CHAP. V.
The Crime of Robbery[519] may also be passed over, as the suit has nothing to distinguish it from the others.
CHAP. VI.[520]
The Crime of Rape[521] is that with which a Woman charges a Man when she alleges, that he committed a violence on her person, whilst in the King’s peace.[522] A Woman, having suffered any such violence, is bound immediately, whilst the crime is recent, to go to the nearest village, and there state the injury to respectable Men, and shew the external marks of violence.[523] She should, in the next place, do the same thing to the Chief Officer of the Hundred; and, lastly, she should publicly complain of her injury in the next County Court. An accusation of this kind being made, the Judgment is as before laid down. A Woman, accusing any one of such a Crime, is heard in the same manner, as is usual concerning any other personal injury which has been offered her. But it should be understood, that it is at the Election of the Accused in such a Case, either to submit to the burthen of making Purgation, or to sustain the woman’s proof against him. It should likewise be remarked, that if any one be convicted in a suit of this kind, the Judgment will be similar to that in the foregoing suits. Nor will it suffice, after Judgment, if the Malefactor wish to take the Woman he has injured to Wife. For thus it would frequently happen, that Men of servile condition would, by reason of one pollution, bring perpetual disgrace upon Women of noble birth, or that Men of high rank would be disgraced by inferior Women, and thus dishonor their fair lineage. But, previously to Judgment, it is customary for the Woman and the accused to be reconciled, by means of a marriage between them; but this step is authorised by the License of the Prince, or that of his Justices, and the consent of the Parents.
CHAP. VII.
The crime of Falsifying,[524] in a general sense, comprises under it many particular species. As, for example, false Charters—false Measures—false Money—and others of a similar description, which contain such a falsifying, on which a person ought to be accused, and, if convicted, condemned. The manner and order of prosecuting these different species of the crime may be sufficiently collected, from what has gone before. One thing, however, should be observed, that if a person be convicted of falsifying a charter, it becomes necessary to distinguish, whether it be a royal[525] or a private charter; because in the former case, the party, when convicted of this offence, shall be condemned, as in the crime of læse majesty. But, if the charter be a private one, then, the person convicted is to be dealt with in a milder manner, as in other inferior crimes of Falsifying, which are punished by the loss of members only, according to the will and beneficence of the princely disposition, as we formerly observed.