STATUTORY oaths. UNLAWFUL OATHS. By statute (1) any person administering, or being a Administering party to the administering or taking of any oath or engagement (2), purporting to bind a person to a mutinous or seditious purpose, or to disturb the peace, or to be a member of an association formed for such purposes, or to obey any committee or body of men, or any leader, not having due authority; or not to inform or give evidence against any person, or not to reveal any unlawful combination, or any illegal act done or to be done, or not to reveal any illegal oath or engagement administered or tendered to him or to any other person, or the import of such oath or engagement, is liable to penal servitude for not more than seven years (3). PUNISHMENT. Taking such oathis. defence unless fact disclosed. Any person taking such oath or engagement, except on compulsion, is liable to the same punishment. Compulsion no Compulsion is no excuse unless the oath be revealed, with all facts known as to the time, place, and persons, within four days of the taking, or within four days of the cessation of such compulsion, or of any sickness which prevents a revelation; the revelation to be to a Justice of Peace or Secretary of State, or privy councillor, or in the case of a person serving in the Queen's forces, to his commanding officer. statute (4), where the oath or engagement purports to bind the person to commit treason or murder, or any capital crime, the punishment is penal servitude for life or not less than fifteen years, or imprisonment not exceeding three years, with or without hard PUNISHMENT. 1 Act 37 Geo. III. c. 123. 2 These words are explained (§ 5) to mean any obligation in the nature of an oath, however administered or taken, and whether administered by others, or taken without being administered. 3 Penal serv ude is substituted By for transportation by Acts 20 and 21 Vict. c. 3 & 27 and 28 Vic. c. 47. 4 Act 52 Geo. III. c. 104, amended as to punishment by 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 91, and by the penal servitude Acts 20 and 21 Vict. c. 3 and 27 and 28 Vict. c. 47. labour, and solitary confinement, the latter not to PUNISHMENT. exceed one month at a time, or three months in each year. ILLEGAL DRILLING. OFFENCE. By statute (1) meetings for training to the use of STATUTORY arms, or in military exercises, without authority of the Sovereign, or the Lieutenant or two Justices of the district, are illegal, both as regards the instructor, and those instructed. The punishment is penal servitude (2), for not more PUNISHMENT. than seven years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years in the case of the instructor, and fine and imprisonment not exceeding two years in the case of persons attending the meeting. SEDUCING ROYAL FORCES TO MUTINY OR DESERTION. MUTINY. By statute (3) any one maliciously and advisedly SEDUCING TO seducing any person(s) of the Royal land or sea forces, from his (or their) allegiance, or inciting or stirring up any such person(s) to commit any act of mutiny, or to make or endeavour to make any mutinous assembly, or to commit any traitorous or mutinous practice whatsoever, is liable to penal servitude for life, or not less than fourteen years, or imprisonment not exceeding three years (4). SOLDIERS TO The annual Mutiny Act makes persons seducing PERSUADING royal soldiers to desert liable to fine or imprisonment, or both. This is also an offence at common law (5). 1 Act 60 Geo. III. and 1 Geo. IV. c. 1, § 1. 2 Penal servitude being substituted for transportation by Acts 20 and 21 Vict. c. 3, and 27 and 28 Vict. c. 47. 3 Act. 37 Geo. III. c. 70, made perpetual by 57 Geo. III. c. 7. 4 The punishment awarded by the Act of Geo. III. was mitigated to the above by 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 91, § 1, as amended by 20 and 21 Vict. c. 3, § 2. 5 Hume i. 527, case of Wilson and Hopper in note 3. STATUTORY Enlisting or procuring to enlist. Entering or leaving ship to enlist. FOREIGN ENLISTMENT. Any British subject, without licence of the Crown, whether in British dominions or not, who accepts or agrees to accept commission or engagement in the army or navy service of a state at war with a friendly state, or any person whatever, within British dominions, inducing another, commits an offence (1). Any British subject who, without licence, quits or enters a ship to leave British dominions with such intent, or any person whatever who, within British dominions, induces another to quit or enter a ship in order to leave British dominions with the like intent, commits an offence (2). False representa- Any person inducing another to quit British dominions, enlistment. or enter a ship there by false representation