Eavesdropping
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
In English criminal law. The ofifence of listening under walls or windows, or the eaves of a house, to hearken after discourse, and thereupon to frame slanderous and mischievous tsdes.
4 BL Com, 168.
It is a misdemeanour at common law, indictable at sessions, and punishable by fine and finding sureties for good behaviour.
Ibid, Steph, Crim, Law, 109. Lewis' U. S. Crim. Law, 233.