place of brieves. A fummons, when applied to actions pursued before the feffion, is a writ in the king's name, iffuing from his fignet upon the purfuer's complaint, authorifing meffengers to cite the defender to appear before the court and make his defences; with certification, if he fail to appear, that decree will be pronounced against him in terms of the certification of the fummons.

26. The days indulged by law to a defender, between his citation and appearance, to prepare for his defence, are called inducia legales. If he is within the kingdom, 27 days must be allowed him for that purpofe; and if out of it, two diets of 60 and 15. Defenders refiding in Orkney or Zetland must be cited on 40 days. In certain fummonfes which are privileged, the inducia are fhortened: Spuilzies and ejections proceed on 15 days; wakenings and transferences, being but in cidental, on fix. See the the lift of privileged fummonfes, in act of federunt June 29th, 1672. A fummons must be executed, i. e. ferved against the defender, fo as the laft diet of appearance may be within a year after the date of the fummons; and it must be called within a year after that diet, otherwife it falls for ever. Offence againft the authority of the court, acts of malverfation in office by any member of the college of justice, and acts of violence and oppreffion committed during the dependence of a fuit by any of the parties, may be tried without a summons, by a fummary complaint.

27. Defences are pleas offered by a defender for eliding an action. They are either dilatory, which do not enter into the cause itself, and fo can only procure an abfolvitor from the lis pendens: Or peremptory, which entirely cut off the pursuer's right of action. Many regulations have been lately made for the prevention of delay, and for giving precifion to the procedure of actions, which the nature of this work does not admit of being detailed at length.

28. A cause, after the parties had litigated it before the judge, was faid by the Romans to be litifcontefted. By LITISCONTESTATION a judicial contract is understood to be entered into by the litigants, by which the action is perpetuated against heirs, even when it arifes ex delicto. By our law, litifconteftation is not formed till an act is extracted, admitting the libel or defence to proof,

SECT. II. Of PROBATION,

I. ALL allegations by parties to a fuit must be fupported by proper proof. Probation is either by writing, by the party's own oath, or by witneffés. In the cafe of allegations, which may be proved by either of the three ways, a proof is faid to be admitted prout de jure; becaufe in fuch cafe, all the legal methods of probation are competent to the party; if the proof he brings by writing be lame, he may have recourfe either to witDeffes or to his adverfary's oath ; but if he fhould firft take himself to the proof by oath, he cannot thereafter ufe any other probation (for the reason affigned 3.) Single combat was, by our ancient law, admitted as evidence, in matters both civil and criminal. See BATTEL, § 2-4.

2. As obligations or deeds figned by the party himself, or his ancestors or authors, muft be, of all evidence, the leaft liable to exception; there. fore every debt or allegation may be proved by proper evidence in writing. The folemnities effential to probative deeds are explained in CHAP. II. Se&. XIV. § 3, et feq. Books of account kept by merchants, tradeimen, and other dealers in bufinefs, though not fubfcribed, are probative against him who keeps them; and, in cafe of furnishings by a shop-keeper, fuch books, if they are regularly kept by him, fupported by the teftimony of a fingle witnefs, afford a femiplena probatio in his favour, which becomes full evidence by his own oath in fupplement. Notorial inftruments and executions by meffengers bear full evidence, that the folemnities therein fet forth were used, not to be invalidated otherwife than by a proof of falsehood; but they do not prove any other extrinfic facts therein averred, against third parties,

23. Regularly, no perfon's right can be proved by his own oath, nor taken away by that of his adversary; because these are the bare averments of parties in their own favour. But, where the matter in iffue is referred by one of the parties to the oath of the other, fuch oath, though made in favour of the deponent himself, is decifive of the point; because the reference is a virtual contract between the litigants, by which they are underftood to put the iffue of the caufes upon what shall be deposed.

4. A defender, though he cannot be compelled to fwear to facts in a libel properly criminal; yet may, in trefpaffes, where the conclufion is limited to a fine or to damages.

5. An oath upon reference is fometimes quali fied by fpecial limitations reftricting it. The quali ties which are admitted by the judge as part of the oath, are called intrinfic; those which the judge rejects or separates from the oath, extrinfc

6. Oaths of verity are fometimes referred by the judge to either party, ex officio; which, becaufe they are not founded on any implied contract between the litigants, are not finally decifive, but may be traversed on proper evidence after. wards produced. Thefe oaths are commonly put by the judge for fupplying a lame or imperfect proof, and are therefore called oaths in supplement. (See § 2.)

