3. The 38 & 39 Vict. c. 86. By sect. 3 of that act, an agreement or combination by two or more persons to do or to procure to be done any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute between employers and workmen shall not be indictable as a conspiracy if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime.

Nothing in this section shall exempt from punishment any persons guilty of a conspiracy for which a punishment is awarded by any Act of Parliament.

Nothing in this section shall affect the law relating to riot, unlawful assembly, breach of the peace, or sedition, or any offence against the State or the Sovereign.

A crime for the purposes of this section means an offence punishable on indictment, or an offence which is punishable on summary conviction, and for the commission of which the offender is liable, under the statute making the offence punishable, to be imprisoned either absolutely or at the discretion of the Court as an alternative for some other punishment.

Where a person is convicted of any such agreement or combination as aforesaid to do or procure to be done an act which is punishable only on summary conviction, and is sentenced to imprisonment, the imprisonment shall not exceed three months, or such longer time, if any, as may have been prescribed by the statute for the punishment of the said act when committed by one person.

By s. 4, where a person employed by a municipal authority *443] *or by any company or contractor upon whom is imposed by Act of Parliament the duty, or who have otherwise assumed the duty of supplying any city, borough, town, or place, or any part thereof, with gas or water, wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service with that authority or company or contractor, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will be to deprive the inhabitants of that city, borough, town, place, or part, wholly or to a great extent of their supply of gas or water, he shall on conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labor.

Every such municipal authority, company, or contractor as is mentioned in this section shall cause to be posted up, at the gasworks or waterworks, as the case may be, belonging to such authority or company or contractor, a printed copy of this section in some conspicuous place where the same may be conveniently read by the persons employed, and as often as such copy becomes defaced, obliterated, or destroyed, shall cause it to be renewed with all reasonable despatch.

If any municipal authority or company or contractor make default in complying with the provisions of this section in relation to such notice as aforesaid, they or he shall incur on summary conviction a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day during which such

default continues, and every person who unlawfully injures, defaces, or covers up any notice so posted up as aforesaid in pursuance of this act, shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding forty shillings.

By s. 5, where any person wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service or of hiring, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will be to endanger human life, or cause serious bodily injury, or to expose valuable property whether real or personal to destruction or serious injury, he shall on conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labor.

Sect. 6 relates to neglect of apprentices, and will be found, post, tit. "Ill-treating apprentices."

By s. 7, every person who, with a view to compel any other person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such other person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing, wrongfully or without legal authority:

(1.) Uses violence to or intimidates such other person or his wife or children, or injures his property; or,

(2.) Persistently follows such other person about from place to place; or,

(3.) Hides any tools, clothes, or other property owned or used by such other person, or deprives him of or hinders him in the use thereof; or,

(4.) Watches or besets the house or other place where such other person resides, or works, or carries on business, or happens to be, or the approach to such house or place; or,

*(5.) Follows such other person with two or more other persons in disorderly manner in or through any street or road, [*444 shall, on conviction thereof by a court of summary jurisdiction, or on indictment as hereinafter mentioned, be liable either to pay a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labor.

Attending at or near the house or place where a person resides or works, or carries on business, or happens to be, or the approach to

In New York it has been held that the "BOYCOTT" is a conspiracy in restraint of trade. See People v. Welzig, 4 N. Y. Crim. Rep. 403; People v. Kostka, Id. 429. So also in Virginia, Commonwealth v. Shelton et al., 11 Va. Law J. 324. In Connecticut, State v. Glidden, 3 N. E. Rep. 849; s. c. 8 Atl. Rep. 890; 35 Alb. Law J. 348. In England, Reg. v. Barrett, 18 L. R. Jr. 430. See 8 Crim. Law Mag. 574. On this subject generally see 2 Am. & Eng. Encyc. of Law, 512; 21 Am. Law Rev. 509. An interlocutory injunction will not be granted in a case where the intention of the so called BOYCOTT is in dispute. It will be left to a jury, who may assess ample damages. Mogul S. S. Co. v. McGregor, L. R. 15 Q. B. Div. 476. If a Society or Union, acting in its associate capacity, bring about a "STRIKE," and uphold a striker's extraordinary demand, all who are in the Association and participate in its action are guilty. Commonwealth v. Curren, 3 Pittsburg (Pa.) 143. See Old Dominion S. S. Co. v. McKenna, 18 Abb. N. C. (N. Y.) 262.

2

such house or place in order merely to obtain or communicate information, shall not be deemed a watching or besetting within the meaning of this section. As to this proviso see R. v. Bauld, 13 Cox, C. C. 282, per Huddleston, B.

By s. 9, where imprisonment, or a penalty of more than 20%. is imposed, the accused may object to the jurisdiction of the justices, and thereupon the court of summary jurisdiction may deal with the case in all respects as if the accused were charged with an indictable offence and not an offence punishable on summary conviction, and the offence may be prosecuted on indictment accordingly.

Sect. 10 applies the Summary Jurisdiction Act to this Act.

By s. 11, provided, that upon the hearing and determining of any indictment or information under sections four, five, and six of this Act, the respective parties to the contract of service, their husbands or wives, shall be deemed and considered as competent witnesses.

By s. 14, the expression "municipal authority" in this Act means any of the following authorities, that is to say, the Metropolitan Board of Works, the Common Council of the City of London, the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London, the town and council of any borough for the time being subject to the 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76 (see ante, p. 250), and any Act amending the same, any commissioners, trustees, or other persons invested by the local Act of Parliament, with powers of improving, cleansing, lighting, or paving any town, and any Local Board.

