THE Justice of the Peace, PARISH AND OFFICER. By RICHARD BURN, LL.D. LATE CHANCELLOR OF THE DIOCESE OF CARLISLE. THE TWENTY-THIRD EDITION: With CORRECTIONS, ADDITIONS, and IMPROVEMENTS. And the STATUTES to the 1 GEO. IV. 1820. By GEORGE CHETWYND, Esq. M.P. BARRISTER AT LAW, AND CHAIRMAN OF THE GENERAL QUARTER SESSIONS OF THE PEACE Dr. Burn has great merit: He has done great service, and deserves great Burr. S. C. 548. IN FIVE VOLUMES. VOL. V. LONDON: Printed by A. STRAHAN, Law-Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty: F. C. & J. RIVINGTON, St. Paul's Church-Yard, & Waterloo-Place; and LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, and BROWN, Paternoster-Row. § I. What it is. Rape. [6 R. 2. c. 6.18 El. c. 7.] II. Evidence on an Indictment of Rape. III. Punishment of Rape. IV. Principal and Accessary. I. What it is. 19 Eliz. c. 7. 18 Eliz. c. 7. § 4. Knowing a RAPE is when a man hath carnal knowledge of a woman, by Rape, what. force, and against her will. 2 Inst. 180. 1 Haw. c. 41. § 1. It having been doubted whether a rape could be committed upon a female child under ten years of age, the stat. 18 Eliz. c. 7. §4. " for a plain declaration of the law," enacts, "that if any person shall unlawfully and carnally know and abuse any woman child under the age of ten years, every such unlawful and carnal knowledge shall be felony, and the offender, being duly convicted, shall suffer as a felon, without allowance of clergy." The offence of a rape is no way mitigated by shewing that the woman at last yielded to the violence, if such her consent were forced by fear of death or of duress. 1 Haw. c. 41. § 2. Also, it is not a sufficient excuse in the ravisher to prove that the woman is a common strumpet; for she is still under the protection of the law, and may not be forced. 1 Haw. c. 41. § 2. Nor is it any excuse that she consented after the fact. 1 Haw. c. 41. § 2. It appears at one time to have been thought, that the carnal knowledge of a child above the age of ten and under twelve years was rape, though she consented; twelve years being the age of consent in a female, and the statute Westm. 1. c. 13., which enacts, "that none do ravish any maiden within age, neither by her own consent nor without," being admitted to refer by the words, "within age," to the age of twelve years. It is, however, now well established, that if the child be above ten years old, it is not a felonious rape, unless it be against her will and consent. But children above that age, and under twelve, are still within the protection of this statute of Westm. 1. c. 13., the law with respect to the carnal knowledge of such children not having been altered by either of the subsequent statutes of Westm. 2. c. 34, or 18 Eliz. c. 7. The statute, Westm. 1. c. 13., makes the deflowering a child above ten years old and under twelve, though with her own consent, a misdemeanour, punishable by two years' imprisonment, and fine at the king's pleasure. woman child carnally. Consenting at last. Ravishing a common strum pet. Consenting after the fact. The carnal and under 1 Russ. 810. Phill. Ev. 20. 4th edit. |