by skill in the occult sciences, shall be punished with a year's imprisonment, and standing four times in the pillory.

VII. A seventh species of offenders in this class are, all religious impostors; such as falsely pretend an extraordinary commission from heaven; or terrify and abuse the people with false denunciations of judgments. These, as tending to subvert all religion, by bringing it into ridicule and contempt, are punishable by the temporal courts with fine, imprisonment, and infamous corporal punishment.

VIII. Simony, or the corrupt presentation of any one to an ecclesiastical benefice for gift or reward, is also to be considered as an offence against religion; as well by reason of the sacredness of the charge which is thus profanely bought and sold, as because it is always attended with perjury in the person presented. The statute 31 Eliz. c. 6. enacts, that if any patron, for money or any other corrupt consideration or promise, directly or indirectly given, shall present, admit, institute, induct, install, or collate any person to an ecclesiastical benefice or dignity, both the giver and the taker shall forfeit two years value of the benefice or dignity; one moiety to the king, and the other to any one who shall sue for the same. If persons also corruptly resign or exchange their benefices, both the giver and taker shall, in like manner, forfeit double the value of the money or other corrupt consideration. And persons who shall corruptly ordain or licence any minister, or procure him to

be ordained or licenced (which is the true idea of simony) shall incur a like forfeiture of forty pounds; and the minister himself of ten pounds, besides an incapacity to hold any ecclesiastical preferment for seven years afterwards. Corrupt elections and resignations in colleges, hospitals, and other eleemosynary corporations, are also punished by the same statute with forfeiture of the double value, vacating the place or office, and a devolution of the right of election for that turn to the crown.

IX. Profanation of the Lord's day, or sabbathbreaking, is a ninth offence against God and religion, punished by the municipal law of England. And by the statute 27 Hen. VI. c. 5. no fair or market shall be held on the principal festivals, Good Friday, or any Sunday, (except the four Sundays in harvest) on pain of forfeiting the goods exposed to sale. And, since by the statute 1 Car. I. c. 1. no person shall assemble, out of their own parishes, for any sport whatsoever upon this day; nor, in their parishes, shall use any bull or bear baiting, interludes, plays, or other unlawful exercises or pastimes; on pain that every offender shall pay 3s. 4d. to the poor. This statute does not prohibit, but rather impliedly allows, any innocent recreation or amusement, within their respective parishes, even on the Lord's day, after divine service is over. But by statute 29 Car. II. c. 7. no person is allowed to work on the Lord's day, or use any boat or barge, or expose any goods to sale; except meat in public houses,

works of necessity or Nor shall any drover,

milk at certain hours, and

charity, on forfeiture of 5s.

carrier, or the like, travel upon that day, under pain of twenty shillings.

X. Drunkenness is also punished by statute 4 Jac. 1. c. 5. with the forfeiture of 5s. or the sitting six hours in the stocks: by which time the statute presumes the offender will have regained his senses, and not be liable to do mischief to his neighbours. And there are many wholesome statutes, by way of prevention, chiefly passed in the same reign of King James I. which regulate the licencing of ale-houses, and punish persons found tippling therein; or the masters of such houses permitting them.

XI. The last offence which I shall mention, more immediately against religion and morality, and cognizable by the temporal courts, is that of open and notorious lewdness: either by frequenting houses of ill fame, which is an indictable offence; or by some grossly scandalous and public indecency, for which the punishment is by fine and imprisonment.

By statute 7 Jac. I. c. 4. a specific punishment (viz. commitment to the house of correction) is inflicted on a woman for having natural children, if they become chargeable to the parish: and, in case of a second offence, is detained till she find sureties never to offend again.

CHAPTER V.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS.

WE are next to consider the offences more immediately repugnant to that universal law of society, which regulates the mutual intercourse between one state and another.

The principal offences against the law of nations animadverted on as such by the municipal law of England, are of three kinds. 1. Violation of safe-conducts. 2. Infringements of the rights of ambassadors: and, 3, Piracy.

I. Violation of safe-conducts or passports expressly granted by the king or his ambassadors to the subjects of a foreign power in time of mutual war; or committing acts of hostilities against such as are in amity, league, or truce with us, who are here under a general implied safe-conduct these are breaches of the public faith, without the preservation of which there can be no intercourse or commerce between one nation and another. And it is therefore enacted by the statute 31 Hen. VI. c. 4. that if any of the king's subjects attempt or offend upon the sea, or in any court within the king's obeysance, against any stranger in amity, league, or truce, or under safe-conduct; and especially by attaching his person, or spoiling him or robbing him of his goods: the lord chancellor with any of the justices of either the

king's bench or common pleas, may cause full restitution and amends to be made to the party injured.

II. As to the rights of ambassadors, which are also established by the law of nations, and are therefore matter of universal concern. It may be sufficient to remark, that the common law of England recognizes them in their full extent, by immediately stopping all legal process, sued out through the ignorance or rashness of individuals, which may intrench upon the immunities of a foreign minister or any of his train. By the statute 7 Ann. c. 12. that all process whereby the person of any ambassador, or of his domestic or domestic servant, may be arrested, or his goods distreined or seized, shall be utterly null and void; and that all persons prosecuting, soliciting, or executing such process, being convicted by confession or the oath of one witness, before the lord chancellor and the chief justices, or any two of them, shall be deemed violators of the laws of nations, and disturbers of the public repose; and shall suffer such penalties and corporal punishment as the said judges, or any two of them shall think fit.

III. Lastly, the crime of piracy, or robbery, and depredation upon the high seas, is an offence against the universal law of society. The offence of piracy, by common law, consists in committing those acts of robbery and depredation upon the high seas, which, if committed upon land, would have amounted to felony there. But, by statute,