Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/215

UNITED STATES V. COPPEESMITH. 2Ô1 �made so by the application of this epithet. Indeed, the terni felony has no distinct and well-defined meaning applicable tb our System of criminal jurisprudence. In England it bas a well-known and exteflsive signification, and comprises every species of crime wbicb at common law worked a forfeiture of goods and lands. But under our Criminal Code the word 'felonious,' altbougb oecasionally used, expresses a significa- tion no less vague and indefinite than the word 'criminal.'" Matthews v. State, 4 Ohio St, 539, 542. In the constitution of Tennessee the words "criminal charge" are held to ' be Byhonymous with "crimes," which is said to mean, tech- nically, "felonious" offences. McGinnis v. State, 9 'E-umph. 43. �The term "felony" appears to bave been long used to sig- nify the degree or class of crime committed, rather than the penal consequences of the forfeiture occasioned by the crime according to its original signification. 1 Archb. Or. PL 1, notej 1 Euss. on Crimes, 43. �Capital punishment by no means enters into the true defi- nition of felony. Strictly speaking, the term comprised every species of crime vrhich occasioned at common law the total forfeiture of either lands or goods, or both. That was the only test. Felonies by common law are such as either con- cem the taking away of life, or concem the taking away of goods, or concem the habitation, or concem the obstruction of the execution of justice in criminal and capital causes, as escapes, rescues, etc. 1 Hale's P, 0. 411. These crimes were of such enormity that the common law punished them by forfeiture: (1) the offender's wife lost her dower; (2) his children became base and ignoble and his blood corrupted; (3) he forfeifced his goods and ohattels, lands and tenements. The superadded punishment was either capital or otherwise, according to the degree of guilt; that is, the turpitude of the offence. There were felonies not punishable wiih death, and on the other hand there were offences not felonies which were so punishable. However, the idea of felony was &o generally connected with capital punishment, that, erro- neously, it came to be understood that ail crimes punishable ����