ARS 



ART 



frtitutes a class of salts called arsenates. 

 The arsenate of potash may be obtained 

 in a more simple manner, by detonating, 

 in a crucible, a mixture of nitrate of pot- 

 ash with arse nous acid. When tin is dis- 

 solved in arsenous acid, an inflammable 

 gas is disengaged, as was observed by 

 Scheele, consisting of hydrogen gas hold- 

 ing arsenic in solution. It may be obtain- 

 ed also by adding powdered metallic ar- 

 senic to a mixture of diluted sulphuric 

 acid and zinc filings. 



Aussie ac*Y/ .? AKSENK; 



ARSEITIOUS acid. 3 



ARSENITES, a name given by Four- 

 croy to the combinations formed between 

 white oxide of arsenic, or arsenious acid, 

 as he calls it, and the alkalies and earths. 

 They were formerly termed livers of 

 arsenic, from some fancied resemblance 

 which was traced between arsenic and 

 sulphur. The alkaline arsenites may be 

 prepared by dissolving the white oxide 

 in alkaline solutions. They do not crystal- 

 lize : heat decomposes them by subliming 

 the oxide, and almost all the acids preci- 

 pitate the arsenic in the form of a white 

 powder. The earthy arsenites, as far as 

 they have been examined, are insoluble 

 powders, which is the reason why white 

 oxide of arsenic occasions a precipitate, 

 when dropped into lime, barytes, or 

 strontian water. 



ARSON, is house burning, and burn- 

 ing the house of another is felony. Cr. 

 Law, Case 143. It must be maliciously 

 and voluntarily, and an actual burning; 

 not putting fire only into a house, or any 

 part of it, without burning ; but if part of 

 the house be burnt, or if the fire do burn, 

 and then go out of itself, it is felony. 2 

 Inst. 188. But it is not felony <to burn a 

 house (unless done with a fraudulent in- 

 tent) of which the offender is in posses- 

 sion, by virtue of a written agreement, for 

 a lease of three years. Cr. Law, 143. 

 If any servant, through carelessness, shall 

 fire any house or out-house, and be there- 

 of convicted, on the oath of one witness, 

 before two justices, he shall forfeit one 

 hundred pounds to the churchwardens of 

 the parish where the fire shall happen, to 

 be by them distributed to the sufferers; 

 and, on non-payment thereof immediately 

 on demand, the said justice shall commit 

 him to some house of correction for eigh- 

 teen months, to be there kept to hard la- 

 bour. 



The punishment of arson was death 

 by our ancient Saxon laws. And in the 

 reign of Edward I. this sentence was cx- 



VOL. II. 



ecutcd by a kind of " lex talionis," fqr 

 the incendiaries were burnt to death, as 

 they were also by the Gothic constitu- 

 tions. The statute 8 Hen. VI. c, 6, made 

 the wilful burning of houses, under some 

 special circumstances therein mentioned, 

 amount to the crime of high treason. 

 But it was again reduced to felony, by 

 the general acts of Edward VI. and Queen 

 Mary ; and now the punishment of all 

 capital felonies is uniform, namely, by 

 hanging. The offence of arson was de- 

 nied the benefit of clergy by 31 Hen. 

 VIII. c. 1 ; but that statute was repealed 

 by 1 Edw. VI. c. 12 ; and arson was af- 

 terwards held to be ousted of clergy, 

 with respect to the principal offender, 

 only by inference and deduction from the 

 statute 4 and 5 P. and M. c. 4 ; which 

 expressly denied it to the accessary be- 

 fore the fact: though even it is expressly 

 denied to the principal, in all cases with- 

 in the statute, 9 Geo. I. c. 22. 



ART and Part, in the law of Scotland, 

 is applied to an accomplice. 



The facts inferring art and part need 

 not be particularly laid in the libel or in- 

 dictment, for these general wonys. as 

 terms of stated signification, are sufficient. 

 Yet these facts may be set forth, and it is 

 proper so to do, if the prosecutor chuses 

 to confide in the court rather than in the 

 jury. 



Also, in the criminal letters, the per- 

 sons of the accomplices must be describ- 

 ed by proper names and designations. 



One may be art and part, 1. By giving 

 counsel to perpetrate without distinction 

 whether the crime would have been com- 

 mitted without such council or not, this 

 being what can never be perfectly known. 

 But it is to be observed, that in the more 

 atrocious crimes, he that gives counsel 

 is equally punished as he that commits 

 them ; but in the less atrocious, less se- 

 verely. And sometimes reasons of miti- 

 gation are taken from the age, the man- 

 ner of advising, &c. 2. By aid and assist- 

 tance, and that either previous or conco- 

 mitant, or subsequent to the commission 

 of the crime. The first rarely comes up 

 to art and part, unless very particularly 

 qualified ; the second commonly does, 

 and it is easily known, if it does not ; the 

 third never, and hardly deserves the 

 name, unless it be in providing- for the 

 criminal's escape* But any of the three 

 make art and part, if the perpetration was 

 premeditated. 3. By a clear and explicit 

 mandate to commit the crime, or to do 

 somewhat unlawful in itself, which witk 



D 



