STORES, MILITARY, NAVAL, &c.-OFFENCES

CONNECTED WITH.

By s. 2 of the Public Stores A. 1875, 38-9 V. 25, 'the term 'stores' includes all goods and chattels, and any single store or article.'

By s. 3, the A. applies to all stores under the care, &c. of a secretary of state, or the admiralty, or any public department or office, or of any person in the service of her Majesty.

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By s. 4, the marks described in the 1st Sched. may be applied in or on stores therein described to denote Crown property; and if any person without lawful authority (proof of which authority shall lie on the party accused) applies any of those marks in or on any such stores, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour'; maximum sentence, two years' imprisonment with hard labour.

By s. 5, obliteration, &c. with intent to conceal Crown's property, of any such mark is a felony; maximum punishment, penal servitude for seven years.

By s. 6: A constable of the metropolitan police force may, within the limits for which he is constable, and any constable, if deputed by a public department may, within the limits for which he is constable, stop, search and detain any vessel, boat, or vehicle in or on which there is reason to suspect' that any such stores, stolen or unlawfully obtained, may be found, or any person reasonably suspected of having stolen, &c. them.

By s. 10: For the purposes of this Act stores shall be deemed to be in the possession or keeping of any person if he knowingly has them in the actual possession or keeping of any other person, or in any house, building, lodging, apartment, field, or place, open or enclosed, whether occupied by himself or not, and whether the same are so had for his own use or benefit, or for the use or benefit of another.'

S. 12 incorporates ss. 98 (amended), 103, 107-112, 115-121, of 24-5 V. 96, and other rpd. ss.

By s. 16: Nothing in this Act shall prevent any person from being indicted under this Act or otherwise for any indictable offence made punishable on summary conviction by this Act, or prevent any person from being liable under any other Act, or otherwise to any other or higher penalty or punishment than is provided for any offence by this Act, so that no person be punished twice for the same offence.' S. 20 of 30-1 V. 128, enables the War Secretary to prosecute and defend actions, civil and criminal, relating to her Majesty's stores.

Guilty possession] For what was held to amount to a guilty possession under rpd. Acts, see Anon. (between 1745 and 1763), Foster Crown Cases, App. 439; Banks, 1 Esp. 144, 1794; Willmett, 3 Cox C. C. 281, 1848, and Cohen, 8 Cox C. C. 41, 1858.

Goods are to be in the custody and possession of a person, though they may never have been in his actual possession, or on his premises,

if they have been under his control, and disposed of by him. Sunley, 1 Bell C. C. 145; 8 Cox O. C. 179, 1859. Cf. Receiving, generally.

Defendant was an ironmonger, and delivered for transport a cask of copper bolts, some of which were marked with a broad arrow. On their being seized he admitted sending them, but said he did not think 'it was marked'; he gave no account from whom he had bought it. The whole consisted of stores not allowed to be sold in the dockyard. The jury found (i.) that he was in possession of bolts marked with the broad arrow, but (ii.) that they had not sufficient evidence before them to show that he knew it, and (iii.) that he had reasonable means of knowing it. The C. for C. C. R. held that he was entitled to be acquitted. Sleep, L. & C. 44; 30 L. J. M. C. 170; 8 Cox C. C. 472. 1861. And see also O'Brien, 15 L. T. N. S. 419, 1867.

For embezzlement of stores belonging to Chelsea Hospital, see 7 G. 4, 16, 34; of those of Greenwich Hospital, see 28-9 V. 89, 45, to which 38-9 V. 25, above, is applied (by s. 17 of the latter), instead of 27-8 V. 91, rpd.

STRIKE OFFENCES.

See under Conspiracies in Restraint of Trade.

SUBORNATION OF PERJURY.
See under Perjury.

SUICIDE, ATTEMPTED.

See Attempts.

SUSPECTS..

I. Of intending &c. to commit crime.

(a) Preventive justice consists in obliging those persons whom there is a probable ground to suspect of future misbehaviour to give full assurance to the public that such offence as is apprehended shall not happen; by finding pledges or securities for keeping the peace or their good behaviour." 4 Bl. Comm. 251. These securities are classified: according as the recognisance is taken (1) 'to keep the peace, either generally towards the King and all his liege people, or particularly also with regard to the person who craves the security'; or (2) to be of good behaviour either generally or specially for the time therein limited . . . or for life.' In both cases one or more sureties must be found.' Ib. The common law power is regulated by 42-3 V. 49, 25.

(b) Other instances are of possession of suspicious articles, e.g. implements for coining, housebreaking, &c., or of obscenity; some old cases are collected Dugdale v. R., but all these matters (except obscenity-see Obscene, &c.) in so far as they give rise to offences are now dealt with by statutes which will be found under the respective titles. The subject, from its nature, is connected with Attempts to commit crime, under which title a distinction is essayed between overt and suspicious acts.

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(c) By 34-5 V. 112, 7, persons twice convicted of 'crime' (within s. 20) are for seven years after the expiry of sentence liable to conviction on suspicion of leading or intending to lead a criminal life, but the suspicious facts are only erected into specific statutory crimes in four cases: (1) on a charge of getting a livelihood by dishonest means'; (2) refusing to give or falsely giving a name or address when charged criminally; (3) being found in any place . . under such circumstances as to satisfy the court that he was about to commit or to aid . . . any' criminal offence or was waiting for an opportunity to do so; (4) being found in or upon any dwellinghouse or any building, yard or premises, being parcel of or attached to such dwelling-house, or in or upon any shop, warehouse, countinghouse or other place of business, or in any garden, orchard, pleasure ground or nursery ground, or in any building or erection in any garden, orchard, pleasure ground or nursery ground, without being able to account to the satisfaction of the court for his being

so found.' Extended to other ex-convicts by 54-5 V. 69, 6. Maximum sentence is 12 months' imp. w. h. 1.

