commitment as aforesaid, whether said offence be technically set out in said commitment or not, and upon which hearing said judge or court may either recommit, bail, or discharge the prisoner, according to the facts of the case.
This code, and other law on crime, how construed.Sect. 222. This code, and every other law upon the subject of crime which may be enacted, shall be construed according to the plain import of the language in which it is written, without regard to the distinction usually made between the construction of penal laws and laws upon other subjects, and no person shall be punished for an offence which is not made penal by the plain import of the words, upon pretence that he has offended against its spirit.
When definition of offence merely defective.Sect. 223. When the definition of an offence made penal by the law of this territory is merely defective, the rules of the common law shall apply and be resorted to for the purpose of aiding in the interpretation of such penal enactment.
In construction, general controlled by special provision.Sect. 224. In the construction of this code, each general provision shall be controlled by a special provision on the same subject, if there be a conflict.
When penalty altered by subsequent law.Sect. 225. When the penalty of an offence is prescribed by one law and altered by a subsequent law, the penalty of such second law shall not be inflicted for a breach of the law committed before the second shall have taken effect. In every such case the offender shall be tried under the law in force when the offence was committed, and, if convicted, punished under that law, except that when by the provisions of the second law the punishment of the offence is ameliorated, the defendant shall be punished under such last enactment, unless he elect to receive the penalty prescribed by the law in force when the offence was committed.
When new penalty substituted by repealing statute.Sect. 226. When by the provisions of a repealing statute a new penalty is substituted for an offence punishable under the act repealed, such repealing statute shall not exempt from punishment a person who has offended against the repealed law while it was in force, but in such case the rule prescribed in the next preceding statute shall apply.
Of offences, when penal law repealed, and no other penalty substituted.Sect. 227. The repeal of a penal law, when the repealing statute substitutes no other penalty, will exempt from punishment all persons who may have offended against the provis-