Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (4th ed, 1770, vol IV).djvu/51

Ch. 3. WRONGS. 39 his wife, who have any of them committed a felony, the receivers become acceffories ex pot facto. But a feme covert cannot become an acceory by the receipt and concealment of her huband; for he is preumed to act under his coercion, and therefore he is not bound, neither ought he, to dicover her lord.

laft point of enquiry is, how acceffories are to be treated, confidered diftindt from principals. And the general rule of the antient law (borrowed from the Gothic conflitutions ) is this, that acceffories hall fuffer the fame punimment as their principals : if one be liable to death, the other is alfo liable : as, by the laws of Athens, delinquents and their abet- tors were to receive the fame punifhment d. Why then, it may be afked, are fuch elaborate diftinctions made between acceffo- ries and principals, if both are to fuffer the fame punimment ? For thefe reafons. 1. To diftinguiih the nature and denomina- tion of crimes, that the accufed may know how to defend him- felf when indicted : the commiffion of an actual robbery being quite a different accufation, from that of harbouring the robber. 2. Becaufe, though by the antient common law the rule is as before laid down, that both mall be punifhed alike, yet now by the Statutes relating to the benefit of clergy a distinction is made between them : acceffories after the fact being (till al- lowed the benefit of clergy in all cafes ; which is denied to the principals, and acceffories before the fact, in many cafes ; as in petit treaibn, murder, robbery, and wilful burning e . And per- haps if a distinction were constantly to be made between the punishment of principals and acceffories, even before the fact, the latter to be treated with a little lefs feverity than the former, it might prevent the perpetration of many crimes, by increasing the difficulty of finding a perfon to execute the deed itfelf ; as his danger would be greater than that of his accomplices, by

z 3 Int. 108. 2 Hawk. P.C. 320. a 1 Hal. P.C. 621. b See Stiernhook. ibid. c 3 Inft. 188. d Pott. Antiq. b.1. c.26. e 1 Hal. P. C. 615. reaon