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Indictments.
2. The Time, sc. the day and year when
the Offence was done. |
Chap. 184. |
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3. The place, sc. the Town and County
where it was done, as at B.
in the County of C. |
Br. Indictment
24,
41, 42. |
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4. The Name or quality of the thing in which
the Offence is committed:
viz. of dead things it may be the Goods and Chattels, expressing
them certainly; of live things, Horse, Ox, Sheep, &c. but not Goods
and Chattels. So of Entry, &c, to express certainly whether it
be House,
Land, Meadow, Pasture, Wood, &c. |
Lamb. 478. |
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5. Also the value or price of the thing is
commonly to be set down to
aggravate the fault. |
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6. The manner of the fact, sc. the
manner and nature of the Offence;
as whether it be Felony, or Trespass, or penal Statute, &c. See
Lamb.
480. Br. Indict. 7. 36. |
Lamb. 480. |
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And yet for the form of Indictments the Jury are
not strictly tied
thereunto, (sc. to the day, year or place, &c.) but chiefly
to the manner
of Fact. Vide hic antea. |
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| Verity. |
Also Indictments ought to be framed so near the
truth as may be, and
the rather, so that they are to be found by the Jury upon their Oaths.
Co. 9. 119. Plo. 84. |
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Yea and Indictment being veredictum, id est,
dictum veritatis, and a
matter of Record ought to set forth all the truth that by Law is requisite;
for de non apparentibus et non existentibus eadem est ratio: and
every
part of the Indictment material ought to be found by the Oath of the Jurors,
and it is not to be supplied by Averment; otherwise the Indictment
will be insufficient. |
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But false Latin shall not make void an Indictments.
Co. 5. 121. |
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And to this purpose note, that false Latin may be
said to be of three
sorts. |
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First, words of Art, being words significant allowed
by our Law, and
known to the Sages of the Law, though not allowed by the Grammarians,
not having the Countenance of Latin; as Messuagium, Toftum, Gardin,
Bruera, Murdred, Burglariter, Felonice, &c. these and the
like are
words of Art, and are allowed in the Law; yea the Civilians and Physicians
do use the like, and every Science have their vocabula artis. |
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The second sort are false writing or Incongruous
Latin, as wiginti for
viginti, septimginti for septinginti, prefato for præfato,
&c. These two
former sorts shall not avoid or make void any Indictment, Grant or
Deed. |
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The third sort are words insensible, especially
if the words of Art are
written insensibly or falsly; as Murdredum for Murdrum, Burgariter
for Burglariter, Feloniter for Felonice. These
words Mrudredum, Burgariter,
and Feloniter, (being no Latin words, nor allowed by Law as
words of
Art) if they shall be in any place or point material, they do make void
the Indictment: except where such words insensible be surplusage.
See
Co. 4. 39. 42. & 10. 133. |
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And yet quære, for these words have
the countenance of those other
words of Art, and do shew the Court sufficiently what is thereby meant,
and seem to be only the false writing of the Clerks, and therefore might
be amended in case of Indictment. See Coke 10. 133. |
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