BRIBERY, in law, is that offence which consists in the giving, or accepting, a reward for the purpose of bi assing the receiver in the discharge of sonic public duty. The term is said to be derived from the French bribe, signifying originally a piece of bread, but coming after wards to denote, generally, a part or portion of any thing; as, in the present instance, a part of the unjust gains likely to accrue from the corrupt conduct of the party bribed.
We have defined the offence as consisting, 1st, in giving, as well as accepting a reward ; for truly the mo ral turpitude may be as great in the giver as in the re ceiver ; and accordingly, the law of most countries, where bribery is at all punished, chastises both parties as equally as circumstances will permit. We have said, that it consists, 2dly, in giving or accepting a re ward; under which term is understood not only every species of reward, but every Promise or !tope of it. This reward must, idly, be for the purpose of perverting the conduct of the receiver; for it is not necessary, to con stitute the crime, that the perversion or bias should ac tually take place. The giver has done all he could on his part to effect his purpose; and the receiver by ac cepting the bribe, without disclosing the fact, and mak ing the due exertions to bring the offender to punish ment for even this attempt upon and insult to his character, manifests such a looseness, at least, and corruptibility of principle, that the law will not give him credit for actual purity of conduct. We have said, lastly, that the reward must be given for the purpose of biassing the receiver in the discharge of some public dub,. In common language, the term is not thus limit ed. However private the employment and condition of the party may be in which the corrupt influence ap pears, it is still denominated bribery. Thus, one is said to be brib• d to leave his master's service before the ex piry of his agreement—to write an abusive anonymous letter—to commit a theft, Sc.r. In law, however, the term is more restricted; and though the code of this and other countries will by no means overlook the in stigator of private mischief, yet neither will it pursue him under the specific charge, nor punish him with the proper pains of bra) 'ry. But neither, on the other hand, is the offence confined, as is sometimes imagined, to corrupt conduct in the public function of administering law and justice to the community. The malpractices
of judges, and inferior officers of the law, form no doubt the most striking, because the most pernicious species of the crime. But the proper guilt of bribery, may also be incurred in the exercise of other public duties—by a burgher in the exercise of his franchise of voting at an election of magistrates—by a candidate for a seat in parliament, as well as by the voter whom he has cor rupted—by an officer of the customs or excise—a minis ter of state in the sale of offices or pensions, Sze.; none of whom, though respectively exercising certain public functions, can with propriety be said to be in a judica tire capacity.
The punishment of bribery is nearly the same in England as it is in this country, and varies in both ac cording to the degree of the offence. In the former, by 11th Henry IV. it is punished, in the case of judges and officers of the crown, with forfeiture of treble the bribe, chastisement at the king's will, and dismissal from office In offices, the punishment is fine and imprisonment. 13y tit,: law of Scotland, the crime, in judges of the Court of Session, is, by 1579, c. 93, vi sited with infamy, loss of office, confiscation of movea bles, and discretionary punishment in the person of the offender; and in inferior judges and other persons, the chastisement, partly by a variety of statutes, and partly by common law, is the loss of fame and office, payment of the party's costs, reparation of his damages, and other discretionary censure, as the magnitude of the offence may require. Though these, however, are the modes of punishment for cases of ordinary turpitude, yet where the consequences of the bribery are of peculiar atro city, such as the destroying an innocent man's life by a gross and corrupt perversion of justice, the law in both countries, overlooking the charge of bribery, will visit the offender with the pains of the higher crime in which he has participated. See Encycl. Method. Jurisprudence voce Corruption. Blackstone's Comm. vol. vi. p. 139. Hume on the Descrip. and Punish, of Crimes, vol. ii. p. 209. Jacob's Law Diet.
(J. B.)