§ 654. Larceny.-Larceny is the unlawful taking and carrying away of the personal property of another with the intent to deprive the owner thereof. Grand larceny and petit larceny are distinguished arbitrarily by the value of the property taken, as declared by the statutes of the various states. What is grand larceny in one state may be only petit larceny in another.

§ 655. The taking must be secret and fraudulent, and it is not necessary that it should be by the thief in person. If the thief with felonious intent induces an innocent person to take the personal property of another and deliver it to him it is an unlawful taking. The slightest intentional removal of the article from the place where it was before is a carrying away.

§ 656. It is not necessary that the person from whom the property is taken should be its absolute owner. Any rightful possession as that of a bailee having a qualified right of property would be ownership sufficient to support a charge of larceny. Goods in the possession of an agent or servant of another are constructively in the possession of the owner or master, though he may be personally ignorant of their existence or whereabouts. If possession is obtained lawfully the subsequent carrying away with the unlawful intent will not make it larceny. The unlawful intent to carry away and convert the property must exist at the time of taking. If by a fraudulent trick the owner is induced to part with the possession of his property temporarily, the thief intending to appropriate it unlawfully, it is larceny.

§ 657. Libel.-Libel is made criminal by the laws

of some states, and it may be defined to be the willful and malicious publication of any false and scandalous matter tending to injure the reputation of another, or to hold him up to public ridicule and contempt. In most states the injured person is left to his remedy at law by means of a civil action for damages.

§ 658. Malicious trespass or malicious mischief.— The offense is ordinarily limited to injuries to property, as the maiming of cattle or other beasts, girdling trees, disfiguring houses. Malice is an essential ingredient of the offense; but where the injury is willful, malice will be presumed. It is essential that damage shall have resulted to the property.

§ 659. Mayhem.-Mayhem at common law was the act of unlawfully and violently depriving another of the use of some member of his body whereby he was rendered less able to fight. A mere disfiguring, such as cutting off an ear or a nose, was not mayhem at common law. By statutes in England and America, the definition has been extended so as to include all malicious injuries which disable or disfigure the injured person. It must be intentional, and an injury resulting from a random blow or thrust during a fight will not constitute mayhem, although it may result in maiming or disfiguring the injured party. There must be the specific intent to do the act which results in the crippling or disfiguring.

§ 660. Nuisance.-Nuisance is a common law offense and consists in the unlawful doing of an act, or permitting a condition of things to exist which is prejudicial to the health, comfort, safety, property,

sense of decency or morals of the citizens at large, and it may be an act unauthorized by law, or from neglect of a duty imposed by law. To carry on an offensive trade in a populous community; to keep a pig sty in a city; to allow a stable in a city to become filthy; to disturb the public rest by useless and unlawful noise; to pollute streams or lakes which supply drinking water to the public; to keep a disorderly house, and other such acts, constitute the offense.

§ 661. Perjury.-The crime of perjury as described in the common law is committed where a lawful oath is administered in some judicial proceedings or due course of justice to a person who swears willfully and absolutely and falsely in a matter material to the issue or point in question. By various statutes the offense is extended to false swearing in matters not connected with judicial proceedings. The crime may be committed by a witness on oral examination, in the course of a trial, or by a deposition taken before an officer duly authorized to take it, or by an oath to an affidavit to be used at any stage of the judicial proceedings to which it relates. The form of the oath is immaterial, if it be administered in such a way as to bind the conscience of him who takes it and to accord with his religious belief.

An affirmation taken by one who has conscientious scruples as to the taking of an oath is the same as an oath, and one who falsely affirms is as much a perjurer as if he falsely swears. The false statement must be of a matter material to the subject under consideration. A guilty intent is necessary to per

jury, but a reckless statement under oath of the existence of a fact of which the person taking the oath had no knowledge is perjury, although the statement sworn to may be true.

§ 662. Piracy.-Piracy is robbery on the high seas, being a forcible depredation on the high seas without lawful authority and done in the spirit and intention of universal hostility. Indictments and trials for piracy are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts, and it is the exclusive province of congress to say what acts constitute piracy.

§ 663. Rape.-Rape is the having carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will. Sexual intercourse with a child under the age of consent fixed by law, with an insane woman, or a woman in a condition in which she can not consciously consent, or when consent is extorted by fear, is rape, though no actual force be used. The crime is not complete unless there is some penetration by the male organ. It is no defense to a charge of rape that the injured woman is a prostitute, though her evidence would be regarded with suspicion. It may be said of the crime, generally, that it is a charge easily made and hard to disprove. If the woman be of good repute and make seasonable outcry, and show signs of injury, and the place where the crime was perpetrated be remote from observation, and if the offender flee to avoid arrest, her testimony is of great weight. A male under the age of fourteen is, in many states, conclusively presumed to be incapable of committing the offense; in other jurisdictions his ability to commit the crime is matter for proof.

§ 664. Riot.-Riot is a tumultuous disturbance of

the peace by three or more persons assembling together on their own authority with an intent, mutually, to assist one another against any one who shall oppose them, in the execution of some enterprise of a private nature, and afterwards actually executing the same in a violent and turbulent manner, to the terror of the people, whether the act accomplished was of itself lawful or unlawful. The act is not criminal because it is unlawful, but on account of the violent and turbulent manner of doing it. There must be three or more guilty parties, and if three only are charged and two are acquitted, the third can not be held guilty. An agreement to participate in the enterprise may be implied from the circumstances and conduct of the parties.

§ 665. Robbery.-Robbery is the taking with felonious intent of any money or goods of any value belonging to another from the person of another, or in his presence against his will by force or violence or by putting him in fear. The robber must take and remove the property taken, the thing taken must be the subject of larceny, the force used must be before or at the time of the taking and of such character as to make it evident that it was intended to overpower the party robbed or to prevent resistance on his part and not merely to get possession of the property. The mere taking the property from another by the false pretense that the taker is an officer, or the quiet and unobserved picking a pocket, or the snatching of an article from another's hands when there is no struggle or resistance, is not robbery. The fear must be such as would intimidate