Evening journal., 1902-01-02
CURIOUS TWISTS
IN CRIMINAL LAW
One May be Guilty Of Perjury
Though He SWearS to
Truth

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. fo1
instance, to know that there are a mum.
Der Of things in existence which can.
not be stolen, such as n corpse, animals
fere naturR-i. G., animals wild in q
state of nature with certain excep.
tionsj 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 less q crime.
but a man indicted for attempting Ia
pick a lady'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 in
the pocket to steal.
Any one lucky enough to pick up a
sovereign lying in the road win be glad
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 appropriatlng it to himself, he
VIII not be guilty Of stealing if he
keeps his lucky find, even if the right
ful>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 viii 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 n per.
son could never be prosecuted for such
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 n forgery to omit word
from a document, and it will be a mat
ter Of considerable surprise to many to
learn that it is possible for a person to
forge his or her own name A person,
however, who fraudulently inserts an
others name on a picture. thereby sell
ing it as the work Of some other artist,
is not guilty OF forgery, as a picture is
not an instrument in writing"
The crime of perjury also does not
quite eft in with the generally ac-
cepted idea, which is that If 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 a false ad-
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 a curious anomaly, but such new
ertheless is the fact, as the test of per-
jury is not whether n person is speak
ing what he believes to be the truth;
so, If q witness. for instance, on being
asked, "What cOlored tie was the pris-
oner wearing when you met himY 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 insurances
against burglary might note that this
crime can only be committed between
the hours Of . p. m. and 6 n. M; that
breaking into a house by means Of an
open door or window is not burglary,
although entering n house by sliding
down the chimney is
We must not conclude this article
without Il short reference TO a compar
atively recent case I'm which n man moi
possessing the means TO pay entered q
restaurant. where he ordered and ate Q
good dinner As, however, he was un
able to pay for the same he was giver
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 goot
meal on the cheap but we should no
advise any enterprising reader to emu
Lotto bfc avotnt,io nc o1fhouuh hn no1tlf
not indeed be prosecuted for obtaining
goods by false pretenses, It seems tina
he will still be criminally liable unde
the bankruptcy act for obtaining credi
by fraudulent means.-London Tit-Bits
AvertinE "A Panic.