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[1. And, first, as to what offences admit of accessories, and what not. In treason there are no accessories, but all are principals: the same acts that make a man accessory in felony, making him a principal in treason, upon account of the heinousness of the crime (g). Besides, it is to be considered, that the bare attempt to commit treason is many times actual treason: as imagining the death of the sovereign, or conspiring to take away his crown. And as no one can advise or abet such a crime without an intention to have it done, there can be no accessories before the fact; since the very advice and abetment amount to principal treason. In murder or other felonies, there may be accessories; except only in those offences which by judgment of law are sudden and unpremeditated, as manslaughter and the like; which therefore cannot have any accessories before the fact (h). So, too, in all crimes under the degree of felony, there are no accessories either before or after the fact; but all persons concerned therein, if guilty at all, are principals (i): the same rule thus holding with regard to the highest and lowest offences, though upon different reasons. In treason all are principals, propter odium delicti; in misdemeanors all are principals, because the law, which de minimis non curat, does not descend to distinguish the different shades of guilt in crimes below the degree of felony.

2. As to the second point, who may be an accessory before the fact: Sir Matthew Hale defines him to be one who, being absent at the time of the crime committed, doth yet procure, counsel, or command another to commit

(g) 3 Inst. 138; 1 Hale, P. C. 613. As to the crime of treason, vide post, c. VI.

(h) 1 Hale, P. C. pp. 615, 616; Evans' case, Foster, 73. But see Reg. v. Gaylor, 1 D. & B. (C. C.)

288.

(i) Hale, ubi sup.; see Moland's case, 2 Moody, C. C. R. 276; Queen

v. Greenwood, 21 L. J. (M. C.) 127. In accordance with this rule, the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 94, s. 8, declares that "whosoever shall aid, abet, "counsel, or procure the commis"sion of any misdemeanor, shall "be liable to be indicted, tried and

punished as a principal offender."

[a crime (k). Herein absence is necessary to make him an accessory; for if such procurer, or the like, be present, he is guilty of the crime as principal (7). If A. then advises B. to kill another, and B. does it in the absence of A.; now B. is principal and A. is accessory to the murder. And this holds, even though the party killed be not in rerum naturâ at the time of the advice given. As, if A., the reputed father, advises B., the mother of a bastard child, unborn, to strangle it when born, and she does so; A. is accessory to this murder (m). And it is also settled, that whoever procureth a felony to be committed, though it be by the intervention of a third person, is an accessory before the fact (n).] It is likewise a rule, that he who in anywise commands or counsels another to commit an unlawful act, is accessory to all that ensues upon that unlawful act, supposing at least that it was a probable consequence thereof, but not otherwise (o). As if A. advises B. to rob C., and B. does so accordingly, and on resistance made kills C., B. is guilty of murder as principal, and A. as accessory (p). [But if A. commands B. to burn C.'s house, and he, in so doing, commits a robbery; now A., though accessory to the burning, is not accessory to the robbery, for that is a thing of a distinct and unconsequential nature (q). But if the felony committed be the same in substance with that which is commanded, and only varying in some circumstantial matters;-as if upon a command

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[to poison Titius, he is stabbed or shot, and dies;-the commander is still accessory to the murder, for the substance of the thing commanded was the death of Titius, and the manner of its execution is a mere collateral circumstance (r).

3. An accessory after the fact may be, where a person, knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the felon (s). Therefore, to make an accessory ex post facto, it is in the first place requisite that he knows of the felony committed, and that it was committed by the party in question (t). In the next place he must receive, relieve, comfort or assist the criminal. And, generally, any assistance whatever given to a felon, to hinder his being apprehended, tried or suffering punishment, makes the assistor an accessory. As furnishing him with a horse to escape his pursuers, a house or other shelter to conceal him, or open force and violence to rescue or protect him (u). So likewise to convey instruments to a felon to enable him to break gaol, or to bribe the gaoler to let him escape, makes a man an accessory to the felony (x).] But to buy or receive stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, does not fall within the definition of this offence; and at common law, such receiving was a misdemeanor only, because the offender received the goods only and not the felon (y). But this offence (as we shall see in the appropriate place) is now differently treated ().

[The felony must be complete at the time of the assistance given, else it makes not the assistor an accessory. As if one wounds another mortally, and after the wound given, but before death ensues, a person assists or receives the delinquent, this does not make him accessory to the

(r) Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 29, s. 20.

(s) 1 Hale, P. C. 618.

(t) Hawk. ubi sup. s. 32.

