without benefit of clergy; and the hundred was to be chargeable for the damages, unless the offender were convicted. Wilful fire-raising, is now provided for by the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97; and the breaking down of fish-ponds is no longer a felony, but a misdemeanor, punishable under the same statute.

To kill, maim, or wound cattle, was felony without benefit of clergy by the Black Act. It is still felony, only subjecting the offender, however, to penal servitude or imprisonment. Cattle includes horses, as well as oxen, &c., pigs, and asses; but does not comprise dogs or other animals not the subject of larceny at common law.

The cutting of hop-binds was a capital felony by statutes of George II. The Black Act made the cutting down or destroying of any trees also a capital felony. Statutes of George III. next provided against the destroying roots, shrubs, or plants. All these acts have been repealed; and the offences they referred to are now punishable simply as injuries to property.

By statutes of George II. it was a capital felony to set fire to any mine or depth of coal; and by a statute of George III. to burn or destroy mine engines. These acts have been repealed; the setting fire to a mine, the attempting to do so, the drowning of a mine, the obstructing, or damaging of the air or waterway of a mine being all offences of a highly penal character.

To the crimes above enumerated may be added, the destruction of any bridge, viaduct, or aqueduct; and the cutting down of telegraphic apparatus, which are all more or less penal.

It only remains to be added, that in any case of damage to property not specially provided for, the offender, when the damage exceeds five pounds, may be convicted of a misdemeanor, for which penal servitude or imprisonment may be awarded, according as the offence is committed by day or by night; when the value of the property injured does not exceed five pounds, the offender may be compelled, on summary conviction, to make compensation, or be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for two months.

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

which the offender may at common law suffer imprisonment, and might have been put in the pillory. By a variety of statutes, a more severe punishment was inflicted on the offender in particular instances; and statutes to the same effect have become so multiplied of late as almost to become general.

By 5 Eliz. c. 14, the offender, for certain cases of this nature was to stand in the pillory, and have both his ears cut off, and his nostrils slit, and seared; for others, the pillory, the loss of one ear only, and a year's imprisonment; a second offence being felony without benefit of clergy. From the Revolution, when paper credit was first established, till the reign of George III., capital punishment was multiplied for forgeries to an extent which is scarcely credible; every act of parliament striking at some newly discovered forgery making it felony without benefit of clergy. So that there was hardly a case possible to be conceived, wherein forgery, that tended to defraud, whether in the name of a real or fictitious person, was not a capital crime. And so it remained till the reign of William IV., when most of these statutes were repealed; and the punishment of death taken away in all except the more serious and important cases. Offenders, who would then have been liable to suffer death, were subjected to transportation for life, or not less than seven years, or a long imprisonment.

The forgery of the great or privy seal, privy signet or sign manual remained high treason, and punishable accordingly; and the forgery of exchequer bills, bank-notes, wills, bills of exchange, and transfers of stock were all by special enactment still punishable with death. This punishment was, however, afterwards confined to the offence of forging a will or power of attorney for the transfer of stock; and, before long, the capital punishment for these as well as for certain other forgeries, which had been introduced by some intermediate statutes, was abolished.

Not a session of parliament now passes without some document being protected by provisions rendering its fabrication highly penal. But offences of this nature may usually be prosecuted under 24 & 25 Vict. c. 98, which consolidates the law on this subject; and provides minutely for the punishment of every class of offence which can be placed under this head.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF THE MEANS OF PREVENTING OFFENCES.

It is an honour to our laws, that they furnish the means of preventing the commission of crimes; since preventive justice is, upon every principle of reason, of humanity, and of sound policy, preferable in all respects to punishing justice.

This preventive justice consists in obliging those persons, whom there is a probable ground to suspect of future misbehaviour, to give assurance to the public, that such offence as is apprehended shall not happen; by finding securities for keeping the peace, or for their good behaviour. By the Saxon constitution these sureties were always at hand, by means of the decennaries or frank-pledges, wherein the whole neighbourhood of freemen were mutually pledges for each other's good behaviour. But this general security falling into disuse, there succeeded to it the method of making suspected persons find special securities for their future conduct: of which mention is made in the laws of Edward the Confessor.

