628 
PERJURY. 
that they accounted thofe two fpecial divine powers, 
which fliould work vengeance on the perjurers. Spenfer. 
—They write of a river in Bithynia, whofe water hath a 
peculiar virtue to difcover a perjurer; for, if he drink 
thereof, it will prefently boil in his ftomach, and put him 
to viiible tortures. Howell's Letters. 
PERJU'RIOUS, adj. Guilty of perjury.—The laft 
[means] was their perfidious and perjurious equivocating, 
abetted, allowed, and juftified, by the Jefuits. Sir E. 
Coke in the Proceed, againft Garnet, 1606.—Thy perjuri¬ 
ous lips confirm not thy untruth. Quarles's Jiulg. ancl 
Mercy. 
PER'JURY, f. [perjurium , Lat.] Falfe oath : 
My great father-in-law, renowned Warwick, 
Cried aloud, What fcourge for perjury 
Can this dark monarchy afford falfe Clarence ? 
And fo he vanifh’d. Shakefpeare's Rich. III. 
Perjury is defined to be, “ a crime committed, when a 
lawful oath is adminirtered by any who hath authority, 
to a perfon, in any judicial proceeding, who fwears wil¬ 
fully, abfolutely, and falfely, in a matter material to the 
ifl'ue, or caufe in queftion, by their own aft, or by the 
lubornation of others.” 3 L>Jl. 163,4. 
In ancient times it was in fome places punifhed with 
death ; in others it made the falfe fwearer liable to the 
punifhment due to the crime he had charged the innocent 
perfon with 5 in others a pecuniary mulft was impofed. 
But, though it efcaped human, yet it was thought, 
amonglt the ancients in general, that the divine ven¬ 
geance would molt certainly overtake it; and there are 
many fevere infliftions from the hand of God upon re¬ 
cord, as monuments of the abhorrence in which this 
atrocious crime is held by the Deity. The fouls of the 
deceafed were fnppofed to be employed in punifhing per¬ 
jured perfons. Even the inanimate creation was thought 
to take revenge for this crime. The Greeks fuppofed 
that no perfon could fwear falfely by Styx without fome 
remarkable punifhment; and that no perfon guilty of 
perjury could enter the cave of Palamon at Corinth 
without being made a memorable example of divine juf- 
tice. In Sicily, at the temple of the Palici, there were 
fountains called Delli, from which iffued boiling water, 
with flames and balls of fire ; and we are told that, if any 
perfon fwore falfely near them, he was inftantly ftruck 
dumb, blind, lame, or dead, or was fwallowed up by the 
waters. But, although perjury was thus held in general 
abhorrence, notwithftanding the credit which was given 
to fuch accounts of divine infliftions, it was fo much 
praftifed by the Greeks, that Greeca fdes became a pro¬ 
verb. Lovers’ perjuries, however, were fuppofed to pafs 
unnoticed, or to be very flightly punifhed, as with black- 
nefs of the nails, a decayed tooth, or fome finall diminu¬ 
tion of beauty. The ancient philofophers, however, 
were fo afraid of perjury, that even an oath before a 
judge was never admitted but for want of other proof. 
Plato’s precept was, “ Not to adminifter an oath wan¬ 
tonly, but on deep grounds, and with the ftrifteft caution.” 
Ulpian gives his opinion thus: “Some are forward to 
take oaths from a contempt of religion; others, from an 
extraordinary awe of the Divine Majefty, carry their fear 
to an unreafonable fuperftition ; fo make an equitable de- 
cifion of a judge neceffary.” “ No man will perjure him- 
felf (fays Ariflotle) who apprehends vengeance from 
Heaven and difgrace among men.” Clinias was fo very 
fcrupulous, that, rather than take an oath (though law¬ 
fully), he fuffered the lofs of three talents. Perjury, in 
the time of Philo Judeus, was abominated and capitally 
punifhed among the Jews ; though fince they have much 
degenerated, having been poifoned with the books of the 
Talmud, one of which fays, “ He who breaks his promif- 
fory oath, or any vows he enters into by the year, if he 
has a mind that they fliould be ineffeftual and invalid, 
let him rife the laft day of the year, and fay, Whatever 
promiles, oaths, and vows, I may think fit to make in the 
year following, let them be null, void, and of no effeCt.” 