17. To prevent groundless allegations, oaths of calumny have been introduced, by which either party may demand his adverfary's oath, that he believes the fact contained in his libel or defences to be juft and true.

8. In all oaths, whether of verity or of calumny, the citation carries, or at least implies, a certifcation, that if the party does not appear at the day afligned for depofing he fhall be held pro confeffo. Though an oath which refolves into a non memini, cannot be faid to prove any point; yet where one fo deposes upon a recent fact, to which he himself was privy, his oath is confidered as a dissembling of the truth, and he is held pro confeffo, as if he had refused to swear.

9. An oath in litem is that which the judge refers to a purfuer, for afcertaining either the

quantity

quantity or the value of goods which have been taken from him by the defender without order of law, or the extent of his damages.

10. The law of Scotland rejects the teftimony of witnesses, 1. In payment of fums above Iool. Scots, which must be proved either fcripto vel juramento. 2. In all gratuitous promifes, though for the fmallest trifle. 3. In all contracts, where writing is either effential to their conftitution (fee CHAP. II. Sec. XIV. § 2.), or where it is ufually adhibited, as in the borrowing of money.

11. On the other part, probation by witneffes is admitted to the extent of 100l. Scots, in payments, nuncupative legacies, and verbal agreements which contain mutual obligations. And it is received to the highest extent, 1. In all bargains, which have known engagements naturally arifing from them, concerning moveable goods. 2. In facts performed in fatisfaction, even of a written obligation, where fuch obligation binds the party precifely to the performance of them. 3. In facts which with difficulty admit of a proof by writing; even though the effect of such proof thould be the extinction of a written obligation, especially if the facts import fraud or violence; thus, a bond is reducible ex dolo, on a proof by witneffes. 4. Laftly, all intromiffion by a creditor with the rents of his debtor's eftate, payable in grain, may be proved by witnesses; and even intromission with the filver rent, where the creditor has entered into the total poffeffion of the debtor's lands,

12. No perfon, whofe near relation to another bars him from being a judge in his caufe, can be admitted as a witness for him; but he may against him, except a wife or child, who cannot be compelled to give teftimony against the husband or parent, ob reverentiam perfonæ, et metum perjurii. Though the witness, whose propinquity to one of the parties is objected to, be as nearly related to the other, the objection stands good.

13. The teftimony of infamous perfons is rejected, i. e. perfons who have been guilty of crimes that law declares to infer infamy.

14. All witnesses, before they are examined in the cause, are purged of partial counsel; that is, they must declare, that they have no intereft in the fuit, nor have given advice how to conduct it; that they have got neither bribe nor promise, nor have been inftructed how to depofe; and that they bear no enmity to either of the parties,

15. The interlocutory sentence or warrant, by which parties are authorised to bring their proof, is either by way of act, or of incident diligence, In an act, the lord ordinary who pronounces it is no longer a judge in the procefs; but in an incident diligence, which is commonly granted upon fpecial points, that do not exhauft the caufe, the lord ordinary continues judge.

16. Where facts do not admit a direct proof, prefumptions are received as evidence, which in many cafes make as convincing a proof as the direct. Prefumptions are confequences deduced from facts known or proved, which infer the certainty, or at least a strong probability, of another fact to be proved. This kind of probation is therefore called artificial, because it requires a

reasoning to infer the truth of the point in queftion, from the facts that already appear in proof. Prefumptions are either, 1. juris et de jure; 2. juris; or, 3. hominis or judicis. The first fort obtains, where ftatute or cuftom establishes the truth of any point upon a prefumption; and it is fo ftrong, that it rejects all proof that may be brought to elide it in fpecial cafes. Thus, the teftimony of a witnefs, who forwardly offers himfelf without being cited, is, from a prefumption of his partiality, rejected, let his character be ever fo fair; and thus alfo, a minor, because he is by law prefumed incapable of conducting his own affairs, is upon that prefumption difabled from acting without the confent of his curators, though he fhould be known to behave with the greatest prudence. Many fuch prefumptions are fixed by statute.

