office relating to the government of any city or corporation, unless within a twelvemonth before, he had received the sacrament of the Lord's supper according to the rites of the Church of England. The Test Act directed all officers, civil and military, to take the oaths and make a declaration in open court against transubstantiation, within six months after their admission; and also within the same time to receive the sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England, upon forfeiture of 500l., and disability to hold the office. By the repeal of these and the other statutes I have referred to, the offence of non-conformity has practically ceased to exist.

I proceed now to consider some gross impieties and general immoralities which are taken notice of by our municipal law, though rarely, if ever, publicly punished; of this nature is,

IV. Blasphemy against the Almighty, by denying his being, or providence; or by contumelious reproaches of our Saviour. Whither also may be referred all profane scoffing at the Holy Scripture, or exposing it to contempt and ridicule, which are offences punishable at common law by fine and imprisonment, for Christianity is part of the law of England. But whatever may be the law on this subject, no attempt has been made in modern times to enforce it. To do so would involve the prosecution of many authors and publishers of works, undoubtedly written with an earnest desire to arrive at the truth; and would not only be an abuse of the law, but would wholly fail in effecting the object in view.

V. Somewhat allied to this, though in an inferior degree, is the offence of profane and common swearing and cursing, which is punishable in a labourer, sailor, or soldier, by a fine of ls.; in every other person under the degree of a gentleman, of 2s.; and in every other gentleman or person of superior rank, of 5s.

VI. A sixth species of offences against God and religion, of which our ancient books are full, is a crime of which one knows not well what account to give, the offence, namely, of witchcraft, conjuration, enchantment, or sorcery. This was prohibited, under severe penalties by several statutes, which continued in force until nearly the middle of the eighteenth century; many poor wretches being sacrificed thereby to the prejudice of their neighbours and their own illusions; not a few having, by some means or other, been led to confess their supposed offence at the gallows. Our legislature at length, in the reign of George II., followed the wise example of Louis XIV., in France, who restrained the tribunals from receiving informations of witchcraft, by enacting that no prosecution should for the future be carried on against any person for any of those charges. But people pretending to tell fortunes, or using any means or device, by palm

istry or otherwise, to impose on any person, are deemed rogues and vagabonds, and punishable accordingly.

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 and imprisonment.

VIII. Simony, or the corrupt presentation of any one to an ecclesiastical benefice for gift or reward, may also be considered an offence against religion; but it is a crime which there are so many methods of avoiding, that simony, however universal a practice, is quite unknown as an offence.

IX. Profanation of the Lord's Day, vulgarly, but improperly, called sabbath-breaking, is another offence against religion, punished by our municipal law. But in what the offence consists must be gathered from the various statutes relating to this subject. These, among other things, provide that no fair or market shall be held on the principal festivals, Good Friday, or any Sunday, on pain of forfeiting the goods exposed to sale; that no person shall assemble out of their own parishes for any sport whatsoever upon this day, nor use unlawful pastimes in them; and that no person shall work on the Lord's Day, or use any boat or barge, or expose any goods to sale; the seiling of meat in public-houses, milk at certain hours, and works of necessity or charity, being excepted. The service of process on Sunday is also illegal; and so is the keeping open of any public-house during the hours of Divine service.

X. Drunkenness is punished by statute 21 Jac. I. c. 7, with the forfeiture of 5s., or the sitting six hours in the stocks, if the offender is not able to pay the penalty; by which time the statute presumes the offender will have regained his senses, and not be able to do mischief to his neighbours.

XI. The last offence against religion and morality which I shall mention, as cognisable by the temporal courts and punishable by fine and imprisonment, is that of open and notorious lewdness, either by keeping, or indeed, it has been said, in even frequenting, houses of ill fame; or by some grossly scandalous and public indecency. To undress in order to bathe in a place exposed to public view is an offence contra bonos mores: so is the exposure for sale of immoral pictures or prints; and generally whatever openly outrages decency, and is injurious to public morals, may be said to be a misdemeanor at common law.

CHAPTER V.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS.

