stolen the same, and be punishable by penal servitude for not more than fourteen, nor less than five years, or imprisonment for not more than two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement; and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping.

The same Act also provides that any person entrusted with any money or security, as a banker, merchant, broker, attorney, or other agent, with a written direction to apply the same in a specified manner, who shall, in violation of good faith and contrary to such direction, convert the same to the use or benefit of any one other than the person by whom he was so entrusted, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be sentenced to penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven years nor less than five years; or imprisonment not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour and solitary confinement.

Embezzlement is scarcely distinguishable from the crime of larceny, which consists in fraudulent conversion of property before it has come into the actual possession of its rightful owner,* and is similarly punished.

III. Mixed or compound larceny is such as has all the properties of simple larceny, but is accompanied with a taking from one's house or person; and by statute is constituted a felony more heinous than simple larceny. The stealing in a dwelling-house of any chattel, money, or valuable security to the value of £5 or more; stealing to the value of 10s. of any woollen, linen, or any goods or article exposed during any stage of manufacture in any building or any place; stealing goods or merchandise in any vessel, whether in a haven or port; plundering or stealing any part of vessels in distress, wrecked, or cast on shore, or goods thereto belonging each of these offences is punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment.

Larceny from the person is either by privately stealing, or by open and violent assault. It is enacted by stat. 26 & 27 Vict., that whosoever shall rob any person, or shall steal any chattel, money, or valuable security from the person of another, is punishable with penal servitude for not more than fourteen years nor less than five years; or by imprisonment for not more

* See 18 & 19 Vict., c. 126, supplemented by 31 & 32 Vict., c. 116, s. 2.

OFFENCES AGAINST PROPERTY.

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than two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement; and that whosoever shall assault any person with intent to rob, and at the time of, or immediately after such robbery, shall wound, beat, strike, or use any other personal violence to any person, shall be guilty of felony, and punishable with penal servitude for life, or not less than five years; or imprisonment for not more than two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement, to which the lash may now be added.*

False Pretences. By the Larceny Act it is enacted that whosoever, by any false pretence, obtains from any other person any chattel, money, or valuable security with intent to defraud, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punishable by penal servitude for five years; or by imprisonment for not more than two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement. The pretence must be evidenced by the acts and conduct of the offender, without any verbal misrepresentation. This offence is closely allied to larceny, and is mainly distinguishable from it, that in larceny the property in the thing taken does not pass, whereas in false pretences it is meant to do so.

It is also enacted that whosoever, by any false pretences, fraudulently causes or induces another to execute, make, accept, endorse, or destroy the whole or any part of any valuable security, or to write, impress, or affix his name, or the name of any other person, or of any company, or the seal of any body corporate, with a view to defraud, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and punishable with penal servitude for not more than fourteen years, nor less than five years; or imprisonment for not more than two years, with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement.t

Obtaining property by false personation is now a penal offence, and is punishable by penal servitude for life or not less

* See Larceny Act, 26 & 27 Vict., c. 96.

† See 24 & 25 Vict., c. 94; and for False Statements, Concealments, &c., see 24 & 25 Vict., c. 100; and 25 & 26 Vict., c. 67.

than two years, or imprisonment for two years with or without hard labour.

Forgery, or the crimen falsi, is an offence which was punished by the civil law, and formerly by our laws almost invariably with death. It may be defined to be the fraudulent making or alteration of a writing or seal to the prejudice of another man's right. Forgery, to be punishable, must show an intent to defraud, for the very essence of forgery is fraudulent intention. The mere imitation of another's writing, the assumption of a name, or the alteration of a written instrument, where no person can be injured, does not come within the definition of this offence.

Forgery, though amenable to punishment at common law, is now mainly regulated by stat. 24 & 25 Vict., c. 98, which contains provisions applicable to almost every conceivable kind of forgery, with the punishment, which in most cases is penal servitude for life or for not less than five years; or imprisonment for not more than two years with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement.

To buy or receive stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, was formerly a mere misdemeanor; but by the Larceny Act all such receivers are made accessories, and may be indicted either as accessories after the fact, or for a substantive felony; and on conviction, be punished by penal servitude for not more than seven years nor less than five years; or imprisonment for not more than two years with or without hard labour, and with or without solitary confinement; and, if a male, under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping.

CHAPTER XII.

THE MEANS OF PREVENTING OFFENCES.

We are now arrived at a very important branch or head of this work, viz.,-the means of preventing the commission of crimes and misdemeanors, and it is an honour to our English laws that they furnish a title of this sort, since "preventive justice" is, upon every principle of reason, of humanity, and of sound principle, preferable in all respects to "punishing justice," the execution of which, though necessary, and in its consequences a species of mercy to the commonwealth, is attended with many harsh and disagreeable circumstances.*

In what does Preventive Justice consist?

Preventive Justice consists in obliging those persons whom there is a probable ground to suspect of future misbehaviour to find pledges or securities (commonly called bail) for keeping the peace, or future good behaviour. It may be divided into four heads :

I. In the apprehending persons at whom suspicious circumstances point as likely to commit crime.

II. In requiring persons to find sureties for keeping the peace, or for their good behaviour.

III. In making criminal the having in possession certain things presumably for the commission of crime.

IV. In searching for the evidences of guilt, and seizing weapons or instruments, the use or possession of which may scarcely be deemed compatible with innocence of unlawful intent.

* See 34 & 35 Vict., c. 14, an Act for the more effectual Prevention of Crime.

Explain the Procedure of Preventive Justice.

First, then, a constable, or even a private person, seeing another on the point of committing felony, may lawfully lay hold of the individual thus acting; and detain him until it can be presumed that he has changed his purpose; and when a felony is committed, it is the duty of a bystander to arrest the offender. By 24 & 25 Vict., c. 100, s. 66, a constable or peace officer may take into custody, without a warrant, any person whom he shall find lying or loitering in any highway, yard, or other place during the night, whom he shall have good cause to suspect of having committed, or being about to commit, a felony; and shall take such suspected person, as soon as reasonably may be, before a justice of the peace, to be dealt with according to law.*

Secondly, preventive justice obliges those persons whom there is a probable ground to suspect of future misbehaviour to find pledges or bail for keeping the peace, or for their future good behaviour. This security consists in being bound, with one or more sureties, in a recognizance or obligation to the Crown entered on record, whereby the parties acknowledge themselves to be indebted to the Crown in the sum therein stated, with a condition, to be void and of none effect if the party shall appear in court on such a day, and in the meantime shall keep the peace either generally towards the sovereign and all his liege people, or particularly also with regard to the person who craves the security. Or, if it be for good behaviour, then on condition that he shall behave himself well, or be of good behaviour, either generally or specially for the time therein limited; and if the condition of such recognizance be broken, the recognizance becomes forfeited, and the party and his sureties become the Crown's absolute debtors for the several sums in which they are respectively bound.

The third head renders illegal, unless satisfactorily accounted for, the possession of certain things presumably for the commission of crime.

* See also 24 & 25 Vict., c. 96, s. 104; and c. 97, s. 57.