s. 5, the culprit, at the discretion of the court, is liable to be kept in penal servitude for life, or any term not less than three years, or imprisoned for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, or be fined in addition to or without such discretionary punishment.

The offender in homicide, by the old rule of law, is exonerated unless death ensue within a year after the mortal hurt has been received.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 9, murder or manslaughter, or being accessory thereto, whether within or without the queen's dominions, if committed by a British subject, is liable to the same punishment; and the offender may be apprehended, and tried in any county or place in England or Ireland in which he may be taken into custody. Under this act, by the consolidation of former statutes, the offences against the person, with the exception of suicide, both in this and the next chapter, are tried and punished. For the more speedy trial of military homicides, subject to the Mutiny Act, guilty of the murder or manslaughter of a person under the said act, in any part of England or Wales out of the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, such persons, by 25 & 26 V. c. 65, are made liable to be indicted and tried at the Central Criminal Court; or if in Ireland, other than the county of Dublin, by a commission. The Queen's Bench, or a judge, may order a homicide to be tried.

A suicide is one that deliberately puts an end to his own existence, or commits any act the consequence of which is his own death. It is considered in law a felony committed by a person against himself; so that an attempt to commit suicide is a misdemeanor, punishable with fine or imprisonment. But, in order to constitute a person a felo de se, or self-felon, it is essential that he be at years of discretion, and in his senses at the time he committed the offence.

Formerly, the punishment for self-destruction was ignominious burial in the highway, with a stake driven through the body; but the 4 G. 4, c. 32, allows the interment of the suicide in the churchyard or burial-ground of the parish; requiring, however, the omission of the funeral service, and that the interment shall be made within twenty-four hours from the finding of the inquisition, and take place between the hours of nine and twelve at night.

The usual practice of juries, in cases of self-murder, is to bring in a verdict of insanity; judging, probably, that the act of selfdestruction is such a strange anomaly in human conduct, such a wide aberration from the principle of self-preservation, which universally actuates sentient beings, as to form of itself unequivocal testimony of deranged or maddened intellect.

CHAPTER XIII.

Offences against the Persons of Individuals.

I. RAPE.

RAPE is the offence of having carnal knowledge of a woman by force, against her will, and punishable by penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 48.

A boy under fourteen years of age is deemed in law incapable of committing a rape, and if he be under that age, no evidence will be admitted to show that in point of fact he could commit the offence. Reg. v. Phillips, 8 Car. & Payne, 736.

In an indictment for rape, the party ravished is an admissible witness; but the value of her testimony must be left to the jury. For instance, if the witness be of good fame, if she presently discovered the offence, and made search for the offender; if the party accused fled for it; these are corroborative circumstances, which give greater probability to her testimony. But, on the other hand, if she concealed the injury, after she had an opportunity to complain of its perpetration; if the place where the act is alleged to have been committed is where it is possible she might have been heard, and made no outcry, these carry a strong but not conclusive presumption that her testimony is false and feigned.

Moreover, an assault to ravish, however shameless and outrageous it may be, unless it amount to some degree of consummation of the deed, is not a rape.

It is the essential character of this crime that it must be against the will of the female on whom it is committed. And if a woman be beguiled into her consent, by any artful means, it will not be a rape; and, therefore, having carnal knowledge of a married woman, under circumstances which induced her to suppose it was her husband, was held by a majority of the judges not to be a rape, Rus. Ry. C. C. 487. However, the crime is not mitigated by showing that the woman yielded at length to violence, if her consent were obtained by duress, or threats of murder; nor will any subsequent acquiescence on her part do away with the guilt of the ravisher. It is a rape to force a prostitute against her will: so it is for a man to have forcible copulation with his own concubine, because the law presumes the possibility of a return to virtue. man, however, cannot be himself guilty of a rape upon his own wife, for the marital consent cannot be retracted, 1 Hale, 629; but he may be a criminal in aiding and abetting another in such a design.

A

All who are present, of both sexes, aiding in the perpetration of rape, are punishable with penal servitude for six or eight years, or imprisonment for three years.

II. CARNAL KNOWLEDGE OF GIRLS.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 49, unlawfully and carnally knowing any girl under the age of ten years, in which case the consent or non-consent is immaterial, as, by reason of her tender age, she is incapable of judgment or discretion, is punishable with penal servitude for life or three years, or imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour.

Carnal knowledge of a girl between the age of ten and twelve years, with or without consent, subjects the offender to penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, with or without bard labour.

In the last two cases, any indecent assault, or attempt to have carnal knowledge of a girl under twelve years, is liable to any term of imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour, 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 52.

III. PROCURATION FOR PROSTITUTION.

To check the odious practices of brothel-keepers and procuresses, and other infamous persons, the 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 49, enacts that whoever, by false pretence or representation, or fraudulent means, procures any woman or girl under the age of 21 years to have carnal connection with any man, is subject to imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour.

