ARTICLE 186.

LOTTERIES.

1

2

1 Every person commits a common nuisance who keeps a lottery of any kind whatever without the authority of Parliament.

ARTICLE 187.

NUISANCES TO HEALTH, LIFE, AND PROPERTY.

3 Every person commits a common nuisance who does anything which endangers the health, life, or property of the public or any part of it.

4

Publicly and wilfully exposing or causing to be exposed for sale articles of food unfit for consumption, and knowingly permitting servants to mix unwholesome ingredients in articles of food, are acts endangering the health or life of the public within the meaning of this article.

5 Everything is deemed to endanger health, life, or property, which either causes actual danger thereto, or which must do so in the absence of a degree of prudence and care the continual exercise of which cannot be reasonably expected.

Illustrations.

(1.) A carries a child infected with the small-pox along a public highway in which persons are passing, and near to inhabited houses. A commits a common nuisance.

1 10 Will. 3, c. 23, s. 1; 42 Geo. 3. c. 119, s. 2; and see R. v. Crawshaw, Bell, C. C. 303.

2 "Keeps" publicly or privately keep any office or place to exercise, keep open, show, or expose, to be played, drawn, or thrown at or in, either by dice, lots, cards, balls, or by numbers or figures, or by any other way, contrivance, or device whatsoever, any game or lottery called a little go, or any other lottery whatsoever.

3 See cases in Illustrations. The offences of being a common scold and of eavesdropping would fall under this head, but they may be regarded as practically obsolete.

Draft Code, s. 153.

5 Illustration (5).

6 R. v. Vantandillo, 4 M. & S. 73. So of bringing a glandered horse to a fair, R. V. Hanson, Dear. 24. An infected person exposing himself would commit the same offence.

(2.) 1A permits his house standing by the highway to become so ruinous as to be likely to fall down, and to injure passengers. A commits a common nuisance.

(3.) 2 A burns down his own house, it being in a situation which makes such burning dangerous to others. A commits a common nuisance.

(4.) 3 A, a baker, under a contract to supply children at a military asylum with bread, delivers loaves into which his servant, to his knowledge, has introduced alum. A commits a common nuisance.

(5.) ‘A keeps in a warehouse in the City of London large quantities of a mixture of spirits of wine and wood naptha, forming a substance more inflammable than gunpowder, and of such a nature that a fire lighted by it would be practically unquenchable. A commits a common nuisance, although he uses the most scrupulous care to avoid accidents.

ARTICLE 188.

NUISANCES BY OFFENSIVE TRADES.

5 Every one commits a common nuisance who, for the purposes of trade or otherwise, makes loud noises, or offensive or unwholesome smells in such places and under such circumstances as to annoy any considerable number of persons in the exercise of rights common to all her Majesty's subjects.

ARTICLE 189.

NUISANCES TO HIGHWAYS.

Every one commits a common nuisance who obstructs any highway, by any permanent work or erection thereon or injury thereto, which renders the highway less commodious to the public than it would otherwise be; or who prevents. them from having access to any part of it by an excessive and unreasonable temporary use thereof, or by so dealing with the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the highway as to prevent the public from using and enjoying it securely.

1 R. v. Watson, 2 Str. 1167.

2 R. v. Probert, 2 Ea. 1030. If there were an intent to injure or defraud, this would be felony. See Article 377 (a.)

3 R. v. Dixon, 3 M. & S. 11. See, too, R. v. Crawley, 3 F. & F. 109; R. v. Jarvis, 3 F. & F. 108.

Lister's Case, 1 D. & B. C. C. 209.

5 1 Russ. Cr. 436, &c.

Illustrations.

Each of the following acts is a nuisance to a highway:

1

(1.) 1 Digging a ditch, or making a hedge across it, or ploughing it up. (2.) 2 Allowing waggons to stand before a warehouse for an unreasonable time as to occupy great part of the street for several hours by day and night.

(3.) 3 Keeping up a hoarding in front of a house in a street for the purpose of repairs for an unreasonable time.

4

5

(4.) Excavating an area close to a footpath, and leaving it unfenced. (5.) Blasting stone in a quarry so as to throw stones upon the houses and road.

ARTICLE 190.

NUISANCES TO BRIDGES.

Every one is guilty of a common nuisance who, being bound by law to repair a bridge, leaves it unrepaired.

ARTICLE 191.

