DECOYING ore CHILDREN. The crime of stealing human creatures, the plagittm of the Roman law and of the law of Scotland, is severely punished by the legislation of every civilized country. In countries where slavery does not exist, the theft of a human adult is a crime which can scarcely occur. Where a free man is wrongously captured or detained, the crime Is not theft, but Wrongous imprisonment, which will be dealt with by the criminal law as an injury to the public, while at the same time the individ ual will be entitled to recover damages for the injury which he has personally sustained. Formerly, it was regarded as treason to the king, inasmuch as it was a wrongful detain ing of his free liegeman without his license or commission, and as such was punishable with death, both in England and Scotland (Flume's Cana. i. p. 83). The only form in which the crime has been dealt with in modern times is that of child-stealing, for which sentence of death was pronounced in Scotland so lately as 1817; but the libel is now invariably restricted, in which case sentence of transportation has usually been pro nounced. In England the offense is statutory, it being enacted by 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, s.
24, "That if any one shall maliciously, either by force or fraud; lead or take away, or decoy or entice away, or detain any child under the age of ten years, with intent to deprive the parent or parents, or any person having the lawful care of such child, of its custody, or to steal any article upon or about its person; or if any person shall receive or harbor such child for such purposes, every such offender shall be guilty of felony, and liable to be transported for seven, or to be imprisoned for two years; and if a male, to be thrice whipped." The act does not apply to any person who shall have claimed to be the father of an illegitimate child.