MIS 
ransom. By 22 and 23 Charles II. c. 7. 
killing horses or cattle is felony ; and maim- 
ing sheep, &c. a trespass, punishable with 
treble damages. By statute 1 Anne, s. 2. 
c. 9. captains and mariners setting fire to 
ships is felony , and also making a hole in a 
ship in disti ess, &c. is felony, and death by 
statute 12 Anne, s. 12. c. 18. By statute 6 
George I. c. 23, the wilfully and maliciously 
tearing, cutting, spoiling, or defacing, the 
garments of any person passing in the streets 
or highways, and assaulting, with intent to 
do so, is felony. And there are other acts 
which relate to the prevention of setting 
fire to out houses with corn, damaging fish- 
ponds, trees planted in gardens, cutting 
down sea-banks, hop-binds, setting fire to 
mines, preventing persons from buying corn, 
setting fire to goss, furze, &c. ; wilfully 
burning engines in mines, fences in inclo- 
sures, breaking into houses of the Plate 
Glass Company, with intent to destroy 
utensils ; breaking into houses to cut or de- 
stroy cloth, serge, linen, &c. in the loom, 
and other simihir offences. 
MISCHNAH, or Misnah, the code or 
collec tion of the civil law of the Jews. The 
Jews pretend that when God gave the writ- 
ten law to Bloses, he gave him also another 
not written, which was preserved by tradi- 
tion among the doctors of the synagogue, 
till Rabbi Judah, surnamed the Holy, see- 
ing the danger they were in, through their 
dispersion, of departing from the traditions 
of their fathers, judged it proper to reduce 
them to writing. 
The misnah is divided into six parts : the 
first relates to the distinction of seeds in a 
field, to trees, fruits, tythes, &c. The se- 
cond regulates the manner of observing fes- 
tivals : the third treats of women, and matii- 
monial cases ; the fourth of losses in trade, 
&c. : the fifth is on obligations, sacrifices, 
&c.: and the sixth treats of the several sorts 
of purification. 
MISDEMESNOR, or Misdemeanour, 
a crime less than felony. The term com- 
prehends all indictable offences which are 
less than felony, as perjury, libels, conspi- 
racies, assaults, &c. 
MISNOMER, the using of one name for 
anotlier. Where a per-on is described so 
that lie may not be certainly distinguished 
and known from other persons ; the omis- 
sion, or in some cases, the mistake of the 
name shall not avoid the grant. But in 
actions and indictments, &c the misnomer 
may be pleaded, and will abate the suit or 
indictment. But the omission of a letter or 
MIS 
so is not material, if the word sounds the 
same ; and courts of law properly discou- 
rage tlie plea. 
MISPICKEL, a name given by minera- 
logists to a native alloy of iron and arsenic. 
Tills alloy may be made by fusion, it is 
white and brittle, and may be crystallized. 
Iron is capable of combining with more 
than its own weight of arsenic. 
MISPRISION, a neglect, oversight, or 
contempt. It is chiefly applied to misprision 
of treason, which is a negligence in not re- 
vealing treason, or felony, to a magistrate, 
where a person knows it to bo committed. 
It is also applied to great misdemeanours. It 
is, therefore, negative or positive, as it is an 
act or a concealment of crime. To avoid 
misprision of treason the party must make, 
full discovery to a magistrate, and not 
merely to a private person. To counterfeit 
foreign coin, not current here, is misprision 
of treason. A misprision of felony may be 
by concealing it, or by taking back again a 
man’s goods which have been stolen, which 
is now made felony. Concealing treasure 
trove falls under this head. In the class of 
positive misprisions, or high misdemeanours, 
are the mal-adrainistration of high officers, 
and embezzling public money. Contempts' 
against the king’s authority, some of which 
incur a praemunire ; contempts against the 
king's palace or courts. In the palace, if 
blood be drawn in a malicious assault, it is 
punishable by perpetual imprisonment, fine, 
and loss of the offender’s right liand, 33 
Henry VIII. c. 12. And striking, whether 
blood is drawn or not, in the king’s superior 
courts, or at the assizes, is punishable witli 
equal or greater severity. A rescue of a 
prisoner in such a court is punished with 
perpetual imprisonment, and forfeiture of 
goods, and the profit of lands during life. 
Of a less degree, are reckoned also the 
injurious treatment of those who are under 
the immediate protection of a court of jus- 
tice, the dissuading a witness from giving 
evidence, and the disclosing, by a grand 
jury, to the person indicted, of the evidence 
against him. 
MISSIONARIES, such ecclesiastics as 
are sent by any Christian Church into. Pa- 
gan or Infidel countries, to convert tlie 
natives, and establish the Christian religion 
among them. 
MISSIVE, something sent to another, a.s 
missive letters ; meaning letters sent from 
one to another upon Inisiness, in contra-dis- 
tinction to letters of gallantry, points of 
learning, dispatclies, &c. 
