STEALING TREES OR SHRUBS. 707 first description, are made subject to a penalty of £5; or in water of the second description, to a penalty of £2. Persons found ANGLING, against the provisions of this act, the owner of the ground, water, or fishery, or his servant, may demand the fishing implements of the offender; and if he refuse to deliver them, they may be seized for the use of the owner of the ground: but persons whose implements are so seized, are excused from the payment of any penalty or damage, s. 25. STEALING FROM OYSTER BEDS. If any person steal any oysters or oyster-brood from any oysterbed, laying, or fishery, being the property of any other person, and sufficiently marked out or known as such, every such offender shall be deemed guilty of larceny; and if any person shall unlawfully use any dredge, or any net, instrument, or engine whatsoever, within the limits of any such oyster-fishery, for the purpose of taking oysters or oyster-brood, although none shall be actually taken or shall, with any net, instrument, or engine, drag upon the ground or soil of any such fishery,-every such person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both; such fine not to exceed £20, and such imprisonment not to exceed three months: but nothing shall prevent any person from catening or fishing for any floating fish within the limits of any oyster-fishery, with any net, instrument, or engine adapted for taking floating fish only, s. 26. STEALING FROM MINES OR FIXTURES. By 24 & 25 V. c. 96, ss. 38 & 39, if a person steal, or sever, remove, or conceal, with intent to steal, the ore of any metal, or any lapis calaminaris, manganese, or mundick, or any wad, black cawke, or black lead, or any coal or cannel coal from any unine, bed, or vein, such offender is punishable with imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour or solitary confinement. A like punishment if a person steal, or rip, cut, or break, with intent to steal, any glass or woodwork, or any lead, iron, copper, brass, or other metal, or any utensil or fixture, made of any other material, belonging to, or fixed to, any building, or anything made of metal, fixed in any land, being private property, or for a fence to any dwelling-house, garden, or area, or in any square, street, or other place dedicated to public use or ornament, s. 31. STEALING TREES OR SHRUBS. By s. 32, if a person steal, cut, break, root-up, or otherwise destroy or damage, with intent to steal, any tree, sapling, shrub, or underwood growing in a park, pleasure-ground, garden, orchard, or avenue, or in any ground belonging to any dwelling-house; every Z z 2 such offender, in case the value of the article stolen, or injury done, amount to £1, is punishable with penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years; or in case the article be growing in other situations than those mentioned, and exceed the value of £5, the offender is liable to the same punishment. Stealing, &c., any of the last-mentioned articles, wheresoever growing, to the value of ONE SHILLING, the offender shall, over and above the value of the article or amount of injury done, forfeit, for the first offence, not exceeding £5; for a second, be committed to hard labour in the house of correction for any time not exceeding twelve months, and whipping be inflicted if the conviction be before two magistrates; for a third offence, the offender is punishable with penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, s. 33. STEALING FENCE, STILE, OR GATE. By s. 34, if a person steal, cut, break, or throw down, with intent to steal, any part of a live or dead fence, or any wooden post, pail, or rail, used as a fence, or any stile or gate; the offender, for a first offence, above the value of the article shall forfeit not exceeding £5; for a second offence, be committed to hard labour for not exceeding twelve months. If the whole or part of a tree, sapling, or shrub, or any live or dead fence, post, pale, rail, stile, or gate, of the value of 18. at the least, be found in the possession of any person, or on his premises, with his knowledge, and such person is unable to satisfy a justice that he came lawfully by the same, he may, above the value of the article, be convicted in the forfeiture of any sum not exceeding £2, s. 35. STEALING FROM GARDENS OR ORCHARDS. By s. 36, if a person steal, destroy, or damage with intent to steal, any plant, root, fruit, or vegetable production growing in any garden, orchard, nursery-ground, hothouse, greenhouse or, conser• vatory, every such offender shall, at the discretion of the justice, either be committed to be imprisoned only, or to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour, for any term not exceeding six months, or else pay, over and above the value of the article stolen, or the amount of the injury done, any sum not exceeding £20. On a second conviction, the offender is liable to penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years. If a person steal, destroy, or damage with intent to steal, any cultivated root or plant used for the food of man or beast, or for medicine, distilling, or dyeing in any manufacture, and growing in any land, open or inclosed, not being a garden, orchard, or nursery-ground, every such offender may be committed, either with or without hard labour, for not exceeding one month, or above the value of the article stolen or injured, pay not exceeding 208. On a second conviction, the offender may be imprisoned six months, with or without hard labour, s. 37. STEALING FROM GRAVES. It has been before observed, that no law renders stealing or taking a dead body a theft. Unless there be some property in the thing taken, and an owner, no theft can be committed; yet if the owner be unknown, provided there be a property, it is larceny to steal it. This is the case of stealing a shroud out of a grave, which is the property of those who buried the deceased; but stealing the body itself, which has no owner, is no felony, unless some of the grave-clothes be taken. But it is an offence not to bury a dead body; and, in Rex v. Young, the master of a workhouse and a surgeon were convicted of a conspiracy to prevent the burial of a person who died in the work house. And in Rex v. Cundick, the defendant was found guilty of a misdemeanour for not having buried the body of an executed felon, entrusted to him by the gaoler for that purpose, Surrey Spring Assizes, 1822. The possession of a body for the purpose of dissection by a licensed anatomist is rendered lawful by 2 & 3 W. 4, c. 75. CHAPTER XVII. Robbery. THE crime of robbery is a species of theft, aggravated by