See F. Miles, 1909. In Pavitt, 6 Cr. A. R. 182; 75 J. P. 432, 1911, the C. C. A. said: 'the punishment provided by the A. is not to be invoked on mere suspicion. . . there must be some positive evidence' that defendant was about to commit an offence within (3); he went from house to house at mid-day hawking picture-cards without a licence (or perhaps begging); the only offences that could be suggested to satisfy the indictment were larceny or housebreaking,' of neither of which was there any evidence: c. q.

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II. Of crimes actually committed. The law here relevant is that of the Apprehension (and Interrogation) of individuals-which title see.

TELEGRAPH SYSTEM, OFFENCES AGAINST.

Physical injury] By 24-5 V. 97, 37: Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously cut, break, throw down, destroy, injure, or remove any battery, machinery, wire, cable, post, or other matter or thing whatsoever, being part of or being used or employed in or about any electric or magnetic telegraph, or in the working thereof, or shall unlawfully and maliciously prevent or obstruct in any manner whatsoever the sending, conveyance, or delivery of any communication by any such telegraph, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour': maximum punishment, imprisonment for two years, with hard labour: 'provided that if it shall appear to any justice. that it is not expedient to the ends of justice that' an offence against this s. 'should be prosecuted by indictment, the justice may proceed summarily to hear it. Triable at Q. S.

48-9 V. 49, 3 (1) makes it a misdemeanour (a) wilfully or (b) by culpable negligence to injure a submarine cable (under the Convention' of 1884), or to attempt to do so. (2): Maximum punishment for (a), five years' p. s. and a fine; for (b), three months' imp. and a fine of 100l. (3), (4): Exceptions in case of necessity. (5): Anyone within the dominions of the crown, and any subject without, procuring or aiding, &c., is equally liable. The A. contains some rules of evidence.

Telegrams] By 31-2 V. 110, 20: Any person having official duties connected with the Post Office, or acting on behalf of the PostmasterGeneral, who shall, contrary to his duty, disclose, or in any way make known or intercept the contents or any part of the contents of any telegraphic messages, or any message intrusted to the PostmasterGeneral for the purpose of transmission, shall in England and Ireland, be guilty of a misdemeanour and shall, upon conviction, be subject to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve calendar months; and the Postmaster-General shall make regulations to carry out the intentions of this section, and to prevent the improper use, by any person in his employment or acting on his behalf, of any knowledge he may acquire of the contents of any telegraphic message.'

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By s. 21: In every case where an offence shall be committed in respect of a telegraphic message sent by or intrusted to the PostmasterGeneral, it shall be lawful and sufficient, in the indictment . . . to lay the property of such telegraphic message in her Majesty's Postmaster-General . . . and it shall not be necessary in the indictment to allege or to prove upon the trial or otherwise that the telegraphic message was of any value; and in any indictment. . against any Post Office employee for any offence under this A., it is enough to allege that defendant was employed under the Post Office at the time of the committing of such offence,' without more.

By 32-3 V. 73, the Telegraph A. 1869, s, 23: 'Provided, always that nothing in this Act contained shall have the effect of relieving

any officer of the Post Office from any liability which would but for the passing of this Act have attached to a telegraph company, or to any other company or person, to produce in any court of law, when duly required so to do, any such written or printed message or communication.'

By s. 24, these two Acts shall be 'Post Office Acts': see Index.

Evidence] To put in the contents of a telegram sent by defendant, it is necessary that the original message handed to the Post Office should be produced, and some evidence given that it is in his handwriting or sent by his authority; the copy received by a witness cannot be given in evidence until it is proved that the original cannot be produced: Regan, 16 Cox C. C. 203, 1887.

Delivery] To prove a telegram sent to a defendant, not produced after proper notice, it is usual to prove the handing in of the form at one office and its receipt at the other, and that the telegram was taken to his house, &c. and left there. On proof of the serving of the notice to produce, the original form may then be put in evidence.

Forgery] By 47-8 V. 76, 11: 'Every person who forges or wilfully and without due authority alters a telegram, or utters a telegram knowing the same to be forged, or wilfully and without due authority altered, or who transmits by telegraph as a telegram, or utters as a telegram any message or communication which he knows to be not a telegram, shall, whether he had or had not an intent to defraud, be guilty of a misdemeanour'; maximum punishment, on indictment, imprisonment with hard labour for twelve months.

Disclosure] 'If any person, being in the employment of a telegraph company as defined by this section, improperly divulges to any person the purport of any telegram, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and be liable on indictment, to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding one year, or to a fine not exceeding 2001.

For the purposes of this section the expression telegram' means a written or printed message, or communication, sent to or delivered at a post office, or the office of a telegraph company for transmission by telegraph, or delivered by the post office or a telegraph company as a message or communication transmitted by telegraph.

The expression telegraph company' means any company, corporation, or persons carrying on the business of sending telegrams for the public under whatever authority, or in whatever manner such company, corporation, or persons may act or be constituted.

The expression telegraph' has the same meaning as in the Telegraph Act, 1869' [s. 3], and the Acts amending the same.'

Where a man sent a telegram announcing that he was dead and signed it with his surname, it was held that an offence against this s. had been committed, as it necessarily purported to come from some one different from the actual sender. Ex parte Wickham, 10 T. L. R. 266, 1894: Q. B. D.

Intent] In Horner, 22 Cox C. C. 13; 74 J. P. 216, 1910, defendant sent four telegrams to a daily newspaper in the name of one of its journalists, and they were published, but would not have been if the sender had been known. Bray J. held that under this s. there must