ENTERED according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by JAMES KAY, JUN. and BROTHER, in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

ON submitting to the profession, in 1846, a Treatise on American Criminal Law, my first design was to have annexed to it a Collection of Precedents of Indictments and Pleas, suited to the use of practitioners throughout the Union. The great number of forms, however, which the varying systems of the federal and state courts made necessary, and the large amount of notes called for both by the newness of the material and by the increasing intricacy of criminal pleading, led to a variation from my original plan. The forms which are now presented, may be considered under three classes: first, those which have been directly sustained by the courts; second, those which have been prepared by eminent pleaders, but which have not been judicially tested; and third, those which have been drawn from the English books. Those composing the first class, wherever the pleading in the particular case is not set out in the report, have been made up by recourse to the records of the court in which the trial took place. In preparing the second, I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to the printed volume of Mr. DANIEL DAVIS, for many years Solicitor-General of Massachusetts, and to a manuscript collection, begun in 1778 by Mr. BRADFORD, Attorney-General successively of Pennsylvania and of the United States, and continued by Mr. J. D. SERGEANT, Mr. JARED INGERSOLL, Mr. CHARLES LEE, Mr. RAWLE, Mr. A. J. DALLAS and Mr. RUSH, who were either his cotemporaries or his immediate successors in the state or federal prosecutions. In selecting the forms which fall under the third head, I have relied chiefly on the treatises of Mr. STARKIE, Mr. ARCHBOLD and Mr. DICKINSON, introducing in addition a series of indictments, which have been sustained by the English courts since the date of those publications.

In the first book is given a general form of indictment with caption, commencement and conclusion, adapted to the federal courts and to those of the several states; and to each averment in the text is attached a note incorporating the doctrine bearing upon

it. The indictments relating to each individual offence are in like manner preceded by a general preliminary form, to which are appended notes divided on the same principle of analysis. On such a plan, the duty of the Editor is first to separate the authorities, English and American, into compartments corresponding in subject matter with the several averments in the indictment, and then to connect with each of them, in the order in which they stand, its own particular portion of commentary. It is plain, that the value of a work thus prepared must depend upon the fidelity with which both in text and note the settled law is observed; and I have thought it judicious, therefore, when referring to the English learning, to depend chiefly on the expression given to it by the recognized English commentaOn this principle, I have placed great reliance on the very elaborate and lucid notes by Mr. SERJEANT TALFOURD to Dickinson's Quarter Sessions, many of which I have incorporated at large, and which may be safely referred to, as containing not only the most modern but the most succinct exposition of English crown law. I should be doing great injustice, also, not only to myself, but to others to whose prompt and intelligent kindness I am under the strongest obligations, did I withhold, at the close of this undertaking, my thanks to the many professional brethren, both here and throughout the Union, from whom I have received aid during its progress.

tors.

Philadelphia, November, 1848.

II. General Frame of Indictment at Common Law,

III. Commencements and Conclusions in the Federal and State

PAGE.

1

5

IV. Riot, Affray, Tumultuous Conduct, Rescue, Prison
Breach, &c., Resistance to and Assaults on Officers of
Justice, -

V. Compounding Felony,

487

VI. Misconduct in Office; including Extortion, Neglect of
Duty, Escape, and Cruelty to Seamen, Children and
Paupers,

VII. Libel,

VIII. Offences against Foreign Ministers,

- 516

.

581

IX. Bigamy, Adultery and Fornication,
X. Forestalling, Holding Illegal Vendue, Maintenance, Bri-
bery, Corruption and Double Voting at Elections,
Betting at Elections, Embracery, Betting at a Horse
Race, Winning Money at Cards, Breach of the Pilot
Laws in Massachusetts,

XI. Challenging to Fight,

587

604

608

XII. Attempts and Solicitations to Commit Offences,
XIII. Revolt, Piracy, and Violation of the Laws Concerning

XIV. Offences against the Post Office Laws and Revenue Laws, 627
XV. Treason,