Odger's English Common Law

194 OFFENCES AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE,
shall be liable to be proceeded against, indicted, tried and
punished as if he were a principal offender. Every person,
who incites or attempts to procure or suborn another person
to commit an offence against this Act, shall be guilty of a
misdemeanour and, on conviction thereof on indictment, shall
be liable to imprisonment, or to a fine, or to both such
imprisonment and fine." 1
. Any conspiracy to defeat the ends of justice, e.g., by dis-
suading witnesses from giving evidence or by obstructing any
legal process, civil or criminal, is a misdemeanour. 2
conspiracy to accuse another falsely of a crime. 3
So is any
Again any one, who fabricates a false document, which if
genuine would be admissible in evidence in any judicial
proceeding, or tenders such a document in evidence knowing
it to have been so fabricated, is liable to the same punishment
as a witness who is convicted of perjury. It is a felony
punishable with penal servitude for life or for various terms
of years for any one to forge official or public documents,
foreign or colonial acts of State and judgments, orders of an
English Court, registers, by-laws, registers of British vessels,
certificates of convictions or acquittals, examined or certified
copies of any of these documents, or to tender the same in
evidence knowing them to have been forged. 4 So the fraudu-
lent fabrication of real evidence—as, for example, by tampering
with sealed samples—is a misdemeanour at common law. 6
A man who wilfully makes a false statement on oath, but not in a
judicial proceeding, is not guilty of perjury. But he was at common law
guilty of the misdemeanour of " making a false oath," and was punishable
with two years' imprisonment without hard labour. A more severe punishment
is now assigned by the Perjury Act, 1911, 8 which enacts that " if any
person
—
(i.) being required or authorised by law to make any statement on oath
for any purpose, and being lawfully sworn (otherwise than in a
judicial proceeding), wilfully makes a statement which is material
1 S. 7.
2 B. v. Mawbey (1796), 6 T. R. 619 ; 3 R. R. 282.
8 14 & 16 Vict. c. 100, s. 29.
4 Forgery Act, 1913 CA & i Geo. V. c. 27), s. 3.
6 R. v. Vreones, [189)7 1 Q. B. 360.
6 Ss. 2, 3(1).