[107] Blackstone.
[108] Blackstone.
[109] Hale.
[110] Hale.
[111] It may not be improper in this place to hint, that there is a deficiency in the present state of the Law, which calls aloud for a remedy. None can be arrested on a Sunday, but for felony or breach of the peace (except in certain cases, where their guilt has been previously decided on, as in Escape, &c.) By this means Lottery-Vagrants, Gamblers, Sharpers, and Swindlers, bid defiance to the Civil Power on that day; while a person guilty of pushing or striking another in an accidental squabble, may be arrested and confined.
[112] In consequence of some doubts which have been started relative to washed money, the reward in this case is not paid; it is confined entirely to the conviction of Coiners.
[113] This is a Certificate which may be assigned once, exempting the person who receives it, or his immediate assignee, from all offices within the parish or ward where the felony was committed. In some parishes it will sell from 25l. to 30l. In others it is not worth above 15l. to 18l. according to local situation.
[114] The expence to the Public for rewards paid by the Sheriffs of the different Counties for 12 years, from 1786 to 1797 inclusive, appears from the Appendix of the 28th Report of the Select Committee on Finance, page 104, to stand thus:
| 1786 | £.10,840 |
| 1787 | 15,060 |
| 1788 | 6,590 |
| 1789 | 7,340 |
| 1790 | 8,970 |
| 1791 | 6,050 |
| £.54,850 | |
| 1792 | 7,330 |
| 1793 | 8,160 |
| 1794 | 7,140 |
| 1795 | 3,290 |
| 1796 | 4,010 |
| 1797 | 9,650 |
| £.39,580 | |
| Total in 12 years, | £.94,430. |
[115] Grand Larceny is defined to be a felonious and fraudulent taking away by any person, of the mere personal goods of another, above the value of twelve pence.—1 Hawk. P.C. c. 33. § 1.