CHAPTER VII.

Of offences committed by officers of justice and officers of courts in their official capacity.

Art. 180. All the articles of the first and second chapters of the fourth title of this book, entitled, " of offences committed by executive officers," apply to officers of justice and officers of courts, they being comprehended in the definition of executive officers.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of counsellors and attorneys at law.

Art. 181. If any of the offences enumerated in the other chapters of this title, and not provided for in this chapter, shall be committed by an attorney at law or a counsellor at law, the punishment assigned to such offence shall be increased one half.

Art. 182. Any counsellor at law, or attorney at law, or any attorney in fact, charged with the prosecution or defence of a civil suit, who shall receive a bribe, shall be fined a sum equal to five times the value of the bribe received, shall be imprisoned not less than six nor more than twelve months, and shall forfeit his political rights, and his civil rights of the first class.

Art. 183. If any attorney at law, or counsellor at law, or any attorney in fact, who is charged in any prosecution or defence of a civil suit, or the defence of any one accused of an offence, shall designedly divulge any circumstance which came to his knowledge in virtue of his trust, to the injury of his client; or shall give counsel to the opposite party, to the injury of his client; or after having engaged to prosecute or defend any civil suit, and been consulted on the merits of the case, for any one, shall, on account of the non-payment of fees, or for any other cause or pretext, appear for the opposite party, either as his attorney or counsellor in court, or secretly as his adviser; or shall, with intent to injure the party for whom he is employed, do any other act which he is not legally required to do, that is injurious to the interest of such party, or omit to do any other lawful official act, whereby his client shall suffer in his interest or reputation; he shall, for either of these offences, be imprisoned not less than twenty days, nor more than six months; and if an attorney or counsellor at law, be suspended from the exercise of his profession not less than three nor more than twelve months; and if an attorney in fact, in addition to the imprisonment, be fined not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars.

Art. 184. If any attorney at law, or counsellor at law, or any attorney in fact, employed to conduct a suit or defence in court, shall,

within five days after demand in writing, by a person legally authorized to make such demand, refuse or neglect to pay the balance due on any sum of money, or deliver any notes or other securities he may have received for the person by whom he was employed, on any suit in court, or on any demand he was professionally employed to make, or any papers with which he was intrusted in his official capacity, he shall, if an attorney in fact, be fined not less than one hundred, nor more than three hundred dollars; and if a counsellor at law, or attorney at law, shall be suspended from the exercise of his profession, not less than six, nor more than twelve months, and until he shall have paid the sum due, with interest.

Art. 185. No attorney or counsellor at law, or attorney in fact, shall be liable, under the preceding article, for retaining out of the moneys by him received, any sum due to him by his employer, for any liquidated debt due to him, or for legal or customary and reasonable fees and costs or commissions; nor shall he be guilty of any offence in retaining any papers or securities he may have received until such sums be paid, as may be due for costs or fees in any suit or controversy, for the defence or prosecution of which the papers were delivered to him; nor for not delivering papers that have been casually lost or destroyed. Art. 186. If any attorney or counsellor at law shall fraudulently commence, prosecute or defend any suit in any court in this state, in the name of any person by whom he has not been authorized to prosecute or defend such suit, he shall be suspended from the exercise of his profession, not less than six months, nor more than two years.

Art. 187. Whoever shall bribe or offer to bribe any attorney or counsellor at law, or any attorney in fact, who is charged with the conducting a suit in court, shall be imprisoned in close custody, not less than one nor more than six months, and shall pay a fine equal to four times the amount of the bribe given or offered.

Art. 188. All offences committed by counsellors or attorneys at law, shall be tried in the same manner as other offences, except as is hereinafter provided, in the case of offences committed in the courts of justice.

CHAPTER IX.

Of offences by falsely personating another in judiciary proceedings.

Art. 189. If any one, not being an officer of justice, shall fraudulently pretend to be such, and in such assumed character shall commit any assault, or false imprisonment, or receive or attempt to receive property, he shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than three, nor more than six years, in addition to the punishment incurred by the other offence he may commit.

Art. 190. If any one shall falsely PERSONATE ANOTHER, and in such assumed character shall become bail, confess judgment, or do any other act in the course of any proceeding in any suit or prosecution, he shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than two nor more than five years, in addition to the punishment he may incur by any other offence he may commit in such assumed character.

CHAPTER X.

Of perjury and false swearing.

Art. 191. Perjury is a falsehood, asserted verbally or in writing, deliberately and wilfully, relating to something present or past, under the sanction of an oath, or such other affirmation as is or may be by law made equivalent to an oath, legally administered, under circumstances in which an oath or affirmation is required by law, or is necessary for the prosecution or defence of private right, or for the ends of public justice. Perjury is punished by penitentiary imprisonment, not less than three, nor more than seven years; by a forfeiture of all political rights, and of civil rights of the first and third class. But if any one by means of perjury shall cause another to be convicted of a crime, he shall suffer the same punishment that is incurred by the commission of the crime of which such person has been convicted by means of the perjury.

Art. 192. Falsehood in this definition refers to the belief of the party attesting; therefore if he believes what he swears to be false, and it should happen to be true, he is as guilty of the offence as if he had sworn that to be true which he knew to be false.

Art. 193. The declaration must be deliberate; a false statement made inadvertently, or under agitation, or by mistake, is not perjury.

Art. 194. It must be with design to make the falsehood believed by another, the party taking the oath knowing or believing it to be false; and this design is presumed whenever the falsehood of the declaration is proved.

