CHAPTER VI.

Of duels.

Art. 549. If any person shall use any insulting words or gestures of or to, or make an assault upon another with intent, either to provoke any one to give a challenge to FIGHT A DUEL, or as an alternative, to dishonour him, he shall be fined not less than fifty, nor more than three hundred dollars, or imprisoned not less than five, nor more than thirty days, in close custody.

Art. 550. If the defendant, in any prosecution under the last preceding article, shall make any denial, explanation, or acknowledgment, that the court shall think ought to satisfy the honour of the prosecutor, they shall direct the same to be recorded and published, with their judgment declaring the same to be satisfactory; and may, at their discretion, direct the defendant to be dismissed, on the payment of costs. Art. 551. Whenever judgment shall be pronounced on, for any offence under the said article, it shall contain a clause that it shall be void as to every thing but costs, in case the defendant shall make such acknowledgment as shall be satisfactory to the prosecutor.

Art. 552. No conviction on judgment for any offence under the said article, shall be a bar to any prosecution or suit for defamation or assault for the same cause, unless the satisfaction made by the defendant shall be accepted, as is provided in the last preceding article.

Art. 553. In case any offence under the said article should imply a charge affecting the honour or reputation of the person making the complaint, and the investigation on the trial show such charge to be unfounded, the court shall make that declaration in the sentence, and cause the same to be published at the expense of the defendant; and if the party complaining request it, the question, whether the charge be true or false, shall be decided by the jury.

Art. 554. Whoever shall give a challenge to fight a duel, or shall, on receiving such challenge, ACCEPT the same, shall be imprisoned, in close custody, not less than two, nor more than six months, and be suspended from his political rights for four years.

Art. 555. Whoever shall fight a duel, if he in such fight inflicts no wound, shall be imprisoned, in close custody, not less than six, nor more than twelve months, and shall be suspended from his political rights for six years. If he wound his adversary, and such wound do not occasion death, or any permanent bodily disability, the imprisonment shall not be less than twelve, nor more than eighteen months, and the suspension for eight years. If he fight a duel, and shall inflict a wound on his adversary that causes a permanent disability, he shall be imprisoned not less than twelve months, and be suspended from the exercise of his political rights, and his civil rights of the first and third class, for seven years. If in such fight he kill, or inflict a mortal wound on his adversary, he shall be imprisoned not less than two, nor more than four years, and forfeit for ever his political rights, and his civil rights of the first and third class. And if such death or mortal wound

be inflicted by treachery, he shall be deemed guilty of murder by assas sination, and suffer the punishment in this code directed to be inflicted on those convicted of that crime.

Art. 556. If any one shall advise another to fight a duel, or shall use any reproachful or contemptuous language to or concerning any one for not sending or accepting a challenge, or for not fighting a duel, he shall be fined not less than fifty, nor more than five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned not less than thirty days, nor more than six months.

Art. 557. If any one shall bear a challenge, either written or verbal to another, knowing the intent with which it was sent, he shall be fined not less than one hundred, nor more than one thousand dollars, be imprisoned, in close custody, not less than two, nor more than six months, and suspended from his political rights for three years.

Art. 558. If a challenge shall be given and accepted in this state, and the parties go out of the state and fight a duel, the punishment for giving or accepting such challenge, shall be the same as if the whole offence were committed within the state.

Art. 559. It is an offence within the meaning of the first article of this chapter, if the insulting words or gestures be used relative to, or the assault be committed upon, either the person whom it is intended to provoke, or any other so nearly connected with or related to him as to show the intent in the said article expressed.

The dishonour, in the same article, means a loss of the esteem of those who think that offences of that nature ought to be avenged by a challenge to fight a duel.

Art. 560. The words "to fight a duel," in this chapter, are used in their common and general acceptation: they mean, to enter into a voluntary combat, one man against another, with deadly weapons.

Art. 561. A challenge is any proposal, either 'verbal or written, or by message, in whatever language it may be couched, to fight a duel, provided that, from the circumstances attending the proposition, it appeared to be so understood by the party accused whether he be the party giving or the party accepting it.

