Page images
PDF
EPUB

No. LIX.

39 & 40 G.III.

C. 77.

or more of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the county wherein such offence shall have been committed, shall, for every such offence, on complaint of the owner or owners, or his or their agent or agents, and not otherwise, forfeit and pay such sum of money, not exceeding forty shillings, as to such justice or justices shall seem meet, together with the charges previous to and attending such conviction, to be ascertained by viction before such justice or justices who shall convict the offender or offenders; and one justice forupon nonpayment thereof, such justice or justices shall commit the offender feit not exor offenders to the common gaol of the county or place where the offence ceeding 408. shall be committed, without bail or mainprize, for any time not exceeding and for nonsix months, or until the penalty and charges shall be paid; and upon be imprisoned. such conviction, every such bargain, contract, or agreement shall become void.

[ocr errors]

payment may

If any collier or miner, &c. shall stack any coal, &c. in a fraudulent manner, to defraud his employer, or

shall remove

any iron stone to defraud his fellow workmen, &c. he may be imprisoned, not exceding three

months.

IV. And whereas the owners and lessees of coal, iron stone, or iron C ore, contracting to get the same raised by weight, are often under the necessity of advancing money to the colliers and miners upon the measure thereof in heaps, at or near the colliery or mine work, before the same can be carried to be weighed, and great frauds are practised in the walling and stacking of such coal, iron stone, and iron ore, by which the colliers < and miners obtain money beyond what they earn, or are able to repay, < and miners often defraud each other by conveying away iron stone from one heap into another;' Be it therefore enacted, That if any person or persons shall wall or stack, or cause to be walled or stacked, any coal, iron stone, or iron ore, in any false or fraudulent manner, with an intent to deceive his or their employer or employers, or if any person or persons shall take and remove any iron stone or iron ore with intent to defraud the person or persons who shall have raised the same, and shall be thereof convicted, either by the confession of the party offending, or upon the oath of one or more credible witness or witnesses before any one or more justice or justices of the peace for the county wherein such offence shall have been committed, it shall and may be lawful for such justice or justices to commit any such person to the house of correction or common gaol for the same county, for any time not exceeding three months. V. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall steal or take away any coal, culm, or coak, wood, iron, ropes, or leather, not exceeding the value of five shillings, from any bank, yard, wharf, or other place, belonging to any manufacturer or coal dealer, or off or out of any boat, barge, waggon, cart, or other carriage, or shall wilfully break, destroy or damage any waggon, cart, or other carriage, used for carrying coal, culm, coak, iron, or iron stone, or shall steal, break, destroy, damage, or embezzle any tools or implements used for cutting or getting coal, culm, or other minerals, not exceeding the value above mentioned, and shall, on complaint of the owner or his agent, be thereof convicted, either by the confession of the party offending, or by the oath of one or more credible witness or witnesses, before any one or more justice or justices of the peace of the county where the offence shall be committed, every person so offending, and being thereof convicted as aforesaid, shall, for the first offence, forfeit and pay such sum of money, not exceeding ten shillings, as to such justice or justices shall seem meet, over and above the charges previous to and attending such conviction, to be ascertained by such justice or justices who shall convict the offender, and upon nonpayment thereof such justice or justices shall commit the offender to the house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for one month, or until the penalty and charges shall be paid; and if any person so convicted shall be guilty of the like offence a second time, and shall be thereof convicted in like manner, such to certain person shall forfeit and pay such sum of money, not exceeding twenty penalties, viz. shillings, as to such justice or justices shall seem meet over and above the not exceeding charges previous to and attending such conviction, to be ascertained by 10s. or one such justice or justices who shall convict the offender, and upon nonpay- month's impriment thereof, such justice or justices shall commit the offender to the sonment for house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for three months, or until the penalty and charges shall be paid; and if any person so convicted shall be guilty of the like offence a third time, or oftener, and shall be

If any person shall steal any coal, or materials, &c. not more than 5s. value, from any place belonging to any manufacturer or coal dealer, or out of any boat, &c. or shall damage any carriage used for carrying coals, &c. or steal or damage any tools

used for cutting coal, &c. not exceeding 5s. value, he shall be liable

the first offence; 20s. or 3 months for the second;

No. LIX. 39 & 40 G.III.

c. 77.

40s. or six

months for the third, &c.

Application of forfeitures.

