Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/646

Rh 620 S E D S E D United Kingdom, as by law established, or either House of Parlia- ment, or the administration of justice, or to excite Her Majesty's subjects to attempt otherwise than by lawful means the alteration of any matter in church or state by law established, or to raise dis- content or disaffection amongst Her Majesty's subjects, or to pro- mote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different classes of Her Majesty's subjects. An intention to show that Her Majesty has been misled or mistaken in her measures, or to point out errors or defects in the Government or constitution as by law established, with a view to their reformation, or to excite Her Majesty's subjects to attempt by lawful means the alteration of any matter in church or state by law established, or to point out, in order to their removal, matters which are producing or have a tendency to produce feelings of hatred and ill-will between different classes of Her Majesty's subjects, is not a seditious intention. In determining whether the intention with which any words were spoken, any document was published, or any agreement was made, was or was not seditious, every person must be deemed to intend the consequences which would naturally follow from his conduct at the time and under the circumstances in which he so conducted himself" (Digest of the Criminal Law, 91-94). The principal enactments now in force dealing with seditious offences were all passed during the last twenty- five years of the reign of George III. They are 37 Geo. III. c. 123, prohibiting the administering or taking of unlawful oaths (see OATH) or the belonging to an unlaw- ful confederacy ; 60 Geo. III. and 1 Geo. IV. c. 1, pro- hibiting unlawful drilling and military exercises ; and the Acts for the suppression of corresponding societies, 39 Geo. III. c. 79 and 57 Geo. III. c. 19. No proceedings can be instituted under these last two Acts without the autho- rity of the law officers of the crown (9 and 10 Viet. c. 33). Under the head of statutes aimed at seditious offences may also be classed 2 Ric. II. st. 1, c. 5 and 12 Ric. II. c. 1 1, against scandalum magntitum or slander of great men, such as peers, judges, or great officers of state, whereby discord may arise within the realm, and 13 Car. II. c. 5, against tumultuous petitioning (see PETITION). There has been no prosecution in recent times for seditious words as distinguished from seditious libel, but such words have been admitted as evidence in proceedings for seditious CONSPIRACY (q.v.), as in the prosecution of O'Connell in 1844 and of Mr Parnell and others in 1880 (see Reg. v. Parnell, Cox's Criminal Cases, vol. xiv. 508). By the Prison Act, 1877, any prisoner under sentence for sedition or seditious libel is to be treated as a misdemeanant of the first division (40 and 41 Viet. c. 21, s. 40). Scotland. "All acts by which the minds of the people may be incited to defeat the Government or control legislation by violent or unconstitutional means are seditious" (Macdonald, Criminal Law, 229). Sedition is punishable by fine or imprisonment or both (6 Geo. IV. c. 47). A very large number of Acts of the Scot- tish Parliament dealt with sedition, beginning as early as 1184 with the assize of William the Lion, c. 29. Leasing-making is to be distinguished from sedition, as it attacked only the sovereign individually, not the Government. United States. In the Acts of Congress the word "sedition" appears to occur only in the army and navy articles. A soldier joining any sedition or who, being present at any sedition, does not use his utmost endeavour to suppress the same is punishable with death. A sailor uttering seditious words is punishable at the dis- cretion of a court-martial. In 1798 an Act of Congress called the Sedition Act was passed, which expired by effluxion of time in 1801. Its constitutionality was violently assailed at the time. (See Story on the constitution of the United States, 1293-4.) Several prosecutions under the Act will be found in Wharton's State Trials. Sedition is also dealt with by the State laws mostly in a very liberal spirit. Thus the Louisiana Code, 394, enacts that "there is no such offence known to our law as defamation of the Govern- ment or either of its branches, either under the name of libel, slander, seditious writing, or other appellation." By 111, to con- stitute the offence of sedition "there must be not only a design to dismember the State, or to subvert or change its constitution, but an attempt must be made to do it by force. " Continent of Europe. The Continental codes as a rule are little more definite than English law in their treatment of sedition. In Germany a distinction is drawn between Auflauf, the remaining together of a mob after the authorities have thrice bid it disperse, and Aufruhr or Aufstand, an organized resistance to the autho- rities ; but no definition is given of the terms. The Hungarian penal code defines Aufstand to be an armed assembly which has the intention of attacking a class of citizens, a nationality, or u religious body. The French penal code recogniy.es a difference be- tween sedition and reunion seditieuse. If carried out with sufficient numbers and sufficient force sedition becomes rebellion. Section 100 exempts from the penalties of sedition those who have merely been present at a seditious meeting without taking any active part there- in, and have dispersed at the first warning of the military or civil authorities. SEDLEY, SIR CHARLES (1639-1701), a noted "wit" and patron of literature in the Restoration period, the " Lisideius " of Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy. He was born in 1639, the son of Sir John Sedley of Aylesford in Kent. Like many other men of rank and fashion at the court of " the merry monarch," Sedley had poetical am- bition, and wrote comedies and songs. His most famous song, " Phyllis," is much more widely known now than the author's name. His first comedy, The Mulberry Garden, was published in 1668, but it does not sustain Sedley's contemporary reputation for wit in conversation. He was probably too indolent to master the art of providing con- tinuous opportunities for brilliant sayings, although he continued to try,, wrote two more comedies, and left a comedy and two tragedies behind him to be published after his death. An indecent frolic in Bow Street, for which he was heavily fined, made him notorious in his youth, but later on he sobered down, entered parliament for New Romney (Kent), and took an active part in politics. A speech of his on the civil list after the Revolution is cited by Macaulay as a proof (which his plays do not afford) that his reputation as a man of wit and ability was de- served. His bon mot at the expense of James II. is another well-known fragment of his wit. The king had seduced his daughter and created her countess of Dorchester, where- upon Sedley remarked that he hated ingratitude, and, as the king had made his daughter a countess, he would en- deavour to make the king's daughter a queen. Sedley died on 20th August 1701. SEDUCTION. The action for seduction of an unmarried woman in England stands in a somewhat anomalous posi- tion. The theory of English law is that the woman herself has suffered no wrong ; the wrong has been suffered by the parent or person in loco parentis, who must sue for the damage arising from the loss of service caused by the seduction of the woman. Some evidence of service must be given, but very slight evidence will be sufficient. Although the action is nominally for loss of service, still exemplary damages may be given for the dishonour of the plaintiff's family beyond recompence for the mere loss of service. An action for seduction cannot be brought in the county court except by agreement of the parties. As to seduction of a married woman, the old action for criminal conversation was abolished by the Divorce Act, 1857, which substituted for it a claim for damages against the co-respondent in a divorce suit. Seduction in England is not as a rule a criminal offence. But a conspiracy to seduce is indictable at common law. And the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 (which extends to the United Kingdom), makes it felony to seduce a girl under the age of thirteen, and misdemeanour to seduce a girl between thirteen and sixteen (48 and 49 Viet. c. 69, 4, 5). Tho same Act also deals severely with the cognate offences of procuration, abduction, and unlawful detention with the intent to seduce a woman of any age. In Scotland the seduced woman may sue on her own account. United Slates. -In the United States State legislation has gener- ally modified the common law. In some States the father bringi the action as the representative of the family whose purity has been invaded ; in others the woman herself may bring the action. In many States there is a criminal as well as a civil remedy. Tho penal codes of New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, and other States make it a crime to seduce under promise of marriage an unmarried woman of good reputation. Subsequent intermarriage of the parties