17. Præfumptiones juris are those which our law books or decifions have established, without founding any particular confequence upon them, or ftatuting Super præfumpta. Moft of this kind are not proper prefumptions inferred from pofitive facts, but are founded merely on the want of a contrary proof; thus, the legal prefumptions for freedom, for life, for innocence, &c. are in effect fo many negative propofitions, that fervitude, death, and guilt, are not to be prefumed, without evidence brought by him who makes the allegation. All of them, whether they be of this fort, or proper prefumptions, as they are only conjectures formed from what commonly happens, may be elided, not only by direct evidence, but by other conjectures, affording a stronger degree of probability to the contrary. Præfumptiones hominis or judicis, are thofe which arife daily from the circumstances of particular cafes; the strength of which is to be weighed by the judge.

18. A filio juris differs from a prefumption. Things are prefumed, which are likely to be true; but a fiction of law affumes for truth what is either certainly false, or at least is as probably false as true. Thus an heir is feigned or confidered in law as the fame perfon with his ancestor. Fic tions of law muft, in their effects, be always limi ted to the special purposes of equity for which they were introduced. See CHAP. II. Sect. I. § 3. SECT. III: Of SENTENCES and their EXECUTIONS.

I. PROPERTY would be most uncertain, if debateable points might, after receiving a definitive judgment, be brought again in question, at the pleasure of either of the parties: Every ftate has therefore fixed the character of final to certain fentences or decrees, which in the Roman law are called res judicate, and which exclude all review or rehearing.

2. Decrees of the court of session, are either in foro contradictorio, where both parties have litigated the caufe, or in absence of the defender. Decrees of the feffion in foro cannot, in the general cafe, be again brought under the review of the court, either on points which the parties neglected to plead before fentence (which we call competent and omitted), or upon points pleaded and found infufficient (proponed and repelled). But decrees, though in foro, are reversible by the court,

where

where either they labour under effential nullities; e.g. where they are ultra petita, or not conform able to their grounds and warrants, or founded on an error in calculation, &c.; or where the party against whom the decree is obtained has thereafter recovered evidence fufficient to overturn it, of which he knew not before. As parties might formerly reclaim againft the fentences of the feffion, at any time before extracting the decree, no judgment was final till extract; but now, a fentence of the inner houfe, either not reclaimed against within a limited number of days after its date, or adhered to upon a reclaiming bill, though it can not receive execution till extract, makes the judgment final as to the court of feffion. And, by an order of the houfe of lords, March 24, 1725, no appeal is to be received by them from fentences of the feffion, after five years from extracting the fentence; unless the perfon entitled to fuch appeal be minor, clothed with a husband, non compos mentis, imprifoned, or out of the kingdom. Sentences pronounced by the lord ordinary have the fame effect, if not reclaimed againft, as if they were pronounced in prefence; and all petitions against the interlocutor of an ordinary must be preferred within a certain number of days after figning fuch interlocutor.

3. Decrees, in abfence of the defender, have not the force of res judicata as to him; for where the defender does not appear he cannot be faid to have fubjected himself by the judicial contract which is implied in litiscontestation; a party therefore may be restored against these, upon paying to the other his cofts in recovering them. The fentences of inferior courts may be reviewed by the court of feffion,-before decree, by advocation, and after decree, by fufpenfion or reduction; which two laft are alfo the methods of calling in queftion fuch decrees of the feffion itfelf, as can again be brought under the review of the court.

4. REDUCTION is the proper remedy, either where the decree has already received full execution by payment, or where it decrees nothing to be paid or performed, but fimply declares a right in favour of the purfuer.

5. SUSPENSION is that form of law by which the effect of a sentence condemnatory, that has not yet received execution, is ftayed or poftponed till the cause be again confidered. The firft ftep towards fufpenfion is a bill preferred to the lord ordinary on the bills. This bill, when the defire of it is granted, is a warrant for iffuing letters of fufpenfion which pafs the fignet; but if the prefenter of the bill shall not, within a limited time, expedite the letters, execution may, by act of federunt 1677, proceed on the fentence. The charger may put up a proteftation in the minute book for production of the sufpenfion; and if the fufpen der fhall allow the proteftation to be extracted, the fift falls. Sufpenfions of decrees in foro cannot pafs, but by the whole lords in time of feffion, and by three in vacation time; but other decrees may be suspended by any one of the judges. By act of federunt in 1787, to remedy the abuse of presenting a multiplicity of bills of fufpenfion of the decrees of inferior judges, in fmall caufes which have passed in absence, it is de

