Receiving stolen goods. Any person who shall buy or receive any stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen ; or shall re ceive, harbour, or conceal any felons or thieves, knowing them to be so, shall be deemed accessary to the felony ; and be Mg convicted, on the testimony of one witness, shall suffer death as a felon con vict; but he shall be entitled to his clergy. 5 Arnie, c. 31. Any person convicted of receiving or buying stolen goods, know ing them to be stolen, may be transport ed fbr fourteen years. 4 George I. c. 11. Where the principal felon is fbund guilty to the value of 10d., that is, of petit larce ny only, the receiver, knowing the goods to have been stolen, cannot be transport ed for fourteen years, and ought not to be put upon his trial. For the acts which make receivers of stolen goods, knowing ingly, accessaries to the felony, must be understood to make them accessaries in such cases only, where, by law, an acces sary may be ; and there can be no acces sary to petit larceny.
Every person who shall apprehend any one guilty of breaking open houses in a felonious manner, or of privately and fe loniously stealing goods, wares, or mer chandizes, of the value of 5s., in any shop., warehouse, coach-house, or stable, though it be not broken open, and though no per. son be therein to be put in fear, and shall prosecute him to conviction, shall have a certificate without fee, under the hand of the judge, certifying- such conviction, and within what parish and place tire felony was committed, and also that such felon was discovered and taken, by the person so discovering or apprehending him ; and if any dispute arise between several per sons so discovering or apprehending, the judge shall appoint the certificate into so many shares, to be divided among the persons concerned, as to him shall seem just and reasonable. This certificate is commonly called a Tyburn ticket, and ex empts the person from all parish and ward offices in the parish where the rob bery was committed.
With respect to the offence of larceny, it is difficult in so short a compass to de fine the particular distinctions which have been made; but it may be useful to men tion some general particulars.
To constitute a larceny, there must be a taking the goods without the consent of the owner ; so that a Nr loan, borrow. ing, or receipt of goods upon trust, which are afterwards converted, with intention to steal, to the use of the borrower, does not constitute a larceny or theft ; hut there are cases in which servants who have goods delivered to them, also ap prentices, bankers' clerks, and others, may be guilty of larceny ; and there are others, where the delivery of goods hav ing been obtained by fraud, for the pur pose of stealing them, a theft is held to be committed. A man may also be guilty of this offence, though the goods are his own, as where he steals goods from a pawnbroker, or other person who has a property in them for a particular purpose and limited time, with intent to charge him with the loss, The felonious taking must also be from the possession of the owner; that is, either constructively or acttcdiy his pos.
session ; which may be where the thief has the actual possession, as a watch de livered for the purpose of being pawned. And the goods must he personal chattels, not such as savour of the reality, such as standing corn ; but corn cut, or trees felled, are personal chatters, and may be the subject of larceny; and there are many statutes which make stealing cer tain articles, as lead, iron, and other things specified, affixed to the house or freehold, larceny. Bonds and bills were not such property as could be said to be stolen at common law, but they are made so by the statute law. And though it cannot be committed of vile animals which are wild by nature, yet the steal. ing of domesticated and tame animals is larceny, such as dogs, horses, fowls, and even hawks.