gender,) might be sentenced to be placed in a certain engine of correction called the trebucket, castigatory, or cucking stool, which in the Saxon language is said to signify the scolding stool; though frequently corrupted into ducking stool; because the residue of the judgment ran that, when so placed therein, she should be plunged in the water for her punishment (r).

Such is the general state of the law, with respect to common nuisances; but it is material to add here that, as to all those species of them which tend to affect the public health, they have been of late very specially provided against by the several Acts which have been passed in such profusion for improving the sanitary condition of the people, and of which we gave some account in a preceding volume while the laws relating to this subject were under discussion. By the provisions of these Acts, a great variety of nuisances are specified and prohibited, under the penalties of misdemeanor in some instances, and in others under pecuniary penalties recoverable before a court of summary jurisdiction, that is to say, before the justices of the peace (s).

XIII. [Lewdness is also an offence not merely against morality, but also against the public convenience and economy when of an open and notorious character, as by frequenting houses of ill-fame, which is an indictable offence; or by some grossly scandalous and public indecency; for which the punishment is fine and imprisonment (t). In the year 1650 not only incest and wilful adultery were made capital crimes, but also the repeated act of keeping a brothel, or committing fornication, were (upon a second without benefit of clergy (u).

(r) 4 Bl. Com. p. 168; Hawk. P. C. b. 1, c. 75, s. 5; 3 Inst. 219. (s) Vide sup. bk. iv. pt. III. ch. IX.

conviction) made felony But at the restoration,

(t) See a number of cases collected in a note to Christian's edition of Blackstone (vol. 4, p. 64). (u) See Scob. 121.

[when men, from an abhorrence of what they deemed the hypocrisy of the late times, fell into a contrary extreme of licentiousness, it was not thought proper to renew a law of such unfashionable rigour. And these offences were then abandoned to the feeble coercion of the spiritual court, according to the rules of the canon law: a law which has treated the offence of incontinence, nay even adultery itself, with a great degree of tenderness and lenity; owing perhaps to the constrained celibacy of its first compilers (x).] To this head may, however, be also properly referred the indictable offence of a public and indecent exposure of the person: and of the public selling or exposure for public sale, or to public view, of any obscene book, print, picture or other indecent exhibition :-the punishment of which is fine or imprisonment, or both, with hard labour at the discretion of the court (y). Moreover, in aid of the suppression of such practices, it has been provided by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 83, that on complaint made, on oath, before two justices (), that obscene books, papers, writings, prints, pictures, drawings, or other similar representations are, to the complainant's belief, kept in some place for the purpose of being sold, distributed, exhibited, lent on hire, or otherwise published, for gain;-with an allegation that one or more articles of the like character have been published at or in connection with such place, so as to satisfy the justices that such belief of the complainant is well founded,—such justices may, (on being satisfied that any articles so kept are of such a character and description that the publication of them would be a misdemeanor, and proper to be prosecuted as such,) issue a special warrant authorizing an entry of the place specified in the complaint

(x) Proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, under the canon law, for incontinency, are out of use.

(y) 14 & 15 Vict. c. 100, s. 29. See the case of The Queen v. Bradlaugh and Besant, Law Rep.,

Q. B. D. 569.

(2) The same powers are given by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 83, s. 1, to any single metropolitan or stipendiary magistrate.

in the day-time by the police, and by force if necessary; and they are also enabled to order the seizure and destruction, (if the owner does not show good cause to the contrary,) of the articles in question. An appeal, however, is given by this Act to any person aggrieved, to the next general or quarter sessions of the peace («).

We may also remark that, by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 49, whoever shall by false pretences or representation, or other fraudulent means, procure any female under the age of twenty-one to have illicit carnal connection with any man, is made guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable with imprisonment with or without hard labour to the extent of two years (b).

