term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping."(aa)

Sec. 43. "Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously set fire to, or cast away, or in anywise destroy any ship or vessel, with intent thereby to prejudice any owner or part owner of such ship or vessel, or of any goods on board the same, or any person that has underwritten or shall underwrite any policy of insurance upon such ship or vessel, or on the freight thereof, or upon any goods on board the same, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for life, or for any term not less than five(c) years or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping."(b)

Sec. 44. "Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously, by any overt act, attempt to set fire to, cast away or destroy any ship or vessel, under such circumstances that if the ship or vessel were thereby set fire to, cast away, or destroyed, the offender would be guilty of felony, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted [*1090 *thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen and not less than five(c) years-or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping.(cc)

Sec. 45. "Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously place or throw in, into, upon, against, or near any ship or vessel any gunpowder or other explosive substance, with intent to destroy or damage any ship or vessel, or any machinery, working tools, goods, or chattels, shall, whether or not any explosion take place, and whether or not any injury be effected, be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen and not less than five(c) years-or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping."(d)

Sec. 46. "Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously damage, otherwise than by fire, gunpowder, or other explosive substance, any ship or vessel, whether complete or in an unfinished state, with intent to destroy the same or render the same useless, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven years and not less than five(c) years-or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping."(e)

Sec. 47. "Whosoever shall unlawfully mask, alter, or remove any light or signal, or unlawfully exhibit any false light or signal, with intent to bring any ship, vessel, (aa) This clause is taken from the 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, ss. 4, 6. Under sec. 4, the offence of setting fire to a ship or vessel, whereby life was endangered, was capital, but that punishment is abolished.

The words "injuries to ships" before this section were accidentally omitted in reprinting the Bill after it passed the Select Committee of the Commons.

As to hard labor, &c., see ante, p. 1022.

(b) This clause is taken from the 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, s. 6.

As to hard labor, &c., see ante, p. 1022.

(c) 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47.

(cc) This clause is taken from the 9 & 10 Vict c. 25, s. 7.

The first words in italics are introduced to make this section include all attempts, which, if effectual, would fall within either of the two preceding sections.

As to the words "under such circumstances," &c., see the note to sec. 7, ante, p. 1030. As to hard labor, &c., see ante, p. 1022.

(d) This clause is taken from the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 25, s. 6.

As to hard labor, &c., see ante, p. 1022.

(e) This clause is taken from the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 30, s. 10, and 9 Geo. 4, c. 56, s. 10 (I.). The words "gunpowder or other explosive substance," are introduced to exclude cases which are provided for by the preceding section.

As to hard labor, &c., see ante, p. 1022.

or boat, into danger, or shall unlawfully and maliciously do anything tending to the immediate loss or destruction of any ship, vessel, or boat, and for which no punishment is hereinbefore provided, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for life, or for any term not less than five(g) years-or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or with whipping.”(ƒ) *Sec. 48. Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously cut away, cast *1091] adrift, remove, alter, deface, sink, or destroy, or shall unlawfully and mali

ciously do any act with intent to cut away, cast adrift. remove, alter, deface, sink, or destroy, or shall in any other manner unlawfully and maliciously injure and conceal any boat, buoy, buoy-rope, perch, or mark used or intended for the guidance of seamen or the purpose of navigation, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven years, and not less than five(g) years or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement, and, if a male under the age of sixteen years, with or without whipping.(99)

Sec. 49. "Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously destroy any part of any ship or vessel which shall be in distress, or wrecked, stranded, or cast on shore, or any goods, merchandise, or articles of any kind belonging to such ship or vessel, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen and not less than five(g) years—or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labor, and with or without solitary confinement."(h)

