THREATS AND THREATENING LETTERS. Threats of personal violence, or any other threats by which a man of ordinary firmness and prudence may be put In fear, and by means of which money or other !TAY is extorted from him, amount in law to the crime of robbery. Itorteenr.] And by the statute 7 Will. IV. & 1 Viet. c. 87, sect. 7, a person demanding by menaces any property of another with intent to steal the same, is declared to be guilty of felony, and is liable to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three years. It is also a misdemeanor at common law to threaten another in order to deter him from doing some lawful act, or to compel him to do an unlawful one, or to extort money or goods from him, or to obtain any other benefit to the person who makes the threat.
The offence of sending or delivering letters or writings, threatening to kill or injure the person to whom they are sent or delivered, or to burn his house, or to accuse him of some heinous crime for the purpose of extorting money, was formerly considered to be high treason (stet. 8 Hen. V. c. 6); and under the *tat 9 Geo. L c. 22, con tinued for more than a century to be punishable as a capital felony. By the statutes 4 Gee. IV. c. 54, s. 3, & 10 & 11 VicL c. 66, a. 6, a lees punishment is substituted ; and any person sending or delivering any writing, with or without any name or signature subscribed thereto, or with a fictitious name or signature, threatening to kill or murder any person, or to burn or destroy his house, out-house, barn, or etacka of corn or grain, hay or straw, is declared guilty of felony ; this offence being now punishable with penal servitude for life, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding four years. By statute 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c 29, a. 8, any person sending or
delivering any letter or writing, demanding of any person with menaces, and without any reasonable or probable cause, any chattel, money, or valuable security; or accusing or threatening to accuse, or sending or delivering any letter or writing accusing or threatening to accuse, any person of any crime punishable by law with death, trans portation, or pillory, or of any assault with intent to commit any rape, or of any infamous crime (the meaning of which term is defined), with a view or intent to extort or gain from such person any chattel, money, or valuable security, is declared guilty of felony; the offence being now punishable with transportation for life or not less than three years, or with imprisonment not exceeding four years, with or without whipping. Threatening to publish a libel is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment with or without hard labour not exceeding three years.