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V. We may also here mention the provisions which have been made against assaulting or otherwise molesting persons engaged in the exercise of a lawful trade. For by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 39, whosoever shall use, or threaten any violence to any person, to deter or hinder him from selling or disposing of any wheat or other grain, flour, meal, malt, or potatoes, in any market or other place; or use or threaten violence to any person in charge or having care of its carriage, with intent to stop the same; or (by sect. 40) who shall unlawfully and with force hinder any seaman, keelman, or caster from exercising his lawful trade or occupation; or shall beat or use violence to any such person with intent to prevent him from so working-may, on being summarily convicted before two justices, be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for three months (s). And by an earlier statute (6 Geo. IV. c. 129, s. 3,) to compel journeymen to leave their employment; or to return work unfinished; or to prevent them from hiring themselves; or to compel them to belong to clubs or pay fines; or to force manufacturers to alter their mode of carrying on their business (t)—is punishable in the same way.

pre-existing regulations of 5 Geo. 1, c. 27; 23 Geo. 2, c. 13; 25 Geo. 3, c. 67; and by 6 Geo. 4, c. 105, those of 14 Geo. 3, c. 71,-were repealed. And by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 84, s. 24, is repealed such part of 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 52, as prohibited the exportation of certain tools and uten

sils from the United Kingdom.

(s) These provisions re-enact those contained in 9 Geo. 4, c. 31, ss. 25, 26, which were repealed by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 95.

(t) As to this provision, see The Queen v. Rowlands, 17 Q. B. 671.

CHAPTER XII.

of offenceS AGAINST THE PUBLIC HEALTH, POLice,

OR ECONOMY.

THE nature of the offences indicated by the title of this chapter, so far as they regard the public health, will be readily conceived: but it may be necessary to remark, that by offences against the public police and economy, we mean those committed against the due regulations and domestic order of the kingdom; [whereby the individuals of the State, like the members of a well-governed family, are bound to conform their general behaviour to the rules of propriety, good neighbourhood, and good manners; and to be decent, industrious and inoffensive in their respective stations.] This head of offences (some of which are felonies, others indictable misdemeanors, and others again punishable only by pecuniary penalties) must therefore be very miscellaneous; [as it comprises all such crimes as especially affect public society, and are not comprehended under any of the preceding species (a).]

I. We shall mention first, under the present head, certain fraudulent practices contrary to the plain rules of honesty, but falling short of felony (b). One of these is the selling of unwholesome provisions. [To prevent which, the

(a) Vide sup. p. 218.

(b) Offences against the public health, police and economy are so numerous, that some selection will be indispensable. Those, therefore, are omitted from this chapter, which

have been sufficiently noticed in other parts of the work; such as those provided against in the marriage and registration Acts, the revenue Acts, the quarantine and vaccination Acts, &c.

[statute 51 Hen. III. st. 6, prohibits the sale of contagious or unwholesome flesh, or flesh that is bought of a Jew; under pain of amercement, fine and imprisonment, and abjuration of the town, according to the frequency of the offence (c). By the statute 12 Car. II. c. 25, s. 11, any adulteration of wine is punished with the forfeiture of 1007. if done by the wholesale merchant, and 401. if done by the vintner or retail trader ;] on which subject additional regulations are made by 1 Will. & M. st. 1, c. 34, s. 20. By 3 Geo. IV. c. cvi. and 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 37, special provisions are made against the adulteration of bread, corn, meal or flour (d). By 11 & 12 Vict. c. 107, heavy penalties are imposed upon such as expose, or offer for sale, in any market or other public place, any meat unfit for human food. And a recent Act (23 & 24 Vict. c. 84), after referring to "the practice of adulterating articles of food and drink for sale in fraud of her Majesty's subjects, and to the great hurt of their health," provides generally that every person who shall sell any such article with which, to his knowledge, any ingredient or material injurious to the health of persons eating or drinking such article has been mixed, or who shall sell as pure and unadulterated any such article which is adulterated or not pure, may be fined 51. and costs on a summary conviction before two justices; -and on a second offence, the justices may cause the offender's name and address, and the offence he has committed, to be published in the newspapers, or such other way as to the justices may seem desirable (e).

(c) See as to this Burnby v. Bollett, 16 Mee. & W. 644.