of the service the other person is entering on, in order that such person may accept a commission or engagement Shipping persons as above, commits an offence (3). Any ship's master or owner, without licence, knowingly embarking, or engaging to embark, or having on board in British dominions any British subject who has accepted service as above, or is about to quit British dominions with intent to accept service as above, or any person who has been induced to embark by false representation as above, commits an offence (4). tation to induce intending to serve foreign state. PUNISHMENT. BUILDING, EQUIP- The punishment in all these cases is fine and imprisonment, or either of them, the latter with or without hard labour. SUPPLYING STATE AT WAR WITH SHIPS, &c. Building or agreeing to build, or delivering commisSPATCHING SHIPS. Sion to, or equipping or despatching, or causing or allowing to be despatched, any ship, with intent or knowledge, or reasonable cause to know that the same PING, OR DE shall or will be employed in the military or naval BUILDING, EQUIPservice of a state at war with a friendly state, is SPATCHING SHIPS. an offence, unless the contract was made before war Exception. had commenced, and on proclamation of neutrality, notice is forthwith given of the facts to the Secretary of State, and any information required furnished, and such security given, and such measures taken or permitted to be taken as the Secretary of State may require to prevent despatch, delivery, or removal of the ship without licence before the war is over (1). in- Increasing ship Increasing war the equipment. like force. Increasing, or being knowingly concerned in creasing without licence, the warlike force of a within the British dominions, such ship being in military or naval service of a state at war with a friendly state, is punishable in the same manner (2). The same holds of preparing or fitting out, or being Naval or military engaged in preparing or fitting out, or assisting to do so, or being employed in any naval or military expedition against a friendly state (3). expedition. abetting. Aiding, abetting, counselling, or procuring any of Aiding and the above offences involves guilt as a principal (4). The punishment of these offences is fine and im- PUNISHMENT. prisonment not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. ASSISTING THE ESCAPE OF PRISONERS OF WAR. STATUTORY OFFENCE. By statute (5) any person knowingly and wilfully aiding an alien enemy, being a prisoner of war, to Aid to prisoner. escape from the place of confinement, or if on parole, to escape from the royal dominions, or from that part of them where he is on parole, is liable to penal servitude for life (6), or for fourteen or seven years. 1 Act 33 and 34 Vict. c. 90, § 8. 2 Ibid., § 10. 3 Ibid., § 11. 4 Ibid., § 12. 5 Act 52 Geo. III. c. 156. The Aid on high seas. 6 Penal servitude is substituted for transportation by Acts 20 and 21 Vict. c. 3, and 27 and 28 Vict. c. 47. STATUTORY STATUTORY CONSOLIDATION STATUTE. in smuggling vessel. penalty is extended to aid given upon the high seas to a prisoner who is escaping. Such acts are also criminal by the common law (1), which is reserved by the statute (2). EQUIPPING SHIPS TO MAKE WAR ON Any person who, without Her Majesty's licence, equips, furnishes, fits out, or arms, or attempts or endeavours to equip, &c., or to procure to be equipped, &c., or aids or is concerned in equipping, &c., any vessel, or issuing or delivering a commission for any vessel, with intent, or in order that it shall be employed in the service of a foreign state, as a transport or store ship, or to cruise or make war against any state with which Her Majesty is not at war, is liable to fine and imprisonment, or either of them, besides forfeiture of the vessel, with all its stores and appurtenances (3). CUSTOMS AND EXCISE OFFENCES. The laws as to smuggling are now consolidated by statute (4), and the following is a brief summary of the offences which fall within the scope of this British subject work, as being punishable by imprisonment. § 235. Any British subject found on board a vessel or boat liable to forfeiture for being found within the statutory distance from the shore of the United Kingdom, having on board, or having had on board, goods inferring forfeiture; or on board such a vessel or boat, where the goods, or part of them, have been thrown overboard, smuggling vessel or staved in or destroyed to prevent capture and any person, not a British subject, found within a league of Foreigner in within a league of shore. 1 Hume i. 527, case of Hyslop and Hyslop or Delone in note 3. 2 Act 52 Geo. III. c. 156, § 4. 3 Act 59 Geo. III. c. 69, § 7. 4 Act 16 and 17 Vict. c. 107. |