Art. 562. The acceptance of a challenge, is an agreement to the proposition to fight a duel, either given by express words or by other terms, either written or oral, from which such agreement may clearly be inferred on by circumstances which show such agreement.

Art. 563. It is treachery, if the death be occasioned by the breach of any rules made for conducting the combat, or by any other advantage, which, although not expressly provided against in those rules, was yet one that could not be supposed to have been intended to be given.

Art. 564. It is assassination, if the mortal wound be intentionally inflicted on a party, after he is incapable of further resistance, either from being disarmed, or any other circumstance, with a knowledge of such incapacity by the party inflicting it, whether it be done in pursuance of any previous rule for the combat or not.

Art. 565. It is assassination, and not a duel, if the death or mortal wound be inflicted by a party who has obtained the power of inflicting it without risk to himself, by the effect of a chance previously agreed Death inflicted by a party who has obtained a loaded pistol by a chance agreed on, while the one used by his adversary is not loaded, is an example of what is intended by this rule.

on.

Art. 566. In order more effectually to secure the execution of the pro

visions of this chapter, the attorney general and district attorneys of this state, and all officers of justice when they are sworn into office, and such of them as are in office at the time of the promulgation of this code, or within fifteen days afterwards, and all grand jurors when they are sworn, shall sign a declaration in the following form :-"I declare, that I consider the obligation, which my duty requires, of bringing to justice all offenders against the laws, as containing no reservation with respect to duels. And.I promise on my honour that I will, within the local bounds to which my official functions extend, by all lawful means prevent so far as shall be in my power, any duel which I may have reason to suppose is intended, and prosecute all offences which come to my knowledge, against the sixth chapter of the nineteenth title of the second book of the Code of Crimes and Punishments of this state, entitled, 'Of Duels.""

The word "prosecute," in the said declaration, shall, in the case of grand jurors, be changed for "indict;" and in the case of officers of justice, it shall be changed for the words "enter complaint against."

Art. 567. And all officers, civil or military, judicial or executive, now in office, shall, within thirty days after the promulgation of this code, if in office at that time, and those appointed or elected afterwards, shall, at the time they take their oath of office, and before they enter on the duties of their office, take before a magistrate, and subscribe a declaration, under oath, in the following form:"I do solemnly swear, that I have not fought a duel, or given or accepted a challenge to fight a duel, since the promulgation of the Code of Crimes and Punishments of the state of Louisiana; and that I shall hereafter consider myself as bound by the ties of honour, as well as the sanction of this oath and of the laws, not to commit any offence against the provisions of the sixth chapter of the nineteenth title of the second book of the said code, entitled, 'Of Duels."" And every person elected or chosen to any office, who shall refuse or neglect to take such oath and subscribe such declaration, within the period and at the time above directed, and to send the same to the office of the secretay of state, as is directed in the next article, shall be considered as having resigned or refused to except the office to which he is elected.

Art. 568. As to all officers appointed or elected, the oath and declaration aforesaid shall be taken and subscribed before the magistrate who administers the oath of office, and shall be deposited, recorded and transmitted, as is by law directed concerning oaths of office. And as to all officers in office at the time of the promulgation of this code, the oath shall be taken before any magistrate, and deposited, recorded and transmitted, as is now by law directed with respect to oaths of office.

TITLE XX.

OF OFFENCES AFFECTING INDIVIDUALS IN THEIR PROFESSION OR TRADE.

Art. 569. All direct offences of this nature are comprehended in the twelfth and eighteenth titles, and the chapter "Of Conspiracies," and those having the same effect indirectly, in other titles of this book.

TITLE XXI.

OF OFFENCES AGAINST CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CONDITIONS.

CHAPTER I.

Of the substitution, exposure of infants, and of falsifying registers.