Any municipal authority or company or contractor who has obtained authority by or in pursuance of any general or local Act of Parliament to supply the streets of any city, borough, town, or place, or of any part thereof, with gas, or which is required by or in pursuance of any general or local Act of Parliament, to supply water on demand to the inhabitants of any city, borough, town, or place, or any part thereof, shall for the purpose of this act be deemed to be a municipal authority or company or contractor upon whom is imposed by Act of Parliament the duty of supplying such city, borough, town, or place, or part thereof, with gas or water.

By s. 15, the word "maliciously" used in reference to any offence under this Act shall be construed in the same manner as it is required by sect. 58 of the Malicious Injuries to Property Act, 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97 (ante, p. 289), to be construed in reference to any offence committed under that act.

By s. 16, nothing in this Act shall apply to seamen or to apprentices to the sea service.

ALTHOUGH larceny cannot be committed of a dead body, no one having any right of property therein, yet it is an offence to remove a body without lawful authority; and such offence is punishable with fine and imprisonment as a misdemeanor. An indictment charged (inter alia) that the prisoner, a certain dead body of a person unknown, lately before deceased, wilfully, unlawfully, and indecently did take and carry away, with intent to sell and dispose of the same for gain and profit. It being evident that the prisoner had taken the body from some burial ground, though from what particular place was uncertain, he was found guilty upon this count: and it was considered that this was so clearly an indictable offence that no case was reserved. R. v. Gilles, 1 Russ. Cri. 611, 5th ed.; Russ. & Ry. 366 (n). So to take up a dead body, even for the purpose of dissection, is an indictable offence. Where, upon an indictment for that offence, it was moved in arrest of judgment, that the act was only one of ecclesiastical cognizance, and that the silence of the older writers on crown law showed that there was no such offence cognizable in the criminal courts, the court said that common decency required that the practice should be put a stop to; that the offence was cognizable in a criminal court as being highly indecent, and contra bonos mores; that the purpose of taking up the body for dissection did not make it less an indictable offence, and that as it had been the regular practice at the Old Bailey in modern times, to try charges of this nature, the circumstance of no writ of error having been brought to reverse any of those judgments, was a proof of the universal opinion of the profession upon this subject. R. v. Lynn, 2 T. R. 733; 1 Leach, 497; see also R. v. Cundrick, Dowl. & Ry. N. P. C. 13. And it makes no difference what are the motives of the person who removes the body; the offence being the removal of the body without lawful authority. See R. v. Sharpe, Dear. & B. 160; 26 L. J., M. C. 43; where the defendant, from motives of filial affection, had removed the corpse of his mother from its burying place. The defendant had in this case committed a trespass against the owner of the soil of the burying place; but quære whether, if no such trespass was committed, the offence might not be still complete.

The burial of the dead is the duty of every parochial priest and minister, and if he neglect or refuse to perform the office, he may, by the express words of canon 86, be suspended by the ordinary for three months; and if any temporary inconvenience arise, as a nuisance,

1 See Commonwealth v. Loning, 8 Pick. 370. 8.

from the neglect of the interment of the corpse, he is punishable also by the temporal courts by indictment or information. Per Abney, J., Andrews v. Cawthorne, Willes, 536. But see now the " Burials Act," 43 & 44 Vict. c. 41, s. 1.

To bury the dead body of a person who has died a violent death, before the coroner has sat upon it, is punishable as a misdemeanor, *and the coroner ought to be sent for, since he is not bound ex *446] officio to take the inquest without being sent for. R. v. Clerk, 1 Sulk. 377; Anon., 7 Mod. 10. And if a dead body in a prison or other place, upon which an inquest ought to have been taken, is interred, or is suffered to lie so long that it putreñies before the coroner has viewed it, the gaoler or township shall be amerced. Hawk. P. C. b. 2, c. 9, s. 23; see also Sewell's Law of Coroner, p. 29.

The preventing a dead body from being interred has likewise been considered an indictable offence. Thus the master of a workhouse, a servant, and another person, were indicted for a conspiracy to prevent the burial of a person who died in a workhouse. R. v. Young, cited 2 T. R. 734. Digging up a disused burial-ground for building purposes is a misdemeanor at common law. R. v. Jacobson, 14 Cox, C. Č. 522. To leave a dead body exposed in a highway is an indictable nuisance. R. v. Clark, 15 Cox, C. C. 171, see post, tit. "Nuisance."

Provision is made for the interment of dead bodies which may happen to be cast on shore, by the 48 Geo. 3, c. 75.

By the 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 75, s. 7, it is provided that "it shall be lawful for any executor, or other party, having lawful possession of the body of any deceased person, and not being an undertaker, or other party intrusted with the body for the purpose only of interment, to permit the body of such deceased person to undergo anatomical examination, unless to the knowledge of such executor or other party, such person shall have expressed his desire, either in writing at any time during his life, or verbally in the presence of two or more witnesses during the illness whereof he died, that his body after death might not undergo such examinotion, or unless the surviving husband or wife, or any known relative of the deceased person, shall require the body to be interred without such examination." Section 8 provides for the party lawfully in the possession of a dead body directing and permitting anatomical examination; where the deceased shall, during his life, have directed it, "unless the deceased person's surviving husband or wife, or nearest known relative, or any one or more of such person's nearest known relatives, being of kin in the same degree, shall require the body to be interred without such examination." By section 10, professors of anatomy, and the other persons therein described, being duly licensed, are not liable to punishment for having in their possession human bodies according to the provision of the act. The 18th section of this statute makes offences against the act misdemeanors, and subjects offenders to be punished by imprisonment not exceeding three months, or by fine not exceeding fifty pounds.