XIV. The offence of Drunkenness, also, may be referred to this head; and it is punished by statute 4 Jac. I. c. 5, and 21 Jac. I. c. 7, s. 3, with the forfeiture of five shillings, to be paid, within one week after conviction, to the churchwardens, for the use of the poor: and upon a second conviction, the offender shall be bound with two sureties in 107. for his good behaviour. And if the drunkenness be accompanied with any riotous or indecent behaviour, committed in a street of any town within the police provisions of 10 & 11 Vict. c. 89, the offence, by the 29th section of that Act, is punishable by a penalty not exceeding forty shillings, or seven days' imprisonment (c). Moreover, by "The Licensing Act, 1872" (35 & 36 Vict. c. 94), sect. 12, every person found drunk in any highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on any licensed premises, is made liable to a

penalty not exceeding ten shillings (d); and on a second conviction within twelve months, twenty shillings; and on a third or subsequent conviction within such period, forty shillings; while, if the drunkenness be accompanied with riotous or disorderly behaviour, or while the offender is in charge of a carriage, horse, cattle or steam engine, or while in the possession of loaded firearms, the same penalty as last mentioned may be imposed, or he may be alternatively sentenced to imprisonment for any term not exceeding one month, with or without hard labour (e).

XV. Another indictable offence, which may be ranked under the present chapter, is that of wanton and furious driving; as to which, it is declared by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, that if any person, having the charge of any carriage or vehicle, shall by wanton or furious driving, or racing, or other wilful misconduct or neglect do, or cause to be done, any bodily harm to any person whatever, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be imprisoned with or without hard labour to the extent of two years (ƒ). It may be remarked that the enactment, that such conduct shall amount to a misdemeanor, is declaratory only of the common law; according to which it is misdemeanor,— and may even amount to manslaughter or murder,-for any person to drive or ride so wantonly and furiously, as to endanger the passengers on the highway (g).

XVI. A seventh offence is that of cruelty to animals; it being, in the first place, enacted generally by 12 & 13 Vict.

(d) See Lester v. Torrens, Law Rep., 2 Q. B. D. 403.

(e) As to the offence of drunkenness when committed by a person subject to military law, see 44 & 45 Vict. c. 58, s. 19. See also the Naval Discipline Act (29 & 30 Vict. c. 109), s. 27, as to persons subject

to that statute.

(f) 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 35. The offender may also be bound over to keep the peace or be of good behaviour (sect. 71).

(g) Fost. 263; see R. v. Mastin, 6 C. & P. 396; R. v. Taylor, 9 C. & P. 672.

c. 92 (h), that if any person shall cruelly beat, ill-treat, overdrive, abuse, or torture any horse, mare, gelding, bull, ox, cow, heifer, steer, calf, mule, ass, sheep, lamb, hog, pig, sow, goat, dog, cat, or any other "domestic animal” (¿), he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding 57. for every such offence, recoverable before a justice of the peace in a summary way: and if by any such misconduct he shall injure the animal, or any person or property, a further sum not exceeding 107. to the owner or person injured (k). The Act also inflicts penalties in the case of conveying any such animal from one place to another in such a manner or position, as to subject it to unnecessary pain or suffering and also in the case of bull-baiting, cock-fighting, and the like (). And it makes a variety of humane provisions for the regulation of the business of slaughtering horses, and cattle not intended for butcher's meat (m).

In addition to the above provisions it has now been thought right to extend the protection of law on this subject to the case of animals which, for medical, physiological, or other scientific purposes, are subjected, when alive, to experiments calculated to inflict pain. It has accordingly been provided, by the 39 & 40 Vict. c. 77 (The Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876), that a person shall not, under a heavy penalty, perform on a living animal any experiment calcu

(h) This Act was amended by 17 & 18 Vict. c. 60, not in reference to the matters mentioned in the text, but with a view to improve the regulations as to providing animals impounded with a proper supply of food and water; and also as to prohibiting dogs from being used for the purposes of draught. (As to which, see also 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47.) () The definition of the word "animal" in the interpretation clause of the Act (12 & 13 Vict. c. 92, s. 20) is that given in the text. See Murphy v. Manning, Law Rep., VOL. IV.

2 Ex. D. 307, which was a case as to cruelly cutting the combs of cocks.

(4) Previous Acts on the same subject, 3 Geo. 4, c. 71, and 3 Will. 4, c. 19, were repealed by 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 59; which was itself repealed by 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92.

(1) See Clarke, app. v. Hague, resp., 29 L. J. (M. C.) 105; Mosley, app., Greenhalgh, resp., 3 B. & Smith, 374; Clark, app. v. Hague, resp., 2 Ell. & Bl. 281.

(m) 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92, s. 9. See Colam v. Hall, Law Rep., 6 Q. B. 206.

S