Odger's English Common Law

256 CONSPIRACY.
remain a crime, even though all the conspirators should
afterwards repent of their purpose and take no further step
in pursuance of it. " The overt acts which follow a con-
spiracy form of themselves no part of the conspiracy : they
are only things done to carry out the illicit agreement already
formed." 1
Yet they are often the only evidence of that
agreement, and are usually set out in the indictment, although
this is not essential. 2
Conspiracy consists " in the agreement of two or more to do an unlawful
act or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. So long as such a design rests
in intention only it is not indictable. "When two agree to carry it into
effect, the very plot is an act in itself and the act of each of the parties,
promise against promise, act against act. . . . The number and the com-
pact give weight and cause danger." 3
If in carrying into effect a criminal conspiracy the conspirators inflict
loss or damage on a private individual, he will have a private action for
the particular damage which he has thus separately suffered. "The
damage sustained by the plaintiff is the ground of the action, and not the
conspiracy.
"
4 And the damage must be either the natural and necessary
consequence of the defendants' acts, or the defendants must have contem-
plated or intended that such damage should fall on the plaintiff ; otherwise
it will be too remote. The crime is complete as soon as the unlawful agreement
has been made ; but to sustain a civil action there must be a
conspiracy, a wrongful act done in pursuance of it without sufficient justifi-
cation, and damage to the plaintiff. This class of civil actions founded
upon criminal conspiracies is discussed in Book III., Chap. XV.
If two or more agree to do a seditious act or to publish seditious words,
each is guilty of a seditious conspiracy. 6
If one man urges another to join with him in any criminal
act and the other refuses to do so, he is guilty of the mis-
demeanour of inciting or soliciting the other to commit that
crime; if the other agrees to join with him, both are guilty
of a conspiracy. If either of them subsequently attempts to
carry out their common criminal purpose, each is liable for
anything done by the other in furtherance of that purpose
and everything said or done by either conspirator is, after
1 Per Lord Brampton in Quinn v. Leathern, [1901] A. C. at p. 530.
2 See the Indictments in the ADpendix, Nos. 6 and 7.
3 Per cur. in Mulcahy v. B. (1.868), L. R. 3 H. L. at p. 317, cited with approval
by Lord Brampton in Quinn v. Leathern, [1901 j A. C. at p. 529, and by the Court
in B. v. Brailsford, [1905] 2 K. B. at p. 746.
* Skinner v. Guntoa (1669), 1 Wms. Saund. 229 b, n. 4 ; Buller's Nisi Prius,
14 ; Barber v. Lesiter (I860), 29 L. J. C. P. 161, 165.
6 See ante, p. 164.
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