The 12 Geo. 3, c. 24, relates to the King's ships of war, arsenals, &c., and enacts, "that if any person or persons shall, either within this realm or in any of the islands, countries, forts, or places thereunto belonging, wilfully and maliciously set on fire, or burn, or otherwise destroy, or cause to be set on fire, or burnt, or otherwise destroyed, or aid, procure. abet, or assist in the setting on fire, or burning or otherwise destroying of any of his Majesty's ships or vessels of war, whether the said ships or vessels of war be on float or building, or begun to be built, in any of His Majesty's dock-yards, or building or repairing by contract in any private yards, for the use of his Majesty, or any of his Majesty's arsenals, magazines, dock-yards, rope-yards, victualling offices, or any of the buildings erected therein, or belonging thereto; or any timber or materials there placed for building, repairing, or fitting out of ships or vessels; or any of his Majesty's military, naval, or victualling stores, or other ammunition of war, or any place or places where any such military, naval, or victualling stores, or other ammunition of war, is, are, or shall be kept, placed, or deposited;" the person or persons guilty of any such offence shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and suffer death without benefit of clergy.(i) By the second section. *1092] persons committing these *offences out of the realm, may be indicted and tried for the same either in any county within the realm, or in the place

(f) This clause is taken from the 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, s. 5, and the capital punishment abolished.

The clause is extended to masking, altering, or removing lights or signals, and to boats. The latter clause was confined, in the former enactment, to ships or vessels in distress ; it is extended to all cases within its terms for which the Act provides no other punish

ment.

(g) 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47.

(gg) This clause was framed from the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 99, s. 28. That section appears to have been very improvidently repealed by the 17 & 18 Vict. c. 120, in consequence of the passing of the Mercantile Marine Act, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104. Sec. 414 of that Act imposes only a pecuniary penalty on any person who wilfully or negligently injures any buoy or beacon, or removes, alters, or destroys any light-ship, buoy, or beacon, in addition to the expense of making good the damage done. This is a punishment wholly inadequate to the offences in the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 99, s. 28, and therefore this clause was introduced. As to hard labor, &c., see ante, p. 1022.

(h) This clause is taken from the 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 89, s. 8. As to hard labor, &c., see ante, p. 1022.

(i) See ante, p. 1032, note (g).

where the offence shall have been actually committed, as his Majesty may most expedient for bringing such offender to justice.(j)

deem

every

Besides the statutes which have been thus cited, there are some others of a more limited and local operation, which may be briefly noticed. The 2 Geo. 3, c. 28, which made provisions against damaging the cordage of vessels on the Thames, was repealed by the 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47, entitled, "An Act for further improving the police in and near the metropolis;" but sec. 27 of that Act enacts that " person who shall unlawfully cut, damage, or destroy any of the ropes, cables, cordage, tackle, headfasts, or other the furniture of or belonging to any ship, boat, or vessel lying in the river Thames, or in any of the docks or creeks adjacent thereto, with intent to steal or otherwise unlawfully obtain the same or any part thereof, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor." The 39 Geo 3, c. 69 (a Local Act for improving the port of London), s. 4, after providing as to the burning, &c., of ships therein mentioned, enacts, "that if any person or persons shall knowingly, wilfully, or maliciously demolish, break down, cut, or destroy any of the works to be made by virtue of this Act, or any ship or vessel lying in the said canal, or in any of the said docks, basins, cuts, or other works; then every such offender, being convicted thereof. shall suffer punishment by fine, imprisonment, or transportation, at the discretion of the judge, &c., before whom such offender shall be tried and convicted." And by sec. 105, persons wilfully or maliciously cutting, &c., or in any manner destroying any rope, &c., by which any ship or vessel lying in the said canal, docks, &c., or in any place or places in the river Thames, between London Bridge and the mouth of the river Lea, are moored or fastened, shall forfeit not exceeding £10. The 47 Geo. 3, sess. 2, c. 2, s. 57 (Local Act) relates to the damaging, &c., of shipping or goods, &c., in Folkestone harbor.

Upon the words "cast away or destroy" it may be mentioned that, upon the construction of those words in two statutes, 4 Geo. 1, c. 12 and 11 Geo. 1, c. 29, it appears to have been ruled that if a ship were only run aground or stranded upon a rock, and were afterwards got off in a condition capable of being easily refitted, she could not be said to be cast away or destroyed, and that the case was not therefore within either of those statutes.(k)

