Odger's English Common Law

SPECIAL STATUTES. 313
any custodian of the child who aids or abets him. More-
over, if the child is injured in such performance, the
employer is indictable for assault, and the Court at the- trial
may award compensation not exceeding £20 for the bodily
harm which the child has sustained. The consent of the child
or of its parents is no defence.
A. hires B., a boy of fifteen, to wheel 0., a girl of seventeen, in a barrow
along a tight-rope at a great height from the ground. D., the father
of B. and C, is a member of the same troupe, and had persuaded A. to
engage his children. A. and D. can both be summarily convicted and fined
under this section ; if B. or C. sustain any injury in the performance, A.
can be indicted for assault, and for manslaughter if the injury results in
death.
Many other acts which endanger human life have been dealt
with in previous chapters. Thus, sending a challenge to
fight a duel is a misdemeanour, 1 and should the encounter end
fatally, the fact that the deceased consented thus to risk his
life will afford no defence to his opponent. 2 Any one who
sends diseased meat to market to be sold for human food is
guilty of a misdemeanour and, if death results, of man-
slaughter. 3 Any serious surgical operation invoh r es risk
to the patient's life ; the utmost care is therefore required
from the surgeon operating. 4
Numerous other statutes besides those mentioned above
deal with acts endangering human life. Thus, " where any
person wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service
or of hiring, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe
that the probable consequences of his so doing, either alone
or in combination with others, will be to endanger human
life or cause serious bodily injury," he is liable to be fined
twenty pounds or to be imprisoned for three months with or
without hard labour. 5
Again, " any person who unlawfully
and maliciously causes by any explosive substance an explosion
of a nature likely to endanger life or to cause serious injury
1 See ante, pp. 183, 282.
» See ante, pp. 183, 282 ; B. v. Barromt (1853), 1 E. & B. 1.
8 See ante, pp. 41, 289.
* See ante ,p. 303.
* The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875 (38 & 3'9 Vict. c. 86), s. 5.