Evidence of inhabitants of the place where the

offence is com

thereof convicted in like manner, such person shall forfeit and pay, for every such offence, such sum of money, not exceeding forty shillings, as to such justice or justices shall seem meet, over and above the charges previous to and attending such conviction, to be ascertained by such justice or justices who shall convict the offender, and upon nonpayment thereof, such justice or justices shall commit the offender to the house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for six months, or until the penalty and charges shall be paid: Provided always, That no person who shall be convicted of any offence under this Act, shall be liable to be prosecuted for the same offence under any other law.

VI. And be it further enacted, That all and every the forfeitures to be paid in pursuance of this Act shall be distributed between the informer and the overseer or overseers of the parish or place where the offence shall be committed, for the use of the poor of such parish or place, in such proportion as the justice or justices before whom the offenders shall be convicted shall think fit.

VII. And be it further enacted, That in all informations and other proceedings for any of the last-mentioned offences, the evidence of the inhabitants of the parish or place where the offence shall be committed, shall be taken and allowed; any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. VIII. And, for the more easy and speedy conviction of offenders against mitted shall be this Act, be it further enacted, That all and every the justice or justices of good. the peace before whom any person or persons shall be convicted of any offence against this Act, shall and may cause the conviction to be drawn up in the fol- up in the following words, or in any form of words to the same effect, as the case shall happen; (videlicet,)

Convictions

shall be drawn

lowing

Form.

Prosecutions

must be begun within nine months.

Persons aggrieved may appeal to the quarter ses sions (except on orders of

commitment).

Proceedings not to be quashed for

want of form,

or removable'

into any court of record.

BE it remembered, That on the

[ocr errors]

day of

in the year of our Lord A. B. having been brought before me [or, having 'been duly summoned, and not having appeared, as the case may happen] is on his own confession [or, on due proof, whichever may be the case] 'convicted before me, C. D. one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for ' the county of for that he the said A. B. on the in the said county of

[ocr errors]

at

day of did [here specify the "offence according to the fact, and following the words of the Act, and whe'ther the same is the first, or what other offence] against the form of the sta'statute in that case made: and I do adjudge him to forfeit and pay for the said offence the sum of and also the further sum of 'for the charges of this conviction. Given under my hand and seal [or, our 'hands and seals] the day and year first aforesaid.'

IX. Provided always, That no person shall be prosecuted for any offence against this Act, unless such prosecution be begun within nine calendar months after the offence committed.

X. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That any person or persons thinking himself or themselves aggrieved by any order or determination of any justice or justices of the peace in pursuance of this Act, save and except any order of commitment, may, within three calendar months after such order or determination shall be made, complain to the justices of the peace at the general quarter sessions to be held in and for the county or place where the cause of appeal shall arise, who shall either hear and determine such complaint at such general quarter sessions of the peace, or if they think proper may adjourn the hearing thereof to the next general quarter sessions of the peace to be held for the said county or place, and if they see cause, may quash any conviction, or mitigate any forfeiture or fine, and may award costs to either party, or order any money to be returned which shall have been levied in pursuanceof any such order or determination, and shall and may also award such further satisfaction to be made to the party injured as they shall judge reasonable; but no proceedings to be had and taken in pursuance of this Act shall be quashed or vacated for want of form, or be removed by certiorari, or by any other writ or process whatsoever, into any of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster or elsewhere; any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding,

c. 77.

[No. LX.] 43 George III. c. 58.-An Act for the further No. LIX. Prevention of malicious shooting, and attempting to dis- 39 and 40 charge loaded Fire-Arms, stabbing, cutting, wounding, George III. poisoning, and the malicious using of means to procure the Miscarriage of Women; and also the malicious setting Fire to Buildings; and also for repealing a certain Act, made in England in the twenty-first year of the late King James the First, intituled, An Act to prevent the destroying and murthering of Bastard Children; and also an Act made in Ireland in the sixth Year of the Reign of the late Queen Anne, also intituled, An Act to prevent the destroying and murthering of Bastard Children; and for making other Provisions in lieu thereof.-[24th June 1803.] [Inserted ante, Class IV.]

[No. LXI.] 43 George III. c. 113.-An Act for the more effectually providing for the Punishment of Offences in wilfully casting away, burning, or destroying Ships and Vessels; and for the more convenient Trial of Accessaries in Felonies; and for extending the Powers of an Act made in the thirty-third Year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, as far as relates to Murders, to Accessaries to Murders, and to Manslaughters.-[27th July 1803.]

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

c. 113.

