Kenyon, 36 L. J. Newsp. 571, 1901, where part of the sentence was. binding over in a recognisance to pull down a building. To leave a dead body exposed in a highway is a nuisance at common law, as it is 'calculated to shock and disgust the passers-by and outrage public decency.' Clark, 15 Cox C. C. 171, 1883.

For the interment of dead bodies cast on shore, see 48 G. 3, 75, and 49-50 V. 20.

By s. 7 of 2-3 W. 4, 75 (amended 34-5 V. 16): 'It shall be lawful for any executor, or other party, having lawful possession of the body of any deceased person, and not being an undertaker or other party intrusted with the body for the purpose only of interment, to permit the body of such deceased person to undergo anatomical exami-nation, unless to the knowledge of such executor or other party such person shall have expressed his desire, either in writing at any time during his life, or verbally in the presence of two or more witnesses during the illness whereof he died, that his body after death might not undergo such examination, or unless the surviving husband or wife, or any known relative of the deceased person, shall require the body to be interred without such examination.' S. 8 provides for the person lawfully in the possession of a dead body directing and permitting anatomical examination, where the deceased shall, during his life, have directed it, unless the deceased person's surviving husband or wife, or nearest known relative, or any one or more of such person's nearest known relatives, being of kin in the same degree, shall require the body to be interred without such examination.' By s. 10, professors of anatomy, and other experts therein described, being duly licensed are not liable to punishment for having in their possession human bodies according to the provisions of the Act. The 18th s. makes offences against the Act misdemeanours, and the punishment imprisonment not exceeding three months, or fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

In Feist, D. & B. C. C. 590; 27 L. J. M. C. 164; 8 Cox C. C. 18, 1858, defendant was master of a workhouse, and had lawful possession of the bodies of deceased paupers. He was in the habit of having the semblance of a funeral with a view of preventing the relatives requiring that the bodies should be buried without being subject to anatomical examination, and the jury found that but for that deception the relatives would have required the bodies to be so buried. The bodies, instead of being buried, as was supposed by the relatives, were delivered to a hospital for anatomical purposes-for which the master was paid. He was found guilty of offences at common law in disposing of a body for the purpose of dissection, &c., but the question was reserved whether he was protected by s. 7, above. The C. for C. C. R. held that he was, as the requirement mentioned in that s. had not been actually made. 'It may be,' said Pollock C.B. that he prevented the relatives from requiring, &c. . . . but if that was wrong he should have been prosecuted for that wrong. guilty of a conspiracy with the undertaker have been prosecuted for that conspiracy. convenient mode of administering the criminal law to impute an offence at common law and then require the defendant to justify his conduct by bringing himself within a particular statute, when in truth his intention was not to infringe the common law at all, but . . . that particular statute. . . . If by acting a lie he prevented the requirement from being made, he should have been prosecuted for that." Willes J. pointed out that this was an offence specially provided for by

It may be that he was

and if so he should I do not think it a

7-8 V. 101, 31. Quære whether an indictment would have lain for causing the funeral service to be performed over the empty coffins?': Greaves, in 1 Russ. Cri. 1871 v.

Duty of the coroner] To bury a person who has died a violent death, before the coroner has investigated it, is punishable as a misdemeanour, and the coroner ought to be sent for, since he is not otherwise bound ex officio to take the inquest. Clerk, 1 Salk. 377, 1702; Anon., 7 Mod. 10, 1702. A coroner has jurisdiction to hold and is justified in holding an inquest if he honestly believes that his information warrants it, and it is a misdemeanour to dispose of the body to prevent an inquest. Stephenson, 13 Q. B. D. 331; 53 L. J. M. Č. 176; 15 Cox C. C. 679, 1884: C. C. R. And if a dead body in prison or other place, whereupon an inquest ought to be taken, be interred, or suffered to lie so long that it putrify before the coroner hath viewed it, the gaoler or township shall be amerced.' Hawk. P. C. 2, 9, 23; see 31-2 V. 24, 5, amended 50-1 V. 71, 45. Where the duty of informing the coroner is not specifically imposed by statute, it is the duty of those who are about the deceased to give immediate notice to the coroner or his officer or to the nearest officer of police.' Jervis on Coroners, p. 6, 6th ed. (1898).

Cremation] Cremation is not illegal at common law unless it amounts to a public nuisance. Price, 12 Q. B. D. 247; 53 L. J. M. C. 51; 15 Cox C. C. 389, 1884. Cremation is now regulated by 2 E. 7, 8, of which s. 8 (2) and (3) run: 'Every person who shall wilfully make any false representation or sign or utter any false certificate with a view to procuring the burning of any human remains, shall (in addition to any penalty or liability which he may otherwise incur) be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour not exceeding two years.

.

(3) Every person who with intent to conceal the commission or impede the prosecution of any offence procures or attempts to procure the cremation of any body, or with such intent makes any declaration or gives any certificate under this Act, shall be liable to conviction on indictment to penal servitude for a term not exceeding five years.' In Byers, 71 J. P. 205, 1907, it was held that this Act applied only to crematoriums and not to simple burning.

