court should seem fit; and such person should thereupon suffer such other sentence, and be moreover imprisoned and kept to hard labour, or be simply imprisoned and kept to hard labour, in such place and for such time as such court should think fit to direct, not exceeding the time for which such courts might then imprison for such offences; and whereas it is expedient that the provisions of the said act should be extended to certain aggravated misdemeanors, and offences In what cases below the degree of felony be it therefore

of misdemea

may be

hard labour.

nor, offenders enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by sentenced to and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this act, whenever any person shall be convicted of any of the offences hereafter specified and set forth: that is to say, any assault with intent to commit felony; any attempt to commit felony; any riot; any misdemeanor for having received stolen goods knowing them to have been stolen; any assault upon a peace officer, or upon an officer of the customs or excise, or upon any other officer of the revenue, in the due discharge and execution of his or their respective duty or duties, or upon any person or persons acting in aid of any such officer or officers in the due discharge and execution of his or their respective duty or duties; any assault committed in pursuance of any conspiracy to raise the rate of wages; being an utterer of counterfeit money, knowing the same to be counterfeit; knowingly and designedly ob

taining money, goods, wares, or merchandizes, bills, bonds, or other securities for money, by false pretences, with intent to cheat any person of the same; keeping a common gaming-house, a common bawdy-house, or a common ill-governed and disorderly house; wilful and corrupt perjury, or of subornation of perjury; having entered any open or inclosed ground with intent there illegally to destroy, take, or kill game or rabbits, or with intent to aid, abet, and assist any person or persons illegally to destroy, take, or kill game or rabbits, and having been there found at night armed with any offensive weapon in each and every of the above cases, and whenever any person shall be convicted of any or either of the aforesaid offences, it shall and may be lawful for the court before which any such offender shall be convicted, or which by law is authorized to pass sentence upon any such offender, to award and order (if such court shall think fit) sentence of imprisonment with hard labour, for any term not exceeding the term for which such court may now imprison for such offences, either in addition to or in lieu of any other punishment which may be inflicted on any such offenders by any law in force before the passing of this act; and every such offender shall thereupon suffer such sentence, in such place, and for such time as aforesaid, as such court shall think fit to direct. (1)

(1) This act has been in part repealed, namely, as far as respects the receiving of stolen goods, and the obtaining of goods under false pretences, by stat. 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 27. s. 1; and as far as respects the assaults above-mentioned, by stat. 9 Geo. 4. c. 31. s. 1.

6 Geo. 2. c. 37.

4 GEO. IV. c. 46.

An Act for repealing the Capital Punishments in-
flicted by several Acts of the Sixth and Twenty-
seventh Years of King George the Second, and
of the Third, Fourth, and Twenty-second Years
of King George the Third; and for providing
other Punishments in lieu thereof, and in lieu of
the Punishment of Frame-breaking under an Act
of the Twenty-eighth Year of the same Reign.
[4th July, 1823.]
WHEREAS by an act passed in the sixth year of
the reign of his late majesty King George the Se-
cond, intituled "An Act for making perpetual the
several acts therein mentioned, for the better re-
gulation of juries, and for empowering the jus-
tices of session or assizes for the counties pala-
tine of Chester, Lancaster, and Durham, to ap-
point a special jury in manner therein mentioned;
and for continuing the act for regulating the ma-
nufacture of cloth in the west riding of the
county of York (except a clause therein con-
tained;) and for continuing an act for the more
effectual punishing wicked and evil-disposed per-
sons going armed in disguise, and for other pur-
poses therein mentioned; and to prevent the
cutting or breaking down the bank of any river
or any sea bank; and to prevent the malicious
cutting off hop binds; and for continuing an act
made in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of
the reign of King Charles the Second, for pre-
venting theft and rapine upon the northern bor-

ders of England, and for reviving and continuing certain clauses in two other acts made for the same purpose," it is among other things enacted, that if any person or persons shall unlawfully and maliciously break down or cut down the bank or banks of any river or any sea bank, whereby any lands shall be overflowed or damaged, every person so offending, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony without benefit of clergy: and whereas by the same act it is further enacted, that if any person or persons shall unlawfully and maliciously cut any hop binds growing on poles in any plantation of hops, every person or persons so offending, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as in cases of felony without benefit of clergy: and whereas by 27 Geo. 2. an act passed in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of his said late majesty, intituled "An Act for discharging the corporation of the governor, bailiffs, and commonalty of the Company of Conservators of the Great Level of the Fens, commonly called Bedford Level, from a debt due to the Duke of Bedford and Earl of Lincoln; and for enabling the proprietors of lands in the North Level, part of the said Great Level, to raise money to discharge the proportion of the said North Level in the debts of the said corporation; and for ascertaining and appropriating the taxes to be laid on the said North Level; and for the more effectual draining and preserving the said North Level, and divers lands adjoining

c. 19.

3 Geo. 3. c. 16.

thereto, in the manor of Crowland;" it is among other things enacted, that if any person or persons shall maliciously cut, break down, burn, demolish, or destroy any bank, mill, engine, floodgate, or sluice, making or erecting, or made or erected, supported or maintained, for answering the purposes specified in the said act, every person or persons so offending, being thereof convicted, shall be guilty of felony, and shall suffer death as felons without benefit of clergy: and whereas by an act passed in the third year of the reign of his late majesty King George the Third, intituled "An Act to empower the commissioners or governors of the royal hospital for seamen at Greenwich, after defraying the necessary expenses thereof, to provide for such seamen, worn out and become decrepit in the service of their country, who shall not be provided for within the said hospital, and to enable them to receive such pensions as shall be granted them by the said commissioners or governors in the most easy and convenient manner, and for preventing frauds and abuses attending the same," it is among other things enacted, that whosoever willingly and knowingly shall personate or falsely assume the name or character of, or procure any other to personate or falsely to assume the name and character of any person entitled or supposed to be entitled as an out-pensioner to any out-pension or allowance of money, from the commissioners or governors of the said hospital, in order to receive the money due or supposed to be due on such out-pension, every such person so offending,