clared, that all bills of fufpenfion of decreets, by inferior judges, in abfence of the defenders, in caufes under 12l. fterling value, fhall be refused and remitted to the inferior judge, if competent; the fufpender, however, before being heard in the inferior court, reimburfing the charger of the expentes incurred by him previous to the remit. The fum has lately been raised from 121. to 251. 6. As fufpenfion has the effect of staying the execution of the creditor's legal diligence, it cannot, in the general cafe, pass without caution given by the fufpender to pay the debt, in the event it shall be found due. Where the fufpender cannot, from his low or fufpected circumftances, procure unquestionable fecurity, the lords admit juratory caution, i. e. fuch as the fufpender fwears is the beft he can offer; but the reasons of fufpenfion are, in that cafe, to be confidered with particular accuracy at paffing the bill. Decrees in favour of the clergy, of universities, hofpitals, or parish fchoo!mafters, for their ftipends, rents or falaries, cannot be suspended, but upon production of dif charges, or on confignation of the fums charged for. A charger, who thinks himfelf fecure without a cautioner, and wants dispatch, may, where a fufpenfion of his diligence is fought, apply to the court to get the reafons of fufpention fummarily difcuffed on the bill.

7. Though he, in whofe favour the decree fufpended is pronounced, be always called the charger, yet a decree may be fufpended before a charge be given on it. Nay, fufpenfion is competent even where there is no decree for putting a stop to any illegal act whatsoever: Thus, a building, or the exercife of a power which one affumes unwarrantably, is a proper fubject of suspension. Letters of fufpenfion are confidered merely as a prohibitory diligence; fo that the fufpender, if he would turn provoker, muft bring an action of reduction. If, upon difcuffing the letters of fufpention, the reafons fhall be fuftained, a decree is pronounced, fufpending the letters of diligence on which the charge was given fimpliciter; which is called a decree of fufpenfion, and takes off the ef fect of the decree fufpended. If the reasons of fufpenfion be repelled, the court find the letters of diligence orderly proceeded, i. e. regularly car. ried on; and they ordain them to be put to far. ther execution.

8. Decrees are carried into execution, by diligence, either against the perfon, or against the èftate of the debtor. The firft ftep of perfonal execution is by letters of horning, which pafs by warrant of the court of feffion, on the decrees of magiftrates of boroughs, theriffs, admirals, and commiffaries. If the debtor does not obey the letters of horning within the days of the charge, the charger, after denouncing him rebel, and regiftering the horning, may apply for letters of caption, which contain a command, not only to meffengers, but to magiftrates, to apprehend and imprison the debtor.

9. Law fecures peers, married women, and pupils, against personal execution by caption upon civil debts. Such commoners alfo as are elected to serve in parliament, are fecured against person. al execution by the privilege of parliament. No caption can be executed against a debtor within

the

the precincts of the king's palace of HOLYROODHOUSE: but this privilege of fanctuary affords no fecurity to criminals, as that did which was, by the canon law conferred on churches and religious houfes. Where the perfonal prefence of a debtor under caption is neceffary in any of our fupreme courts, the judges are empowered to grant him a protection, for fuch time as may be fufficient for his coming and going, not exceed ing a month. Protection from diligence is alfo granted by the court of feffion under the late bankrupt ftatutes, where it is applied for, with concurrence of the truftee, or a certain number of the creditors, as the cafe may require.

10. After a debtor is imprifoned, he ought not to be indulged the benefit of the air, not even under a guard; for the creditors have an intereft, that their debtors be kept under clofe confine ment, that, by the fqualor carceris, they may be brought to pay their debt; and any magiftrate or jailor, who fhall fuffer the prifoner to go abroad, without a proper atteftation, upon oath, of the dangerous state of his health, is liable fubfidiariè for the debt. Magiftrates are in like manner liable, if they fhall fuffer a prifoner to efcape through the infufficiency of their prifon; but, if he fhall efcape under night, by the ufe of inftruments, or by open force, or by any other accident which cannot be imputed to the magiftrates or jailor, they are not chargeable with the debt; provided they fhall have, immediately after his escape, made all poffible fearch for him. Regularly, no prifoner for debt upon letters of caption, though he should have made payment, could be released without letters of fufpenfion, containing a charge to the jailor to fet him at liberty; because the creditor's discharge could not take off the penalty incurred by the debtor for contempt of the king's authority; but to fave unneceffary expenfe to debtors in small debts, jailors are empowered to let go prifoners where the debt does not exceed 200 merks Scots, upon production of a difcharge, in which the creditor confents to his releafe; and in practice, the prifoner is liberated with the creditor's confent, whatever may be the amount of the debt.

