Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/146

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forthwith put in die pillory for one half hour, shall be condemned to hard labor* two years in the public works, and shall make re paration to the person injured.

Petty Larceny shall be, where the goods stolen are of less value than five dollars ; and whosoever shall be guilty thereof, shall be forthwith put in the pillory for a quarter of an hour, shall be con demned to hard labor one year in the public works, and shall make reparation to the person injured.

Robbery† or larceny of bonds, bills obligatory, bills of ex change, or promissory notes for the payment of money or tobacco, lottery tickets, paper bills issued in the nature of money, or of certificates of loan on the credit of this Commonwealth, or of all or any of the United States of America, or Inspectors notes for tobacco, shall be punished in the same manner as robbery or lar ceny of the money or tobacco due on, or represented by such papers.

Buyers‡ and receivers of goods taken by way of robbery or larceny, knowing them to have been so. taken, shall be deemed accessaries to such robbery or larceny after the fact.

Prison breakers§ also, shall be deemed accessaries after the fact, to traitors or felons whom they enlarge from prison.||

  • Ll. Inae. c. 7. 'Si quis furetur ita ut uxor ejus et infans ipsius nesciant,

solvat 60. solidos poenae loco. Si autem furetur testantibus omnibus haere- dibus suis, abeant omnes in servitutem.' Ina was king of the West-Saxons, and began to reign A. C. 688. After the union of the Heptarchy, i. e. temp. Aethelst. inter 924 and 940, we find it punishable with death as above. So it was inter 1017 and 1035, i e. temp. Cnuti. Ll. Cnuti 61. cited in notes on Arson. In the time of William the conqueror, it seems to have been made punishable by fine only. Ll. Gul. conq. apud Wilk. p. 218. 220. This commutation, however, was taken away by Ll. H. 1. anno 1108. 'Si quis in furto vel latro- cinio deprehensus fuisset, suspenderetur ; sublata wirgildorum, id est, pecu- niarae redemptionis lege.' Larceny is the felonious taking and carrying away of the personal goods of another. 1. As to the taking, the 3. 4. W. M. c. 9.§ 5, is not additional to the Common law, but declaratory of it ; because where only the care or use, and not the possession, of things is delivered, to take them was larceny at the Common law. The 33. H. 6. c. 1. and 21 H. 8. c. 7. indeed, have added to the Common law, by making it larceny in a servant to convert things of his master's. But quaere, if they should be imitated more than as to other breaches of trust in general. 2. As to the subject of larceny, 4 G. 2. c.32. 6 G.3.C.36.48. 43. El. c. 7. 15. Car. 2 c. 2. 23.G.2.C.26. 31.G.2.C.35. 9. G. 3. c. 41. 25. G. 2. c. 10. have extended larceny to things of various sorts either real, or fixed to the realty. But the enumeration is unsystematical, and in this country, where the produce of the earth is so spontaneous, as to have rendered things of this kind scarcely a breach of civility or good manners, in the eyes of the people, quaere, if it would not too much enlarge the field of Cri- minal law? The same may be questioned of 9 G. 1. c. 22. 13 Car. 2. c. 10. 10 G. 2. c. 32. 5 G. 3. c. 14. 22 & 23 Car. 2. c. 25. 37 E. 3. c. 19. making it felony to steal animals ferae naturae.

† 2 G. 2. c. 25 § 3. 7 G. 3. c. 50.

‡ 3. 4. W. M. c. 9. § 4. 5 Ann. c. 31 § 5. 4 G. 1. c. 11. § 1.

§ 1 E. 2.

|| Breach of prison at the Common law was capital, without regard to the