privy to the same, is felony, punishable with transportation.-Vide post, p. 216.

3. Obstructing the Execution of Legal Process. Upon all process this is a high offence.-4 Bl. C. 129. Upon criminal process, a party opposing becomes particeps criminis, viz. an accessary in felony and a principal in treason. Hawk. b. 2, c. 17; 4 Bl. C. 129; 1 Russ. 360; cont. 1 Hale, 606.

By 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 25, where any person shall be convicted as of a misdemeanor of 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 of which he or they may be liable to be apprehended or detained, 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 fine the offender and require him to find sureties for keeping the peace. See 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 88, s. 2; 3 Geo. IV. c. 114.

By 8 & 9 Will. III. c. 27, 9 Geo. I. c. 28, 11 Geo. I. c. 22, persons opposing the execution of any process in certain pretended privileged places within the bills of mortality, or abusing any officer in his endeavours to execute his duty therein, so that he receives bodily hurt, shall be guilty of felony, and transported for seven years; and per

sons in disguise joining in or abetting any riot or tumult on such account, or opposing any process, or assaulting and abusing any officer executing or for having executed the same, shall be felons, without benefit of clergy.

To assist a person pursued by the officers of justice, to enable him to avoid arrest, seems to be a misdemeanor.1 Russ. 360.

4. Escape from Criminal Process.

In the party himself this is an offence punishable by fine or imprisonment.-4 Bl. C. 129.

In an officer or any person having the temporary custody, if the escape be through his negligence, he is punishable by fine; if by his consent and connivance, it amounts to the same kind of offence for which the prisoner is in custody, and is punishable in the same degree, whether it be treason, felony or misdemeanor.-Ibid. 130; 1 Russ. 377.

But the officer cannot be arraigned as for felony till the party himself has been attainted of the crime charged (except in case of treason).--Ibid.

He may be punished however even before that period, by fine and imprisonment as for a misdemeanor.—Ibid. By 52 Geo. III. c. 156, persons aiding the escape of prisoners of war are subject to transportation.

5. Breach of Prison by the Party himself.

If he were lawfully committed for treason or felony, this is felony, but not capital; and upon inferior charges it is a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment.—1 Russ. 378; Russ. & Ry. 458.

6. Rescue.

Rescue is the forcibly freeing another from arrest or imprisonment.-4 Bl. C. 130.

A rescue of one apprehended for felony, is felony; for

treason, treason; and for a misdemeanor, a misdemeanor.Ibid.

But the principal must be attainted before the person rescuing is arraigned as for a felony, (except in case of treason).-Ibid.; 1 Russ. 384.

By 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 88, s. 1, rescuing persons charged with felony is punishable with seven years' transportation, or imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for not less than one year and not more than three years.

By 9 Geo. IV. c. 4, s. 13, (Mutiny Act,) persons under sentence of death by a court-martial, and having obtained a conditional pardon, escaping out of custody, and all persons aiding such escape, are punishable as felons.

By 11 Geo. II. c. 26, and 24 Geo. II. c. 40, if five or more persons assemble to rescue any retailers of spirituous liquors, or to assault the informers against them, it is felony, and subject to transportation for seven years.

By 4 Geo. IV. c. 64, s. 43, to deliver instruments of escape to a prisoner, or to aid him to escape or attempt to escape from any prison within the act, whether he actually escape or not, is a felony, punishable with fourteen years' transportation.

By 25 Geo. II. c. 37, s. 9, to rescue or attempt to rescue from prison any person committed for or found guilty of murder, or to rescue or attempt to rescue any person, convicted of murder, going to execution, or during execution, is felony, without benefit of clergy; and by sect. 10, to rescue or attempt to rescue the body of a murderer from the sheriff, after execution, is a felony, punishable with transportation for seven years.

7. Returning from Transportation.

By 5 Geo. IV. c. 84, s. 22, (for consolidation of the laws relative to transportation,) if any offender who shall have been or be sentenced or ordered to be transported or banished, or who shall have agreed or shall agree to transport or banish himself or herself on certain conditions,