11. Our law, from compaffion, allows infolvent debtors to apply for a releafe from prifon upon a CESSIO BONORUM, i. e. upon their making over to their creditors all their eftate real and perfonal. This must be infifted for by way of action, to which all the creditors of the prifoner ought to be made parties. The prifoner muft, in this action, which is cognifable only by the court of feffion, exhibit a particular inventory of his eftate, and make oath that he has no other estate than is therein contained, and that he has made no conveyance of any part of it, fince his imprisonment, to the hurt of his creditors. He muft alfo make oath, whether he has granted any difpofition of his effects before his imprisonment, and condefcend on the perfons to whom, and on the caufe of granting it; that the court may judge, whe ther, by any collufive practice, he has forfeited his claim to liberty.

12. A fraudulent bankrupt is not allowed this privilege; nor a criminal who is liable in any affythment or indemnification to the party injured,

or his executors, though the crime itself fhould be extinguished by a pardon. A difpofition granted on a ceffio bonorum is merely in farther fecurity to the creditors, not in fatisfaction, or in folutum of the debts.

13. Where a prifoner for debt declares upon oath, before the magistrate of the jurifdiction, that he has not wherewith to maintain himself, the magiftrate may fet him at liberty, if the creditor, in confequence of whofe diligence he was imprifoned, does not aliment him within ten days after intimation made for that purpose. But the magiftrate may, in such case, detain him in prifon, if the creditor chooses to bear the burden of the aliment rather than release him. The ftatute authorifing this release, which is ufually called the ACT OF GRACE, is limited to the cafe of prisoners for civil debts.

14. Decrees are executed against the moveable eftate of the debtor by arreftment or poinding; and againft his heritable eftate, by inhibition, or adjudication. If one be condemned, in a removing or other procefs, to quit the poffeffion of lands, and refufes, notwithstanding a charge, letters of ejection are granted of courfe, ordaining the fheriff to eject him, and to enter the obtainer of the decree into poffeffion. Where one oppofes by violence the execution of a decree, or of any lawful diligence, which the civil magiftrate is not able by himself and his officers to make good, the execution is enforced manu militari.

15. A DECREE ARBITRAL, which is a fentence proceeding on a fubmiffion to arbiters, has fome affinity with a judicial sentence, though in moft refpects the two differ. A SUBMISSION is a contract entered in by two or more parties who have difputable rights or claims, whereby they refer their differences to the final determination of an arbiter or arbiters, and oblige themfelves to acquiefce in what fhall be decided. Where the day within which the arbiters are to decide, is left blank in the fubmiffion, practice has limited the arbiters power of deciding to a year. As this has proceeded from the ordinary words of style, empowering the arbiters to determine betwixt and the day of next to come; therefore, where a fubmiffion is indefinite, without fpecifying any time, like all other contracts or obligations, it fubfifts for 40 years. Submiffions, like mandates, expire by the death of any of the parties fubmitters before fentence. As arbiters are not vefted with jurifdiction, they cannot compel witnesses to make oath before them, or havers of writings to exhibit them; but this defect is fupplied by the court of feffion, who, at the fuit of the arbiters, or of either of the parties, will grant warrant for citing witneffes, or for the exhibition of writings. For the fame reafon, the power of arbiters is barely to decide; the execution of the decree belongs to the judge. Where the submitters confent to the registration of the decree arbitral, performance may be enforced by fummary diligence.

16. The power of arbiters is wholly derived from the confent of parties. Hence, where their powers are limited to a certain day, they cannot pronounce fentence after that day; nor can they fubject parties to a penalty higher than that

which

which they have agreed to in the fubmiffion; and where a fubmiffion is limited to fpecial claims, fentence pronounced on subjects not specified in the submission is null, as being ultra vires compromiffi.

17. But, on the other hand, as fubmiffions are defigned for a moft favourable purpose, the amicable compofing of differences, the powers thereby conferred on arbiters receive an ample interpretation. Decrees-arbitral are not reducible upon any ground, except corruption, bribery, or falfehood.

SECT. IV. Of CRIMES.

I. THE Word CRIME, in its moft general fenfe, includes every breach either of the law of God or of our country; in a more restricted meaning, it fignifies fuch tranfgeffions of law as are punishable by courts of juftice. By our law, no private party, except the perfon injured, or his next of kin, can accufe criminally; but the king's advocate, who in this question represents the community, has a right to profecute all crimes in vindictam publicam, though the party injured should refufe to concur. Smaller offences, as petty riots, injuries, &c. which do not demand the public vengeance, pafs generally by the appellation of delics, and are punished either by fine or imprifonment.

