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themselves, if they were not bound by precedents. I am therefore of opinion that in such a case a wife or widow cannot be compelled to perfect a conveyance of lands which she had agreed to make while under coverture, either by any of the State courts of Pennsylvania, nor by the Circuit Court of the United States sitting in equity, for though that Court may apply equity principles in certain cases when they do not militate against the law of a particular State, it certainly has not a right to legislate for a State, or to introduce new laws among us. D.

ART. III-CHARGE TO THE GRAND JURY, BY CHIEF JUSTICE PARSONS.

[It appears from a memorandum, in the hand-writing of the Chief Justice, on the manuscript of the following Charge, that it was delivered at York on the 1st Tuesday of July, 1806, and successively at Lenox, Northampton, Worcester, Dedham, Taunton, Plymouth, Cambridge, and Boston. Chief Justice Parsons took his seat on the bench for the first time as Chief Justice, at York, in the then District, now State of Maine. The Charge, which he delivered on that occasion, and which we now present to our readers, was celebrated at the time, as the production of a vigorous and learned mind.] ED. JUR.

GENTLEMEN OF THE GRANd Jury,

HAVING been empanelled and sworn diligently to inquire, and a true presentment to make of all such matters and things as shall be given you in charge, a duty is now devolved on the Court, to charge you with the subjects of your inquiry.

You are to inquire of the offences against the laws of the Commonwealth committed within your county, and cognizable in this Court.

Offences against law are classed under the heads of Treason-Felony-and Misdemeanor.

I. TREASON is the levying of war, or the conspiring to levy war against the Commonwealth.

An insurrection' by any number of persons, with the intent, by force and without legal authority, to redress real or supposed grievances of a public nature, in which the insurgents have no particular interest, whether the object be to compel the executive or legislative departments, into any particular measures,-to resist the administration of public justice, or to remove real or supposed public nuisances, is levying war against the Commonwealth. A war of this description is hostility to the sovereignty of the People, and if it be successfully waged, the bonds of civil society would be loosened, and instead of a government of laws, we should be exposed to oppression and subjected to a wild and furious despotism.

II. Felonies may affect the life of the citizen-or the security of the person from outrage-or the rights of property.

1. Felony affecting life is either murder, or manslaughter. Murder is the wilful killing any person, of malice aforethought, either expressed or implied. The malice is express, when there was a premeditated intention to kill. Malice is implied, when the killing is attended with circumstances which indicate great wickedness and depravity of disposition, a heart void of social duty, and fatally bent on mischief.

Formerly, if the husband was maliciously killed by his wife, or the master by his servant, the offence was adjudged to be Petit treason, but by virtue of a late statute, it is now considered only as murder, and as such is indicted and prosecuted. And every man who kills another in a duel, deliberately fought, is a murderer.

Manslaughter is the killing another, either wilfully or through gross negligence, but not. from malice aforethought.

1 1 Hawk. P. C. B. 1. c. 17. § 25. 1 H. H. P. C. pp. 133, 134. 138. Kegly 70-76. Foster's Discourse 1. § 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Vid. our Stat. of Treasons passed 1777, c. 32. Vol. 3. p. 107, in which conspiring to levy war is treason, an offence not made treason by the 25 Edw. III.

21 Hawk. B. 1. c. 31. 1 H. H. P. C. c. 36. 37. Foster's Discourse 2. 3. Stat. of Mar. 15. 1805, chap. 77, vol. 8. p. 643.

3 Stat. of 16. Mar. 1785. c. 36. vol. 5. p. 268.

1 H. H. P. C. p. 466. c. 38. Foster Cr. L. p. 290. 1 Hawk. P. C. B. 1. c. 30. 31.

Homicide from accident is excusable-from necessity it either is justifiable, or excusable; when for the advancement or in execution of public justice it is justifiable.

Rape is an outrage of the person on whom it is committed. It consists in having carnal knowledge of any woman with force and against her will. Or of any woman child under the age of ten years, whether with, or against her will. 2. Felonies affecting the rights of property are of various kinds.

Arson3 is the malicious burning of the dwelling house of another, or any meeting house, church, court house, town house, college, academy or other building erected for public uses, or the store, barn or stable of another within the curtilage of a dwelling house, or any other store, barn, stable, house or building whatever of another, or any ship or vessel lying within the body of any county; or of any stack of corn, hay, grain, straw, corn-stalks, flax, fences, piles of wood, boards, or other lumber, or of any soil, grass, trees, poles, or underwood of another. If the dwelling house be burnt in the night time, the felony is punishable with death. Other malicious burnings are punishable according to the aggravations with which they are committed.

