VII. [Contempts against the sovereign's title, which fall short of treason or præmunire, are chiefly the denial of his right to the Crown, in common and unadvised discourse; for if it be by advisedly speaking, we have seen that it amounts to præmunire (x). This heedless species of contempt is punishable by our law with fine and imprisonment.]

VIII. Contempt against the Crown's ecclesiastical supremacy. This, in our own times, was considered to be committed by endeavouring to establish a hierarchy of the see of Rome within this realm, with titles invasive of the rights of our Protestant dignitaries. And by 14 & 15 Vict. c. 60 (the Ecclesiastical Titles Act, 1851), a penalty of 1007. was imposed upon any person who should procure from the see of Rome, or publish or put in use within the united kingdom, any bull for constituting archbishops or bishops of pretended provinces or sees; or upon any person, other than the person authorized by law, who should assume or use the title of archbishop, bishop, or dean of any city, town, place, or territory in the united kingdom (y). No prosecution, however, under these enactments was in fact instituted, although prelates appointed by the Pope continued to assume, both in England and Ireland, territorial titles; and it has since been thought inconvenient to retain them in our statute book. Accordingly they are repealed by the 34 & 35 Vict. c. 53,-the preamble to the Act declaring it to be inexpedient to impose penalties upon those ministers of religion "who may, as among the members of the several religious bodies to which they respectively belong, be designated by distinctions regarded as titles of office, although such designation may be connected with the name of some town or place within the realm." There is, however, a proviso attached to the repeal, that it shall not be deemed in any way to authorize or sanction

(x) Vide sup. p. 198.

(y) There is a prior enactment to the same general effect (apparently

still unrepealed) contained in 10 Geo. 4, c. 7, s. 24.

the conferring of any rank, title, precedence, authority or jurisdiction over a subject of this realm by any person other than by our own gracious sovereign.

IX. [Contempts against the royal palaces have been always looked upon as high misprisions; and, by the antient law before the Conquest, fighting in the king's palace or before the king's judges was punished with death (z). So too, in the old Gothic constitution, there were many places privileged by law-" quibus major reverentia et securitas debetur, ut templa et judicia, quæ sancta habebantur, arces et aula regis, denique locus quilibet præsente aut adventante rege" (a).] And with us, by the statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 12, malicious striking in the king's palace wherein his royal person resides, whereby blood is drawn, was punishable by perpetual imprisonment and fine at the king's pleasure, and also with the loss of the offender's right hand, the solemn execution of which sentence is prescribed in the statute at length (b); but by 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s. 1, the part of this Act which authorized the above mutilation, was repealed. It appears, however, to be a contempt of the kind now in question to execute the ordinary process of the law, by arrest or otherwise, within the verge of a royal palace, or in the Tower; unless permission be first obtained from the proper authority (c).

X. [The maladministration of such high officers as are in public trust and employment, may be ranked as a contempt against the sovereign or his government. This is usually punished by the method of parliamentary impeachment; wherein such penalties short of death are inflicted, as to

(2) 2 Inst. 140; LL. Alured. cap. 7 and 34.

(a) Stiernh. de Jure Goth. 1. 3, c. 3. (b) See Knevet's case, 11 Harg. St. Tr. 16.

(c) See Elderton's case, Ld. Raym. 978; R. v. Stobbs, 3 T. R. 735;

Winter v. Miles, 1 Camp. 475; S. C. 10 East, 578; Sparks v. Spink, 7 Taunt. 311; Batson v. M'Lean, 2 Chit. Rep. 51; Bell v. Jacobs, 1 M. & P. 309; but as to Hampton Court, see Att.-Gen. v. Dakin, Law Rep., 2 Ex. 290.

[the wisdom of the house of Lords shall seem proper; consisting usually of banishment, imprisonment, fines or perpetual disability. Hitherto also may be referred the offence of embezzling of public money, called among the Romans peculatus; which the Julian law punished with death in a magistrate, and with deportation or banishment in a private person (d). With us it is not a capital crime; but subjects the committer of it, at common law, to a discretionary fine and imprisonment.] And by statute 50 Geo. III. c. 59, s. 2, it was provided, that if any officer entrusted with the receipt or management of the public revenues, should knowingly furnish false statements or returns of the monies collected by him, or the balances left in his hands, he should be guilty of a misdemeanor; and be fined and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, and for ever rendered incapable of holding any office under the Crown. And special provisions have been made with regard to the stealing or embezzlement by a person in the service of the Crown, of any chattel, money or valuable security in his possession, or coming under his control, by virtue of such employment (e).

