the powers thus given to impose a fine in lieu of any other punishment, looks very like jesting with criminal punishment.'-This is a note to sec. 71 of the offences against the Person Act. Had Mr. Saunders forgotten that by sec. 5 of the same Act any person convicted of manslaughter (a crime infinitely greater in many cases than any misdemeanor) may be sentenced to pay a fine either in addition to or without any other punishment? So under the 9 Geo. 4, c. 31, s. 9, the Court might have awarded a fine on a conviction for manslaughter, without any other punishment." Greaves' Cr. Acts, 6.

Sect. 75.-Every offence hereby made punishable on summary conviction may be prosecuted in the manner directed by the Act of this Session respecting the duties of Justices of the Peace out of sessions in relation to summary convictions and order, so far as no provision is hereby made for any matter or thing which may be required to be done in the course of such prosecution.-24-25 Vict., ch. 97, s. 76, Imp.

The Act referred to is the 32-33 Vict., ch. 31, (1869.) Sect. 76. This Act shall commence and take effect on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventy.

AN ACT RESPECTING PERJURY.

32-33 VICT., CH. 23.

Whereas it is expedient to assimilate, amend and consolidate the Statute law relating to perjury, in force in the several Provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and to extend the same as so consolidated to all Canada; Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Sect. 1.-Perjury or subornation of perjury is a misdemeanor; and any person guilty thereof shall be liable to be imprisoned in the Penitentiary for any term not exceeding fourteen years and not less than two years, or to be imprisoned in any other gaol or place of confinement for any term less than two years, and to pay such fine as the Court may award.

Sect. 2.-In every case in which, by any Act or Law now or hereafter to be in force in the Dominion of Canada, or in any Province forming part of the Dominion of Canada, it is required or authorized that facts, matters or things be verified, or otherwise assured or ascertained, by or upon the oath, affirmation, declaration or affidavit of some or any person, if any person having in any such case taken or made any oath, affirmation or declaration so required or authorized, knowingly, wilfully and corruptly, upon such oath, affirmation, or declaration,

deposes, swears to or makes any false statement as to any such fact, matter or thing; or if any person knowingly, wilfully and corruptly, upon oath or affirmation, affirms, declares or deposes to the truth of any statement for so verifying, assuring or ascertaining any such fact, matter or thing or purporting so to do, or knowingly, wilfully and corruptly takes, makes, signs or subscribes any such affirmation, declaration or affidavit, as to any such fact, matter or thing, such statement, affidavit, affirmation or declaration being untrue, in the whole or any part thereof, or knowingly, wilfully and corruptly omits from any such affidavit, affirmation or declaration, sworn or made under the provisions of any law, any matter which, by the provisions of such law, is required to be stated in such affidavit, affirmation or declaration, such person shall be deemed to be guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury, and be punished accordingly; Provided that nothing herein contained shall affect any case amounting to perjury at the common law, or the case of any offence in respect of which other or special provision is made by any Act.

Sect. 7.-All evidence and proof whatsoever, whether given or made orally, or by or in any affidavit, affirmamation, declaration, examination or deposition, shall be deemed and taken to be material with respect to the liability of any person to be proceeded against and punished for wilful and corrupt perjury, or for subornation of perjury.

Perjury, by the common law, appears to be a wilful false oath by one, who being lawfully required to depose the truth in any proceeding in a "court" of justice, swears absolutely in a matter of some consequence to the point in question, whether he be believed or not.-3 Russell, 1.

Hawkins, Vol. 1, p. 429, has the word "course" of justice, instead of "court" of justice.

Bishop, Cr. Law, Vol. 2, 1015, says a "course" of justice, and thinks that the word "court" in Russell is a misprint for "course." Though Bacon's abridgement, verb perjury, also has "court." Roscoe, 747, has also "court" of justice, but says the proceedings are not confined to courts of justice, and a note by the editor of the American sixth edition says a "course" of justice is a more accurate expression than a "court" of justice.

There is no doubt, however, that, according to all the definitions of this offence, by the common law, the party must be lawfully sworn, the proceeding in which the oath is taken must relate to the administration of justice, the assertion sworn to must be false, the intention to swear falsely must be wilful, and the falsehood material to the matter in question. Promissory oaths, such as those taken by officers for the faithful performance of duties, cannot be the subject of perjury.-Cr. L. Comrs., 5th Report, 51.

False swearing, under a variety of circumstances, has been declared by numerous Statutes to amount to perjury, and to be punishable as such. But at common law, false swearing was very different from perjury. The offence of perjury, at the common law, is of a very peculiar description, say the Cr. L. Comrs., 5th Rep. 23, and differs in some of its essential qualities from the crime of false testimony, or false swearing as defined in all the modern Codes of Europe. The definition of the word too, in its popular acceptation, by no means denotes its legal signification. Perjury, by the common law, is the assertion of a falsehood upon oath in a judicial proceeding, respecting some fact material to the point to be decided in such proceeding; and the characteristic of the offence

is not the violation of the religious obligation of an oath, but the injury done to the administration of public justice by false testimony.

Here, in Canada, we have now a general enactment, declaring to be perjury all oaths, &c., taken or subscribed in virtue of any law, sect. 2, ch. 23, 32-33 Vict., supra, required or authorized by any such law and voluntary and extra-judicial oaths having been prohibited by 37 Vict., ch. 37, see post, it may perhaps be said that, with us, every false oath, knowingly, wilfully, and corruptly taken amounts to perjury, and is punishable as such. The interpretation Act, 31 Vict., ch. 31, at sixteenthly, of sect. 6, enacts moreover as follows: "The word 'oath' shall be construed as meaning a solemn affirmation whenever the context applies to any person and case by whom and in which a solemn affirmation may be made instead of an oath, and in like cases the word sworn shall include the word affirmed. And in every case where an oath or affirmation is directed to be made before any person or officer, such person or officer shall have full power and authority to administer the same and to certify its having been made; and the wilful making of any false statement in any such oath or affirmation shall be wilful and corrupt perjury, and the wilful making of any false statement in any declaration required or authorized by any Act shall be a misdemeanor punishable as wilful and corrupt perjury."

Of course, this section applied only to oaths, affirmations or declarations required or authorized by an Act of the Parliament of Canada, but by sect. 2, supra, of the Act respecting Perjury,it is extended to all such oaths, &c., &c.,required or authorized by any Act or law now or hereafter to be in force in the Dominion of Canada, or in any Province forming part of the Dominion of Canada.—