Burglary is the breaking and entering any dwelling house in the night time, with the intent to perpetrate some felony, or the breaking out of a dwelling house in the night time, having entered with some felonious intent. If, at the time of entry, any person was lawfully in the house, and the offender, then or after he be within, be armed with a dangerous weapon, or if he shall assault any person lawfully there, the offence is punishable with death. If all these aggravations be wanting, the punishment is solitary imprisonment, and confinement for life to hard labour.

11 H. H. P. C. p. 471, c. 39. c. 40. 42. Foster Disc. c. 1. c. 2. c. 3. 1 Hawk. B. 1 c. 28. 29.

2 Stat. 1805, c. 97, or Mar. 13, 1806.
3 Stat. Mar. 16, 1805, vol. 8, p. 661, 2.
* Stat. 1805, c. 101, or Mar. 13, 1806.

Larceny is the stealing of the property of another, whether it be money, goods, or chattels, or any bond, promissory note, bill of exchange or other bill or certificate-or any book of accounts, for or respecting any money or goods due, or becoming due and payable, or to be delivered—or any deed or writing containing a conveyance of lands or other real estate or any other valuable contract remaining in force-or any receipt, release or defeazance-or any writ, process, or public record.

Larcenies may be committed in various ways and with different aggravations. The thief may steal from the person-or he may break and enter any office, shop, or warehouse not occupied with a dwelling house- or any shop or vessel-or in the night time he may enter, or in the day time he may break and enter, any dwelling house, or the out houses occupied with it, or any office, shop, warehouse, ship or vesselor, in the day time, he may steal in any dwelling house, office, shop, warehouse, ship or vessel, without breaking. he may, in the night time, break and enter a church, or some building erected for public uses, or a mill, malt-house, store, barn or stable or having been convicted of larceny he may afterwards commit the same offence. In your inquiries, Gentlemen, you will attend to, and in your indictments distinguish these several aggravations, as, according to them, different punishments are annexed to the offence.

Or

Robbery is the assaulting the person of another and stealing from him any property, of which larceny may be committed, putting the person in fear. The punishment of this offence was formerly death, now it is solitary imprisonment and confinement for life to hard labor. It is also felony for any person to enter in the night time without breaking, or to break and enter in the day time, any dwelling house, or out houses thereto adjoining and occupied therewith, or

Stat. Mar. 16, 1805, vol. 8, p. 696-7.

2 Stat. Mar. 16, 1805, vol. 8, p. 693.

any office, shop, warehouse, ship or vessel lying within the body of a county, the owner, or other person, being therein and put in fear.

To this list of felonies may be added another, involving only a gaoler or prison-keeper. For if he voluntarily suffer to escape any person, lawfully in his custody for felony, he shall suffer such punishment as the felon on conviction might have suffered, even if it were death.

Accessaries. In the perpetration of a felony, beside the immediate actor, any person present, assisting or giving encouragement, is a principal felon. Any person absent, who had aided or procured the felony to be committed, is an accessary before the fact. After the felony be committed, any person who shall knowingly harbor, conceal, or maintain a felon, is an accessary after the fact-and if he shall knowingly harbor, conceal, or maintain an accessary, before the fact, to larceny, robbery, or arson, or any other felony, he is also an accessary after the fact. And more effectually to prevent robberies and larcenies, the receiver of stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, is declared to be an accessary after the fact. III. MISDEMEANORS include all offences under the degree of felony, and are not easily reduced to specific classes.

1. Some misdemeanors affect the correct or prompt administration of justice. As the rescue of prisoners lawfully in custody. The voluntary or negligent escape of prisoners, suffered by those who have the lawful custody of them. The conveying of tools to prisoners in gaol, to enable them to effect their escape. The bribing or corrupting the officers of justice. Extortion by the ministers of the law under color of their office. Embracery, or an attempt unduly to influence, or to corrupt jurors in the execution of their office.

1 Stat. Feb. 21, 1785, vol. 5, p. 236-7.

Perjury,

2 Hawk. P. C. B. 2, c. 29, § 7, § 10 §. 26, 27, & § 1. Stat. 16, March 1805, Vol. 8, p. 694, 661-2.

3 Stat. Feb. 21, 1785, vol. 5. p. 236–7.

4 Hawk. P. C. Book 1, c. 67, § 2. c. 85. Hawk. P. C. B. 1, c. 69.

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