accompanied with either one or both of the aggravations of a taking from one's house or person.

29. Is larceny from one's house distinguished from simple larceny, at common law ?-241.

It is not, unless where it is accompanied with the circumstance of breaking the house by night; and then it is burglary.

30. Of what sorts is larceny from the person ?-242.

It is either by privately stealing, or by open and violent assault, which is usually called robbery.

31. How is robbery defined?-243.

Open or violent larceny from the person, or robbery, the rapina of the civilians, is the felonious and forcible taking from the person of another of goods, or money, to any value, by vioience or putting him in fear.

32. What are the requisites of robbery ?-243.

1. There must be a taking, otherwise it is no robbery. If the thief, having once taken a purse, returns it, still it is a robbery; and so it is whether the taking be strictly from the person of another, or in his presence only; as, where a robber, by menaces and violence, puts a man in fear, and drives away his sheep or his cattle before his face. But if the taking be not either directly from his person, or in his presence, it is no robbery. 2. It is immaterial of what value the thing taken is; a penny as well as a pound, thus forcibly extorted, makes a robbery. 3. The taking must be by force, or a previous putting in fear, which makes the violation of the person more atrocious than privately stealing.

33. What is the criterion that distinguishes robbery from other larceny ?-243.

Previous violence, or putting in fear.

34. What is the malicious mischief which the law considers as a public crime?-243.

Such as is done, not animo furandi, or with an intent of

gaining by another's loss; but either out of a spirit of wanton cruelty, or black and diabolical revenge.

35. What is forgery, at common law?-247.

Forgery, or the crimen falsi, is the fraudulent making or alteration of a writing, to the prejudice of another man's right.

36. How was forgery punished by the civil law?-247. With deportation or banishment, and sometimes with death.

37. How is forgery punished by the laws of England?-247.

At common law, it was punished with fine, imprisonment, and the pillory. In many cases, it was punishable with death, by statute.

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE MEANS OF PREVENTING OFFENSES.

1. Is preventive justice to be preferred to punishing justice ?-251. It is, upon every principle of reason, of humanity, and of sound policy.

2. In what does this preventive justice consist ?-252.

It consists in obliging those persons whom there is a probable ground to suspect of future misbehavior, to stipulate with, and to give full assurance to, the public that such offense as is apprehended shall not happen, by finding pledges or securities for keeping the peace, or for their good behavior.

3. What is, generally, the form of this assurance to the public?

252.

A recognizance or obligation to the king, with one or more sureties, entered on record, and taken in some court, or by some judicial officer, to keep the peace, or for good behavior.

4. In a large and extended view of human punishments, what is their object?-252.

We shall find them all rather calculated to prevent future crimes, than to expiate the past.

5. Under what heads may all punishments inflicted by temporal laws be classed?-352.

Under three heads: Such as tend to the amendment of the offender himself; or to deprive him of any power to do future mischief; or to deter others by his example.

6. In what four ways may a recognizance be discharged?-254. Either by the demise of the king, to whom the recognizance is made; or by the death of the principal party bound thereby, if not before forfeited; or, by order of the court; or by the applicant's release or default.

7. How should femes covert and infants give security to keep the peace ?-254.

By their friends only, for they are incapable of engaging themselves to answer any debt, which is the nature of these recognizances or acknowledgments.

8. Is a justice of the peace bound to grant surety of the peace ?—

255.

He is, when he who demands it will make oath that he is actually under fear of death or bodily harm, and will show that he has just cause to be so. This is called swearing the peace against another.

9. What follows if the party complained of do not find such sureties as the justice in his discretion shall require ?-255.

He may be immediately committed till he does.

10. How may a recognizance for keeping the peace be forfeited?

.-255.

By any actual violence, or even an assault, or menace, to the person of him who demanded it, if it be a special recognizance; or, if the recognizance be general, by any unlawful action whatHoever, that either is or tends to a breach of the peace.

11. Will a bare trespass upon the lands and goods of another, which is a ground for a civil action, forfeit a recognizance?—256.

It will not, unless accompanied with a wilful breach of the

peace.

12. Will mere reproachful words forfeit a recognizance ?-256. They will not, unless they amount to a challenge to fight; merely reproachful words, as calling a man knave or liar, being looked upon to be merely the effect of unmeaning heat and passion.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF COURTS OF A CRIMINAL JURISDICTION.

1. What distinction obtains among the several courts of criminal jurisdiction ?-258.

They are either such as are of a public and general jurisdiction, or such as are of a private and special jurisdiction.

2. Can a man be tried twice, in a criminal way, for the same offense?-259.

No; especially if acquitted upon the first trial.

3. What is the high court of parliament ?—259.

The supreme court in the kingdom, not only for the making, but also for the execution of the laws, by the trial of great and enormous offenders, whether lords or commoners, in the method of parliamentary impeachment.

4. What are the courts of criminal jurisdiction, as designated ac cording to their dignity, beginning with the highest ?—258–275. They are 1. The high court of parliament.

2. The court of the lord high steward of Great Britain, for the trial of peers, indicted for treason or felony, or for misprision of either.

3. The court of king's bench.

4. The court of chivalry.

5. The high court of admiralty.

6, 7. The courts of oyer and terminer, and general jail de

livery.

8. The court of general quarter sessions.

9. The sheriff's tourn.

10. The court leet.

11. The court of the coroner.

12. The court of the clerk of the market.

Of the preceding courts, the five first named are of public and general jurisdiction; the others of local jurisdiction and confined to particular districts.

5. In what degree are the criminal courts independent of each other?-259.

At least, so far as that the sentence of the lowest of them can never be controlled, or reversed, by the highest jurisdiction in the kingdom, unless for error in matter of law, apparent upon the face of the record; though sometimes causes may be removed from one to the other before trial.

6. What offenders are tried by the high court of parliament ?—

259.

Great and enormous offenders, whether lords or commoners, in the method of parliamentary impeachment.

7. What criminal cognizance has the court of admiralty?—268.

It has cognizance of all crimes and offenses committed either upon the sea or on the coasts, out of the body or extent of any English county.

8. Before whom are the courts of oyer and terminer and general jail delivery held ?—269.

Before the king's commissioners, among whom are usually two judges of the courts at Westminster.

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