Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE CRIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT ACT, 1871.

34-5 V. 32.

As to the origin of this statute, cf. p. 28.

[ocr errors]

This Act" was repealed by 38 & 39 Vict. c. 86, s. 17 (see p. 164), in consequence of the decision in R. v. Bunn, (12 Cox, 316) in 1872, that improper combination to control a master was still a common law offence (Archbold's Criminal Pleadings, 22nd ed., p. 1102). Part of the headnote to that case runs : "An indictment for conspiracy at common law will lie against two or more persons for conspiring to commit an offence for which special provision is made by statute. The defendants, servants of a gas company under contract of service, being offended by the dismissal of a fellow-servant, agreed together to quit the service of their employers without notice and in breach of their contracts of service, by reason of which the company were seriously impeded in the conduct of their business. .. Held, that the provisions of the statute [34-5 V. 32] had not affected the common law of conspiracy, for which an indictment would lie." The prisoners were found guilty of conspiracy "to do a lawful act by unlawful means." They were acquitted of conspiracy to do an unlawful act.

...

Reg. v. Bunn was overruled by Gibson v. Lawson. See p. 131. According to Sir J. F. Stephen (3 History of the Criminal Law, c. 30), the decision in the Gas Stokers' case "caused a real dissatisfaction amongst those who were principally affected by it," and led not only to the repeal of this statute but to the enactment of 38-9 V. 86. See p. 123.

* According to the same writer this was the last occasion on which the course was taken of asserting a power "inherent in the Judges" of declaring acts to be offences at common law which were never so declared before, i.e., by "the treatment of conspiracies in restraint of trade as a common law misdemeanour." The history of this matter "is by no means favourable to the declaration by the bench of new offences" (Ibid. c. 34).

THE FALSIFICATION OF ACCOUNTS

ACT, 1875.*

38-9 V. 24.

An Act to amend the Law with reference to the Falsification of Accounts.

[29 June, 1875.

8. 1.

for falsifica

counts, &c.

1. If any clerk, officer, or servant, or any per- Punishment son employed or acting in the capacity of a tion of acclerk, officer, or servant, shall wilfully and with intent to defraud destroy, alter, mutilate, or falsify any book, paper, writing, valuable security, or account which belongs to or is in the possession of his employer, or has been received by him for or on behalf of his employer, or shall wilfully and with intent to defraud make or concur in making any false entry in, or omit or alter, or concur in omitting or altering, any material particular from or in any such book, or any document or account, then in every such case the person so offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable to be kept in penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven years, or to be imprisoned with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding two years.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Repealed 56-7 V. 54 (S. L. R. (No. 2) Act, 1893).

* See Introduction, p. 9. The Act is inserted here because it might protect unregistered Trade Unions.

defraud

Ss. 2, 3, 4. 2. It shall be sufficient in any indictment under Intention to this Act to allege a general intent to defraud, sufficient without naming any particular person intended to be defrauded.

indictment.

Act to be

read with

c. 96.

3. This Act shall be read as one with the Act of

24 & 25 Vict. the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of Her Majesty, chapter ninety-six.

Short title.

I.e., The Larceny Act, 1861.

4. This Act may be cited as the Falsification of Accounts Act, 1875.

THE CONSPIRACY AND PROTECTION OF Ss. 1, 2, 3.

PROPERTY ACT, 1875.

38-9 V. 86.

An Act for amending the Law relating to Conspiracy, and to the Protection of Property, and for

other purposes.

[13th August, 1875.

1. This Act may be cited as the Conspiracy and short title Protection of Property Act, 1875.

ment of Act.

2. This Act shall come into operation on the first Commenceday of September one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.

Repealed by 56-7 V. 54, a Statute Law Revision Act.

Conspiracy, and Protection of Property:

of law as to

in trade

3. An agreement or combination by two or more Amendment persons to do or procure to be done any act in conspiracy contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute disputes. between employers and workmen shall not be indictable as a conspiracy if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime.

Nothing in this section shall exempt from punishment any persons guilty of a conspiracy for which a punishment is awarded by any Act of Parliament.

Ss. 3, 4.

Breach of

contract by persons employed in supply of

gas or water.

Nothing in this section shall affect the law relating to riot, unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, or sedition, or any offence against the State or the Sovereign.

A crime for the purposes of this section means an offence punishable on indictment, or an offence which is punishable on summary conviction, and for the commission of which the offender is liable under the statute making the offence punishable to be imprisoned either absolutely or at the discretion of the Court as an alternative for some other punishment.

Where a person is convicted of any such agreement or combination as aforesaid to do or procure to be done an act which is punishable only on summary conviction, and is sentenced to imprisonment, the imprisonment shall not exceed three months, or such longer time, if any, as may have been prescribed by the statute for the punishment of the said act when committed by one person.

"The 3rd section of [this] Act distinctly legalises strikes in the broadest terms, subject to the exceptions enumerated in the 4th and 5th sections, which immediately follow, and are almost in the nature of provisoes upon the 3rd (per Coleridge, L. C. J., Gibson v. Lawson (1891, 2 Q. B. at 558). See p. 132.

[ocr errors]

4. Where a person employed by a municipal authority or by any company or contractor upon whom is imposed by Act of Parliament the duty, or who have otherwise assumed the duty of supplying

« PreviousContinue »