This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1827 edition. Excerpt: ...taught to consider his labour in the light of expiation for the injury which he had perpetrated. A burglar, as defined in the institutes of Sir Edward Coke, ' is one who by night breaketh and entereth into a mansion-house with intent to commit a felony. It is unnecessary, at present, to attempt a particular description of thiscrime, asitcan be collected from the several statutes made for its suppression, which are no less exact in its definition than in its punishment. But I shall notice that an indictment is good, if the expression mansion-house is used instead of dwelling-house. Burglary being attended with the aggravating circumstances of a clausum /regit with violence, and at a time when the persons and property of individuals are at the mercy of the assailant, it is not surprising that the law should be more rigorous in its visitation of this crime than of simple larceny. The laws of Athens, which did not make larceny capital, doomed the burglar to death.b Though the common law of England made it felony within the benefit of clergy, yet that was withdrawn by successive statutes, and now it is hanging in the principals, as well as in abettors and accessaries before the fact.c The offence, generally taken for burglary, as described in Penn's " Great Law," does not exactly amount to that crime, as the time of its perpetration is not specified or designated as material.d The x 4 Smith. 334 y 3 lust. 63. a 3 Serg. and It. 199. Com. vs. Pennock. b Pott. Antiq. b. 1. c. 26. c 4 Bl. Com. 227. d See Rawle's Address to the Phila-delphia Bar, p. 25. statute of 1718 has defined it with the precision necessary, ' annexing the penalty of death to a conviction of burglarious entry into the dwelling-house of another with a felonious intent, ...