Provisions of

WHEREAS in and by a certain Act of Parliament made in the fourth No. LXI. year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the First, intituled, 43 Geo. III. An Act for enforcing and making perpetual an Act of the twelfth Year of her late Majesty, intituled, An Act for the preserving of all such Ships and Goods thereof, which shall happen to be forced on Shore, or stranded upon the Coasts of this Kingdom, or any other of her Majesty's Dominions; and for inflicting the Punishment of Death on such as shall wilfully burn or destroy Ships, it is, amongst other things, enacted, That if any owner of, ⚫ or captain, master, mariner, or other officer belonging to any ship, shall, c. after the twenty-fourth day of June which shall be in the of our year Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighteen, wilfully cast away, burn,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

<

[ocr errors]

< or otherwise destroy the ship of which he is owner, or unto which he belongeth, or in any manner of wise direct or procure the same to be 'done, to the prejudice of any person or persons that shall underwrite any policy or policies of insurance thereon, or of any merchant or merchants

4 Geo. I. c. 12. 3. (amending

[ocr errors]

12 An. st. 2.

18.)

⚫ that shall load goods thereon, he shall suffer death: And whereas in and and 11 Geo. I. by a certain other Act of Parliament, made in the eleventh year of the c. 29. § 5, 6, 7.

reign of his late Majesty King George the First, intituled, An Act to con- respecting the 'tinue several Acts therein mentioned, for preventing Frauds committed casting away by Bankrupts; for encouraging the Silk Manufacture of this Kingdom; for or destroying ships, recited. preventing the clandestine Running of Goods; for making Copper Ore of the British Plantations an enumerated Commodity; and for explaining and ' amending a late Act for the more effectual Punishment of such as shall wilfully burn or destroy Ships; and reciting amongst other things, as is above herein recited, and that some doubt had arisen touching the nature of the ' offence provided against by the said recited Act, and the trial and punish'ment to be had and inflicted for the same, it was therefore by that Act ' enacted and declared, that if any owner of, or captain, master, officer, 6 or mariner, belonging to any ship or vessel, shall, after the four and twentieth day of June one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five, wilfully cast away, burn, or otherwise destroy, the ship or vessel of which he is owner, or to which he belongeth, or in any wise direct or procure the same to be done, with intent or design to prejudice any person or perVOL. V.

T

No. LXI.

43 Geo. III. c. 113.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

sons that hath or shall underwrite any policy or policies of insurance 'thereon, or of any merchant or merchants that shall load goods thereon, 'or of any owner or owners of such ship or vessel, the person or persons 'offending therein, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be deemed and adjudged a felon or felons, and shall suffer as in cases of felony without benefit of clergy; and it was in and by the said Act further declared, that if any of the said offences, in wilfully casting away, burning, or otherwise destroying, any ship or vessel as aforesaid, shall be committed within the body of any county of this realm, the same shall be and may be inquired of, tried, determined, and adjudged in the same courts, in such manner and form as felonies done within the body of any county, by the laws of this realm, are to be inquired of, tried, determined, and adjudged, and if any of the said offences shall be committed upon the high seas, the same shall be inquired of, tried, determined, and adjudged, 'before such court, and in such manner and form as in and by an Act 'made in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled, For Pirates, is directed and appointed for the enquiring, trying, determining, and adjudging of felonies done upon the high seas: And whereas the above provisions in the said in-part recited Acts have been found inadequate and ineffectual for the prevention and pu⚫nishment of the offences therein mentioned:' May it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and Recited provi- by the authority of the same, That the said provisions of the said two sions repealed. several herein in-part recited Acts, and every of them be henceforth repealed.

Persons wilfully casting away, &c. any vessel, or procuring it to be done, declared felons with

out clergy.

Offences, if committed within the body of any county, shall be tried as

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons shall, from and after the sixteenth day of July one thousand eight hundred and three, wilfully cast away, burn, or otherwise destroy, any ship or vessel, or in any wise counsel, direct, or procure the same to be done, and the same be accordingly done with intent or design thereby wilfully and maliciously to prejudice any owner or owners of such ship or vessel, or any owner or owners of any goods loaden on board the same, or any person or persons, body politick or corporate, that hath or have underwritten or shall underwrite any policy or policies of insurance upon such ship or vessel, or on the freight thereof, or upon any goods loaden on board the same, the person or persons offending therein being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be deemed and adjudged a principal felon or felons, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony without benefit of clergy.