A question has twice arisen, but has not been expressly decided, as to what vessels are included within the word "vessel" in the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 30. In the first case the prisoner was indicted for setting fire to a barge, and Alderson, B., would have reserved the question, if the prisoner had been convicted, whether a barge was a vessel within the meaning of this statute. (1) In the second case the prisoner was indicted for damaging a certain vessel by beating a hole in the bottom of it. The vessel in question was a small pleasure-boat, about eighteen feet long, and two men could have carried it; and it was objected that the legislature meant to [*1093 apply the terms "ship or vessel" only to such vessels as were likely to be underwritten, and not to small boats; and that in the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 29, s. 17, where it was meant to include boats, the words were, " vessel, barge, or boat," clearly making a distinction between a vessel and a boat. Patteson, J.: "That the term vessel would in common parlance include this boat is clear, but whether in this Act of Parliament it was meant to include such boats is the question.' "I incline to think that this boat is within the clause in the Act of Parliament; but as the word vessel. must have the same construction in all other Acts of Parliament, it might lead to inconvenience, and therefore if necessary I will take the opinion of the judges upon it."(m)

We have seen that a part owner might be guilty of the offence of setting fire to a ship within the 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 30, s. 9.(n)

(j) Some offences of a similar nature may be inquired of and tried by courts-martial by the naval articles of war, secs. 25 & 26, as given in the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 115. (k) De Londo's case, 2 East P. C. c. 22, s. 42, p. 1098.

(1) Rex v. Smith, 4 C. & P. 569 (19 E. C. R. R.). See this case, ante, p. 1049. (m) Rex v. Bowyer, 4 C. & P. 559 (19 E. C. L. R.). Verdict, not guilty. Could a corricle be considered a vessel within this statute?

(n) Rex v. Philp, R. & M. C. C. R. 263. ante, p. 1043. in the registry of vessels, and as to the joint ownership

See this case also as to the entry of shares in vessels: Ibid.

In one case it was objected that the indictment was bad, because it did not allege that the damage was done "otherwise than by fire;" but it was held to be sufficient, as it was alleged to be done by beating a hole in the bottom of the boat."(0)

One count alleged that E. Loose, a certain vessel on the high seas feloniously did cast away with intent to prejudice A. Howden and another, being part owners of the said vessel. and that the prisoners, within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, did feloniously incite the said E. Loose to commit the said felony. Other counts varied the intent. Howden and one Anistice were owners of one-fourth of the ship, and one of the prisoners of the other three-fourths; the goods, which were put on board by Zulietta and Co., the charterers of the ship, were insured at Lloyd's, the intent to prejudice the underwriters on that policy being alleged in one of the counts; but in the case of three different policies on goods, which were effected by the prisoners, no part of such goods were ever put on board. The ship was wilfully sunk by Loose, the captain, on the high seas, and there was a total loss (except a very trifling salvage) of both ship and cargo, and the jury found the prisoners guilty of the whole charge. It was objected, 1st, that the indictment was not properly framed as an indictment for a substantive felony within the 7 Geo. 4, c. 64, s. 9, but as an indictment at common law against the principal and accessory before the fact, and, as the principal had not been convicted, the accessory could not be tried or convicted upon it; 2d, that the Central Criminal Court had no jurisdiction to try an accessory before the fact to a felony on the high seas, unless the principal had been committed to or detained in prison by this court for such felony; 3d, as the 1 Vict. c. 89, s. 6, described the intent to be "to prejudice the persons who shall underwrite any policy of insurance upon goods on board the ship," no evidence was admissible as to the three *policies on goods effected by the prisoners, where no *1094] goods had been put on board. But, on a case reserved, the judges were of opinion, as to the first objection, that the description of the offence was not altered by the statute. It might have been put in a different shape, but every allegation in this count would have been included in any other. As to the second objection, that the 4 & 5 Will. 4. c. 36, s. 22, must be taken distributively, as to the commission of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery. There was a general power to hear and determine all offences committed on the high seas, though the gaol delivery commission only extended to all persons committed or detained. As to the last objection, that the words in the statute were a mere description of a policy on goods. they unanimously held the conviction right.(p)

And

By the Merchant Shipping Act, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, s. 239, "any master of or any seaman or apprentice belonging to any British ship who by wilful breach of duty, or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness, does any act tending to the immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage of such ship, or tending immediately to endanger the life or limb of any person belonging to or on board of such ship, or who by wilful breach of duty, or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness, refuses or omits to do any lawful act proper and requisite to be done by him for preserving such ship from immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage, or for preserving any person belonging to or on board of such ship from immediate danger to life or limb, shall for every such offence be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor."

