By sect. 54, the onus of proving that the signal was not made with such intent, is laid upon the defendant.

By sect. 56, any person who shall obstruct any full-pay officer of the army, navy or marines, employed for prevention of smuggling, or any officer of customs or excise in the execution of his duty, or his assistant, or shall rescue or attempt to rescue any goods seized, or shall destroy any goods to prevent seizure thereof, shall forfeit £100.

By sect. 58, if any persons to the number of three or more, armed with fire-arms or other offensive weapons, shall within the United Kingdom or any British port be assembled in order to be aiding, or shall aid in the illegal landing, running, or carrying away of prohibited or uncustomed goods, &c. or in rescuing or taking away any such goods after seizure, or in rescuing any person apprehended for any offence made felony by any law of the customs, or in preventing the apprehension of any person guilty of such offence, every person so offending, and every person aiding therein, shall, being convicted thereof, be adjudged guilty of felony, and suffer death as a felon.

By sect. 59, persons maliciously shooting at any vessel or boat belonging to the navy or in the service of the revenue, within 100 leagues of any part of the coast of the United Kingdom, or maliciously shooting at, maiming or dangerously wounding any full-pay officer of the army, navy or marines, duly employed for prevention of smuggling, or any officer of customs or excise in the execution of his duty, or persons aiding them, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and suffer death as a felon.

By sect. 60, any person being in company with more than four others, with any goods liable to forfeiture by law of the customs or excise, or in company with one other person, within five miles of the sea-coast, or any navigable river leading therefrom, with such goods, &c. carrying offensive weapons or disguised, shall be guilty of felony, and transported for seven years.

By sect. 61, persons assaulting or obstructing such officers as aforesaid in the performance of their duty, or their assistants, by force or violence, are punishable with transportation for seven years, or imprisonment, with hard labour, for any term not exceeding three years, in any gaol or house of correction.

The act also contains some provisions as to evidence in prosecutions for such offences.

By sect. 90, no writs of certiorari to remove proceedings, under any act relating to the customs, from before the justices of peace, nor writs of habeas corpus in such cases, shall be granted, unless the ground of objection to the same be stated upon affidavit in writing; and the justices are empowered and required to amend informations, convictions, and warrants of commitment under any such act.

Bý 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 25, if any person be convicted, as of a misdemeanor, of 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, the court may sentence such 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.

2. Fraudulent Bankruptcy.

This offence consists in certain species of fraud provided against in the statute law with respect to bankruptcy.

By 6 Geo. IV. c. 16, s. 99, the bankrupt or other person swearing falsely before the commissioners, shall be guilty of perjury.

By sect. 112, any bankrupt who shall not surrender and submit himself to be examined, or upon examination shall not discover all his estate, or not deliver up his estate, books and writings, or shall conceal or embezzle any part

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.

By the same statute, 12 Anne, st. 2, c. 16, if any scrivener 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. 10237 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