MISPRISION (from mesprendre,',whieh means sometimes to deal improperly with, sometimes to treat with contempt), is a term used in English law in different senses.
I. In the sense of criminal nonfeasance, or neglect to perform important public duties, the term is applied to concealment of treason or felony. Misprision of treason consists in a party's withholding his knowledge of a treason committed, or about to be committed, or in omitting to give information respecting it within a reasonable time to some public authority. If the eoncealmeut or omission to reveal the treason be accompanied by express assent to the treasonable act or purpose, or by any circumstances from which a tacit assent will be implied, the party is guilty of high treason, as well as of misprision of treason ; and the crown may prosecute either for the higher or the lower offence. Misprision of treason is a misdemeanor [MISDEMEANOR], punishable by imprisonment for life and the forfeiture of the personal pi-operty of the offender absolutely, and of the rents and profits of his real preperty for life.
Misprision of felony Is a similar concealment in respect of felonies, and it. is punishable by fine and imprisonment. In some, if not in all cases of felony, the party may be proceeded against for the minor offence, or misdemeanor, although a felony has actually been com mitted by him.
The concealment of treasure-trove (Tazasune-Taove] is another species of criminal neglect, which constitutes a misprision punishable by fine and imprisonment.
II. Misprision by malfeasance, (by doing something which ought not to be done,) is the commission of such misdemeanors as are construed to involve a contempt of the royal authority or prerogative. 31a1 administration in high offices of public trust, though indictable as a misprision, is commonly, on account of its importance, made the subject of parliamentary impeachment.
It is a contempt of the prerogative to refuse to assist the king when called upon, either In his councils by advice, or in his wars by personal service within the realm in cases of invasion or rebellion; to refuse to join the posse comitatus, or power of the county, when duly required by the sheriff or justices ; to accept a pension from a foreign potentate without the consent of the king ; to go abroad when forbidden so to do either by writ of we swat revile, or by a general proclamation, or to neglect to return from abroad when commanded by the king's letters; to disobey an Act of Parliament where no particular penalty is enacted ; to speak or write against the king's person or government, or do anything tending to lessen him in the estimation of his subjects ; to weaken his government, or to raise jealousies between him and his people ; to deny the king's title to the crown in common unadvised speech [Pneauxrae] ; to use threatening or reproachful words to a judge in court ; to assault or threaten the adverse party in a suit, or his counsel or attorney, or a juror for his verdict, or a jailor or other officer for exceeding his duty; to commit an affray near the courts of Westminster hall, or at the assizes, but out of the view of the judges ; to dissuade a witness from giving his evidence ; to advise a person to stand mute ; to disclose an examination before the privy-council or a grand-jury. All these are positive misprisions or contempte,
punishable by fine and imprisonment. Maliciously striking in the palace in which the king resides, whereby blood is drawn, is punishable by fine, forfeiture, imprisonment, and formerly also by loss of the offender's right hand. Rescuing a person from the custody of one of the superior courts of justice, in Westminster Hall, or at the assizes, is punishable by imprisonment for life, forfeiture of personal property, and forfeiture of the rents and profits of real property during life. A stroke or blow given in any of these courts, whether blood bo drawn or not, or an assault upon a judge whilst ho is sitting in court, by drawing a weapon, though no blow be struck, subjects a person to the same penalties as those last mentioned, and formerly also to tho additional punishment of loss of the right hand.
The misprision which is stated above to be included in the actual commission of treason or felony, may be referred to this second division, as it consists in malfeasance rather than in non-feaaance. (Blackst:. Cora.' by Kerr, v. iv., pp. 119-123.) III. The term misprision is also applied to careless but involuntary mistakes, or, as they would now be called, clerical errors, particularly those committed by public officers in entering the proceedings in a cause or in a judicial proceeding upon the rolls or records of the court ; though it is also applied to misrecitals and mistakes in deeds, &c. (PAL Abr.,' Grant,)