SENTENCE OF OUTLAWRY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10638, 14 April 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

SENTENCE OF OUTLAWRY.

o :o CURIOUS SURVIVAL OF OLD SCOTS LAW. The sentence of outlawry which -has been . pronounced at the Glasgow High Court against an absconding solicitor charged with forging u cheque, and a clerk charged in connection with a false pretences conspiracy, is a' curious survival of old Scots law. The persons of the accused the sentence declares to be forfeited in law. Outlaws become jncapable of bearing testimony; they can "neither sue nor defend an action, civil or criminal; they cannot act on a jury, nor can they be appointed tutor or curator of another. They, in short, cannot claim any personal benefit whatever from' the law. They have lost all the privileges of British subjects. The sentence of the coiut is also a warrant for the denunciation of the accused as a rebel, the result of which is that his moveable estate is forfeit to the Crown, and if the outlaw Teniain for a year and a day in the condition ~of a rebel the profits of hi6 heritable estate, if he have anv, for his tifetime are forfeited. The ."denunciation at the Horn" takes slace5 lace at the Market-cross of Edinburgh. Tiree "Oyesses" are proclaimed, the sentence is read, and three blasts Avith a

hora- are given, by Avhich the outlaw is understood to be proclaimed rebel to the King. The sentence is then fixed to the Market-cross and thus published. Tlie, outlaw can only be reprieved by surrender of his person.