is, according to the civilians, questions which, with regard to the circumstances of the crime, are special when they should be general; or, in other words, those questions which, having an immediate reference to the crime, suggest to the criminal an immediate answer. Interrogations, according to the law, ought to lead to the fact indirectly and obliquely, but never directly or immediately. The intent of this injunction is, either that they should not suggest to the accused an immediate answer that might acquit him, or that they think it contrary to nature that a man should accuse himself. But, whatever be the motive, the laws✶ have fallen into a palpable contradiction, in condemning suggestive interrogations, whilst they authorize torture. Can there be an interrogation more suggestive than pain? Torture will suggest to a robust villain an obstinate silence, that he may exchange a greater punishment for a less; and to a feeble man, confession, to relieve him from the present pain, which affects him more than the apprehension of the future. If a special interrogation be contrary to the right of nature, as it obliges a man to accuse himself, torture will certainly do it more effectually. But men are influenced more by the names than the nature of things.

He who obstinately refuses to answer the interrogatories deserves a punishment, which should be fixed by the laws, and that of the severest kind, that criminals should not, by their silence, evade the example which they owe the public. But this punishment is not necessary when the guilt of the criminal

The author alludes to the laws of his own country. Editor.

criminal is indisputable; because in that case interrogation is useless, as is likewise his confession, when there are, without it, proofs sufficient. This last case is most common, for experience shews, that in the greatest number of criminal prosecutious the culprit pleads not guilty. Beccaria.

IRON BAR. See CHAIN.

JEWISH LAWS.

By the Jewish law, it was death for children to curse or strike their parents.

By the Jewish law, murder was punished by death, also sodomy and rapes; but if a virgin was deflowered without force, the offender was obliged to pay a fine and marry the woman.

By the Jewish law, theft was punished at discre tion, a fine being also levied according to the nature of the offence; but where man were stolen this theft was punished with death. Colquhoun.

JEWS, ITINERANT,

A class of cheats of the society of Jews, who are to be found in every street, lane, and alley, in and near the metropolis, under the pretence of purchas ing old clothes and metals of different sorts. Their chief business, really, is to prowl about the houses and stables of men of rank and fortune, for the purpose of holding out temptations to the servants to pilfer and steal small articles, not likely to be missed, which these Jews purchase at about one third of the real value. It is supposed that upwards of fifteen hundred of these depraved people are employed in diurnal journies of this kind; by which, through

through the medium of bad money and other fraudalent dealings, many of them acquire property, and then set up shops, and become receivers of stolen goods.

It is estimated that there are from fifteen to twenty thousand Jews in the city of London, besides, perhaps, about five or six thousand more in the great provincial and sea-port towns; where there are at least twenty synagogues, besides six in the metropolis. Most of the lower classes of those distinguished by the name of German or Dutch Jews live chiefly by their wits, and establish a system of mischievous intercourse all over the country, the better to carry on their fraudulent designs in the circulation of base money, the sale of stolen goods, and in the purchase of metals of various kinds; as well as other articles, pilfered from the dock-yards, and stolen in the provincial towns, which they bring to the metropolis to elude detection-and vice versa.

Educated in idleness from their earliest infancy, they acquire every debauched and vicious principle which can fit them for the most complicated arts of fraud and deception; to which they seldom fail to add the crime of perjury, whenever it can be of use, in shielding themselves or their associates from the punishment of the law. From the orange-boy and the retailer of seals, razors, glass, and other wares, in the public streets, to the shop-keeper, dealer in wearing apparel, or in silver and gold, the same principles of conduct too generally prevail.

The itinerants utter base money, to enable them, by selling cheap, to dispose of their goods; while those that are stationary, with very few exceptions, receive and purchase, at an under-price, whatever is brought them, without asking questions. Colquboun. KING*

KING'S EVIDENCE. See ACCOMPLICES.

KING'S STORES, STOLEN, EMBEZZLED, &c. IN THE THAMES.

The naval, victualling, and ordnance, stores pillaged in the dock-yards and other public reposi tories, and also from ships of war, transports, and navy and victualling hoys, in the river Thames and Medway, must amount to a very large sum annually. The detections, particularly in the victualling hoys and transports, since the establishment of the marine police, prove the existence of the evil and the wide field which it embraces.

The vicinity of the metropolis, the assistance afforded by old iron and store shops on the spot, by carts employed in this trade alone, constantly going and coming from and to the capital-by the advantage of an easy and safe conveyance for ponderous and heavy articles, in lighters and other craft passing up and down the river, and the extensive chain of criminal connection at every town and village on the Thames and Medway, which a course of many years has formed, joined to the ease with which frauds are committed, have combined to render this nefarious traffic a very serious and alarming evil.

Among the multitude of persons concerned in it, some are said to keep men constantly employed in untwisting the cordage, for the purpose of removing the king's mark, or coloured stran, which is introduced into it as a check against fraud; while others are, in like manner, employed in knocking the Broad Arrow out of copper bolts, nails, bar iron, and other articles on which it is impressed, so as to elude detection.

It is scarcely to be credited to what an extent the sale of the cordage, sail-cloth, and other naval articles, including victualling stores, thus plundered, is carried, in supplying coasting vessels and smaller craft upon the river Thames at a cheap rate.

If the actual value of stores deposited at the different dock yards and public repositories in the course of a year is to be considered as a rule whereby a judgment may be formed of the extent of the losses sustained by frauds, plunder, and embezzlement, it will be found to be very erroneous, since a large proportion of what forms the great aggregate loss sustained annually by government, does not arise from the actual stealing of stores, but from frauds committed in fabricating documents both at home and abroad. Colquhoun.

The acts of the 31st of Elizabeth, cap. 4. and the 22d of Charles II, cap. 5. made it felony, without benefit of clergy, to steal or embezzle any of his majesty's military or naval stores or provisions, above the value of twenty shillings.

By the 9 and 10 of William III, cap. 41. the re. ceivers of embezzled stores, or such as should have the same in their custody, are subject to a penalty of zool.

From this period, till the 1st of George the First, the attention of the legislature does not seem to have been directed to this object; when, by the statute, 1st Geo. I, stat. z. cap. 25. the principal officers or commissioners of the navy were authorized to issue warrants to search for public property stolen or embezzled, and to punish the offenders by fine or imprisonment.

A succeeding act, 9 Geo. I, cap. 8. empowered the judges to mitigate the fine of 2001. imposed