III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any such ship or vessel shall, from and after the sixteenth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three, be wilfully cast away, burnt, or otherwise destroyed, within the body of any county of this realm, that then the said several offences, as well in wilfully casting away, burning, or otherwise destroying such ship or vessel, as in counother felonies; selling, directing, or procuring the same to be done as aforesaid, shall and may be respectively inquired of, tried, determined, and adjudged, in the same courts, and in such manner and form as felonies done within the body of any county, by the laws of this realm now are to be, or by virtue of this Act hereafter may be, inquired of, tried, determined, and adjudged; and if any such ship or vessel shall be wilfully cast away, burnt, or otherwise destroyed, on the high seas, then that the said several offences, as well in wilfully casting away, burning, or otherwise destroying any such ship or vessel, as in counselling, directing, and procuring the same to be done as aforesaid, shall and may be respectively inquired of, tried, determined, and adjudged, before such court, and in such manner and form as in and by an Act made in the eighth-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled, For Pirates, is appointed and directed for the inquiring, trying, determining, and adjudging of felonies upon the high seas. "Act shall not bar prosecutions for offences committed before July 16, "1803, § 4"

if on the high seas, as under 28 H. 8. c. 15.

[ocr errors]

V. And whereas it is convenient that accessaries to felonies committed

No. LXI.

c. 113.

committed, or

in that where the offence of being accessary was

* within the body of any county within the realm, should be by law liable 43 Geo. III. to be tried, as well in the county wherein the principal felony was com*mitted as in the county in which they so became accessaries, and also that accessaries to felonies committed upon the high seas should be by law liable to be tried by such court, and in such manner as by the Act made in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of the late King Henry the Eighth, is directed in respect of felonies done upon the high seas;' 'Be it Accessaries to therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That, from and after the said felonies may be sixteenth day of July in the said year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- tried either in dred and three, in all cases whatsoever in which any person or persons shall the county hereafter-procure, direct, counsel, or command any other person or per- where the sons to commit, or shall abet any other person or persons in committing principal ofany felony whatsoever, or shall in any wise whatsoever become an accesfence was sary or accessaries before the fact to any felony whatsoever, whether such principal felony be committed within the body of any county within this realm, or upon the high seas, and whether such procuring, directing, counselling, commanding, and abetting, or otherwise becoming accessary or accessaries before the fact shall have been committed or done within the done; and if body of any county within this realm, or upon the high seas, that then the principal and in all such cases, the offence of the person or persons so procuring, offence shall directing, counselling, commanding, or abetting such felony, or so in any be committed wise becoming accessary or accessaries before the fact to such felony, shall on the high and may be inquired of, tried, determined, and adjudged, in case such seas, the acprincipal felony shall have been committed within the body of any county cessaries shall within this realm, by the course of the common law, either within such be tried in county wherein the said principal felony shall have been committed, or scribed by rewithin the county wherein the offence in procuring, directing, counselling, cited Act 28 commanding, and abetting, or otherwise becoming accessary or accessaries H. 8. c. 15. before the fact shall have been committed or done; and in case the said principal felony shall have been committed upon the high seas, then the said offence in procuring, directing, counselling, commanding, or abetting such felony, or of so becoming an accessary or accessaries before the fact to the same, shall and may be inquired of, in and by such court, and in such manner and form as in and by the said Act, made in the eight-andtwentieth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, is appointed and directed for the trying, determining, and adjudging, of felonies done upon

manner pre

offence.

the high seas: Provided always, that no person or persons who shall here- Persons once after be once tried and acquitted, or convicted of any such offence, in tried shall not procuring, directing, counselling, commanding, or abetting, any felony, or be again tried of otherwise becoming an accessary or accessaries before the fact to such for the same felony, whether the trial of such person or persons shall have been had according to the course of the common law, as in the case of a felony committed within the body of any county in this realm, or according to the provisions contained in the statute made in the eight-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, as in the case of a felony committed on the high seas, shall be liable to be again indicted, prosecuted, or tried, for the same offence, in any court or jurisdiction whatsoever.

VI. And whereas by an Act, made and passed in the thirty-third year 33 H. 8. c. 23. ' of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled, An Act to proceed, by recited, and Commission of Oyer and Terminer, against such Persons as shall confess the powers Treason, et cetera, without remanding the same to be tried in the shire therein conwhere the Offence was committed; certain powers, authorities, provisions, tained reand regulations are given and enacted for making commissions of Oyer specting murand Terminer, for the speedy trial, conviction, or delivery of persons ex- der, &c. examined before the King's council, or three of them, upon any murders or other offences therein mentioned, and for inquiring of, hearing, and de- fore the fact in termining such murders and other offences, under such circumstances, murder, and to ' and in such cases, as in the said Act are mentioned; which said Act, so the offence of 'far as the same relates to the crime of murder, is still in force and unre- manslaughter. pealed; but no provision is therein made for the trial of accessaries before

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

the fact in murder, or for the trial of the offence of manslaughter, either

upon indictments for that offence, or for the crime of murder, under any

tended to accessaries be

« PreviousContinue »