Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

be in open play ground, or in any school-room, waitingroom, or place where no machinery is used."

(H) Certificate of Age. Children under eleven, twelve, or thirteen, may not be employed without a certificate in a prescribed form) of their strength and apparent age, to be granted by a medical practitioner, and countersigned within three months by the Inspector, Justice, or burgh magistrate.?

For persons under eighteen years of age, a certificate of age must be given in the form ordered by any Inspec

tor. 3

If any Inspector, Justice, or burgh magistrate refuse to countersign a certificate, the parents of the child may carry it to the Justices in Petty Sessions of the place of residence, who are to decide thereon, free of expense.

But proof of age is a defence against any suit for penalties, for employing a young person without a certificate, s

4

a

a

3. Inspectors. For enforcing this Act, the King may appoint inspectors of factories, with certain powers, to enquirc, order, try, and punish, with reference to the objects of the Statute.'

4. Education.

Children limited to forty-eight hours work in the week, must attend school;; and, in absence of the Inspector, a Justice of Peace may sanction a cause of absence from school.8

5. Regulations by Inspectors. Any general regulation applying to more than one mill or factory, becomes binding on expiry of seven days after

3

2 § 11, 12, 13.

7 20.

1 Act 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 103, § 24. § 16.

5 § 15. 6 § 17, 18, 19.

3 § 14.
8 $ 21.

4

its publication, for two successive weeks, in a newspaper, published in the town, place, or county.'

2

6. General Rules. All interior unpainted walls of mills or factories must be lime-washed, and all ceilings which are plastered, or which have rooms or lofts above them, must be white-washed once a year, unless by contrary permission in writing from the Inspector.?

Such an abstract of this Act, and copies of such regulations as Inspectors may direct, must be hung up in mills, signed by the master, and renewed as the Inspector may direct. 3

7. Penalties for Offences. The making or using of a false certificate, or the giving of false testimony on a point material to a certificate of an Inspector or schoolmaster, is punishable with imprisonment, for not beyond two months, in the house of correction.

For undue employment of a child, the parents or others benefiting by its wages, forfeit 20s. unless they were not wilfully in fault.

For obstructing Inspectors, the penalty is not exceeding L.10.5

For any offence against this Act, or an Inspector's order, (not specially provided for,) an employer of children forfeits from L.l to L.20, the trying Inspector or Justice being, however, entitled to mitigate the penalty below L.l, or to discharge the accused, on finding the offence was not wilful, or through gross negligence."

But if, in any case where the master is legally responsible, it shall appear, that his servant or agent was truly to blame, the latter alone shall be made liable in the penalty. 8

8

2 $ 20.

1 Act 3 & 4 Will. IV'. c. 103, $ 25. 5 § 29.

6 5 32.

3 $ 27.
7 $31.

S 28.
S 30.

8. Proceedings. Proceedings may be had before any Inspector, or any one Justice of Peace for the place of offence."

[ocr errors]

2

a

(a) Powers of Justices. And on conviction, a penalty may be ordered to be paid immediately, or at any fixed time, being leviable by distress and sale ; and, in default of distress, the offender may be imprisoned for one month, or for two, according as the sum to be paid does not or does exceed L.5, unless sooner paid.

(B) Complaint. Complaints must be preferred at or before the next notified visit of the Inspector after the offence, written intimation of intention to complain being given to the accused within fourteen days after the offence; and a notice is required for recovery of a penalty for a repetition of the same offence. 3

(c) Summons. A summons or warrant need only bear the name of the ostensible occupier or title of the firm employing the work-people of the mill, &c. 4

And service of any warrant or summons on the occupier or chief manager is sufficient."

A summons must proceed on sworn complaint.5
The parish alone need be specified.”

(D) Witnesses. Any Justice may, on a complaint, or in an investigation, summon witnesses; and on failure or refusal of wit

6

[ocr errors]

1 Act 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 103, § 34.

2 Act 3 & 4 Will IV. c. 103, § 34, and § 41. By the latter of which clauses the limitation in case of penalties under L.5 might seem to be dis. regarded.

5 § 37. 6 § 43.

3 § 35.

4

[ocr errors]

6

7 Ibid.

ness to appear after due service, or on resistance to the constable, or on non-submission to be examined, the Justice may commit him for not more than two months :'

But on good excuse or subsequent compliance, the Justice may discharge him.?

.

2

(E) Convictions. Convictions by either an Inspector or Justice are to be certified to, and filed by the next General Quarter Sessions. 3

(F) Appeal. No appeal lies from any conviction by a Justice, unless (by bill of advocation,) in case of forgery of any documents required by this Act.4

9. Disposal of Penalties. Only one penalty may be recovered from one person, for one description of offence, for one day.s

The Justice convicting, may allow the complainant half of the penalty (with all expenses,) and may apply half or all the penalty to the benefit of any school, where children employed in mills or factories are educated in the place of offence.

CRIMES.

1. CRIMES IN GENERAL.

7

1. Definition. A crime is, in common acceptation,' any act for which public justice requires some atonement to be made for the sake of society.

I Act 3 & 4 W'ill. IV. c. 103, S 38. 5 & 43.

2 § 39.
3 § 10

4 S 42 7 Hume, c. i. (i. p. 21, 2d ed.)

6 Ibid.

2. Constitution of Crime. To constitute a crime, punishable by law, there are two essential requisites : Ist, Dole or evil mind, and,

2d, Wrongful act.?

3. Dole.

Dole, or guilty intention, is not restricted in meaning to the purpose or design of perpetrating the crime in the precise way in which it is committed; but is extended to any criminal intent, and even to recklessness of such a kind as to mark an utter disregard of the consequences to be brought on other members of the community. As an example of the former-he who sets fire to a barnyard, by the conflagration of which a house and its inmates are consumed, is indictable for murder as well as fire-raising; of the latter-he who should discharge a loaded gun at a crowd, would be deemed the murderer of any person who might be killed by such means.”

4. Wrongful Act. A wrongful act must accompany dole before criminal justice can take notice of the offender.

5. Uncompleted Crime. But in grave cases punishment will be awarded for partial commission of the offence that had been meditated.

Thus the project to steal or to murder, towards the perpetration of which no steps have been taken, is not visited at all by our laws; buts an assault, committed with intent to kill or to ravish, is visited not as a simple assault, but as a crime partaking of the greater heinousness of murder

rape.

or of

2 Ibid. 26.

3 lbid. 24.

1 Hume, c. i. (i. p. 21, 2d edit.) 4 Ibid. 23.

5 Ibid. 26.

« PreviousContinue »