(u) Ib. ss. 26, 27, 28.

(x) See 28 & 29 Vict. c. 126, ss. 37-40.

(y) 4 Bl. Com. p. 38.

(z) As to receiving stolen goods, vide post, c. v.

[homicide; for till death ensues there is no felony committed (a). But so strict is the law where a felony is actually complete, in order to do effectual justice, that the nearest relations are not suffered to aid or receive one another. If the parent assists his child, or the child the parent, if the brother receives the brother, the master his servant, or the servant his master, or even if the husband receives his wife, who have any of them committed a felony, the receivers become accessories ex post facto (b). But a feme covert cannot become an accessory by the receipt and concealment of her husband; for she is presumed to act under his coercion; and therefore she is not bound, neither ought she, to discover her lord (c).

4. The last point of inquiry is, how accessories are to be treated, considered distinct from principals: and the general rule of the antient law,-borrowed from the Gothic constitutions,-is this, that accessories shall suffer the same punishment as their principals (d): If one be liable to death, the other is also liable; as by the laws of Athens, delinquents and their abettors were to receive the same punishment (e).] With which as regards accessories before the fact, the modern rule is strictly consonant; for, by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 94, s. 1, all these are to be indicted, tried, convicted, and punished in all respects as if they were principal felons (f). [Why then, it may be asked, are

(a) Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 29, s. 35. (b) 3 Inst. 108; Hawk. ubi sup.

s. 34.

(e) See 1 Hale, P. C. 47, 621; Reg. v. Good, 1 Car. & K. 185. So also a wife cannot be indicted for receiving goods stolen by her husband. (Reg. v. Brooks, 22 L. J. (M. C.) 121.) As to the doctrine of the wife's coercion by her husband, vide sup. p. 32.

(d) See Stiern. de Jure Goth. 1. 3,

c. 5.

(e) Pott. Antiq. b. 1, c. 26.

(f) This provision is a re-enactment of 11 & 12 Vict. c. 46, s. 1 (repealed by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 95). See also 24 & 25 Vict. c. 96, s. 98; c. 97, s. 56; c. 98, s. 49; c. 99, s. 35; c. 100, s. 67, in reference to the particular felonies punishable under those Acts, respectively. It is remarked in the Report of the Criminal Code Bill Commission (p. 19) that the old law as to principal and accessory was "practically "superseded" by the enactment referred to in the text.

[such elaborate distinctions made between accessories and principals, if both are to suffer the same punishment?

For these reasons: 1. To distinguish the nature and denomination of crimes, that the accused may know how to defend himself; the commission of an actual robbery being quite a different accusation from that of harbouring the robber. 2. Because, though accessories before the fact are treated as principals, yet accessories after the fact are usually punished with less severity (g). 3. Because, formerly, no man could be tried as accessory till after the principal was convicted, or, at least, he must have been tried at the same time with him; though that rule is now wholly abolished (h). 4. Because if a man be indicted as accessory, and acquitted, he may afterwards be indicted as principal; for an acquittal of receiving or counselling a

(g) Accessories after the fact to any felony, are in general punishable with imprisonment not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour; and they may also be required to find security to keep the peace, or, in default, to suffer an additional imprisonment to the extent of one year. (See 24 & 25 Vict. c. 94, s. 4.) But accessories after the fact to murder are punishable by penal servitude for life, or not less than five years (see 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 67; and 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47), or to imprisonment with or without hard labour to the extent of two years. It is the opinion of Blackstone (vol. iv. p. 39), that "if a distinction were constantly to be made between the punishments of principals and accessories even before the fact, the latter to be treated with a little less severity than the former, it might prevent the perpetration of many crimes, by increasing the difficulty of finding a person to

execute the deed itself; as his danger would be greater than that of his accomplices by reason of the difference of his punishment." And he cites Beccaria, c. 37, in support of this doctrine.

(h) 1 Hale, P. C. 623; Fost. 363. By 24 & 25 Vict. c. 94 (re-enacting in substance 11 & 12 Vict. c. 46, ss. 1, 3), any accessory, either before or after the fact, may be indicted and convicted, either as such accessory together with the principal felon, or after his conviction: or may be indicted and convicted of a substantive felony, whether the principal felon shall have been convicted or not, or shall or shall not be amenable to justice, and may thereupon be punished in the same manner as an accessory before or after the fact (if convicted as an accessory), may respectively be punished. (24 & 25 Vict. c. 94, ss. 1, 2, 3.) See The Queen e. Richards, Law Rep., 2 Q. B. D. 311.

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