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Offence

Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia · John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914

Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia

The doing that which a penal law forbids to be done, or omitting to do what it commands. In this sense, it is nearly synonymous with crime. In a more condiffers from it in this, that it is not indictable, but punishable summarily by the forfeiture of a penalty; 1 Chitty, Pr. 14.