Sec. 366. "If any pilot, when in charge of any ship, by wilful breach of duty or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness, does any act tending to the immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage of such ship, or tending immediately to endanger the life or limb of any person on board such ship; or if any pilot, by wilful breach of duty or by neglect of duty, or by reason of drunkenness, refuses or omits to do any lawful act proper and requisite to be done by him for preserving such ship from loss, destruction, or serious damage, or for preserving any person belonging to or on board of such ship from danger to life or limb, the pilot so offending shall for

(0) Rex v. Bowyer, supra. In Benyon v. Cresswell, 1 Q. B. 899 (64 E. C. L. R.), it was held that a pleasure-boat of seven tons burthen was not "a ship or vessel" within the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 89, s. 34; and in Morewood v. Pollock, 1 E. & B. 743 (72 E. C. L. R.), a point was determined as to a lighter; but neither case throws any light on the meaning of the words "ship" or "vessel."

(p) Reg. v. Wallace, 2 M. C. C. R. 200; s. c., C. & M. 200.

each such offence be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and if a qualified pilot, also be liable to suspension and dismissal by the authority by which he is licensed."(q) By sec. 518, "every offence by this Act declared to be a misdemeanor shall be punishable by fine or imprisonment, with or without hard labor."(r)

Sec. 520. "For the purpose of giving jurisdiction under this Act, every offence shall be deemed to have been committed, and every cause of complaint to have arisen, either in the place in *which the same actually was committed or arose, or in any place in which the offender or person complained against may be."

[*1095 On an indictment on the 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104, s. 239, for doing an act tending to the loss of a ship, it appeared that the prisoner struck a light with a match, and lighted a candle, in a part of the ship forbidden by the ship's regulations, and threw down the match before it was extinguished, but there was no sufficient evidence that a fire which occurred six hours afterwards arose from this act; it was contended that the act charged must be followed by the loss of the ship. Bramwell, B.: "I am of opinion that if the act tended to the loss, destruction, or damage, of the ship, though neither result followed, it is a misdemeanor within this section; as if a man should stick a lighted candle in an uncovered barrel of gunpowder, though he put it out immediately, I think that that would be an act tending to the damage of the ship. The latter part of the section is, I think, open to the same construction, and both would be illustrated by two persons being together in the immediate neighborhood of an explosive and unprotected material, and one lighting a candle, and the other omitting to put it out; the first would be guilty under the former clause of the section, and the second under the latter." And the jury were told that "to convict upon this indictment you must be satisfied that the act done was dangerous, having regard to the place, or the contents of the place in which it was done; for, if not, it would not be an 'act tending to the immediate loss, destruction, or serious damage of the ship;' but you need not be of opinion that what afterwards took' place was the result of that act."(s)

*CHAPTER THE FIFTY-EIGHTH.

INJURIES TO WORKS OF ART.

[*1096

By the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 39, "whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously destroy or damage any book, manuscript, picture, print, statue, bust, or vase, or any other article or thing kept for the purposes of art, science, or literature, or as an object of curiosity, in any museum, gallery, cabinet, library, or other repository, which museum, gallery, cabinet, library, or other repository, is either at all times or from time to time open for the admission of the public or of any considerable number of persons to view the same, either by the permission of the proprietor thereof or by the payment of money before entering the same, or any picture, statue, monument, or other memorial of the dead, painted glass, or other ornament or work of art, in any church, chapel, meeting-house, or other place of divine worship, or in any building belonging to the Queen, or to any county, riding, division, city, borough, poor law union, parish, or place, or to any university, or college or hall of any university, or to any inn of court, or in any street, square,

(q) Sec. 367. "If any person, by wilful misrepresentation of circumstances, upon which the safety of a ship may depend, obtains or endeavors to obtain the charge of such ship, such person, and every other person procuring, abetting, or conniving at the commission of such offence, shall, in addition to any liability for damages at the suit of the party aggrieved, incur a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds, and, if the offender is a qualified pilot, he shall also be iiable to suspension or dismissal by the pilotage authority by which he is licensed."

(r) The costs of the prosecution may be ordered as in misdemeanors under the 7 Geo. 4, c. 64, or any other Act that may be passed for the like purpose." These offences may also be dealt with summarily.

(8) Reg. v. Gardner, 1 F. & F. 669. See this case, ante, p. 1052.