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The Green Bag.

the Tower of London for the making of chap. 11, any perverse and malicious cutting moneys, and be not otherwise disposed of. down of dykes or banks made for the protec So, too, the cutting out of the tongue, or tion of the land against the inroads of the ocean, was declared to be felony. So, too, putting out of the eyes of the king's sub if soldiers ran away from their captains, or jects, of malice prepense, and other dis memberment, was enacted to be a felony; deserted from the king's service, except in while two temporary statutes, passed in the cases of notorious sickness, they should be punished as felons; while similar offences reign of Henry VI., by which it was di rected that a proclamation should issue on the part of mariners and gunners serving that all Britons should depart out of the on the seas, taking wages of the king or realm before the Feast of John the Baptist queen, were punishable under 5 Elizabeth, next, upon pain of life and liberty, and that chap. V. no confederacies be made by masons in By 22 Henry VIII., an act was passed for their assemblies whereby the good order of " the voiding and banishing out of thi^realm the Statute of Laborers was violated, are of certain outlandish people, calling them instances of the ancient methods of dealing selves Egyptians, using no craft nor mer with dissatisfied workingmen. chandise for to live by, but going from place In the reign of Henry VII., any unlawful to place in great companies, using subtle hunting in a forest, park, or warren, by and crafty means to deceive the king's sub night, or with painted faces, was declared jects, claiming that they by palmistry could to be a felony, and the rescue of any party tell men and women's fortune." In the time of Elizabeth, all seditious so taken was also declared to be a felony. So also, what was termed " stealing an books, letters, prophecies, and calculations of heiress," that is, the marriage of a maiden the queen's nativity were declared to be felon or widow, possessed of lands or tenements, ies in the twenty-third year of her reign; an against her will, was declared to be a felony; instance of feminine delicacy as to her age and any procuring, abetting, or receiving the on the part of the Virgin Queen; while in forgeries of any deeds, charters, or court woman so taken against her will, with knowl edge of the facts, was declared to be a felony; rolls, or of wills, whereby the interest of any and such misdoers, takers and procurators person in lands might be fraudulently affect ed, the offender was to be set upon the and receivers were to be reputed and ad pillory, have his ears cut off, and also his judged as principal felons, provided, how ever, that the act should not extend to any nostrils slit and seared with a hot iron, and person taking any woman upon the claim he be imprisoned during life, and forfeit the that she was his ward or bondwoman. profits of all his lands. A proviso was at tached that the act was not to extend to any (3 Henry VII., chap. 2.) attorney or lawyer pleading a forged deed, By 21 Henry VIII., chap. 7, it was pro vided that if any " servants, to whom caskets nor being a party or privy to the forgery, containing jewels, moneys, goods, or chattels, nor to the exemplification of a forged deed, had been delivered for safe keeping by their nor to any judge who should cause the seal to be set to such exemplification. As late masters or mistresses, should depart there with with the intent to steal the same and as the days of George II., one Japhet Croke, defraud the master, contrary to the trust or alias Sir Peter Stranger, was convicted of forging a deed, and suffered all the penalties confidence bestowed, they shall be ad judged guilty of felony, if the embezzlement of the act. should be of the value of 40J. or above; If any man delivered, or brought, or sent, while by the statute of 22 Henry VIII., or received, or procured to be brought, or