The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-12-27
SOME LEGAL FREAKS
CURIOUS TWISTS THAT OBTAIN IN
ENGLISH CRIMINAL LAW.

A Person May BE Guilty of Perjury
Though He Svears to the Truth--No
Such ORense as Trespnss - Points
! About Forgery.
In no branch of the law as it Is dis
pensed in Great Britain are such curl
GUS points to be found or a greater
number of anomalies to be met with
| than in the criminal branch thereof
1t may be news to some people, for
| instance, to know that there are a mum
ber of things in existence which can
not be stolen, such as a corpse, animals
ferR natural. O., animals wild in a
state of nature with certain excep-
tons created by statute) soil Of the
earth, etc. TO attempt to steal nothing
would appear on the face of it to be
an impossibility, much lsss a crime,
but man indicted for attempting tic
| pick Iady's pocket which was subse
| quently found to be empty was found
guilty Of an attempt to commit theft"
though, in fact, there was nothing il
the pocket to steal
Any one lucky enough to pick up q
I
to hear that, if at the time of finding
it he had no reasonable means of dis
| covering the owner of it, and also if he
| did not at the same time conceive the
idea of appropriating it to himself, he
win not be guilty Of stealing if he
keeps mis- lucky find, even If the right
full owner discovers and claims it.
Most people walking in the country
must have noticed on numerous occa-
sions boards or placards posted up in.
woods, fields, etc, notifying in large
] letters that ''trespassers will be prose
cuted." but few are aware that such
notices are utterly useless and no one
need feel the least alarm thereat, there
| being no such offense known in crimi-
nal law as such a trespass, and a per
son could never be prosecuted for such
1 an offense. They are, in fact. in the
words of that eminent jurist Sir Fred
| erick Pollock, in his well known work,
| Pollock on Torts," a wooden false
| hood"
1t is a common fallacy to Imagine
that the crime of forgery consists in
| signing another's name, though in fact
! committing forgery consists in making
and uttering any false instrument in
| writing with attempt to defraud; thus
| it may be a forgery to omit word
from document, and it will be mat
ter of considerable surprise to many to
learn that it is possible for person to
forge his or her own name. A person,
however, who fraudulently inserts an
others name on picture, thereby sell
! ing it as the work of some other artist,
is not guilty of forgery, as picture is
not an instrument in writing
The crime of perjury also does not
quite Eft in with the generally ae-
cepted idea, which Is that II. a person,
after being sworn on oath to speak the
truth, swears falsely. he is guilty of
such offense. This is correct with the
important qualification that the fact
the witness has sworn to must be ma
terial to the case. Thus, If a witness
on being duly sworn gave false adj
| dress on being asked where he lived,
this, though untrue, would not amount
| to perjury. as the place where the wit
ness lived would be quite immaterial
That a person may be guilty of per-
| jury though speaking the truth may
seem curious anomaly, but such new
ertheless is the fact, as the test of per-
| jury is not whether a person is speak
| ing what he believes to be the truth;
so, if a witness, for instance, on being
asked, "What colored tie was the pris-
oner wearing when you met him?" re
| piled red. when in fact he did not
| really notice. he would be guilty of
perjury, even though the prisoner was
in reality wearing a red tie when the
witness met him
Numerous other instances of crimes
which present similar curious points to
the above might be given, and. in pass
| ing, persons taking out assurances
against burglary might note that this
| crime can only be committed between
| the hours of Q p. m. and 6 a. M; that
breaking into a house by means of an
| open door or window is not burglary,
although entering house by sliding
| down the chimney is
| We must not conclude this article
without a short reference to compar.
| atively recent case in which man not
| possessing the means to pay entered
restaurant. where he ordered and ate
good dinner As. however. he was un-
able to pay for the same he was given
in charge and subsequently indicted
for obtaining goods by false pre-
| lenses The case resulted in the pris.
oner's acquittal on the ground that he
had not been guilty of any false pre-
| lenses.
This individual therefore had a good
meal on the cheap, but we should not
advise any enterprising reader to emu
late his example, as, although he could
not indeed be prosecuted for obtaining
| goods by false pretenses, it seems that
he win still be criminally liable under
| the bankruptcy act for obtaining credit
by fraudulent means, London Tit-Bits.
Averting Panic.
| On one occasion John Philip Sousa by
his promptness was the direct means
Of stopping panic which might have
! Ia