enable the men to get out of the skip with safety. The prisoner one day left the engine in the care of a lad of fifteen. The deceased made the signal for the skip to be drawn up to the boy at the top, who signalled to the boy who had the charge of the engine. The latter set the engine to work, but failed in stopping it at the proper time, from ignorance of the duty. The consequence was, that the skip was drawn up to the pulley, and the deceased was forced out, fell down the shaft, and was killed. The opinion of the judge was taken, as to whether a man whose duty it is to attend at a particular place, or fill a particular office, and omits to attend, and leaves an incompetent person in his place, and death ensues, is guilty of manslaughter. Lord Campbell said: "I am clearly of opinion that an act of omission, as well as of commission, may be so criminal as to be the subject of an indictment for manslaughter, and that there is evidence to go to the jury of such a criminal omission in this case."

From the previous cases and quotations, the general principle is made clear that bailiffs, overmen, and all persons in offices and situations in coal mines who have duties to perform, on the due and careful performance of which the lives of others depend, are bound to bring to the exercise of those duties ordinary and reasonable precaution. But no man can be convicted of manslaughter for a mere mistake, or error of judgment. If he acts to the best of his judgment or ability in the discharge of his duty, but acts erroneously from want of good judgment, he is not criminally responsible. If he is seeking to do the

best he can under the circumstances, and is acting to the best of his judgment, however unfortunate that judgment may be, he is not to suffer for his innocent error. But at the same time every person who undertakes a duty or office is bound to bring to it ordinary care, skill, and diligence. It is the absence of ordinary not extraordinary precaution or care that makes negligence culpable. It is a matter which is not capable of a closer definition. Each charge of criminal negligence, depending on its own surrounding circumstances, must be left to the jury, with general advice to say whether in their opinion the alleged negligence or omission was so gross as to justify them in finding the accused guilty of manslaughter.

To conclude this section it need only be added that the alleged negligence must be personally brought home to the party charged. Thus, where in Hilton's case (reported in Lewin's Crown Cases), the prisoner was indicted for manslaughter, it appeared that it was his duty to attend to a steam-engine. On the occasion in question he had stopped the engine and gone away, and during his absence another person set it in motion and could not stop it, and in consequence of this the deceased was killed. The prisoner had no doubt been negligent in his duty, but Mr. Baron Alderson said, that as the death was not the immediate consequence of the act of the prisoner he must be acquitted. It was necessary, he added, for a conviction for manslaughter, that the negligent act which causes the death should be that of the party charged.

CHAPTER XVIII.

TRUCK.

OFFENCES under the Truck Act, 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. xxxvii. consist in the payment of the wages of colliers and other classes of workmen there specified, otherwise than in coin.* The statute enacts that any contract in which the whole or any part of the wages shall be made payable in any other manner than in the current coin of the realm (sect. 1), or in which any provision shall be made directly or indirectly respecting the place where, the manner in which, or the person with whom, any part of the wages shall be laid out or expended, is absolutely void. (Sect. 2.) The entire amount of wages shall be actually paid in coin, and not otherwise; and any payment made by the employer by the delivery of goods, or otherwise than in coin, except as therein mentioned, is also void. (Sect. 3.) The artificer or collier may recover so much of his wages as shall not have been actually paid in coin, and the employer may not set off the value of any goods

* Originally, truck meant barter or exchange; but it has now acquired the technical meaning above given.

supplied to the collier, at any shop or warehouse kept by or belonging to the employer, or in the profits of which he has any share or interest. (Sects. 4 and 5.) No action will lie to recover the value of such goods; and if the collier or his wife, widow, or child become chargeable to any parish, the amount of wages earned by such person within the three preceding calendar months, and not paid in cash, may be recovered by the overseer. (Sects. 6 and 7.) The order for wages may be made and served on any one or more of copartners. (Sect. 13.)

The statute applies to the case of artificers, workmen, labourers, and other persons employed in or about the working or getting of any mines of coal, ironstone, limestone, &c., and many other employments which need not be mentioned here.

Stoppages.-But nothing in the Act is to extend to prevent any employer of any artificer, or any agent of such employer, from supplying or contracting to supply to any such artificer any medicine or medical attendance; or any fuel, or any materials, tools, or implements to be by such artificer employed in his trade or occupation, if such artificer be employed in mining; or any hay, corn, or other provender to be consumed by any horse or other beast of burden employed by any such artificer in his trade and occupation; nor from demising to any artificer, workman, or labourer employed in any of the trades or occupations enumerated in the Act the whole or any part of any tenement, at any rent to be thereon reserved; nor from supplying, or contracting to supply, to any such artificer any victuals, dressed or prepared under the

roof of any such employer, and there consumed by such artificer; nor from making, or contracting to make, any stoppage, or deduction, from the wages of such artificer for or in respect of any such rent, or for or in respect of any such medicine or medical attendance; or for or in respect of any fuel, materials, tools, implements, hay, corn, or provender, or of arry such victuals, dressed and prepared under the roof of such employer, or for or in respect of any money advanced to such artificer for any such purpose as aforesaid; provided that such stoppage or deduction shall not exceed the real and true value of such fuel, materials, tools, implements, hay, corn, and provender, and shall not in any case be made from the wages of such artificer, unless the agreement or contract for such stoppage, or deduction, shall be in writing, and signed by such artificer. (Sect. 23.)

No justice engaged in any of the trades or occupations enumerated in the Act, or being the father, son, or brother of any such person, is to act as a justice under this Act. When the magistrates for any borough are disqualified by the provision, the complaint may be heard by the magistrates of the county in which the offence is committed, and the complainant may remove his information to any Court of Petty Sessions within twelve miles of such borough. (Sect. 23.)

The prosecution must be commenced within three calendar months. Any employer of an artificer in the trades to which the Act applies, who shall by himself, or by the agency of any other person, directly or indirectly enter into any contract, or make any payment, declared to be illegal thereby, is liable, for the first