The punishment for extortions is fine and imprisonment, and sometimes a forfeiture of the office: 'and by the statute 3 Edw. I. c. 26, the defendant shall render double to the party aggrieved, and be punished at the king's pleasure; that is to say, at the discretion of the court.' ¡

2 Inst. 210.

CHAPTER XI.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC PEACE.

[142] WE are next to consider offences against the public peace; the conservation of which is intrusted to the sovereign and his officers, in the manner and for the reasons which were mentioned at large in the first volume of these Commentaries. These offences are either such as are an actual breach of the peace; or constructively so, by tending to make others break it. Both of these species are also either felonious, or not felonious. The felonious breaches of the peace are strained up to that degree of malignity by virtue of several modern statutes: and, particularly,

1. Riotous assembling.

1. The riotous assembling of twelve persons, or more, and not dispersing upon proclamation. This was first made high treason by statute 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 5, when the king was a minor, and a change in religion to be effected: but that statute was repealed by statute 1 Mar. c. 1, among the other treasons created since the 25 Edw. III.; though the prohibition was in substance re-enacted, with an inferior degree of punishment, by statute 1 Mar. st. 2, c. 12, which made the same offence a felony. These statutes specified and particularized the nature of the riots they were meant to suppress; as, for example, such as were set on foot with intention to offer violence to the privy council, or to change the laws of the kingdom, or for certain other specific purposes: in which cases, if the persons were commanded by proclamation to disperse, and they did not, it was by the statute of Mary made felony, but within the benefit of clergy; and also the act indemnified the peace officers and their assistants, if they killed any of the mob in endeavouring to suppress such riot. This was thought a necessary security in that sanguinary reign, when popery was intended to be re-established, which was likely to produce

great discontents: but at first it was made only for a year, and [143] was afterwards continued for that queen's life. And, by statute 1 Eliz. c. 16, when a reformation in religion was to be once more attempted, it was revived and continued during her life also, and then expired. From the accession of James the First to the death of Queen Anne, it was never once thought expedient to revive it; but, in the first year of George the First, it was judged necessary, in order to support the execution of the Act of Settlement, to renew it, and at one stroke to make it perpetual, with large additions. For, whereas the former Acts expressly defined and specified what should be accounted a riot, the statute 1 Geo. I. s. 2, c. 5 (commonly called the Riot Act) enacts, generally, that if any twelve persons are unlawfully assembled to the disturbance of the peace, and any one justice of the peace, sheriff, under-sheriff, or mayor of a town, shall think proper to command them by proclamation to disperse, if they contemn his orders and continue together for one hour afterwards, such contempt shall be felony without benefit of clergy. And farther, if the reading of the proclamation be by force opposed, or the reader be in any manner wilfully hindered from the reading of it, such opposers and hinderers are felons without benefit of clergy: and all persons to whom such proclamation ought to have been made, and knowing of such hindrance and not dispersing, are felons without benefit of clergy. The punishment of death for these offences was, however, taken away by the statute 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 91, s. 1, and transportation for life, or for any term not less than seven years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding three years, was substituted.' The 'statute of Geo. I. also contains an' indemnifying clause, in case any of the mob be unfortunately killed in the endeavour to disperse them; this clause being also copied from the Act of Queen Mary.

demolition of

machinery.

2. It was also provided by the statute 1 Geo. I. st. 2, 2. Riotous c. 5, that if any' persons, riotously assembled, began, even buildings and before proclamation, to pull down any church, chapel, meeting-house, dwelling-house, or out-house, they should be felons without benefit of clergy; but the enactments to this effect were repealed by the statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 27; and the riotous destruction of churches and other buildings, and of

Action against the hundred.

machinery, is now provided for by the statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 30, s. 8. By this statute, any persons riotously assembled together to the disturbance of the public peace, who shall demolish or destroy, or begin to demolish, any church or chapel, or any house, outhouse, warehouse, shop, mill, malthouse, hop-oast, barn, or granary, or any building used in carrying on any trade or manufacture, or any machinery, steam-engine, or other engine for working any mine, or any building used in conducting the business of any mine, or any bridge, waggonway, or trunk, for conveying materials from any mine, shall be guilty of felony; and by the statute 4 & 5 Vict. c. 56, s. 2 (as explained by the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 10) shall be transported for life or for any term not less than seven years, or be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years.'

'It may not be out of place to mention here the civil remedy which, in cases of the felonious demolition of buildings, the law gives to parties injured against the hundred in which the premises are situated. The hundred was liable at one time for any damage done in a riot, although it did not amount to demolition or attempt at demolition; but its liability is now defined by the statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 31, which enacts, that if any church, chapel, house, building, or machinery shall be feloniously demolished, wholly or in part, by persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together, the inhabitants of the hundred shall be liable to yield full compensation in an action; provided the persons damnified, or such of them as have knowledge of the circumstances, or the servants who had the care of the property demolished, shall, within seven days, go before a justice of the peace, and state upon oath the names of the offenders, if known, and submit to examination touching the circumstances, and become bound by recognizances to prosecute. The action must also be commenced within three calendar months after the offence." By the statute 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 72, these provisions were extended to the case of damage to threshing-machines; and by the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 90, s. 44, to the plundering, damaging, or destroying ships wrecked or in distress, by any riotous assemblage. Where the damage does not exceed 307., the parties damnified may proceed summarily before justices at a special petty session.'

See also stat. 15 & 16 Vict. c. 76, s. 16.

b

letters.

3. By the statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29, s. 8, any person [ 144 ] knowingly sending or delivering any letter or writing, de- 3. Threatening manding of any person, with menaces, and without any reasonable or probable cause, any chattel, money, or valuable security, is guilty of felony, and liable to transportation for life, or for a period not less than seven years, or imprisonment (with whipping) not exceeding four years; and by the statute 10 & 11 Vict. c. 66, s. 1 (extending the statute 4 Geo. IV. c. 54, s. 3), any person knowingly sending, or delivering, or uttering to any other person any letter or writing, threatening to kill or murder any other person, or to burn or destroy any house, barn, or other building, or any rick or stack of grain, hay or straw, or other agricultural produce, or knowingly procuring, counselling, aiding, or abetting the commission of the said offences, or either of them, is guilty of felony, and may be transported for life, or for not less than seven years, or be imprisoned with or without hard labour, for not exceeding four years.'

'An offence of a somewhat similar nature to the above, but not interfering with or affecting it, is created by the statute 6 & 7 Vict. c. 96, s. 3. By this Act, any person who shall publish or threaten to publish a libel upon any other person, or shall, directly or indirectly, threaten to print or publish, or propose to abstain from printing or publishing, or offer to prevent the printing or publishing of, any matter or thing touching any other person, with intent to extort any money or security, or any valuable thing, from such or any other person, or with intent to induce any person to confer or procure for any person any appointment or office of profit or trust, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding three years.' Similar offences were formerly high treason by the statute 8 Hen. V. c. 6.

&c., flood-gates,

rivers.

4. To pull down or destroy any lock, sluice, or flood-gate, 4. Destroying, erected by authority of parliament on a navigable river, was &c., on navigable made a felony, punishable with transportation for seven years, by various statutes. All previous enactments on the subject were however consolidated by the statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV.

The 9 Geo. I. c. 22, and 27 Geo. II. c. 15, which formerly provided a punishment for sending threatening letters, were repealed by 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 27.

As to threats to accuse of crimes, see post, p. 281.

d 1 Geo. II. s. 2, c. 19; 8 Geo. II. c. 20; 4 Geo. III. c. 2.