XI. To the same class of offences, must be referred that of selling public offices; as to which it was provided by 49 Geo. III. c. 126 (reciting and extending the 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 16 on the same subject), that persons buying or selling, or receiving or paying money or reward for, any office in the gift of the Crown; and persons receiving or paying money for, or soliciting or obtaining, any such office, or making any negotiation or pretended negotiation relating thereto; and persons opening or advertising houses for transacting business relating to the sale of any such office;-shall, respectively, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor (ƒ).

(d) 4 Inst. 18, 9.

(e) See 24 & 25 Vict. c. 96, ss. 69, 70, et vide sup. p. 136.

(f) As to this statute (from the provisions of which certain offices are excepted) see Hopkins v. Pres

XII. Offences in relation to the customs, the royal naval or military stores, ships, &c. As to the customs, we must here refer to the offence of smuggling, that is, importing or exporting prohibited goods, or without paying the duties on goods not prohibited. This practice is a fraud on the revenue; and it is accordingly restrained by the statutes relating to the customs of which we spoke in a former volume (g). And by one of these, the 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36 (the Customs Consolidation Act, 1876), it is enacted, that a person who shall maliciously shoot at any vessel or boat belonging to the navy or in the service of the revenue, or shall maliciously shoot at, maim or wound any officer of the army, navy, marines or coastguard on full pay, or any officer of customs or excise, or those aiding them, while duly employed for the prevention of smuggling and in the execution of his or their duty, shall be guilty of felony, and shall be liable to penal servitude for not less than five years, or to be imprisoned for not exceeding three years (h). Moreover, every person procuring or hiring any person or persons to assemble for the purpose of being concerned in running prohibited goods, or goods the duties for which have not been paid, shall be imprisoned for any term not exceeding twelve months; and if such person or persons being armed with fire-arms or other offensive weapons, or disguised in any way whether armed or not, shall be found with goods liable to forfeiture under the Customs Acts within five miles of the seacoast or any tidal river, he or they shall be imprisoned with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding three years (i). So, also, any persons found signalling smuggling vessels shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may forfeit the penalty of 1007., or, at the discretion of the court, be com

cott, 4 C. B. 578; Sterry v. Clifton, 9 C. B. 110; Eyre v. Forbes, 12 C. B. (N. S.) 191. See also 6 Geo. 4, cc. 82 and 83, by which the sale of offices in the Queen's Bench and

Common Pleas was expressly pro-
hibited.

(9) Vide sup. vol. 1. p. 566.
(h) 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36, s. 193.
(i) Sect. 189.

mitted to prison for one year (k). Moreover, any person taking goods from a warehouse without payment of duty, and every person destroying or embezzling goods duly warehoused (1), shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished accordingly (m). And finally, a person convicted of any offence under the Customs Acts who shall have been adjudged to pay a penalty exceeding 1007., may be imprisoned, if for a first offence, for not less than six nor more than nine months, and for a subsequent offence, in lieu of the penalty, may be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for not less than six nor more than twelve months ("); and if during such his imprisonment it shall appear that he had been previously convicted, he may be further committed for not less than nine nor more than twelve months from the date of his first imprisonment (0).

As to the royal stores, such offences in relation to them, as amount to larceny or embezzlement, are punishable according to the distinctions already explained with regard to those crimes (p). But besides these, there are others falling under the present head, to repress which various enactments formerly existed, which are now, almost all, consolidated into the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 25 (the Public Stores Act, 1875) (q), which, among other provisions for which

(k) 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36, s. 190. () As to warehousing goods liable to pay duty, vide sup. vol. II. p. 567. (m) Sect. 85. (n) Sect. 237.

(0) Sect. 240. It may be noticed that goods unshipped without payment of duty, prohibited goods (whether imported or shipped for exportation), goods illegally removed from a warehouse, goods concealed on board ship or boat, and goods packed therewith for the purpose of concealing them-are all liable to be forfeited (sect. 177); and that there is a penalty of 107.

on persons cutting adrift or injuring in any way any buoy or mark used for the prevention of smuggling or for the use of the Customs (sect. 195).

(p) Vide sup. p. 136. See also 29 & 30 Vict. c. 109, s. 33 (The Naval Discipline Act), as to embezzlement by persons subject to that Act.

(9) By this Act is repealed the greater part of the War Department Stores Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 128), and the Naval Stores Act, 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 12), as well as some earlier enactments.