Alaska sentinel., 1908-07-09
LEsE MAJEsTE IN ENGLAND.
Csing Stamp Upside Down Is Pun
 lahabla-

Csing Stamp Upside Down I. Pun' ishable.
 Many people blissfully imagine that lese majeste-that is, insulting royalty lis crime peculiar to foreign coun- tries and unknown in free and happy Britain. That, however, Is where they make mistake, says Pearson's Week. y.
 There are all sorts of pains and pen alties on the statute book relative to peculiar British forms of lese majeste. Many of them have fallen into oblivion or abeyance 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
 It Is, for instance, technically pun fshable offense to stick a 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- yented-might easily have landed the offender In prison on a charge of seek ing to bring ridicule on the sovereign, or to express contempt for IS author ity by causing his picture to stand on Its head.
 Also 1t Is a punishable offense to de- face a 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 peremptorily or dered to take 1t down and abjectly apol- ogize, and If he escaped a heavy fine would have to thank his majestys 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 subject to hoist 1t Is nominally equiv alent to high treason. The union jack, as the flag of the nation, Is a different thing altogether, and can be displayed l by anybody.
 It is popularly supposed that In this country a man can get up and say whatever he likes about the sovereign with impunity. This is true only with In strictly defined limits. A Socialist orator can publicly denounee the theo- retical 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- sultingly or slightingly of the King per sonally he would be at once run in" 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 trifilng 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 he struck her majesty across the face with his walking stick. This was sufficient to bring him within the shadow of the scaffold. He was condemned to death and would have been hanged had his sentence not been commuted.
 Apart from direct methods of com hitting lese majeste In Ensland-and the foregoing does not by any means exhaust the list-the unwary subjects can be guilty of the offense in a more roundabout way.
 It is lese majeste to bring the Kings uniform into contempt. Members of theatrical companies who have appear ed on the stage as comic characters at tired in discarded military or naval uniforms have occasionally been un- pleasantly reminded of this fact. Care ful stage managers put themselves on the safe side by seeing that no uni form, whether to be worn by the hero. villain or low comedian of the piece, is an exact copy of the real uniform of