2. The effence of a crime is that there be an intention in the actor to commit; for an action in which the will of the agent has no part, is not a proper object either of reward or punishment; hence arifes the rule crimen dolo contrabitur. Simple negligence does not therefore conftitute a proper crime. Yet where it is extremely grofs, it may be punished arbitrarily. Far lefs can we reckon in the number of crimes, those committed by an idiot or furious perfon; but leffer degrees of fatuity, which only darken reason, will not afford a total defence, though they may fave from the pana ordinaria. Actions committed in drunkennefs are not to be confidered as involuntary, fee ing the drunkenness itself, which was the first cause of the action, is both voluntary and criminal.

3. On the fame principle, fuch as are in a state of infancy, or in the confines of it, are incapable of a criminal action, dole not being incident to that age; but the precife age at which a perfon becomes capable of dole, being fixed neither by nature nor by ftatute, is by our practice to be gathered by the judge, as he best can, from the understanding and manners of the perfon accufed. Where the guilt of a crime arifes chiefly from ftatute, the actor, if he is under puberty, can hard ly be found guilty; but, where nature itself points out its deformity, he may, if he is proximus pubertati, be more eafily prefumed capable of cornmitting it; yet, even in that cafe, he will not be punished pana ordinaria.

4. One may be guilty of a crime, not only by perpetrating it himself, but being acceffory to a crime committed by another; which laft is by civilians styled ope et confilio, and in our law-phrase, art and part. A perfon may be guilty, art and part, either, 1. By giving advice or council to commit the crime; or, 2. By giving warrant or mandate to

commit it; or, 3. By actually affifting the criminal in the execution. It is generally agreed by doctors, that, in the more atrocious crimes, the advifer is equally punifhable with the criminal; and that, in the flighter, the circumstances arifing from the advifer's leffer age, the jocular or carelefs manner of giving advice, &c. may be received as pleas for foftening the punishment. One who gives mandate to commit a crime, as he is the first fpring of action, feems more guilty than the perfon employed as the inftrument in executing it; yet the actor cannot excufe himself under the pretence of orders which he ought not to have obeyed.

5. Affiftance may be given to the committer of a crime, not only in the actual execution, but previous to it, by furnishing him, intentionally, with poifon, arms, or the other means of perpetrating it. That fort of affiftance which is not given till after the criminal act, and which is commonly called abetting, though it be of itself criminal, does not infer art and part of the principal crime: as if one should favour the escape of a criminal knowing him to be fuch, or conceal him from juftice.

6. Thofe crimes that are in their confequences moft hurtful to fociety, are punified capitally, or by death; others escape with a leffer punishment, fometimes fixed by ftatute, and fometimes arbitrary, i. e. left to the difcretion of the judge, who may exercise his jurifdiction, either by fine, imprifonment, or a corporal punishment. Where the punishment is left, by law, to the difcretion of the judges, he can in no cafe extend it to death. The fingle efcheat of the criminal falls, on convic tion, in all capital trials, though the fentence should not express it.

7. Certain crimes are committed more immedi. ately againft God himself; others, against the state; and a third kind, against particular perfons. The chief crime in the firft clafs, cognifable by temporal courts, is BLASPHEMY, under which is included ATHEISM. This crime confifts in the denying or vilifying the Deity, by speech or writing. All who curfe God, or any of the perfons of the bleffed Trinity, are to fuffer death, even for a fingle act; and those who deny him, if they persist in their denial. The denial of a Providence, or of the authority of the holy Scriptures, is punishable capitally for the third offence.

8. No profecution can now be carried on for. witchcraft or conjuration. But all who undertake, from their skill in any occult fcience, to tell fortunes, or difcover folen goods, are to fuffer impri fonment for a year, ftand in the pillory four times in that year, and find furety for their future good behaviour.

9. Some crimes against the state are levelled directly against the fupreme power, and strike at the conftitution itself: Others difcover fuch a contempt of law, as tends to baffle authority, or flacken the reins of government. TREASON, crimen majeftatis, is that crime which is aimed against the ma jefty of the ftate; and can be committed only by thofe who are subjects of that ftate either by birth or refidence. Soon after the union of the two kingdoms in 1707, the laws of treafon then in force in England, were made ours by ↑ Ann. c. 21, both with regard to the facts conflituting that