CRIMI, NAL ■been rendered unnecessary by the provision that all offences committed on the high seas may be tried as if they had been committed in England. As regards offences Committed on land, it was found necessary as early as the on land reign of Henry VIII. to provide for the trial in outside England of treasons and murders committed on England. outside England; this was largely due to the constant presence in France of the king and many of his nobles and knights. The latest legislation on the subject was in 1861 (24 & 25 Viet. c. 100, s. 9), and any murder or manslaughter committed on land out of the United Kingdom, whether within the King’s dominions or without, and whether the person killed were a subject of His Majesty or not, may be dealt with in all respects as if it were committed in England. The jurisdiction has been extended to a few other cases such as slave trade, bigamy, perjury committed with reference to an English court, and offences connected with explosives. But these offences must be committed on land and not on board a foreign ship, because if a man takes service on board a foreign ship he is treated for the time as being a member of the foreign State to which that ship belongs. The principle has been also extended to misdemeanours (but not felonies) committed by public officers in Misdecolonies and elsewhere, whether within or withcommitted out the British dominions. Thus a Governor or by public an Inferior Officer of a colony, if appointed by officers m British Government, may be prosecuted for colonies ' «/ a any misdemeanour committed by him by virtue of his office in the colony; and cases have happened where governors have been so prosecuted, such, for instance, as the case of General Picton at the beginning of the 19th century, and of Governor Eyre of Jamaica in 1865. There are a few exceptional courts with criminal jurisdiction. The Court of Chivalry, which used to punish offences committed within military lines outside the kingdom, has long disappeared. The Military Courts for trying members of the navy and army for offences committed against naval and military law have been already referred to. The naval courts can only try members in actual service on board a ship. The military courts can only try persons who are actually members of the army at the time, and their authority is annually renewed by Parliament, in consequence of the jealousy still felt against the trial of any man except by the ordinary courts of law. These courts can try in any part of the world, and whenever the forces are in active service can try followers of the camp as if they were actual members of the forces. (See articles on Military Law and Martial Law.) The Ecclesiastical Courts, which were formerly very powerful in England, and punished persons for various offences, such as perjury, swearing, and sexual 5 38 ficaf ' ' °ffence3) have now almost fallen into desuetude. Courts. Their authority over Protestant dissenters from the Established Church was taken away by statute; their authority over lay members of the Church of England has disappeared by disuse. Occasionally suits are instituted in them against the clergy for offences either against morality or against doctrine or ritual. In these cases their sentences are enforced by penalties, such as suspended deprivation of their benefice, or by imprisonment, which has replaced the old punishment of excommunication. Reference has been made in various places to the criminal law which prevails on the Continent. The English system prevails in most of the States which form the United States of America. It prevails also, with a few exceptions, in the Colonies of the British Empire; but the manner in which it has been adapted to the requirements of a backward
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country is best exemplified in the system of law which obtains in India, the greatest dependency of the Empire. In the first place both the substantive and the adjective criminal law have been codified. The Indian Penal Code came into force in 1860, and the ^ena? Indian Code of Criminal Procedure, enacted in code. 1882, has been somewhat modified by an amending Act of 1898. As regards all criminal law as administered throughout British India, they have taken the place of an older criminal system, which was based partly on Mahommedan law, partly on usage and custom, partly on principles imported from England. Great delays and considerable injustice were formerly caused by the want of unity in judicial organization. How, one set of courts has been established throughout the country, composed of well-paid, well-educated judges, most of the higher judicial appointments being held by Englishmen; all those who hold subordinate judicial posts at the same time are subjected to a combined system of appeal and revision. The arrangement of the Indian Penal Code is natural as well as logical; its basis is the law of England freed from technicalities, whilst certain modifications are introduced to meet the exigencies of a country such as British India. It opens with a chapter of general explanations, and interpretations of the terms used throughout the Code. It then describes the various punishments to which offenders are liable; follows with a list of the exceptions regarding criminal responsibility under which a person who otherwise would be liable to punishment is exempted from the penal consequences of his act, such as offences committed by children, by accident or misfortune without any criminal intention, offences committed by lunatics, offences committed in the exercise of the right of private defence. It may be worth while to add, as an innovation on English law, that an act which results in harm so slight that no person of ordinary sense and temper would complain of such harm is not considered an offence under the Code. Then follows a chapter on Abetment, in other words, the instigation of a person to do a wrongful act. The next chapters deal with offences against the public, including the State, the army and navy, public tranquillity, public servants, contempts of the lawful authority of public servants, perjury; offences relating to coin and Government stamps, to weights and measures; offences affecting the public health, safety, convenience, decency, and morals ; offences relating to religion; and offences relating to the human body, from murder down to the infliction of any hurt. The Code then passes on to offences against property; offences relating to forgery, including trade marks, criminal breach of contracts for service ; offences relating to marriage, defamation, criminal intimidation, insult, and annoyance. Under this last head is included an attempt to cause a person to do anything which that person is not legally bound to do, by inducing him to believe that he would otherwise become subject to Divine displeasure. The last chapter deals with attempts to commit offences punishable by the Code with transportation or imprisonment, and the punishment is limited to one-half of the longest term provided for the offence had it been carried out. One peculiarity of the Penal Code which has proved eminently successful and been imitated by other Codes, lies in the system of illustration of the offence declared in every section by a brief statement of some concrete case. For instance, as illustration of the offence of an attempt to commit an offence the following examples are given:— I. “ A. makes an attempt to steal some jewels by breaking open a box, and finds on opening the box there is no jewel in it. He has done an act towards the commission of theft, and therefore is guilty under this section. II. “A. makes an attempt to pick the pocket of Z. by thrusting his hand into Z.’s pocket. A. fails in the attempt in consequence
