Page:Medical jurisprudence (IA medicaljurisprud03pari).pdf/99

 is an accessary to the murder." 1 Hawk. P. C. 121, and authorities there cited.

By the old law there was this difference between ordinary murder, and the murder of bastard children, that in the latter case the onus probandi was in some measure thrown upon the supposed criminal, a practice totally at variance with our general principles of justice; and though many fictions and judicial evasions were resorted to for the purpose of softening the extreme rigor of this statute, as by supposing that very slight circumstances, as knocking for help when in labour, providing linen, &c. took away the concealment, yet the law remained in nominal force till the passing of the stat. 43 Geo. 3, c. 58, by which it is enacted that trials of women for the murder of bastard children should proceed on the same rules of evidence as trials for murder. *