person guilty of any of the following offences will be liable to a penalty not exceeding 1'25, or to six months' imprison ment :—(1) omitting to give any of the required notices, or knowingly and wilfully making or causing or procuring any other person to•.make any false statement in any such notice ; (2) refusing to allow an inspector, or other authorised person, to inspect an infant under the protection of the Act, or the premises in which it is retained or received ; (3) obstructing an inspector when visiting premises under authority of a warrant ; (4) retaining or receiving an infant in excess of the number allowed by the local authority to be received ; (5) refusing to comply with an order taking away the custody of an infant or obstructing an inspector or authorised person in the execution thereof; (6) retaining or receiving an infant without lawful sanction after having had an infant taken away by the local authority, or after having been convicted for cruelty to children. And see further hereon under INFANTS.
BAIL.--In the article on bailments it will be seen that when A. deposits a chattel with B. for safe custody, such chattel is said to be bailed to B., the bailee. So when a man being in the custody of the law is handed over by the police or a magistrate to a private person who undertakes to keep him safely, and produce him to answer the charge made against him, at a specified date or place, the man charged is said to be on tail and his private custodian is called his bailee, or more commonly, his bail. We will here call the bailee a surety. Where a person is arrested without warrant, and cannot be brought before the Court within twenty-four hours of the arrest, a superintendent or inspector of police has authority to let him out on bail. In London, the constable in charge of the police station has, under like circumstance, in cases of petty misdemeanours, a similar authority. If the sureties believe that the person for whom they are responsible meditates flight from justice, they may arrest him, take him before a magistrate, deliver him up, and obtain their own discharge. Or they may apply for a warrant for his arrest, and when the arrest is effected, they will be discharged. In criminal cases,
as a rule, only householders are accepted as sureties ; not an accomplice, a married woman, an infant, a prisoner, or the accused's solicitor. A person who offers himself as a surety may be required to give information, on oath, as to his means, and an interval of forty-eight hours may elapse before he is accepted, and the person charged set at liberty. The object of this inter val is to afford the police an opportunity to inquire into the character and solvency of the proposed surety. It is illegal for any money or security to be lodged with the surety as security against the flight of the person charged ; and any contract in reset thereof would be void and could not be sued upon.
In the case of treason, bail can only be allowed by order of a Secretary of State or the High Court. In other cases of felony, and certain specified misdemeanours such as perjury, obtaining by false pretences, riot, and assault on a.police officer, bail is in the discretion of the magistrate. In cases of the unspecified misdemeanours, such as libel, he is bound to allow bail ; though in these as in the others the magistrate has discretion as to the amount of the bail to be demanded, and the sufficiency of the sureties. A demand for " excessive" bail is prohibited by the Bill of nights. It is doubtful whether the High Court can interfere with a magistrate's discretion to refuse bail on a remand of the person charged, in consequence of the adjournment Of the hearing ; but upon committal for trial, the prisoner has an appeal to that Court uppn refusal to grant bail.
If the person charged should not surrender for trial at the time and place specified, the surety will be required to forfeit the amount of his bond, and in case of non-payment it w ill be recovered in the same way as a fine im posed on a conviction. Such a forfeiture is called enforcing a recognisance. In Scotland all offences except treason and murder are bailable by the magis trate having jurisdiction to commit for the offence bailed against ; the application for bail should be in writing, and appeal lies to the High Court the magistrate. In principle, the law and practice is the same as in England.