other manner, attempts to discharge at any person 1any kind of loaded arms;

(d.) 2 attempts to drown, suffocate, or strangle any person; (e.) 3 destroys or damages any building by the explosion of gunpowder or other explosive substance;

(f.) sets fire to any ship or vessel or any part thereof, or any part of the tackle, apparel, or furniture thereof, or to any goods or chattels being therein;

(g.) 5 casts away or destroys any vessel;

(h.) or who attempts to commit murder by any means other than those specified in clauses (a.)-(g.), both inclusive; (i.) 7 or who is accessory after the fact to any murder.

ARTICLE 255.

THREATS AND CONSPIRACIES TO MURDER.

Every one is liable to ten years penal servitude who commits either of the following offences, the first of which is a felony and the others misdemeanors; that is to say

(a.) 8 whoever maliciously sends, delivers, or utters or directly or indirectly causes to be received, knowing the contents thereof, any letter or writing threatening to kill or murder any person;

(b.) all persons who conspire, confederate, and agree to murder any person, whether he be a subject of Her Majesty or not, and whether he be within the Queen's dominions or not;

1 Loaded arms means arms loaded in the barrel with gunpowder or any other explosive substance, and ball, shot, slug, or other destructive material, although the attempt to discharge the same may fail from want of proper priming or any other cause, 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 19.

2 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 14.

3 Ibid. s. 12.

4 Ibid. s. 13.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid. s. 15. As to the cases to which this section applies see R. v. Brown, 1883, 10 Q. B. D. 381. It does not apply to attempts to commit suicide; R. v. Burgess, 1862, L. & C. 258.

7 Ibid. s. 67.

8 Ibid. s. 16, W.

9 Ibid. s. 4.

(c.) 1 every one who solicits, encourages, persuades, endeavours to persuade, or proposes to any person to murder any other person, whether he be a subject of Her Majesty or not, and whether he be within the Queen's dominions or not.

[And whether the solicitation, encouragement, persuasion, or endeavour to persuade is addressed to any specific person or not, or relates to the murder of any specific person or not.]

ARTICLE 256.

CONCEALING THE BIRTH OF CHILDREN.

4Every person is guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable upon conviction thereof to two years imprisonment and hard labour, who, if any woman is delivered of a child, endeavours to conceal the birth thereof by any secret disposition of the dead body of the said child, whether such child died before, at, or after its birth.

5 The expression "delivered of a child" does not include delivery of a fœtus which has not reached the period at which it might have been born alive.

"The words "secret disposition of the body " include cases in which the body is placed in a situation where it is not likely to be found except by accident, or upon search, although the body is in no way concealed from any one who happens to go to that place.

1 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 4.

2 The words in brackets are intended to give the effect of R. v. Most, 1881, 7 Q. B. D. 244.

33 Hist. Cr. Law, 118.

Cf. Draft Code, ss. 185-7.

4 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 60 (verbally altered).

5 R. v. Berriman, 1854, 6 Cox C. C. 388.

66

6 R. v. Brown, 1870, 1 C. C. R. 244. The Act seems to be defective in punishing only the secret disposition of the body, and not the disposing of the body in such a way as to conceal the fact that it was born of its mother. If a woman were to leave a child's body by night in the middle of a street, or to drop it by day in a crowd of people, there would be an effectual concealment of the birth, but would there be a secret disposition of the body? Under the old Act, 9 Geo. 4, c. 31, s. 14, it was held that a temporary concealment of the body with intent to remove it afterwards to some other place was within the words "secret burying or otherwise disposing": R. v. Perry, 1855, D. & P. 471. This would seem to be so à fortiori under the present law.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE MALICIOUS INFLICTION OF BODILY INJURIES
AMOUNTING TO FELONY

ARTICLE 257.

WOUNDINGS AND ACTS ENDANGERING LIFE PUNISHABLE WITH PENAL SERVITUDE FOR LIFE.

EVERY one is guilty of felony, and liable to penal servitude for life, who does any of the following things unlawfully and maliciously; that is to say—

(a.) 2 who, with intent to maim, disfigure, or disable any person, or to do some other grievous bodily harm to any person, or to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person,

by any means whatsoever 3 wounds or causes any grievous bodily harm to any person, or shoots at any person, or by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner attempts to discharge at any person any kind of loaded arms; or

6

(b.) shoots at any vessel or boat belonging to Her Majesty's navy, or in the service of the revenue, within one hundred leagues of any part of the coast of the United Kingdom, or

(c.) shoots at, maims, or wounds any officer of the army, navy, marines, or coast-guard, being duly employed in the

13 Hist. Cr. Law, ch. xxvii. pp. 108-120. Draft Code, Part xviii. ss. 188-202.

2 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 18.