Traft. iii. part 3. of the Talmud, in the treatife Nedharim, 
ch. 4. And the modern Jews ufe the fame artifice, 
thinking they may then lawfully deceive the Chriftians. 
See Hieron. ex Diftis Talmud, c. 3. and Magifter Joannes 
de Concor. Legum, tit. iv. c. 7. 
In our law, no notice is taken of any perjury but fuch 
as is committed in fome court of juftice having power to 
adminifter an oath; or before fome magiftrate or proper 
officer inverted with a fimilar authority, in fome proceed¬ 
ings relative to a civil fuit or a criminal profecution : 
for it efteems all other oaths unneceffary at leaft, and 
therefore will not punifh the breach of them. For which 
reafon it is much to be queftioned, how far any magiftrate 
is juftifiable in taking a voluntary affidavit in any extra- 
judical matter, as is now too frequent upon every petty 
occafion ; fince it is more than poflible that, by fuch idle 
oaths, a man may frequently, in foro confcientice, incur the 
guilt, and at the fame time evade the temporal penalties, 
of perjury. The perjury mull alfo be corrupt (that is, 
committed malo animo,) wilful, pofitive, and abfolute; 
not upon furprife, or the like: it alfo muft be in fome 
point material to the queftion in difpute; for if it only 
be in fome trifling collateral circumltance, to which no 
regard is paid, it is no more penal than in the voluntary 
extrajudicial oaths before mentioned. 
Subornation of Perjury is the offence of procuring 
another to take fuch a falfe oath as conftitutes perjury in 
the principal. 
If a man calls another perjured, he may have an aftion 
upon the cafe. If he calls him forfworn, no aftion lies, 
becaufe the forfwearing may be extrajudical. 
At common law, the punifhment of perjury, and fu- 
bornation of perjury, was anciently death; afterwards 
banifhment, or cutting out the tongue ; then forfeiture of 
goods ; and now it is fine and imprilonment; and the of¬ 
fender is ever afterwards incapable to be a witnefs. 3. 
Inf. 163. Byftat. 5 Eliz. c. 9. perfons committing wilful 
and corrupt perjury, in any caufe depending concerning 
lands or goods, &c. in any of the courts of record, leet, 
ancient demefne-court, hundred-court, court-baron, or 
court of ftannary, fhall forfeit 20I. and be imprifoned fix 
months, and their oaths fhall not be received in any 
court of record, fo that they are difabled from being ju¬ 
rors or witneffes; and, if the offenders have not goods or 
chattels to the value of aol. they fhall be let on the pillory 
in fome market-place, and have both their ears nailed to 
it; and unlawful and corrupt procuring and fuborninga 
witnefs to give falfe teftimony in any court of record, See. 
or corruptly procuring any witnefs to teftify in perpe- 
tuarn rei memoriam, incurs a forfeiture of 40I. and, if the 
offender be not worth 40I. he fhall fuffer fix months im- 
prifonment, and ftand on the pillory one whole hour in 
fome open market near the place where the offence was 
committed ; and he fhall incur perpetual infamy. But 
the profecution is ufually carried on for the offence at 
common law; efpecially, as, to the penalties before in- 
flifted, the flat. 2 Geo. II. c. 25. (made perpetual by the 
9 Geo. II. c. 18.) fuperadds a power for the court to 
order the offender to be fent to the houfe of correftion 
for feven years, or to be tranfported for the fame period ; 
and makes it felony, without benefit of clergy, to return 
or efcape within the time. Our ancient law inflifted the 
punifhment of deliberate murder on wilful perjury, when 
it was the caufe of the death of an innocent perfon ; and 
by the laws of France it was univerfally capital. 
By flat. 31. Geo. II. c. 10. § 24. the taking, or procu¬ 
ring to be taken, a falfe oath to obtain probates or letters 
of adminiftration to feamen, is made felony, without be¬ 
nefit of clergy. 
In Scotland the punifhment of perjury is direfted by 
ftatute, the laft of which, 1555, c. 47, declares perjury to 
be punifhable by confifcation of movables, piercing the 
tongue, and infamy ; to which the judge, in aggravated 
cafes, may add any other penalty that the cafe feems to 
require. 