By 53 V. 5, 319: 'If the manager of an institution for lunatics, or the person having charge of a single patient, omits to send to the corone notice of the death of a lunatic within the prescribed time, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.' The prescribed time is forty-eight hours from the death. Rules of the Commissioners in Lunacy, June 26, 1895; Rule 27 (1).

For retaining in a dwelling-room the body of a person who has died of an infectious disease, see 53-4 V. 34, 10; for the county of London, see 54-5 V. 76, and amending Acts, under Nuisance.

Triable at Q. S.

DEBTORS, FRAUDULENT.

See under Bankrupts.

DECEIT, CRIMINAL.

See False Pretences; also Cheating, Fraud, &c.

DECOYING CHILD.

See Abduction.

DEEDS, OFFENCES IN RESPECT OF..

See Index.

Statutes

551

DEER-OFFENCES RELATING TO.

'Tame deer are personal property and the subject of larceny at common law. Whether they are tame or not is a matter to be decided upon the facts of each case, but the presumption is in favour of their being so when they are kept in a park for ornament and profit rather than for sport': 15 Halsbury, 262. 'Wild deer are not the subject of larceny at common law': ib.

By 24-5 V. 96, 12: 'Whosoever shall unlawfully and wilfully course, hunt, snare, or carry away, or kill or wound, or attempt to kill or wound, any deer kept or being in the uninclosed part of any forest, chase, or purlieu, shall for every such offence, on conviction thereof before a justice of the peace, forfeit and pay such sum, not exceeding fifty pounds, as to the justice shall seem meet; and whosoever having been previously convicted of any offence relating to deer, for which a pecuniary penalty shall have been imposed, by this or by any former Act of parliament, shall afterwards commit any of the offences hereinbefore enumerated, whether such second offence be of the same description as the first or not, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping.'

By s. 13: Whosoever shall unlawfully and wilfully course, hunt, snare, or carry away, or kill or wound, or attempt to kill or wound, any deer kept or being in the inclosed part of any forest, chase, or purlieu, or in any inclosed land where deer shall be usually kept, shall be guilty of felony. Conclusion as in s. 12, above.

The word deer' in 7-8 G. 4, 29, rpd., includes all ages and both sexes, a fawn,' therefore. Strange, 1 Cox C. O. 58, 1843. In s. 26, ib. wherein deer shall be usually kept' meant 'enclosed land' only: Money, 2 Russ. Cri. 1328: 1847.

Killing outside the forest, chase, &c.,' is a defence under this s., even though the killing was illegal and done by trespassing on land. Threlkeld v. Smith, 20 Cox C. C. 38, 1901.

Deer-keepers, &c., may seize guns] By s. 16: 'If any person shall enter into any forest, chase, or purlieu, whether inclosed or not, or into any inclosed land where deer shall be usually kept, with intent unlawfully to hunt, course, wound, kill, snare, or carry away any deer, every person intrusted with the care of such deer, and any of his assistants, whether in his presence or not, may demand from every such offender any gun, fire-arms, snare, or engine in his possession, and any dog there brought for hunting, coursing, or killing deer, and in case such offender shall not immediately deliver up the same, may seize and take the same from him in any of those respective places, or, upon pursuit made, in any other place to which he may have escaped therefrom, for the use of the owner of the deer, and if any such offender

shall unlawfully beat or wound any person intrusted with the care of the deer, or any of his assistants, in the execution of any of the powers given by this Act, every such offender shall be guilty of felony." Conclusion as in s. 12, above. When the demand was not made, under rpd. 16 G. 3, 30, 9, a conviction was bad: Amey, R. & R. 500, 1823. Pulling a deer-keeper to the ground, and holding him there while another person escapes, is not a beating, within 7-8 G. 4, 29, 29, rpd. There must be a beating in the popular sense of the word; proof of a bare legal battery only is insufficient: Hale, 2 C. & K. 326, 1846. Triable at Q. S.

DEFAMATION.
See Libel.

DEFECTIVES-OFFENCES I. BY, II. AGAINST. Classification] See 3-4 G. 5, 28, 1, under Mental Unsoundness.

I.

Sentence] By s. 8 (1): 'On the conviction of any person of any criminal offence punishable in the case of an adult with penal servitude or imprisonment, or on a child brought before a court under s. 58 of the Children Act, 1908, being found liable to be sent to an industrial school, the court, if satisfied on medical evidence that he is a defective may either (a) postpone sentence or make an order for committal to an industrial school and direct that a petition be presented to a judicial authority under this Act with a view to obtaining an order that he be sent to an institution or placed under guardianship; or (b) in lieu of passing sentence or making an order for committal to an industrial school, itself make any order which if a petition had been duly presented under this Act the judicial authority might have made, which order shall have the like effect as if it had been made by a judicial authority on a petition under this Act.' Judicial authority is defined by s. 19, and means a justice so specially ap pointed or a county court judge or a police or stipendiary magistrate. (2) The court may act either on the evidence given during the trial or other proceedings, or may call for further medical or other evidence.

(3) Where the court so directs a petition to be presented against a person, it may order him to be detained in an institution for defectives or in a place of safety for such time as is required for the presentation of the petition and the adjudication thereof.

(5) The police authority must provide evidence of such an accused being defective, and must give notice thereof to his parent or guardian.'