3 To wound means to divide the surface of the body whether it be an internal or external surface, e.g. the inside of the mouth. R. v. Leonard Smith, 1837, 8 C. & P. 173, and see other cases in 1 Russ. Cr. 921.

4 Attempting to draw a trigger is "another manner" within the meaning of this section. R. v. Duckworth, 1892, 2 Q. B. See also R. v. Brown, 10 Q. B. D. 381.

5 See p. 193, note 1, for definition of loaded arms.

6 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36, s. 193. The word "unlawfully" is not in this section. An offender against the section may be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years.

prevention of smuggling, and on full pay, or any officer of customs or excise, or any person acting in his aid or assistance, or duly employed for the prevention of smuggling, in the execution of his office or duty: or

(d.) 1 aids, abets, or assists in any offence mentioned in (b.) or (c.); or

(e.) 2 who with intent to enable himself or any other person to commit, or with intent to assist any other person in committing, any indictable offence,

3 attempts by any means whatsoever to choke, suffocate, or strangle any other person, or attempts by any means calculated to choke, suffocate, or strangle, to render any other person insensible, unconscious, or incapable of resistance;

6

or administers to any person any chloroform, laudanum, or other stupefying or overpowering 5 matter or attempts to do so;

7

(f) or who burns, maims, disfigures, disables, or does any grievous bodily harm to any person by the explosion of gunpowder or other explosive substance;

(g.) or who, with intent to burn, maim, disfigure, or disable any person, or to do some grievous bodily harm to any person, causes any gunpowder or other explosive substance to explode, or

sends or delivers, or causes to be taken or received by any person, any explosive substance or other dangerous or noxious thing, or puts or lays at any place or casts or throws at or upon or otherwise applies to any person any corrosive fluid or destructive or explosive substance;

1 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36, s. 193.

2 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, ss. 21 & 22.

3 Ibid. s. 21. An offender against this section is liable, if a male of whatever age, to be thrice privately whipped in addition to the other punishments specified above: 26 & 27 Vict. c. 44, s. 1, and see Article 12 (d.), as to the manner of inflicting the punishment. The words "unlawfully and maliciously " do not apply to this section.

4 Ibid. s. 22. The word "maliciously" does not apply to this section. 5.66 Applies or administers to, or causes to be taken by, or attempts to apply or administer to or attempts to cause to be administered to or taken by.

6Drug, matter, or thing."

7 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 28, W.

8 Ibid. s. 29, W.

(h.) or who, with intent to endanger the safety of any person travelling or being upon any railway,

puts or throws anything upon or across any railway, or takes up, removes, or displaces any rail, sleeper, or other matter or thing belonging to any railway, or

turns, moves, or diverts any points or other machinery belonging to any railway, or

makes or shows, hides or removes, any signal or light upon or near any railway, or

does or causes to be done any other matter or thing;

4

(i.) 3 or who throws anything at any carriage used upon any railway with intent to injure or endanger the safety of any person therein or thereon, or in or upon any other 6 carriage forming part of the same train;

(j.) 7 or who prevents or impedes any person being on board of or having quitted any ship or vessel in distress, wrecked, stranded, or cast on shore, in his endeavour to save his life, or prevents and impedes any person in his endeavour to save the life of any person so situated;

8

(k.) or who, being a woman with child, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing or unlawfully uses any instrument or other means whatsoever with intent to procure her own miscarriage;

(l.) or who, with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, whether she be or be not with child, unlawfully administers to or causes to be taken by her any poison or other 1 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 32, W.

4 Throws, or causes to fall, or strikes at, against, into, or upon.

5 Any wood, stone, or other matter or thing.

6 Engine, tender, carriage, or truck.

7 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 17.

8 Ibid. s. 58. A person who gives another a drug to be taken in the absence of the giver "causes it to be taken," and, it would seem, “administers" it, though absent when it is taken: R. v. Wilson, 1856, D. & B. 127, and cases referred to in the argument; also R. v. Farrow, 1857, D. & B. 164.

9 Ibid. s. 58. A conspiracy to procure abortion may be an offence both by the woman on whom an abortion is to be procured and by men with whom she conspires to procure it, although the woman is not pregnant; R. v. Whitchurch, 1890, 24 Q. B. D. 420; 16 Cox, C. C. 743; cf. R. v. Ring, and R. v. Brown, ante, p. 41, n. 4.