Violation of safe-conducts-of rights of ambassadors-Piracy--Slave trade, ACCORDING to the method marked out in the preceding chapter, 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 and is usually termed the Law of Nations. These are: 1. Violation of safe-conducts; 2. Infringement of the rights of ambassadors; 3. Piracy; and 4. Trading in slaves.

I. As to the first, violation of safe-conducts or passports, expressly granted by the sovereign 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 such offences may, according to the writers upon the law of nations, be a just ground of a national war; since it is not in the power of the foreign prince to cause justice to be done to his subjects by the very individual delinquent, but he must require it of the whole community. And as during the continuance of any safe-conduct, either express or implied, the foreigner is under the protection of the sovereign and the law: and, more especially, as it is one of the articles of Magna Charta, that foreign merchants should be entitled to safeconduct and security throughout the kingdom; there is no question, but that any violation of either the person or property of such foreigner may be punished by indictment in the name of the sovereign, whose honour is more particularly engaged in supporting his own safe-conduct. And it is further expressly enacted by stat. 31 Hen. VI. c. 4, that if any of the king's subjects attempt or offend, upon the sea, or in any port within the king's obeysance, against any stranger in amity, league, or truce, or under safe-conduct; and especially by attacking 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. The rights of ambassadors, being established by the law of nations, are therefore matter of universal concern, and the common law accordingly recognises 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. And it is further declared by the statute 7 Ann. c. 12, that all persons prosecuting or executing such process, 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 lord chancellor and the chief justices, or any two of them, shall think fit.

III. Piracy, or robbery upon the high seas, is an offence against the universal law of society; a pirate being, according to Sir Edward Coke, hostis humani generis.

This offence at 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 other offences have, by various statutes, been made piracy, and liable to the same penalty. This was formerly death, whether the guilty party were a principal, or merely accessory by setting forth such pirates, or abetting them before the fact, or receiving or concealing them or their goods after it. But modern legislation has modified this severity, and greatly reduced the punishment in the case of accessories after the fact.

The capture of piratical vessels was formerly encouraged by bounties on pirates taken or killed; and seamen wounded in piratical engagements were entitled to the pension of Greenwich Hospital; which no other seamen were, except only such as had served in a ship of war. The statutes as to bounties and rewards for services in piratical engagements are, however, no longer in force; but property captured from pirates is liable to condemnation as droits of the Admiralty, to be restored, if private property, to the rightful owners, on payment of one-eighth of the value as salvage; while fitting rewards are assigned for services against pirates.

IV. The carrying on a traffic in slaves may be regarded as another class of offences against the law of nations. Not merely is it an offence against the victims of the trade, but, happily for the interests of humanity, it is now in many instances an offence against express treaties entered into between this country and other states. Any British subject who conveys or removes any person as a slave, is now by statute guilty of piracy, felony, and robbery; for which penal servitude for life may be awarded, so that this crime is now rarely if ever attempted.

CHAPTER V.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST THE LAW OF NATIONS.

Violation of safe-conducts-of rights of ambassadors-Piracy--Slave trade, ACCORDING to the method marked out in the preceding chapter, 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 and is usually termed the Law of Nations. These are: 1. Violation of safe-conducts; 2. Infringement of the rights of ambassadors; 3. Piracy; and 4. Trading in slaves.

I. As to the first, violation of safe-conducts or passports, expressly granted by the sovereign 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 such offences may, according to the writers upon the law of nations, be a just ground of a national war; since it is not in the power of the foreign prince to cause justice to be done to his subjects by the very individual delinquent, but he must require it of the whole community. And as during the continuance of any safe-conduct, either express or implied, the foreigner is under the protection of the sovereign and the law: and, more especially, as it is one of the articles of Magna Charta, that foreign merchants should be entitled to safeconduct and security throughout the kingdom; there is no question, but that any violation of either the person or property of such foreigner may be punished by indictment in the name of the sovereign, whose honour is more particularly engaged in supporting his own safe-conduct. And it is further expressly enacted by stat. 31 Hen. VI. c. 4, that if any of the king's subjects attempt or offend, upon the sea, or in any port within the king's obeysance, against any stranger in amity, league, or truce, or under safe-conduct; and especially by attacking 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.