This offence is a misdemeanor, and triable at quarter sessions.

IV. BUGGERY AND BESTIALITY.

Sodomy or buggery, from the Italian buggerare, is a carnal copulation against nature, as a man or woman with an animal, or a man with a man; and was anciently punished with burning, some say burying, alive.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 61, every person convicted of the abominable crime of buggery, committed either with mankind or any animal, is punishable with penal servitude for life, or any term not less than ten years.

If committed on a boy under fourteen, it is a felony in the agent only, 1 Hale, 47.

Blackstone properly observes on this truly unnatural offence, that it is "a crime which ought to be strictly and impartially proved, and then as strictly and impartially punished. But it is an offence of so dark a nature, so easily charged, and the negative

so difficult to be proved, that the accusation should be clearly made out; for, if false, it deserves a punishment inferior only to the crime itself."

Much difference of opinion formerly prevailed among legal authorities, whether the proof of both penetration and emission of semen was essential to constitute carnal knowledge in the offences of rape, abusing girls, and buggery. Prisoners have been repeatedly acquitted on the want of proof of emission, 1 East, P. C. 437; while, on the other hand, in one instance, the accused was found guilty under the direction of Mr. Justice Bathurst, who did not consider this fact necessary to the consummation of guilt. But in Hill's case, which was argued in 1781, a large majority of judges decided both circumstances were necessary, though Buller, Loughborough, and Heath maintained a contrary opinion. All difficulty, however, on these points has been removed by the 9 G. 4, c. 31, by which it is provided that it shall not be necessary, in any of the crimes last mentioned, to prove the emission of seed in order to constitute carnal knowledge; but that the carnal knowledge shall be deemed complete upon proof of penetration only. The provision is continued in the 24 & 25 V. c. 100.

V. KIDNAPPING.

This is an inferior description of offence against the person, and amounts only to a misdemeanor: it consists in carrying off a man, woman, or child, from their own country and sending them into another. It is punishable by the common law with fine and imprisonment.

VI. CHILD STEALING.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 56, if any person shall unlawfully, by force or fraud, take, carry, or entice away or detain, any child under the age of fourteen years, with intent to deprive the parent or any other person having the lawful care or charge of such child, of the possession of it; or with intent to steal any article of apparel, or ornament, or value upon the person of such child; or conceal or harbour any child so stolen: every such person is guilty of felony, and subject to penal servitude for seven or not less than three years, or to imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. If the offender is a male, under sixteen years of age, whipping may or not be added; but no person is liable who claims a right to the possession of a child, or is the mother or the illegitimate father of it.

VII. ABDUCTION OF WOMEN.

The taking away of a child from a parent by any sinister means, as violence, deceit, conspiring, intoxication, or fraud, for the pur

pose of marrying it, was always indictable as a misdemeanor, and in particular cases punishable as a capital felony; and an indictment will now lie for a conspiracy to marry an infant, in order to obtain the possession of fortune. By 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 53, it is enacted that where any woman has interest, present or future, in any real or personal estate, or is heiress presumptive, or next of kin, to any one having such interest, if any person, from motives of lucre, take away or detain such woman against her will, with intent to marry or defile her, or to cause her to be married or defiled by any other person; every such offender, and every person counselling, aiding, or abetting him is guilty of FELONY, subject to penal servitude for not exceeding fourteen nor less than three years, or to imprisonment not above two years. The offender is incapable of taking any of her property.

By s. 55, if any person take, or cause to be taken, any unmarried girl under sixteen years of age, out of the possession and against the will of her father or mother or other person having the lawful charge of her, such offender is subject to imprisonment for not above two years.

It is an offence to take away from the custody of her putative father a natural child under sixteen years of age.

As the offence of abduction is positively prohibited, the absence of a corrupt motive will not be a defence to the charge; and it is no legal excuse that the defendant made use of no other means than the common blandishments of a lover to induce her to elope and marry him.

VIII. ATTEMPTS TO PROCURE ABORTION.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 100, s. 58, every woman, being with child, who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, shall unlawfully administer to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or unlawfully use any instrument or other means with the like intent; and whoever, with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child, shall unlawfully administer to her or cause to be taken by her any poison or other noxious thing, or use any instrument or other means with the like intent; shall be guilty of felony, liable to be kept in penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or to imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour or solitary confinement.

To supply or procure any poison or other noxious thing, or any instrument, knowing that the same is intended to be used to procure the miscarriage of a woman, whether she be or not with child, is a misdemeanor, liable to penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour, s. 59.

If any woman be delivered of a child, every person who, by any secret disposition of the dead body thereof, whether such child died before, at, or after its birth, endeavours to conceal the birth, is guilty