Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

SCHEDULE to which the act refers.

(A.)

FORM OF AFFIDAVIT OF NOTICES.

A. B. of maketh oath and saith [or, being one of the people called Quakers, upon his solemn affirmation, saith], that he did see a copy of the notice hereunto annexed affixed on the church door of the parish of

in the county of

[or, on the several church doors of the respective parishes of in the county of

[blocks in formation]

or, in the several ], on the several [specifying the days on

Signed A. B.

Sworn [or, solemnly affirmed] 'before us, two of his majesty's justices of the peace acting in and for and subscribed in our

the

presence, by the above-named A. B. this

day of

in the year

As witness our hands and seals.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

maketh oath

and saith, [or, being one of the people called Quakers, upon his or her solemn affirmation, saith], that he [or she] believes himself [or herself] to be interested in the proposed inclosure of the

in the

[here describe the place, whether parish, hamlet,

or place], in the county of by virtue of [here set forth the interest of the deponent]; [or], that he [or she] believes that C. D. of

for

whom he [or she] is guardian [et cetera, as the case may be], is interested, et cetera; and that he [or she] hath seen a copy of an act [here set forth the title of this act,] and also a copy of the bill intended to be presented to parliament, and hath subscribed his [or her] name, or hath set his [or her] mark to the same respectively, and doth consent to the said bill being passed

into a law.

Signed or marked A. B.

Sworn [or, solemnly affirmed] before us, two of
his majesty's justices of the peace, acting in and
for the
and subscribed in our
presence, by the above-mentioned A. B. this
in the year

day of

As witness our hands and seals.

The same form may be applied mutatis mutandis, to the case of several persons whose interests are joint, or whose interests, though distinct, are of a similar nature.

(C.)

FORM OF AFFIDAVIT OF ALLEGATIONS OF THE BILL.

A. B. of

maketh oath

and saith, [or, being one of the people called Quakers, upon or her solemn affirmation, saith], that [here set forth such of the several facts alleged in the preamble of the bill as are within the knowledge of the witness], or, that he [or she] is informed and verily believes that [here set forth such of the said facts as are within the belief of the witness].

Signed A. B.

[blocks in formation]

and saith [or, being one of the people called Quakers, upon his solemn affirmation, saith], that he hath surveyed and admeasured the several lands in the parish or

hamlet of

[or, counties of

in the county of

], described in the bill

intended to be presented to parliament, and signed by the de

ponent, by the name [or names] of

and that the quantity of such lands amounts to

and no more, according to such admeasurement,

and the best of this deponent's judgment.

Sworn [or, solemnly affirmed] before us, two of his
majesty's justices of the peace acting in and for
the
and subscribed in our
presence, by the above-named A. B. this
day of
in the year
As witness our hands and seals.

A. B.

1 Inst. 126.

2 Haw. c. 25. § 1.

Vide 2 Haw. e. 25. § 4.

3 MS. Sum. 28. Et per Law

rence J. R. v. Higgins,

2 East. 21.

Indictment.

I. Indictment, what.

II. What Offences are indictable.

III. Within what time an Indictment shall be brought.
IV. How far several Offenders or several Offences may be
joined in one Indictment.

V. Whether the Grand Jury may examine Witnesses
against the King.

VI. How many Witnesses are requisite to an Indictment. VII. Whether a Grand Jury may find an Indictment specially. VIII. Indictment to be in English.

IX. Form of an Indictment.

X. Charges of an Indictment. And herein of Indictments in Cases of Felonies committed on board Vessels employed on Canals- Navigable Rivers On Stage Coaches and Waggons; and on the Boundaries of Counties.

XI. Pleading.

XII. Acquittal upon an Indictment.

XIII. Indictments in Counties of Cities and Towns Corporate.

As to the removal of an indictment into another court, see title Tertiorari, ante, vol. i. p. 449.

I. Indictment, what.

INDICTMENT cometh of the French word enditor, and signi-
fieth, in law, an accusation found by an inquest of twelve or
more upon their oath. An indictment is always the suit of the
king, and as it were his declaration; and the
party who prosecutes

it is a good witness to prove it. And when such accusation is
found by a grand jury, without any bill brought before them, and
afterwards reduced to a form of indictment, it is called a pre-
sentment; and when it is found by jurors returned to enquire of
that particular offence only which is indicted, it is properly called
an inquisition.

II. What Offences are indictable.

All offences of a public nature, i. e. such acts or attempts as tend to the prejudice of the community in general, are indictable. And therefore not only all actual breaches of the Affrays, Assaults, &c., but also every criminal irregularity that peace, as Riots, tends to disturb the good order of government, or to endanger or annoy the tranquillity, welfare, or convenience of the public, is punishable by indictment.

The following therefore are indictable misdemeanors, viz 1. All open offences against God and religion, or lic decency, that tend to corrupt the morals of the this sort are blasphemous books, or any prophane or lications, bawdy-houses, &c.

2. All crimes that are mala in se, and of evil exampl 3. All practices that tend to endanger the constitutic bery at elections, seditious pamphlets, &c.