NUISANCES TO NAVIGABLE RIVERS.

8

Every one is guilty of a common nuisance who wilfully diverts or obstructs the course of any navigable river so as appreciably to diminish its convenience for purposes of navigation, even though the alteration may, upon the whole, be for the convenience of the public; but the owner of a vessel wrecked in a navigable river is not guilty of a common nuisance because he does not remove it.

11 Russ. Cr. 485.

2 R. v. Russel, 6 East, 427.

3 R. v. Jones, 3 Camp. 230.

Barnes v. Ward, 9 C. B. 392.

5 R. v. Mullins, L. & C. 489.

9

61 Russ. Cr. 541, 68, where the whole law as to the liability to repair different classes of bridges is discussed.

71 Russ. Cr. 531.

8 R. v. Randall, C. & M. 496; R. v. Russell, 3 E. & B. 942.

9 R. v. Watts, 2 Esp. 675; White v. Crisp, 10 Ex. 318; Brown v. Mallett, 5 C. B. 599. White v. Crisp and Brown v. Mallett are not altogether consistent on the further question as to the duty of the owner to buoy his vessel, or otherwise provide against other vessels striking on it.

CHAPTER XX.

1 VAGRANCY.

ARTICLE 192.

IDLE AND DISORDERLY PERSONS.

2 AN idle and disorderly person is a person who

(a.) Being able, wholly or in part, to maintain himself or his family by work or otherwise, wilfully refuses or neglects so to do, by which refusal or neglect he or any of his family whom he may be legally bound to maintain becomes chargeable to any parish, township, or place; or

(b.) Who returns to, and becomes chargeable in any parish, township, or place whence he has been legally removed by order of two justices of the peace, unless he produces a certificate of the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of some other parish, township, or place, thereby acknowledging him to be settled in such other parish, township, or place; or

(c.) Who, being a petty chapman or pedlar, wanders abroad and trades without being duly licensed or otherwise authorized by law; or

(d.) Who, being a common prostitute, wanders in the public street or public highways or any place of public resort, and behaves in a riotous or indecent manner; or

(e.) Who wanders abroad, or places himself in any public place, street, highway, court, or passage, to beg or gather alms, or causes or procures any child so to do; or

(f) 3 Who being a pauper,

(i.) Absconds or escapes from, or leaves any casual ward before he is entitled to discharge himself therefrom; or

(ii.) Refuses to be removed to any workhouse or asylum under the provisions of the "Pauper Inmates Discharge and Regulation Act, 1871," (34 & 35 Vict. c. 108); or

13 Hist. Cr. Law, 266–275.

25 Geo. 4, c. 83, s. 3.

334 & 35 Vict. c. 108, s. 7.

K

(iii.) Absconds or escapes from, or leaves any workhouse or asylum during the period for which he may be detained therein; or

(iv.) Refuses or neglects, whilst an inmate of any casual ward, workhouse, or asylum, to do the work or observe the regulations prescribed; or

(v.) Wilfully gives a false name, or makes a false statement for the purpose of obtaining relief.

ARTICLE 193.

ROGUES AND VAGABONDS.

1A rogue and vagabond is a person who

(a.) Commits any of the offences in the last Article mentioned, after having been convicted as an idle and disorderly person; or

(b.) Pretends or professes to tell fortunes, or uses any subtle craft, means, or device, 2 by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose on any of Her Majesty's subjects; or

(c.) Wanders abroad and lodges in any barn or outhouse, or in any deserted unoccupied building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart or waggon, not having any visible means of subsistence, and not giving a good account of himself; or

(d) 3 Wilfully exposes to view in any street, road, highway, or public place, or in the window or other part of any shop, or other building situate therein, any obscene print, picture, or other indecent exhibition; or

(e.) Wilfully, openly, lewdly, and obscenely exposes his person in any street, road, or public highway, or in the view thereof, or in any place of public resort, with intent to insult any female; or

(f) Wanders abroad and endeavours, by the exposure of wounds or deformities, to obtain or gather alms; or

15 Geo. 4, c. 83, s. 4.

2 i.e.," by palmistry, or by contrivances to deceive other than palmistry, provided they are of the same general character as is indicated by the earlier words of the statute," per Pollock, B., in Monck v. Hilton, 2 Ex. Div. 279. In this case the person convicted called himself a Spiritualist,' and had a fixed residence. 31 & 2 Vict. c. 38, s. 2.