(d) The first of these Acts relates to London; the other, to places elsewhere. We are told by Blackstone that the punishment of bakers for offences relating to bread was antiently to stand in the pillory; and for brewers, for offences relating to beer, to stand in the tumbrel, or dung cart,

"which, as we learn from Domesday "Book, was the punishment for "knavish brewers in the city of "Chester, so early as the reign of "Edward the Confessor: 'Malam "cerevisiam faciens, in cathedrâ pone"batur stercoris."" (4 Bl. Com. p. 158.)

(e) This Act also provides for the appointment of analysts, by whom

Other species of [deceitful practice, in cozening another by artful means] have been noticed in former parts of this work—as, for example, that of obtaining property by personation, or by false pretences (g). But our limits will not allow us to pursue the subject in the present place, further than to add two instances. 1. By 32 Geo. III. c. 56, if any person shall personate a master and give a false character to a servant, or assert in writing that a servant has been hired for a period of time or in a station, or was discharged at any time, or had not been hired in any previous service, contrary to truth; or if any person shall offer himself as a servant, pretending to have served where he has not served, or with a false certificate of character, or shall alter a certificate, or shall pretend not to have been in any previous service, contrary to truth; the offenders, in any of the above cases, are liable, on conviction before two justices of peace, to be fined twenty pounds; and in default thereof to be imprisoned with hard labour, for any time not more than three nor less than one calendar month. And, 2, the false personation of voters at an election of a member of parliament, is made a misdemeanor by 6 & 7 Vict. c. 18, s. 83; and is punishable with imprisonment and hard labour for any term not exceeding two years.

II. [Common nuisances, are a species of offence against the public order and economical regimen of the State; being either the doing a thing to the annoyance of all the king's subjects, or the neglecting to do a good which the common good requires (h).] They are of the class of misdemeanors; and are distinguishable from private nuisances, as being a grievance to the community at large, and not merely to particular persons (i). Of the nature of common nuisances are-1. Annoyances in highways and bridges.

any article complained of may be tested.

(g) Vide sup. p. 229.

(h) Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 75, s. 1. (i) As to private nuisances, vide sup. vol. 111. p. 518.

Offences in respect of highways and bridges may be committed-as we have had occasion elsewhere to notice,either positively, by actual obstructions, or negatively, by want of reparations. The latter, or negative, kind of offences, can of course only be committed by those upon whom an obligation lies to keep them in repair (k). But the positive offences against highways and bridges, consist of a variety of nuisances and other injuries (1) capable of being committed by any person indiscriminately; some of which are punishable at common law, and others by the express provisions of the highway, bridge and turnpike Acts (m). 2. The carrying on of offensive or dangerous trades or manufactures (n). These, which, [when injurious to a private man, are actionable (o), are, when detrimental to the public, punishable by fine and imprisonment;] and it may be remarked, that to support an indictment for these nuisances, it is not necessary to prove that they are offensive to health, if they are offensive to the senses (p). 3. Exposing, in a public thoroughfare, a person infected with a contagious disease, is a common nuisance, and punishable in a similar manner (q). 4. [All disorderly inns, or other houses(r); bawdy

(k) Vide sup. vol. 111. p. 242 et

seq.

(1) When there is a house erected, or an inclosure made, upon any part of the royal demesnes, or of a highway or common street or public water or such like public things,— the proper and antient name for such a nuisance is a purpresture; from the French word pourpris, an inclosure. (See 4 Bl. Com. p. 167, citing Co. Litt. 277.)

(m) As to nuisances to highways, see 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 50; 4 & 5 Vict. cc. 51, 59; 8 & 9 Vict. c. 71; 11 & 12 Vict. c. 123; 25 & 26 Vict. c. 61. As to nuisances to turnpike roads, see 3 Geo. 4, c. 126; 4 Geo. 4, c. 95 ;

4 & 5 Vict. cc. 33, 51. As to nuisances to bridges, see 55 Geo. 3, c. 143. As to a felonious destruction or damage to bridges, turnpike gates, &c., vide sup. p. 223.

(n) See 1 & 2 Geo. 4, c. 41, as to the negligent use of furnaces or steam engines.

(0) Vide sup. vol. 111. p. 518. (p) Rex v. Neil, 2 C. & P. 485. (q) See Rex v. Vantandillo, 4 M. & S. 73.

(r) We may remark here, that inns, -being intended for the lodging and receipt of travellers,-may be indicted, suppressed, and the innkeepers fined, if they refuse to entertain a traveller without a very sufficient cause;

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