§ 634. Barratry, champerty and maintenance.These offenses were all punishable at common law. Barratry is the offense of frequently stirring up quarrels and suits, either at law or otherwise. The indictment should charge the offender with being a common barrator, and there must be proof of at least three instances of offending. Champerty is a bargain with a party to a suit for a portion of the land or other matters sued for, in case of a successful termination of the suit which the champertor undertakes to carry on at his own expense. Contracts by attorneys for purely contingent fees, to be paid out of the damages recovered, were formerly considered champertous and void, but they are looked upon with more indulgence now and the practice of making such contracts is common, though it must be admitted that they have a pernicious influence on the character and standing of attorneys who make them. Where such contracts exist the attorney becomes, in effect, one of the real parties to the action. In some states it is held that the purchase and sale of land in litigation, or in the adverse possession of another, is a champertous contract and will not be enforced. Maintenance is a malicious, or at least officious, interference in a suit in which the offender has no interest, to assist one of the parties to it against the other with money or advice to prosecute or defend the action, or, as it is otherwise defined, it is the intermeddling of a stranger in a suit for the purpose of stirring up strife and continuing the litigation.

§ 635. Bestiality-Sodomy.-The first is the copulation of man or woman with a beast, the second the unnatural copulation of man with man or man with

woman. Both parties are guilty of sodomy and the consent of the parties is no defense. These crimes are generally spoken of as the abominable and detestable crimes against nature, and as crimes not to be named among Christians.

§ 636. Bigamy or polygamy.—One already married and having husband or wife living, who marries a second time, is guilty of bigamy. These are statutory and not common law crimes. If the first marriage has been annulled by a court of competent jurisdiction, the parties are free to contract a second marriage, and if a person whose husband or wife has been absent for a certain number of years without being known by such person to be living, the person whose husband or wife is thus absent may innocently contract a second marriage. Where there has been no valid divorce from the first husband or wife and a second marriage is contracted on the advice of counsel and in the honest belief that the divorce is valid, it is generally no defense, though the supreme court of Indiana has held that where the belief was on reasonable grounds after due inquiry, it is a defense to a criminal prosecution.

§ 637. Bribery.-Bribery at common law was limited to the giving to a judge or other officer connected with the administration of justice any undue reward to influence his behavior in office. A better definition is the giving or receiving of a reward to influence any official act, whether of a judicial officer or not. The statutes of the states have extended the scope of the crime until it now includes judges, jurors, election officers, voters, legislators and all

public officials who are placed in responsible stations to perform public service.

§ 638. Burglary.-Burglary at common law is the breaking and entering of the dwelling-house of another in the night-time with the intent to commit a felony therein. There must be some breaking, and if the entry is made through an open door or window the offense is not complete. The raising of a closed window or the turning of the knob or lifting the latch of a closed door is sufficient. So if there is an entry through an open door, but a breaking of an inner door, it is sufficient. There must be a breaking of some part of the house; forcing the door of an area wall or breaking open a chest or trunk in the house will not constitute a breaking. If one with intent to commit a felony knocks at a door, and an inmate opens it and he thus gets in, it is a constructive unlawful breaking. So where one gains admittance upon a false pretense of having business with an inmate, or by collusion with the servants of the household. An entry is essential, but the slightest entry is sufficient. If any part of the body or a weapon, a stick or anything in the offender's hands is thrust into the house through a door or window which has been broken, it will constitute an entry. The entry need not be at the same time as the breaking, but both must be in the night. Night for the purposes of this crime begins when daylight ends. and when countenances can not be easily discerned, and ends when there is sufficient daylight to discern them. The building broken into must by the common law be a dwelling. The statutes of many states have included stores and many structures not used

as dwellings. In some states a breaking and entering in the day-time with intent to commit a crime is declared to be burglary. The intent to commit a crime must exist. Ordinarily the intent of the burglar is to steal, but it may be to commit any other crime. Whatever the intent is it must exist at the time of the breaking and entering.

§ 639. Cheating-False pretenses.-Cheating by false pretenses is where any person by a false and fraudulent representation or statement of an existing or past fact, made with a knowledge of its falsity and with intent to deceive and defraud, induces another to part with money or property of value. It is not larceny because that implies that the owner's goods were taken from him without his consent. No mere expressions of opinion nor promise for future conduct, however fraudulent and false, will amount to a false pretense. The fraudulent representation must be of such a character as would mislead a person of ordinary intelligence. The injured party must be deceived, the representations must be false and must be believed to be true by the party defrauded. The offender must fraudulently intend to obtain the property and to deprive the owner of the use of it, and the offense is not complete until the owner has parted with his property. It is no defense to show that other motives influenced the owner in part. It is sufficient if the fraudulent and false pretense charged were a part of the moving cause without which the owner would not have parted with his property.

§ 640. Conspiracy.-A conspiracy is a combination of two or more persons, by some concerted action,

to accomplish some criminal or unlawful purpose, or to accomplish some purpose not in itself criminal or unlawful, by criminal or unlawful means. In many states conspiracy is indictable as a common law offense, in others there is no common law jurisdiction of the offense.

§ 641. The agreement.―The agreement, which is an essential ingredient of the crime, may be express or implied, and its existence may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Any one who enters a conspiracy adopts all the previous acts of his co-conspirators in forming and carrying out the criminal purpose, and is bound by all that is done by them afterwards unless he withdraws and renounces his connection with it. If the conspiracy is to commit a felony, the conspiracy is merged in the consummated act. The mere unlawful agreement constitutes the crime, whether the unlawful purpose is accomplished or not. All parties to a conspiracy are liable, in a civil suit for damages, to the injured person.

§ 642. Dueling.-Dueling is made a crime by the statutes of all the states. If death ensues all the parties, principals and seconds are guilty of murder. The sending or carrying of a challenge to fight a duel is an indictable offense in most of the states.

§ 643. Embezzlement.-Embezzlement is not a common law offense, but is made a crime by state statutes. It is like larceny in its effects upon the owner, and in the intent of the offender, but it differs in the important particular that the offender comes lawfully into possession of the money or thing embezzled, the criminal act being the fraudulent and unlawful appropriation of it to his own use. Bailees, cashiers