s the malicious and wilful burning of the house or outhouse of another man, or wilfully setting fire to one's own house, if a neighbour's house be also burnt.

To constitute the offence, there must be an intent to injure or defraud some other person; and, therefore, if a house is fired by negligence or mischance, it does not amount to arson, but is only a trespass.

The crime of arson attaches in the following instances:—1st, Unlawfully and maliciously setting fire to any dwelling-house, any person being therein. For this crime the offender is liable to the punishment of death. 2d, Unlawfully and maliciously setting fire to any church or chapel, or to any chapel for the religious worship of persons dissenting from the united church of England and Ireland, or to any house, stable, coachhouse, outhouse, warehouse, office, shop, mill, malthouse, hopmast, barn, or granary, or to any erection used in carrying on any trade or manufacture, or any branch thereof, whether in the possession of the offender or any other person, with intent to injure or defraud any person. The punishment for this offence is transportation for life, or for not less than fifteen years, or of imprisonment not exceeding three years (7th Will. IV., and 1st Vict., c. 89, § 2). 3d, Unlawfully and maliciously setting fire to any hovel, shed, or fold, not attached to any house, or to any farm-building, or any building or erection used in farming land, or to any hay, straw, wood, or other vegetable produce, or to any implements of husbandry, being in any farm-house or farm-building, with intent to set fire to such farm-house or farm-building, subject to the like punishment (7th and 8th Vict., cap. 62). 4th, Unlawfully and maliciously setting fire to any station, or other building belonging to any railway, dock, canal, &c. For this the punishment is transportation for life, or for not less than seven years, or imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for not less than three years (14th and 15th Vict., cap. 19, § 8). 5th, And by the 9th and 10th Vict., cap. 25, § 7, any overt act to attempt to set fire, with such intent that, if the offence were complete, the offender would be guilty of felony and liable to transportation for life, shall be deemed felony, with a punishment of transportation for fifteen years, or of imprisonment for two years, although the same be not actually set on fire. And every male offender, under the statutes 7th and 8th Vict., cap. 62, and 9th and 10th Vict., cap. 25, if under the age of eighteen years, is also liable, at the discretion of the court, in addition to any other sentence, to be either publicly or privately whipped; 6th, Servants negligently or carelessly setting fire to houses or buildings, are, under the 14th Geo. III., cap. 78, § 84, liable to forfeit £100, or in default, to be imprisoned for eighteen months with hard labour.

In Scotland, the offence equivalent to arson in England is known by the more expressive name of wilful fire-raising. The later statutes cited above do not apply to Scotland where the crime is punishable capitally by old consuetudinary law. The public prosecutor has the privilege, as in other such cases, of declining to demand capital punishment, and it is usual so to act when the burning has not taken place under conditions likely to endanger life. (R.M.—M.)