or less than three years, or imprisoned for any time not exceeding two years (y). When the objects of the society, however, are not mutinous, seditious, treasonable, or felonious, these provisions are subject to exception;—as in the case of regular lodges of Freemasons, societies duly established under the statutes in force relating to friendly societies (z), meetings of Quakers, and meetings of a religious or charitable nature only and such as relate to oaths and engagements do not extend to any form of declaration approved by two justices, and registered as in the Acts provided. By one of the above Acts, viz. by 52 Geo. III. c. 104, it is also provided that every person who shall administer or cause to be administered, or be aiding or assisting in the administration of, any oath or engagement intending to bind the party sworn to the commission of any treason, murder or capital felony,-shall be guilty of felony; and he may be sentenced to penal servitude for life, or for not less than three years, or be imprisoned, with or without hard labour and solitary confinement, for any term not more than two years (a). And it is further enacted, that every person taking such oath or engagement, (not being compelled,) shall be guilty of felony, and liable to penal servitude for life, or such time as the court may direct; and that compulsion shall be no excuse, unless the party compelled makes discovery of the case within fourteen days (b). Lastly, by 60 Geo. III. & 1 Geo. IV. c. 1, all meetings and assemblies of persons for the purpose of being trained, or of practising military exercise, without lawful authority, are prohibited (c). Persons attending such (y) 39 Geo. 3, c. 79; 52 Geo. 3, c. 104; 57 Geo. 3, c. 19; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 12; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3. (z) See as to these, sup. vol. III. p. 208. (a) 52 Geo. 3, c. 104; 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 91; 9 & 10 Vict. c. 24, s. 1; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3. (b) 52 Geo. 3, c. 104, ss. 1, 2. (c) As to our volunteers, they are trained (as elsewhere explained) under the provisions of 44 Geo. 3, c. 44 (vide sup. vol. 11. p. 610). i meetings, for the purpose of training others, are made liable to penal servitude for three years, or to be imprisoned for two years (d); and those attending for the purpose of being trained, may be fined and imprisoned for two years (e). XVIII. We shall conclude the chapter with a notice of certain miscellaneous contempts against the royal prerogative, not properly falling under any of the preceding heads. Such as, 1. Concealing treasure trove, which, (as we have elsewhere explained,) [belongs to the sovereign or his grantees by prerogative royal (ƒ);] and the concealment of which was formerly punishable by death (g), but now only by fine and imprisonment (h). 2. [Preferring the interests of a foreign potentate to those of our own, or doing or receiving anything that may create an undue influence in favour of such extrinsic power; as by taking a pension from any foreign prince without the consent of the Crown (i).] 3. [Disobeying the sovereign's lawful commands;-whether by writs issuing out of his courts of justice; or by a summons to attend his privy council; or by letter from him to a subject, commanding him to return from beyond the seas, (for disobedience to which, his lands shall be seized till he does return, and himself afterwards punished); or by the writ of ne exeat regno, or proclamation commanding the subject to stay at home (k).] 4. [Disobedience to any Act of parliament, where no particular penalty is assigned.] All these are instances of misprisions and contempts; and all are punishable by fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the courts of justice (1). 284 CHAPTER VII. OF OFFENCES AGAINST RELIGION. IT has been laid down at the outset of this work that rights are liberties secured to the individual by the compact of civil society (a); and at the beginning of the present Book we have defined crimes as the violation of rights when considered in a particular point of view, viz. in reference to the evil effect of such violation as regards the community at large (b). It follows from this, that crimes, in contemplation of law, essentially consist in the breach of human institutions; and therefore, though the offences in this and the following chapter are enumerated as offences against religion and the law of nations, which are equivalent to the law of God and the law of nature; yet in a treatise of municipal law, we must consider them as deriving their particular guilt from the law of man. Of offences against religion, of which cognizance is thus taken by human tribunals, the first is that of— I. [Apostasy, or a total renunciation of Christianity, by embracing either a false religion or no religion at all. This offence can only take place, in such as have once professed the true religion. The perversion of a Christian to judaism, paganism, or other false religion, was punished by the Emperors Constantius and Julian with confiscation of goods (c): to which the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian added capital punishment, in case the apostate en (a) Vide sup. vol. 1. p. 30. (b) Vide sup. p. 89. (c) Cod. 1. 7, 1. [deavoured to pervert others to the same iniquity (d): a punishment too severe for any temporal laws to inflict upon any spiritual offence: and yet the zeal of our ancestors imported it into this country; for we find by Bracton, that in his time apostates were to be burnt to death (e). Doubtless the preservation of Christianity, as a national religion, is, abstracted from its own intrinsic truth, of the utmost consequence to the civil state; which a single instance sufficiently will demonstrate. The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, the entertaining just ideas of the moral attributes of the Supreme Being, and a firm persuasion that he superintends and will finally compensate every action in human life,—all which are clearly revealed in the doctrines, and forcibly inculcated by the precepts, of our Lord and Saviour Christ, these are the grand foundation of all judicial oaths; which call God to witness the truth of those facts which, perhaps, may be only known to Him and the party attesting: all moral evidence, therefore, all confidence in human veracity, must be weakened by apostasy and overthrown by total infidelity (f). Wherefore all affronts to Christianity, or endeavours to depreciate its efficacy in those who have once professed it, are highly deserving of censure. But yet the loss of life is a heavier penalty than the offence, taken in a civil light, deserves; and taken in a spiritual light, our laws have no jurisdiction over it. This punishment, therefore, has long ago become obsolete; and the offence of apostasy was for a long time the object only of the ecclesiastical courts, which corrected the offender pro salute animæ. salute animæ. But about the close of the sixteenth century the civil then restored, being used as a liberties to which we were cloak of maliciousness; and divini supplicii metus a scelere revocarit; quamque sancta sit societas civium inter ipsos, Diis immortalibus interpositis tum judicibus, tum testibus ?"-Cic. de LL. ii. 7. [the most horrid doctrines subversive of all religion, being publicly avowed, both in discourse and writings; it was thought necessary again for the civil power to interpose, by not admitting those miscreants to the privileges of society, who maintained such principles as destroyed all moral obligation (g).] To this end it was enacted by stat. 9 & 10 Will. III. c. 32, that if any person educated in, or having made profession of, the Christian religion, shall by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, assert or maintain there are more Gods than one, or shall deny the Christian religion to be true (h), or the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testament to be of divine authority, [he shall upon the first offence be rendered incapable to hold any] ecclesiastical, civil or military office or employment, and, [for the second, be rendered incapable of bringing any action, (or to be guardian, executor, legatee, or grantee,) and shall suffer three years' imprisonment without bail. To give room, however, for repentance;-if, within four months after the first conviction, the delinquent will in open court publicly renounce his error, he is discharged for that once from all disabilities. II. A second offence is that of heresy; which consists not in a total denial of Christianity, but of some of its principal doctrines, publicly and obstinately avowed (i).] But of this offence, (now subject only to ecclesiastical correction pro salute animæ, and no longer punishable by the secular law,) enough has been said in that part of the work which relates to the Church and its doctrines (j). III. Another species of offences against God and religion, [is that of blasphemy against the Almighty by denying (g) Mescroyantz in our antient law books is the name of unbelievers. (h) The Act adds to these offences, that of denying "any one of the persons in the Holy Trinity to be God," but it was repealed quoad hoc, by 53 (j) Vide sup. vol. 111. pp. 48, 53. |