KIDNAPPINU is defined to be the stealing or conveying away of a man, woman, or child, and is an offence at common law, punishable by fine and imprisonment, and, formerly, by pillory. The highest form of this offence, the forcibly sending a luau from his own country into some other, or to parte beyond the seas, though at common law only punishable as above mentioned, is an offence, as has been remarked, of such primary magnitude that it might well have been substituted upon the roll of capital crimes, in the place of many others, which until recently were there to bo found (I East's Pleas of the Crown, C. i x., a. iv.).
The Jewish law declared that " he that stcaleth a man, and sulleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death" (Exol xxi., 16). Aud by the civil law, the offence of spiriting away and stealing men and children, was punished with death. Magna Charts, the petition of right, and the habmas corpus acts are pointed to the security from expatriation, as are also the numerous legislative provision. and treaties for the suppression of the slave trade.
The forcible impressment of seamen for the royal navy is an odious exception to the right of the subject, in this country, to his personal liberty, when not charged with any crime, and is limited by various statutes, and the wrongful carrying off and leaving behind seamen, for private purposes, is punishable by imprisonment (sec 17 & IS Pict., 104).
The general remedy for the unlawful detention of persons is by appli cation to the courts of law for a writ of habeas corpus The rights of parents and guardians and others to the custody of children, alleged to have been wrongfully taken away or detained for the purposes of education or otherwise are In this way frequently discussed and decided.
The 0 (leo. IV., c. 21, which is directed against cliild-steallug, enacts that if any person shall maliciously, by force or fraud, load, or take away, or decoy or entice away, or detain, a child under the age of ten years, with intent to deprive its parents, or any other person having the lawful care of such child, of the possession of it, or with Intent to steal any article upon or about the person of such child, to whomsoever such article may belong, or shall receive and harbour with any such intent as aforesaid any such child, knowing that it has boon by force or fraud led, taken, decoyed, enticed away, or detained, every such offender, and their counsellors, procurers, eiders, and abettors, shall be guilty of felony, and shall be liable to be transported for seven years, or to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, in the common gaol or house of correction, for any time not exceeding two years ; and if a male, to be once, twice, or thrice publicly or privately whipped (if the court shall so think fit) in addition to such imprisonment.
The act does not extend to a person who shall have claimed to be the father of an illegitimate child, or to have any right to the posses sion of such a child, on account of his getting possession of such child, or it out of the possession of the child's mother, or other person who has thelawful charge of it. The Irish act (10 Geo. IV., c. 34) is in precisely similar terms. (Kerr's Blackstone and Russell on Crimes by Greaves.) As to the conveying away of heiresses and young women, see AanucTrost.