Art. 570. If any person to whom an infant, under the age of six years, shall be confided for nursing, education, or other purpose, shall, with intent to deceive the parents, tutors, or curators of such infant, substitute, or attempt to substitute another child in the place of the one so confided, he shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than three nor more than seven years.

Art. 571. The word substitute in this chapter means, to deliver to the person confiding the child, another instead of the one so confided, under the pretence that it is the same.

Art. 572. If any one, to whom such a child shall be so confided, or its father or mother, shall expose or desert such child, with intent wholly to abandon it, in a place where its life will be endangered, the punishment shall be imprisonment at hard labour not less than five nor more than ten years.

Art. 573. But if such abandonment be made without the knowledge of the father, mother, tutor or curator of the child, by the person to whom it shall have been confided, by fraudulently depositing it in an inhabited house, one half of the punishment, mentioned in the last article, shall be inflicted.

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Art. 574. If such child shall die in consequence of such exposure, is infanticide, murder, or murder under trust, depending on the person who commits the crime. If it receive any other bodily injury, the offence shall be punished in the same manner as the same injury would be, had it been done with intent to kill.

Art. 575. If any one shall, for the purpose of intercepting an inheritance in the whole or in part, fraudulently produce an infant, falsely pretending it to be born of parents, whose child would stand in the order of successsion to such inheritance before or equally with another person, whose condition and civil rights it was intended to intercept, the persons so offending, and those who shall aid and assist in the deception, shall be imprisoned in close custody not less than six nor more than twelve months, and shall be suspended from the exercise of their civil rights of the first and third class for five years.

If any one shall, for the purpose of injuring another in his civil or political rights, or in his right to property, destroy, or alter any certificate of birth, or marriage, or burial, he shall be imprisoned not less than seven nor more than fifteen years at hard labour, and shall forfeit his political rights.

If any person, whose duty it is, by law, to make a record of births, marriages, or deaths; or any curate, priest, minister, or parson, who in any church or religious congregation, is charged with keeping a register of births, marriages, or funerals, celebrated for the members of such church or religious congregation, shall fraudulently make a false entry in such record or register of any such birth, marriage, death, or funeral, with intent to injure any one in his condition, civil or political rights, or his right to property, he shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than seven nor more than fifteen years.

Art. 576. Other offences affecting political rights will be found in the title of offences against the right of suffrage.

CHAPTER II.

Of bigamy.

Art. 577. A person having a wife or husband living, who shall, without having a reasonable cause to believe such wife or husband to be dead, contract a second marriage, is guilty of bigamy, and shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than one, nor more than five years.

Art. 578. If the first wife or husband had, at the time of the subsequent marriage, been absent for five years, and during that time the accused had not received any intelligence of his or her being alive, this shall, for the purposes of this chapter, be considered such a reasonable belief of death, as to take away all criminality from the act.

Art. 579. What other cause to believe the death of the former husband or wife shall be deemed a reasonable cause, is matter of fact, to be decided according to the circumstances of the case.

Art. 580. It is not necessary, to constitute this offence, that the first marriage should have been contracted within this state; but it must, wherever celebrated, have been a valid marriage, according to the laws of the country in which it was contracted.

Art. 581. The subsequent marriage must also be made according to the forms prescribed by law to give validity to marriages in this state. Art. 582. If a citizen of this state, residing therein, having a husband or wife living, either here or elsewhere, shall go out of this state, and contract a second marriage, with the intent of returning to reside within this state, and shall so return-he or she shall be deemed guilty of the crime of bigamy.

Art. 583. If the first marriage be not null in itself, but only voidable, a second marriage, during the lives of the parties to the first, is bigamy; unless such first marriage had been declared void by a competent authority, or had become so by the operation of law or the act of the party, before the time of contracting the second marriage.

Art. 584. No other divorce but one, from the bonds of matrimony, is such a dissolution of the first marriage as will exempt the party from the guilt of bigamy or a second marriage, while both parties to the first are living.

Art. 585. A third marriage, during the lifetime of the parties to the second, is bigamy, although the second marriage was contracted during