CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY. 897 
The qualification (which is not usually expressed) is or may be 
necessary. For instance, the misapplication of funds by members 
of local authorities is in Queensland an offence only when the 
misapplication is known by the offender to be contrary to law. 
The next rule is that intended to be expressed by the maxim, 
“ Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea.” 
“INTENTION: MOTIVE: BONA FIDE CLAIM OF RIGHT. 
“© 25, Subject to the express provisions of this code relating to 
negligent acts and omissions, a person is not criminally respon- 
sible for an act or omission which occurs independently of the 
exercise of his will, or for an event which occurs by accident. 
“The result intended to be caused by an act or omission is 
immaterial, unless the intention to cause a particular result is 
expressly declared to be an eleinent of the offence constituted, in 
whole or part, by the act or omission. 
“Unless otherwise expressly declared, the motive by which a 
person is induced to do or omit to do an act, or to form an inten- 
tion, is immaterial so far as regards criminal] responsibility. 
“A person is not criminally responsible, as for as an offence 
relating to property, for an act done or omitted to be done by 
him with respect to any property in the exercise of an honest 
claim of right and without intention to defraud.” 
The first branch of the section corresponds to Article 45 of the 
Italian Penal Code of 1888 (the latest and best of penal codes), 
which provides that a man cannot be punished for an offence 
(delitto): Se non abbia voluto il fatto che lo costituisce. I do 
not know of any English word in common use corresponding to 
the sense in which the word voluto is here used; but the 
paraphrase, ‘occurs independently of the exercise of his will,” 
expresses precisely the same idea. 
Much confusion has arisen in law from the inaccurate use os 
the words “intention ” and “ motive,” which are often treated a 
synonymous, ‘The true rule is, it is apprehended, as stated in oie 
text. The motive by which a man is induced to form the 
intention to kill another may be very material as a guide to a 
jury in a case of circumstantial evidence ; but it is quite a different 
thing from the “intention ” with which the fatal blow is struck. 
The rule as to mistake of fact is thus expressed :— 
“ MISTAKE OF FACT. 
“26. A person who does or omits to do an act under an honest 
and reasonable, but mistaken, belief in the existence of any state 
of things is not criminally responsible for the act or omission to 
any greater extent than if the real state of things had been such 
as he believed to exist. 
oon 
