A comparative view of the punishments annexed to crime in the United States of America and in England / by J. Sydney Taylor.

  • Taylor, J. Sydney (John Sydney), 1795-1841.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A comparative view of the punishments annexed to crime in the United States of America and in England / by J. Sydney Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    The counterfeiting the king’s money; the bringing false money into the realm, counterfeit to the lawful money of England, knowing the same to be false; the altering the standard, or alloy, established by law, by the king’s own moneyers. 7thly^ To slay the chancellor, treasurer, the king’s justices of one bench or the other, justices in eyre, or justices of assize, and all other jus- tices assigned to hear and determine, being in their places doing their offices—extended by the statute 5 E!iz. cap. 18, and 1 Wm. and M. c. 21, to the keeper or commissioners of the great seal. Other treasons have been enacted from time to time by various statutes, of which some have been repealed, and others still remain on the statute book ; among the latter, are the treasons declared by the statute 1 Mary, cap. 6, namely, to falsely forge or counterfeit any such kind of coin of gold or silver, as is not the proper coin of this realm, but shall be current within this realm by consent of the crown. 2^‘^^r. To forge or counterfeit the sign manual or privy signet; and by the statute 1 and 2 P. and M. cap. 11, if any persons do bring into this realm such false or counterfeit foreign money, being current here, knowing the same to be false, with intent to utter the same in payment, they shall be deemed offenders in high treason; and by the 5 Eliz. cap 11, and 18 Eliz. cap. 1, the dreadful penal- ties of the same crime are annexed to the offences of clipping, wash- ing, rounding, filing, impairing, diminishing, scaling, and lightening, for wicked gain sake, any of the money of this realm ; and by the 8 and 9 Wm. III. cap. 2^, made perpetual by 7 Anne, cap. 25, whoever, without proper authority, shall knowingly make or mend, or assist in so doing, or shall buy, sell, conceal, or hide, or know- ingly have in his possession, any implements of coining specified in the act, or other tools or instruments proper only for the coinage of money, or shall convey the same out of the king’s mint, he, together with his counsellors, procurers, aiders, and abettors, shall be guilty of treasonnay, this ferocious statute enacts, that to mark any coin on the edges with letters, or otherwise, in imitation of those used in the mint, or to color, case or gild over, any coin resem- bling the current coin, or round blanks of base metal, shall be deemed to be high treason. By the 15 and 16 Geo. II. cap. 28, to color or alter any shilling or sixpence, either lawful or counterfeit, to make them respectively resemble a guinea, or half guinea ; or any halfpenny or farthing, to make them respectively resemble a shilling or sixpence, are also made high treason: — so cheap has this the “ highest crime known to the law’’ been made by the sanguinary spirit of the legislature. Besides these, several new treasons were created by statute for the security of the protestant succession some of these, which were directed against the late pretender to the crown, or his de- scendants, and persons aiding and assisting them, have become obsolete by the extinction of that race ; but it still continues to be