stream, or lake, within one league of any licensed ferry. CCLXXX. Beating, without sufficient motives or lawful authority, any slave employed in the lawful service of his master, or other person having charge of such slave. CCLXXXI. Wantonly or maliciously killing any horse, mule, ass, cow, or animal of the cow kind, or dog belonging to another, without lawful excuse-CCLXXXII. or wantonly, maliciously, or cruelly beating, maiming, or disabling any such animal, without lawful excuse. CCLXXXIII

VII. Forgery. CCLXXXVIII. Furnishing slave with false free papers, or certificates of birth or christening, showing such slave to be free born.

1

ART. CCL. Whenever a free person shall be convicted of having maliciously set fire to a mansion house, or other building, or to a vessel, or other water craft, the person thus convicted shall suffer death.2

ART. CCLI. Whenever any free person shall be convicted of having maliciously prepared combustible matters, and put them in any place with the intent to set fire to a mansion house, or other building, or to a vessel, or other water craft, the person thus convicted shall be sentenced to an imprisonment at hard labor, for a term not less than ten years, nor more than fifteen years, although the said person had not yet set fire to the said combustible matters.*

1 § 1, act 21 February, 1828, p. 38.

2 This act virtually repeals the 4th section of the act of 22 February, 1817, 1 D. 384, so far as they conflict. See note 4, infra.

3 § 2, act 21 February, 1828, p. 38.

4 The act of 1828, inserted in the text, may be considered as having repealed, to all practical purposes, the law of the 22 February, 1817, § 4 & 5, 1 D. 384. The latter had virtually repealed the third section of the previous act of 4 May, 1805, 1 D. 362. It is possible that offences may occur that can only be punished under the provisions of the 4th and 5th sections of the act of 1817. They are, in consequence, subjoined, with the exception of a part

ART. CCLII. If any person, or persons, shall wilfully and maliciously set fire to, or burn, or attempt to burn, or otherwise destroy any public work, or works belonging to a corporation, other than those for the burning of which he could be prosecuted for arson, the said person, or persons shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for not less than one, nor more than ten years.

ART. CCLIII. Any person who shall wilfully and mali

of the 4th section repealed by the 1st section of the act of 21 February, 1828, p. 38, art. CCL.

Section 4. If any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously set fire to, or burn any fences, piles of wood, boards and lumber, or other combustible matter, by means of which any dwelling house or other building of another, or any ship, vessel, or other water craft of another, lying within the limits of this state, be burnt, such offender, or offenders, and any person present, aiding, abetting, or consenting in the commission of the said offence, or accessary thereto before the fact by counselling, hiring, or procuring the same to be done, on conviction of any of said offences, shall be sentenced to an imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than seven, nor more than fourteen years.

Section 5. If any person or persons attempt wilfully and maliciously to set fire to any dwelling house, or any other building of another, situate in any part of this state, or to set fire to any ship, vessel, or other water craft of another, lying within the limits of this state, such offender, or offenders, and any person aiding, abetting, or consenting in the said attempt, or accessary thereto before the fact, as aforesaid, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned at hard labor for a time not less than five, nor more than ten years.

Section 2. Whenever the offences mentioned in the previous section shall have been committed by a slave, with the consent or connivance of his owner, or of any other free person, such slave, or slaves, so committing said offence, shall, on conviction, suffer corporeal punition, not extending to death or mayhem, and the person, or persons so consenting or conniving, shall be responsible in damages to the full amount of the value of the property so injured or destroyed.

Section 3. If any slave, or slaves shall wilfully and maliciously commit any of the offences enumerated in the previous sections of this act, such slave or slaves shall, on conviction, suffer corporeal punishment, at the discretion of the court, not extending to death, and his, her, or their owners shall be responsible in damages to the full amouut of the value of such slave or slaves. 7 § 13, act 4 May, 1805, 1 D. 364.

ciously burn any hovel, crib, cock, mow, or stack of hay, fodder, corn, or grain, or shall be accessary to either of said offences before the fact, shall, upon conviction thereof, pay the damages that any person may sustain thereby, and shall moreover suffer imprisonment at hard labor, not less than seven, nor more than fourteen years.

ART. CCLIV.9 If any free negro, mulatto, indian, or mustee, shall maliciously burn or destroy any stacks of rice, corn, or other grain, or produce, raw or manufactured, of this [state], this free negro, mulatto, or mustee, shall suffer death.10

8 So much of this section as provided for the punishment of any person who should wilfully and maliciously burn " any out-house, barn, or stable, not adjoining some dwelling house, sugar house, cotton house, cotton gin house, or store," is virtually repealed by § 1, act 21 February, 1828, p. 38, art. CCL. ante. See art. CCLIV.

