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penalties the statutes 2 Geo. II. c. 25, and 9 Geo. II. c. 18,' superadded a power for the court to order the offender to be sent to the house of correction and kept to hard labour for a term not exceeding seven years, or to be transported for the same period; for which latter punishment penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven, nor less than five years, is now substituted.'"

It has sometimes been wished, that perjury, at least upon capital accusations, whereby another's life has been or might have been destroyed, was also rendered capital, upon a principle of retaliation. And where indeed the death of an innocent person has actually been the consequence of such wilful perjury, it falls within the guilt of deliberate murder, and deserves an equal punishment; which our ancient law in fact inflicted. But to multiply capital punishments lessens their effect, when applied to crimes of the deepest dye; and detestable as perjury is, it is not by any means to be compared with some other offences, for which death cannot be inflicted; and therefore it seems already, except perhaps in the instance of deliberate murder by perjury, very properly punished by our present law, which has adopted the opinion of Cicero, derived from the law of the twelve tables, "perjurii poena divina, exitium; humana, dedecus."

16. Bribery is the next species of offence against public justice. It is an offence against public justice when a judge, or other person concerned in its administration, takes any undue reward to influence his behaviour in his office. In the East it is the custom never to petition any superior for justice, not excepting their kings, without a present. This is calculated for the genius of despotic countries, where the true principles of government are never understood, and it is imagined that there is no obligation from the superior to the inferior, no relative duty owing from the governor to the governed. The Roman law, though it contained many severe injunctions against bribery, as well for selling a man's vote in the senate or other public assembly, as for the bartering of common justice, yet by a strange indulgence in one instance, it tacitly encouraged this practice; allowing the magistrate to receive small presents, provided they did not in the whole exceed a hundred crowns in the year: not

© 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3; 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47.

d Britton, c. 5.

e De Leg. 2, 9.

f 1 Hawk. P. C. 168.

Ff. 48, 11, 6.

considering the insinuating nature and gigantic progress of this vice, when once admitted. Plato therefore more wisely, in his ideal republic," orders those who take presents for doing their duty to be punished in the severest manner: and by the laws of Athens he that offered was also prosecuted, as well as he that received a bribe. In England this offence of taking bribes is punished, in inferior officers, with fine and imprisonment; and in those who offer a bribe, though not taken, the same.' But in judges, especially the superior ones, it has been always looked upon as so heinous an offence, that the chief justice Thorpe was hanged for it in the reign of Edward III. By the 'now repealed' statute 11 Hen. IV. all judges and officers of the king, convicted of bribery, forfeited' treble the bribe, 'were punishable' at the king's will, and discharged from the king's service for ever. some notable examples have been made in parliament, of persons in the highest stations, and otherwise very eminent and able, but contaminated with this sordid vice.

And

'At the present day, however, the species of bribery to which the attention of the public and of the legislature is chiefly directed, is that which destroys the purity of the elections for members of the House of Commons. The unsuccessful attempts to prevent this crime, for in no other light can it be regarded, are evinced by the numerous statutes which have been passed professedly to effect that object, and to which we have already had occasion to refer in the first volume of these commentaries. The statute now in force, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 102, carefully defines what acts shall amount to bribery, and makes the offence a misdemeanor, and therefore punishable by fine and imprisonment; and, apparently to induce prosecution, adds a penalty of 1007. to any person who shall sue for the same. A penalty of 501. is assigned for the offence of treating, which is only a lesser kind of bribery.'

17. Embracery is an attempt to influence a jury corruptly to one side by promises, persuasions, entreaties, money, entertainments, and the like. The punishment for the person embracing is 'at common law' by fine and imprisonment; and for the juror so embraced, if it were by taking money, the punishment was, by

h De Leg. 1. 12.

iPott. Antiq. b. 1, c. 23.
j 3 Inst. 117; 4 Burr. 2500.

VOL. IV.

* 3 Inst. 146; 20 Edw. III. c. 1.
11 Hawk. P. C. 259.

K

divers statutes of the reign of Edward III., perpetual infamy, imprisonment for a year, and forfeiture of the tenfold value. 'This offence is now punishable, by 6 Geo. IV. c. 50, s. 61, with fine and imprisonment.'

18. The false verdict of jurors, whether occasioned by embracery or not, was anciently considered as criminal, and therefore exemplarily punished by attaint in the manner formerly mentioned. 'It can now, in certain cases, be set aside by the court on an application for a new trial; but a corrupt juror may always be proceeded against by indictment or information.'

19. Another offence of the same species is the negligence of public officers, intrusted with the administration of justice, as sheriffs, coroners, constables, and the like, which makes the offender liable to be fined; and in very notorious cases will amount to a forfeiture of his office, if it be a beneficial one."

20. There is yet another offence against public justice, which is a crime of deep malignity; and so much the deeper, as there are many opportunities of putting it in practice, and the power and wealth of the offenders may often deter the injured from a legal prosecution. This is the oppression and tyrannical partiality of judges, justices, and other magistrates, in the administration and under the colour of their office. However, when prosecuted, either by impeachment or by information, according to the rank of the offenders, it is sure to be severely punished with forfeiture of their offices, either consequential or immediate, fines, imprisonment, or other discretionary censure, regulated by the nature and aggravations of the offence committed.

21. Lastly, extortion is an abuse of public justice, which consists in an officer's unlawfully taking, by colour of his office, from any man, any money or thing of value, that is not due to him, or more than is due, or before it is due."

'The statute 3 Edw. I. c. 26, in affirmance of the common law, enacts, that no sheriff, nor other king's officer, shall take any reward to do his office, but shall be paid of that which they take of the king; and that he who so doth, shall yield twice as much, and shall be punished at the king's pleasure. This act,

m 1 Hawk. P. C. 168.

n Ibid. 170.

which thus particularly names the sheriff, extends to every ministerial officer concerned in the administration or execution of justice, the common good of the subject, or the service of the king. Where, therefore, a statute annexes a fee to an oflice, it will be extortion in the officer to take more than is specified, for which offence he may be indicted." Stated and known fees allowed by the courts of justice to their officers are, however, legal, and may be properly demanded. Nor is it criminal for an officer to accept a reward, voluntarily offered, for the more diligent or expeditious performance of his duty. But a promise to pay him money for any act of duty which the law does not suffer him to receive, is absolutely void, however freely it may have been given.'

The punishment for extortion is fine and imprisonment, and sometimes a forfeiture of the office: 'and by the statute already mentioned, 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.'r

• 2 Inst. 209.

P 3 Mod. 247; 3 Inst. 150.

4 Stotesbury v. Smith, 2 Burr. 924; 1 Wm. Bla. 201. r 2 Inst. 210.

CHAPTER XI.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC PEACE.

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. 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 Mary, 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 Mary, 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 was afterwards continued for that queen's life. And, by the statute 1 Eliz. c. 16, when a reformation in religion was to be once more

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