the circumstance of a taking of the property from the person, or whilst it is under the protection of the person, by means either of violence or putting in fear. Formerly the offence seems to have been confined to cases of actual violence to the person; but, in latter times, it has been extended to constructive violence by putting in fear, and not only to cases where property has been taken and delivered under the threat of bodily violence to the party robbed, or some other person, but also where the fear has resulted from the apprehension of violence to the habitation or property, or has been occasioned by threat of preferring a charge of an infamous crime. To constitute robbery there must be a forcible taking, but any or the least degree of force which inspires fear is sufficient. The value of the article taken is immaterial; a penny as much as a pound, forcibly extorted, makes a robbery. It must be a taking from the person, as a horse whereon a man is riding, or money out of his pocket; or else openly and before his face, as if a thief, having first assaulted me, takes awos my horse that is standing by me, or having put me in fear, d away my cattle: Actual violence to the person, or exciting fear in the mind, is not always necessary to constitute a robbery. For if a man, with cutlass under his arm, or pistol, demand and obtain the money of another without touching the person, it is robbery, though there is no consciousness of fear in the party robbed, only an apprehension or expectation that violence will be resorted to if the robber be refused or resisted. A snatching or taking of property suddenly or unawares from the person, without some actual injury to the person, is not a sufficient degree of violence to constitute robbery. If violence be used it is sufficient to constitute robbery, although it be used under the colour of executing legal process, or other lawful authority. Having endeavoured shortly to describe the nature of robbery, we come next to the statute law by which the offence is punished, and which has been consolidated and amended by 24 & 25 V. c. 96. By s. 40, whoever shall rob any person or steal any chattel, money, or valuable security, from the person of another, shall be guilty of felony, liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen, nor less than three years, or imprisoned for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, or solitary confinement. On trial for robbery, jury may convict of an assault with intert to rob, s. 41. By s. 42, to assault any person with intent to rob is punishable by penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, or solitary confinement. By s. 43, whoever shall, being armed with any offensive weapon or instrument, rob, or assault with intent to rob, any person, or shall, together with one or more, rob, or assault with intent to rob, any person, or shall rob any person, and at the time of, or immediately before or after, such robbery, shall wound, beat, strike, or use any other personal violence to any person, shall be liable to penal servitude for life, or for not less than three years, or to be imprisoned for not exceeding two years. The latter description appears to include the novel atrocity, lately so frequent, of garotting. Section 43 was amended by 24 & 25 V. c. 100, and extended to an attempt to choke, suffocate, or strangle, so as to render a person insensible or incapable of resistance, with intent to commit an indictable offence. To the punishment awarded by these acts for garotting has been added, by 26 & 27 V. c. 44, that of being, if a male, once, twice, or thrice privately whipped, subject to the following conditions:-If the offender is under 16 years of age, the number of strokes at each whipping not to exceed 25, and to be inflicted with a birch rod; in case of other male offenders, the strokes not to exceed 50 at each whipping. In each sentence the court to specify the number of strokes, and the instrument to be used. Whipping to be inflicted within six months from sentence, and prior to penal servitude, if such has been awarded. By 24 & 25 V. c. 96, s. 44, whoever shall send, deliver, or utter any letter or writing, demanding of any person, with menuces, and without reasonable cause, any money or valuable thing, is liable to penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or to imprisonment for not above two years, with or without hard labour or solitude: if a male under sixteen years of age, whipping may or may not be added. Demanding property, with menaces, or by force, with intent to steal, is punishable by penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment for two years, s. 45. To send or deliver a letter or writing, threatening to accuse of any crime now punishable with death or penal servitude for not less than seven years, is liable to penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not less than two years, s. 46. A like punishment for threatening to accuse of an infamous crime, or any other crime here described; or to induce, by violence or threats, to sign any deed or document, ss. 47, 48. S. 49 adds that "it shall be immaterial, whether the menace or threats before mentioned be of violence, injury, or accusation to be caused or made by the offender or any other person." CHAPTER XVIII. Malicious Injuries to Property. THIS class of offence is characterized by malice as contradistinguished from fraud. They consist of injuries done to public or private property, not for the purpose of theft, but from wantonness or ill-will, or mischievous design to violate the law. It is not necessary, however, that malice should appear--that is presumed from the injury inflicted; and it lies on the party indicted to rebut the presumption of evil intention, or sufficiently explain the act of which he is accused. As the crime is one that is often hard to prevent or discover, it is, although in general only a trespass at common law, made by recent statutes highly penal, and the punishment proportioned to the magnitude of the damage caused, and the difficulty, from the peculiar nature of the property, its unavoidable exposure or otherwise, of guarding against the perpetration of the injury. The 24 & 25 V. c. 97, passed in 1861, consolidates and amends the statute law of England and Ireland relating to malicious injuries to property. As to punishinents under this act, when imprisonment, with or without hard labour, is awarded for any indictable offence, the court may sentence the offender to be imprisoned, or imprisoned and kept to hard labour in the common gaol or house of correction. If solitary confinement forms part of |