9 Part of § 7, part 2, act 7 June, 1806, 1 D. 115.

10 The omission of the word "indian" in the last clause of this sentence, appears to have been accidental. The language which precedes this provision in the original act, precludes all doubt as to the intention of the legislature to include indians, with the others, for whom it prescribes a punishment. The section in the original act commences-"The different crimes and offences hereafter particularly described, are hereby declared to be capital crimes." So much of this section as related to the crime of rape is re-enacted in the subse. quent law of 16 February, 1818, 1 D. 129, art. CCXXX The part which provided that whoever should "set fire to, or willingly or maliciously burn or destroy any building or house" should suffer death, was virtually repealed (except so far as the word "destroy" in the act of 7 June, 1806, may be consider. ed as extending it to cases not embraced in the act of 22 February, 1817) by the act of 22 February, 1817, § 4, 1 D. 384, note 4, ante, which changed the punishment to imprisonment for a period not less than seven nor more than fourteen years. The subsequent act of 21 February, 1828, § 1, p. 38. art. CCL, restored the former penalty, declaring that any free person convicted of maliciously setting fire to any mansion house or other building, should suffer death. The part punishing any free man of color or indian for "maliciously stealing any slave," is virtually repealed by the act of 6 March, 1819, § 3, 1 D. 398, art. CCLXIII. So much as related to the offence of poisoning, is inclu ded in the general terms of the first section of the act of 7 June, 1806, 1 D. 376, art. CCXXIX. The section in the text, and that which forms art. CCXXIX were passed on the same day. The former punishes with death

ART. CCLV." If any person, with intent to kill, rob, steal, commit a rape, or to do or perpetrate any other felony, shall, in the night time, break and enter, or having, with such felonious intent, entered, shall, in the night time break a dwelling house, any person then being lawfully therein, and such offender being at the time of such breaking or entering armed with a dangerous weapon, or arming himself or herself in such house with a dangerous weapon, or committing an actual assault upon any person lawfully being in such house, every such offender, and any person present, aiding, assisting, or consenting in such burglary, or accessary thereto before the fact, by counselling, hiring, or procuring such burglary to be committed, who shall be duly convicted thereof, shall suffer the punishment of death.12

ART. CCLVI.13 If any person, with intent to kill, rob, steal, commit a rape, or to do or perpetrate any other felony, shall in the night time break and enter, or having, with such felonious intent, entered, shall in the night time break a dwelling house, without being armed with a dangerous weapon, or without arming him or herself in such house with a dangerous weapon, and without committing an assault upon any person lawfully being in such house, every such offender, and every person present, aiding, and abetting in such burglary, or accessary thereto, before the fact, by counselling, hiring, or procuring such burglary to be committed, who shall be duly convicted thereof, shall be punished by confinement at hard labor not exceeding fourteen years.'

14

"any free negro, mulatto, indian, or mustee who shall wilfully or maliciously poison, or maliciously administer poison to any free man, woman, child, servant, or slave"-the latter, "any person who shall administer any kind of poison to any person with the intent to commit the crime of murder." The portion of § 7 of the act of 1806 inserted in the text, is all that remains in force applicable to free persons.

113, act 20 March, 1818, 1 D. 389.

12 This act virtually repeals the 5th section of the act of 4 May, 1805, 1 D. 362.

134, act 20 March, 1818, 1 D. 390.

14 The punishment of solitary imprisonment prescribed by this section was

ART. CCLVII.15 If any person with intent to kill, rob, steal, commit a rape, or to do or perpetrate any other felony, shall in the night time break and enter into any shop, store, court house, church, barn, rice or sugar house, cotton gin, office, warehouse, or any out house appurtenant to a dwelling house, plantation, or any ship, or vessel, or having with such felonious intent entered, shall in the night time break any such house, building, ship, or vessel, and all and every person present, aiding, assisting, or consenting in such burglary, or accessary thereto, before the fact, by counselling, hiring, or procuring such burglary to be committed, who shall be thereof duly convicted, shall suffer confinement at hard labor for a term not exceeding ten years."

ART. CCLVIII." If any person with intent to kill, rob, steal, commit a rape, or to do or perpetrate any other felony, shall in the night time enter without breaking, or in the day time break or enter any dwelling house, or out house thereto adjoining and occupied therewith, or any office, shop, or warehouse, or any ship or vessel lying within the body of a parish, every such offender, and every such person present, aiding, or abetting in the commission of such offence, or who shall have counselled, hired, or procured the same to have been committed, being thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by confinement at hard labor not exceeding five years, and be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars.18

done away in all cases, "except in enforcing obedience to the regulations of the police of the penitentiary," by the act of 12 March, 1838, § 4, p. 109, art. DLI.

15 § 5, act 20 March, 1818, 1 D. 390.

16 The punishment of solitary confinement prescribed by this section, was. abolished by act of 12 March, 1838, see note 14 supra.

17 § 7, act 20 March, 1818, 1 D. 391.

18 The punishment of solitary confinement inflicted by this section, was abolished by an act of 1838, see note 14, supra. The act in the text inflicts the punishment prescribed by it, on any person who shall "in the day time break or enter any dwelling house," &c.—the french part of the act, on any person who," pendant le jour entre avec effraction."