Art. 195. The oath or affirmation must be administered in the manner required by law, and by a magistrate, or other person duly authorized to administer oaths in the matter or cause in which the oath was taken. Art. 196. The declaration, to constitute perjury, must be of something present or past; a promissory oath, although broken, is not perjury. An oath of office is one of this last description.

Art. 197. The occasion of taking the oath, in the description of the offence, includes those taken in every stage of a judicial proceeding, either civil or criminal, either in or out of court; and all declaratory oaths required by special laws, whether they impose the penalty of perjury or not.

Art. 198. As the falsehood must be wilful and deliberate to constitute the crime; the assertion of any circumstance, so immaterial to the matter in relation to which the declaration is made, as reasonably to induce a belief that it was not intended to conceal the truth or assert a false hood, is not perjury; although the circumstance be not true.

Art. 199. It is not necessary to complete this offence, that any credit should be given to the false declaration.

Art. 200. Whoever shall deliberately and wilfully, under oath, or affirmation, (in cases where it is by law equivalent to an oath), legally administered, declare a falsehood, by a voluntary declaration or affidavit, which is neither required by law nor made in the course of any judicial

proceeding, is guilty of false swearing, and shall be confined in close custody not less than one nor more than six months; and the conviction of such an offence may be produced as evidence against his CREDIT in any court where he may be offered as a witness.

Art. 201. The punishment for the offence mentioned in the last preceding article is independent of any that may be inflicted for the publication of the affidavit, should it be a libel.

Art. 202. The term declaratory oath, or declaratory affidavit, in this section, means an oath made to the truth of something present or past, and is used in contradistinction to promissory oath, which is a stipulation confirmed by oath, that some act shall be done or omitted, or some event take place in future. The breach of this last description of oaths, does not amount either to perjury or to false swearing, except as will be hereafter provided in the case of officers of justice for duties done in

court.

Art. 203. Whoever shall designedly, by any MEANS whatever, induce another to commit perjury, or to be guilty of false swearing, shall undergo the same punishment as if he had committed the crime himself.

Art. 204. Whoever shall endeavour, by offering any INDUCEMENT or persuasion whatever, to procure another to commit perjury, or to be guilty of false swearing, shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than three hundred dollars, and imprisoned in close custody not less than thirty days, nor more than six months.

CHAPTER XI.

Offences against the judiciary power committed in a court of justice.

Art. 205. If any one shall, during the session of any COURT OF JUSTICE, in the presence of the court, by words or by making a clamour or noise, wilfully obstruct the proceedings of such court, or shall refuse to obey any legal order of such court made for the maintenance of order or to preserve regularity of proceedings in court, it shall be lawful for the said court to cause the offender to be removed by the proper officer of justice from the building in which the sessions of such court are held; and if such offender shall persevere in returning to and disturbing said court, it shall also be lawful for them to cause him to be imprisoned during the time the court shall be in session during the same day; and the party offending against this article, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by fine not exceeding twenty dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding three days.

Art. 206. If any person shall, either verbally in court, or in any pleading or other writing addressed to the judges in any cause pending in any court of justice, use any indecorous, contemptuous or insulting expressions, to or of the court or the judges thereof, with intent to insult the said court or any of the said judges, he shall be punished by simple imprisonment not more than fifteen days, and by fine not exceeding fifty dollars; and the fact of the intent, with which the words were used, and also whether they were indecorous, contemptuous and in

The

sulting, shall be decided by the jury, who shall try the cause. said punishment shall be doubled on a second conviction for an offence under this article; and for a third, the party shall, in addition to the said punishment, if an attorney or counsellor, be suspended for not less than one nor more than four years from practising in the said court as attorney or counsellor at law, or as attorney in fact.

Art. 207. If any one shall obstruct the proceedings of a court of justice by violence, or threats of violence, offered either to the judges, jurors, witnesses, parties, or attorneys or counsellors, he shall be fined in a sum not less than one hundred and not exceeding five hundred dollars, and by imprisonment, in close custody, not less than ten days nor more than six months; and if the offender be an attorney or counsellor at law, he shall be suspended from practising in such court for not less than one nor more than three years, either as attorney or counsellor at law, or as attorney in fact.

Art. 208. Courts of justice have no power to inflict any punishment for offences committed against their authority, other than those specially provided for by this Code and the Code of Procedure. All proceedings for offences, heretofore denominated contempts, are abolished. All offences created by this chapter, shall be tried on indictment, or information, in the usual form.

TITLE VI.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC TRANQUILLITY.

CHAPTER I.

Of unlawful assemblies and riots.

Art. 209. If any three or more persons shall ASSEMBLE with intent to aid each other by violence, either to commit an offence, or illegally to deprive any person of the enjoyment of a right, such assembly shall be called an unlawful assembly, and those guilty thereof shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than three hundred dollars, and shall be imprisoned not less than three nor more than twelve months, in close custody.

Art. 210. If persons, assembled for either of the purposes mentioned in the last preceding article, shall, by VIOLENCE, commit any illegal act, they are guilty of a riot, and in addition to the punishment to which they may be liable by reason of the illegal act they may commit, if it be an offence, they may be suspended from their political rights for three years, shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, and imprisoned not less than three nor more than eighteen months in close custody, for at least one half the time, or more, at the discretion of the court.

Art. 211. If the purpose of the unlawful assembly be illegally to oppose the collection of any taxes, tolls, imposts, or excises legally im