Contempts

of court.

other misbehaviour of a similar kind; but not in the mere exercise of their judicial capacities, as by giving a false or erroneous verdict.

(e.) By witnesses by making default when summoned; refusing to be sworn or examined, or prevaricating in their evidence when sworn.

(f.) By the parties to any suit or proceeding before the court, who by force or fraud wilfully prevent or obstruct the course of justice; also by disobedience to any rule or order, made in the progress of a cause; by non-payment of costs, or by non-observance of awards which have been made rules of court.

(g.) By any persons—including a great variety of acts which imply disrespect to the court's authority. Any riotous, noisy, or indecent conduct in court, calculated to interrupt the proceedings, or to bring discredit upon the court.

Of another class are those committed by the offender committed out not present in court-for example, by disobeying or treating with disrespect the Queen's writ, or the rules or process of the court; by perverting such writ or process to the purposes of private malice, extortion, or injustice; by speaking or writing contemptuously of the court or judges, acting in their judicial capacity; by printing false accounts of causes then depending in judgment; and by anything, in short, that demonstrates a gross want of that regard and respect, which when once courts of justice are deprived of their authority is entirely lost among the people (q).

Proceedings.

The proceedings on a contempt of court are of two kinds :

1. If the contempt is committed in the face of the court the offender may be instantly apprehended and

(9) As to contempt in general, see Miller v. Knox, 4 Bing. N. C. 574.

imprisoned at the discretion of the judges, without any further proof or examination.

2. In the case of contempts committed out of courtif the judges see sufficient ground to suspect that a contempt has been committed, they either make a rule on the suspected party to shew cause why an attachment should not issue against him; or in very flagrant cases, the attachment issues in the first instance.

Offences more particularly against the public peace.

Unlawful assembly.

Rout.

CHAPTER V.

OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC PEACE.

MANY of the crimes mentioned in other chapters involve a breach of the peace. But the offences now to be dealt with are those in which the breach of the peace is the prominent feature. In some, for example in libel, at first sight the injury done to the individual appears to be the principal point; but a consideration of the way in which the law deals with the offence shews that it is otherwise. Thus, proof of the truth of a libel will not amount to a defence, unless it was for the public benefit that the matter should be published.

RIOTS (r).

There are two minor offences, which, as steps to the graver crime of riot, must first be noticed.

An unlawful assembly is any meeting of three or more persons under such circumstances of alarm, either from the large numbers, the mode or time of the assembly, &c., as in the opinion of firm and rational men are likely to endanger the peace; there being no aggressive act actually done (s). All parties joining in and countenancing the proceedings are criminally liable. It is generally considered that the intention must be to do something which, if actually executed, would amount to a riot (t).

A rout is said to be the disturbance of the peace

(r) For riotous destruction of churches and other buildings, v. p. 268. (s) R. v. Vincent, 9 C. & P. 91.

(t) For unlawful assemblies of another nature, v. p. 58.

caused by those who, after assembling together to do a thing which, if executed, would amount to a riot, proceed to execute that act, but do not actually execute it. It differs from a riot only in the circumstance that the enterprise is not actually executed.

A riot is a tumultuous disturbance of the peace by Riot. three or more persons, assembling together of their own authority, with an intent mutually to assist one another against any who oppose them in the execution of some enterprise of a private nature, and afterwards actually executing the same, in a violent and turbulent manner, to the terror of the people, and this whether the act intended be of itself lawful or unlawful (u).

An example will more clearly shew the difference between these three crimes. A hundred men armed with sticks meet together at night to consult about the destruction of a fence which their landlord has erected: this is an unlawful assembly. They march out together from the place of meeting in the direction of the fence: this amounts to a rout. They arrive at the fence and, amid great confusion, violently pull it down: this is a riot.

riot.

To constitute a riot, the object need not be unlawful, Essentials of a if the acts are done in a manner calculated to inspire terror. But there must be an unlawful assembling : therefore a disturbance arising among people already met together will be a mere affray; unless, indeed, there be a deliberate forming into parties. The object must be of a local or private nature; otherwise, as if to redress a public grievance, it amounts to treason (x).

The gist of the offence is the unlawful manner of proceeding, that is, with circumstances of force or

(u) 1 Hawk. c. 65, s. 1.
(*) v. p. 50.

Riot Act.

Posse comitatus.

violence. Therefore assembling for the purpose of an unlawful object, and actually executing it, is not a riot, if it is done peaceably (y).

These three offences are misdemeanors, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both.

For the case of riots which assume a more formidable aspect further provision is made by statute (z). If twelve or more persons are unlawfully assembled to the disturbance of the peace, and being required by proclamation (a), by a justice of the peace, sheriff, or under-sheriff, mayor, or other head officer of a town, to disperse, they then continue together for an hour after, they are guilty of felony, and liable to penal servitude to the extent of life, or imprisonment not exceeding three years (b). It is a felony attended by the same punishment to oppose the reading of the proclamation; and this opposition will not excuse those who know that the proclamation would have been read, had it not been for this hindrance (c). Prosecutions under this Act must be commenced within twelve months after the commission of the offence (d).

A course of proceeding founded on an old statute (#), still unrepealed, is provided for offences of this character. Any two justices, together with the sheriff or undersheriff of the county, may come with the posse comitatús (ie., a force consisting of all able-bodied men except clergymen) and suppress a riot, rout, or unlaw

(y) v. 1 Hawk. c. 65.

(z) Riot Act, 1 Geo. 1, st. 2, c. 5.

(a) "Reading the Riot Act."

(b) 1 Geo. 1, st. 2, c. 5, s. 1. The form of proclamation is prescribed by the statute," our sovereign lord the king chargeth and commandeth all persons being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the Act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies-God save the King."

(c) Ibid. s. 5.

(d) Ibid. s. 8.

(e) 13 Hen 4, c. 7.