The same statute makes it felony, punishable as in cases of simple arceny, to steal, or rip, cut or break, with intent to steal, glass or wood-work belonging to any building, or any metal, or utensil or fixture fixed in or to any building, or anything made of metal fixed in ]and, being private property, or for a fence to any dwelling-house, garden, area, or in any square, street, or other place dedicated to public use'or ornament ; and it is a felony, punishable as in cases of simple larceny, to steal, or sever with intent to steal, the ore of any metal, or any coal, from any mine, bed, or vein thereof. The stealing of any chattel or fixture let to be used with any house or lodging is it a felony, punishable as simple larceny.
With respect to chosen in action, the same statute enacts that if any person shall steal any tally, order, or other security, entitling or evidencing title to any share or interest in any public stock or fund, or in any fund of any body corporate, company or society, or to any. deposit in any savings' bank, or shall steal any debenture, deed, bond, bill, note, warrant,'order, or other security for money, or shall steal any warrant or order for the delivery or transfer of goods or valuable things, the offence shall be deemed felony of the same nature and in the same degree, and punishable in the same manner as the stealing of any chattel of like value with the share, interest, or deposit to which the security so stolen may relate, or with the money duo on the security so stolen or secured thereby, or with the value of the goods or other valuable thing mentioned in the warrant or order. It also enacts that if any person shall steal, or shall, for any fraudulent purpose, take from its place of deposit or from any person having lawful custody thereof, or shall unlawfully or maliciously obliterate, injure, or destroy any record, writ, return, panel, process, interrogatory, deposition, affidavit, rule, order, or warrant of attorney, or any original document belonging to any court of record, or relating to any matter, civil or criminal, begun, depending, or terminated in any such court, or any bill, answer, interrogatory, deposition, affidavit, order, or decree, or any original document belonging to any court of equity, or relating to any cause or matter in any such court, the offence shall be a mis demeanor, and subject at the discretion of the court to transportation for seven years, or such other punishment by fine or imprisonment, or by both, as the court shall award. And the stealing, or, for any
fraudulent purpose, destroying or concealing a will or other testa mentary instrument, is a misdemeanor punishable by transportation for seven years, or by fine or imprisonment, or both.
No larceny can be committed of things which are not the subject of property, as a human corpse, or of things the use of which is common to all mankind, as running water, wild animals in their natural liberty, &c. It is otherwise of animals which are dead, or are reclaimed or confined, and which are useful to man as food or otherwise. But the stealing of dogs, cats, and ferrets, though tame and valuable, and of bears, monkeys, &c., though reclaimed or confined, does not amount to larceny. The stealing of dogs and of beasts and birds, ordinarily kept in a state of confinement, is made cognisable by justices of the peace. (7 & 8 Geo. IV. e. 29 ; 8 & 9 Vice,c. 47.) And it is a felony, punishable as in cases of larceny, to course, hunt, snare, or carry away, or kill, or wound deer kept or being in the enclosed part of a forest, chase, or purlieu, or in enclosed land in which deer are usually kept. If in an unenclosed part, the offence is made cognisable by a justice of the peace, with power to impose a pecuniary penalty not exceeding 50l.; and a second offence, whether of the same description or not, is made felony, punishable as simple larceny. (7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29, s. 26.) Fourthly, the goods taken should generally be the goods of another person.
If a man take his own goods supposing them to be the goods of another, no larceny is committed. It is otherwise where the taking is for the purpose of fraudulently charging another with the loss; as if a man steal his own goods for the purpose of charging the bailee. If a wife take and convert to her own use the goods of her husband, they being but one person in law, it does not constitute larceny.
A joint tenant or tenant in common of any personal chattel cannot commit larceny respecting such chattel as against his co-tenant. But if such chattel be bailed or delivered to the care or keeping of a third party for safe custody, and the effect of the taking be to charge such bailee, it amounts to larceny. • Stealing oysters or oyster brood from a marked-out or known oyster bed, laying, or fishery, is made larceny by 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29, s. 36.