Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1908-05-29
nEsH MAUI TIE IN ENGLAND.
UsinE Stamp Upside Down Is Pun
ishable.

ishable.
Many people blissfully imagine that
lese majeste-that is, insulting royalty
is crime peculiar to foreign coun-
tries and unknown in free and happy
Britain. That, however, is where they
make mistake, says Parsons Week
ly.
There are all sorts of pains and PEN
altles on the statute book relative to
peculiar British forms of lese majestic.
Many of them have fallen into oblivion
or allegiance owing to one cause or an
other, but they could still be enforced
If those in high places claimed all they
are strictly entitled to do
1t Is, for instance, technically a pun
ishable offense to stick penny stamp
on a letter upside down. Doing so is
to insult the King through his effigy,
and a few centuries ago-supposing
penny stamps to have been then In
vented-might easily have landed the
offender In prison on charge Of seek
ing to bring rldicule on the sovereign,
or to express contempt for is author
ity by causing his picture to stand Oh
| its head.
Also 1t Is punishable offense to de-
face coin Of the realm bearing the
royal image and then deliberately put
1t into circulation again.
Any private individual who auda-
ciously hoisted the royal standard over
his dwelling would get into serious
trouble. He would be peremptorlly or
dered to take 1t down and abjectly apol-
ogize, and If he escaped a heavy fine
would have to thank his majesty's for
bearance for his good luck. The royal
standard is the emblem Of the Kings
regal authority, to be displayed only
where he is personally present, and for
a subject to hoist 1t is nomlnally equiv
alent to high treason. The union jack
as the flag of the nation is a different
thing altogether, and can be displayed
by anybody.
1t is popularity supposed that In this
country man can get up and say
whatever he likes about the sovereign
with lmpunity. This is true only with
in strictly defined limits. A Socialist
orator can publicly denounce the theo-
retieal evils of monarchial Institutions
and announce a decided preference for
a republic, and nobody can touch him.
But If he once began to speak in
sultlngly or slightingly of the King per-
sonally he would be at once run I'M
or at least effectually suppressed by
the nearest policeman.
To strike the King would, according
to the strict letter of the law, render
the assailant liable to the death penalty
no matter how trifling the blow was in
reality.
Lieut.. Pape, who is usually reckoned
among those who attempted the life OF
the late Queen Victoria, could not have
actually contemplated murder. He
had no lethal weapon in his possession
at the time of the outrage, but hC
struck her majesty across the face will
his walking stick. This was sufficient
to bring him within the shadow of the
scaffold. He was condemned to dealt
and would have been hanged had his
sentence not been committed.
Apart from direct methods of com
hitting lese majestic In England-ant
the foregoing does not by any means
exhaust the llst-the unwary subjects
can be guilty of the offense in a more
roundabout way.
1t is lese majestic to bring the King;
uniform into contempt. Members OF
theatrical companies who have appear
ed on the stage as comic characters at
tired In discarded military or nava
uniforms have occasionally been un
pleasantly reminded Of this fact. Care
full stage managers put themselves OIL
the safe side by seeing that no uni
form, whether to be worn by the hero
villain or low comedian of the piece, II
an exact copy of the real uniform Of
) any branch of his majesty's forces.