Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/511

 l$Oe VBDaBÀÎi BBPOBTËB. �for any defeet or imperfection in matter of form only, which shall net tend to the prejudice of the defendant ; that is, if the defeet is one of form, and the indietment is not so defect- ive in form as to be likely to prejudice the defendant, the defeet may be disregarded, or perhaps amended. �It is Bomewhat difficult to say what is form, and what is substance, in an indietment. A niee critic might insist that form is substance in criminal pleading, but the statute ia intended to have some operation, and I have been disposed to give it a liberal construction. I bave held that a partic- ular intent, which made an act a crime by the words of a statute, is part of the substance. On the other hand, mere mistakes, however serious, in expressing the substance of a crime, if the meaning can be understood, I look upon as formai. �By this rule I hold that the allegations of time in this indietment, one of which is repugnant to the other, amounts to a formai defeet or imperfection; it being set out inform- ally, but with no danger of mistake, that the defendant is accused of wilfully and fraudulently concealing from his assignee property ^hich he should have given up to him for the use of the oreditora. �Demurrer amended. ����