4. All contempts of the King or his courts.

[blocks in formation]

" as bri

5. All attempts to corrupt, mislead, or pervert public justice, or to make it a handle of fraud or oppression.

6. All acts and designs against the common occasions, necessities, and general commerce of the public. Such as unlawful combinations, monopolies, forestalling, engrossing and regrating, adulteration of victuals, and all public cheats, &c. &c.

In this class are also included the several kinds of common nuisances, both positive and negative, i. e. either positive acts that annoy the public, or the neglect of some duty which the public have a right to require from the defendant, and, by the omission of which, a general inconvenience arises.

It is an indictable offence to incite and solicit a servant to steal his master's goods, though the servant do not steal the goods, and no other act be done except the soliciting and inciting. And such offence is indictable at the quarter sessions as falling in with that class of offences, which, being violations of the law of the land, have a tendency, as it is said, to a breach of the peace, and are therefore cognisable by that jurisdiction. In the case referred to, Lord Kenyon C. J. in delivering his opinion said, Can it be a question, in a country professing to have laws subservient to justice and morality, whether this be an offence? It would be a slander upon the law to suppose that an offence of such magnitude is not indictable.

Lawrence J. said, All offences of a public nature, that is, all such acts or attempts as tend to the prejudice of the community, are indictable. Then the question is, whether an attempt to incite another to steal is not prejudicial to the community? of which there can be no doubt. The whole argument for the defendant turns upon a fallacy in assuming that no act is charged to have been done by him; for a solicitation is an act. It is an endeavour or attempt to commit a crime. The doctrine laid down by Lord Mansfield in Rex v. Scofield, Cald. 397. 403. comprises all the principles of the former decisions, that so long as an act rests in bare intention it is not punishable by our laws; but immediately when an act is done, the law judges not only of the act done but of the intent with which it is done; and if accompanied with an unlawful and malicious intent, though the act itself would otherwise have been innocent, the intent being criminal, the act becomes criminal and punishable. That case is ably reported, and contains every thing convincing that can be said on the subject.

In a late case in the Court of K. B., it was held an indictable offence unlawfully and injuriously to carry a child infected with the small-pox along a public highway, in which persons are passing, and near to the habitations of the king's subjects. R. v. Van

[blocks in formation]

E. v. Burnet,

4 M. & S. 272.

Offences against statutes public.

Private:

Statutes, generally.

2 Hale, 171.

fandillo, 4 M. & S. 73. See also 2 Chitt. Crim. L. 656. 1 Russ157.

In a subsequent case in the same court it was held also an indictable offence in an apothecary, after having inoculated children, unlawfully and injuriously to cause them to be exposed in the public street, to the danger of the public health.

N. B. The defendant was sentenced to six months imprisonment. See R. v. Sutton, 4 Burr. 2116.

Also it seems to be a good general ground, that wherever a statute prohibits a matter of public grievance to the liberties and security of a subject; or commands a matter of public convenience, as the repairing of the common streets of a town; an offender against such statute is punishable not only at the suit of the party grieved, but also by way of indictment for his contempt of the statute, unless such method of proceeding do manifestly appear to be excluded by it. Yet if the party offending hath been fined to the king in the action brought by the party (as it is said that he may in every action for doing a thing prohibited by statute), it seems questionable whether he may afterwards be indicted, because that would make him liable to a second fine for the same offence. 2 Haw. c. 25. § 4.

But if a statute extend only to private persons, or if it extend to all persons in general, but chiefly concerns disputes of a privatenature, as those relating to distresses made by lords on their tenants; it is said that offences against such statutes will hardly bear an indictment. 2 Haw. c. 25. § 4.

An indictment will not lie for setting a person in the footway in the street, to distribute hand-bills, whereby the footway was impeded and obstructed. R. v. Sermon, 1 Burr. 516.

But it was held by Lord Ellenborough C. J. that every unau thorised obstruction of a highway, to the annoyance of the king's subjects, is an indictable offence, in R. v. Cross, 3 Campb. 227. where it was held to be an indictable offence for stage coaches to stand plying for passengers in the public streets.

An indictment will not lie for throwing down skins into the public way, by which a personal injury is accidently occasioned. R. v. Gill, 1 Str. 190. Nor for acting, not being qualified, as a justice of the peace. Castle's Case, Cro. Jac. 643. Nor for selling short measure. R. v. Osborn, 3 Burr. 1697. Nor for excluding commoners by inclosing. Willoughby's Case, Cro. Eliz. 90. Nor for an attempt to defraud, if neither by false tokens nor conspiracy. R. v. Channell, 2 Str. 793. Nor for secreting another. R. v. Chandler, 2 Ld. Raym. 1368. Nor for bringing a bastard child into a parish. R. v. Warne, 1 Str. 644. Nor for entertaining idle and vagrant persons in the defendant's house. R. v. Langley, 1 Ld. Raym. 790. Nor for keeping a house to receive women with child and deliver them. R. v. Macdonald, 3 Burr. 1645.

Also where a statute makes a new offence, by prohibiting and making unlawful any thing that was lawful before, and appoints a particular method of proceeding, without mentioning an indictment, it seemeth to be settled at this day that no indictment can be maintained. 2 Str. 679. 2 Burr. 803. 2 Haw. c. 25. § 4. 1 Rep. 67.

But Ld. Hale distinguishes upon this, and says, that if a statute

« AnteriorContinuar »