ASSAULT, (assultus, in Lat. from the verb assilere; whence the Fr. assailir, to assail, assault, or attack,) in the law of England, signifies a real injury violently offered to a man's person.
Assault denotes an injury of a more comprehensive nature than battery : for the former may be committed by merely offering a blow ; as when one lifts up his stick or his fist, in a threatening manner, at another, or strikes at, but misses him. And thus assault is de fined by Finch (Lib. 202.) to be, " an unlawful setting upon one's person :" Whereas, to constitute a battery, there must be an actual beating. (See BATTERY.) The feudists describe an assault, as impetus in pe•sonam ant locum, sive hoc Jiedibus fiat, vel equo, ant machinis, out quacunque alia re assiliatur. Zasius de Feud. p. 10. num. 38. Again : Assili•e est vim adferre. Lib. feud. 1. tit. 5. sect. 1. And the word assultus is used in the same sense in the laws of Edward the Confessor, c. 12.
To strike a man, therefore, even should he receive no injury from the blow, constitutes an assault ; nay, even the striking at a person, though he should be neither hit nor hurt, bath been adjudged to amount to assault. For assault does not always imply, that a blow was ac tually received ; and hence, in action of trespass for assault and battery, the offender may be found guilty of the assault, and acquitted of the battery. If a man threaten to beat another, or lie in wait to do it, whereby that other person is hindered in his business ; action lies for the injury.
In an action of trespass and assault, the defendant may plead in justification, mollitur manus imposuit, that he laid hands upon him gently, not in anger, nor with any intention of hurting him. A man may justify an assault in defence of his person or goods ; or of his wife, father, mother, or master; or for the maintenance of justice : And the husband, father, or master, ma, have action of trespass for the assault of the wife, child, or servant. Where a man is assaulted, and has no wit
nesses to prove the same, or in other cases, he may bring an 'intimation in the crown-office, and not have common action of trespass. Stat. 4 and 5 W. Sc M. e. 18.
When a member of parliament is assaulted, procla mation shall be made, that the party offending surrender himself into B. R. stat. 5 Hen. IV. c. 6.; and 11 Hen. VI. c. 11. The assaulting of'3 privy counsellor, in the execution of his office, is felony without benefit of clergy. Stat. 9 Ann. c. 16. And the assaulting or threatening a counsellor at law, or attorney employed in a cause against a man ; or a juror giving verdict against him ; his ad versary for suing him, &c. is punishable, on an indict ment, by fine and imprisonment. By statute 9 Edw. II. st. 1. c. 3., persons assaulting clergymen are liable to a double prosecution ; viz. in the temporal, and in the ec clesiastical court. By statute 12 Geo. I. c. 34., the as saulting a master wool-comber, weaver, &c. for refusing to comply with the demands of workmen, is made felony and transportation for seven years. Assaulting in the street or highway, with the design of spoiling people's clothes, is felony and transportation. 6 Geo. I. c. 23. sect. 11. The assaulting of persons, with intent to com mit robbery, is made felony and transportation, by stat. 7 Geo. II. c. 21. See Blackst. Comment. vol. iii. p. 120. Jacob's Law Dict.