CRIMINALS ALL!

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 6, 3 July 1930, Page 12

CRIMINALS ALL!

ANCIENT UNREPEALED STATUTES

You can still be an. outlaw bold in, Britain—^even in these days of 1930 A.D. states an. English exchange. Commit Certain offences against the realm and the iaw declares that you are outsioje it. ~ A man who failed to answer a charge of embezzlement in Edinburgh a few days ago was outlawed under a mediayal law. This sentence of outlawry is a fairly ordinary occurrence in Scottish criminal procedure, but in England such penalties are now almost unknown. Nevertheless, you can still be fined, imprisoned, or even suffer a worse fato in England for the breach.of laws enacted half-a-thousanoi years ago. Fortunateljr most of these laws are now disregarded. Were it not so, most of us would be continually behind prison bars. . ' - "Laws which have never been repealed «»act that you can be punished for:—: : Playing football; Evading divine service on Suniay. Refusing to chase a thief. Selling a glass of beer. Huiidr€id^bf'yeat-olG! blasphemy iaivs arc still iii existence—PatliainentxeiTifed tU alter them" the other day—while the liordte Day Act of James I. and 1 C3iarle«H. strictly enforce, ths koepteg of the^abijath. According to these Acts, you must not barter on Sundays jyoii must not cbrn^ pel a man to worE on Sundays. Ifor,' must you. walk, ride or rbw on Sundays. Sqw fortunately for the modearn generation tiia;t they are allowed to honour.'these Act in the breach rather than in the observance. Trial by ordeal is still part of the English law, although it was in vogue in 1066. Prisoners hate demanded to take their trial by this method even in the twentieth ceniniry. We can still surfer durance vile under mediaeval laws for •"listening- under the wallß>- windows, or eaves of a noose to hearken after discourse, and thereupon to frame slanderous and mis* ehievous tales—in other words, eavesdropping. V* V Eyejy football player and every footbaU spectator is liable to a fine or imprisonment, because in 1314 Edward U forbade the game.

Richard U passed a similar Act in 138^ with special reference to encouraging archery. This Act was re-eaneed Ijjr Henry $V in 1401 and later by Henry Yin and has not yet been repealed.

Boxing is riot yet a legalised sport, while under an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Rkhard HI public billiards are graded under the gaming laws.

A license for public billiards has to he obtained at the local brewster sesions. By an Act passed in 1845 it if aa o^e&ce to use billiard balls on Christmas Dtty, Good Friday and other "fast" dayß.

liaws about dancing in public places are xegulatect according to an old eighteenth century statute dealing with disorderly nouses.

Perhaps the most glaring case of obsolescence, is the law wfiich make people

liable to be transported for life if they damage certain bridges. -There are those who would delight to' see enforced an Act passed in 1698, in the reign of William 111-which orders legal officers drawing defective bills to Giraw new ones without fee or pay £5 and the costs..