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 required, for instance, 100%., with condition to be void, 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 demean and behave himself well, either generally or specially, for the time therein limited, as for one or more years, or for life. This recognizance, if taken by a justice of the peace, is certified to the next sessions; and if the condition be broken by any breach of the peace in the one case, or any misbehaviour in the other, the recognizance becomes forfeited or absolute; and being estreated or extracted, taken out from among the other records, and sent up to the Exchequer; the party and his

sureties, having now become absolute debtors of the crown, are sued for the several sums in which they are respectively bound.

Any justices of the peace, by virtue of their commission, or those who are ex-officio conservators of the peace, may demand such security according to their own discretion; or it may be granted at the request of any subject, upon due cause shown, provided such demandant be under the protection of the crown. Wives may demand it against their husbands, or husbands, if necessary, against their wives.

A recognizance may be discharged by the death of the principal party bound thereby, if not before forfeited; or by order of the court to which such recognizance is certified; or in case he at whose request it was granted, if granted upon a private account, will release it, or does not make his appearance to pray that it may be continued.

Thus far what has been said is applicable to both species of recognizances, for the peace, and for the good behaviour. But as these securities are in some respects different, especially as to the cause of granting, or the means of forfeiting them, they must be briefly considered separately.

1. Any justice of the peace may, ex-officio, bind all those to keep the peace who in his presence make any affray; or threaten to kill or beat another; or contend together with angry words; or are brought before him by the constable for a breach of the peace in his presence; and all such persons as, having been before bound to the peace, have broken it and forfeited their recognizances. Also, whenever any private man has just cause to fear that another will do him a corporal injury, or procure others so to do; he may demand surety of the peace against such person: and every justice of the peace is bound to grant it, if he who demands it will make oath that he is actually under fear of death or bodily harm. This is called swearing the peace against another; and, if the party does not find such sureties as the justice in his discretion shall require, he may immediately be committed till he does, or until the expiration of a year; for persons committed to prison for not entering into recognizances or finding securities to keep the peace, can in no case be detained for more than twelve months.

Such recognizance, when given, may be forfeited by any actual violence, or menace even, to the person of him who demanded it, if it be a special recognizance; or, if the recognizance be general, by any unlawful action whatsoever, that either is or tends to a breach of the peace. But a bare trespass upon the lands or goods of another, which is a ground for a civil action, is not of itself a forfeiture of the recognizance. Neither are mere reproachful words, as calling a man knave or liar, any breach of the peace, so as to forfeit one's recognizance, being looked upon to be merely the effect of unmeaning heat and passion, unless they amount to a challenge to fight.

The recognizance for good behaviour includes security for the peace, and somewhat more.

First, then, the justices are empowered by 34 Edw. III. c. 1, to bind over to good behaviour towards the king and his people, all them that be not of good fame, wherever they be found; to the intent that the people be not troubled nor endamaged, nor the peace diminished, nor merchants and others, passing by the highways of the realm, be disturbed nor put in the peril which may happen by such offenders. Under the general words of this expression, that be not of good fume, it is held that a man may be bound to his good behaviour for causes of scandal, contra bonos mores, as well as contra pacem. Thus a justice may bind over all night-walkers; such as keep suspicious company, or are reported to be pilferers or robbers; common drunkards; cheats; idle vagabonds; and other persons whose misbehaviour may reasonably bring them within the general words of the statute, as persons not of good fame: an expression, it must be owned, of so great a latitude, as leaves much to be determined by the discretion of the magistrate himself. But, if he commits a man for want of sureties, he must express the cause thereof with certainty; and take care that such cause be a good one.

A recognizance for good behaviour may be forfeited in the same way as one for the security of the peace; and also by some others; especially by committing any of those acts of misbehaviour which the recognizance was intended to prevent. But not by barely giving fresh cause of suspicion of that which perhaps may never actually happen; for, though it is just to compel suspected persons to give security against misbehaviour