"That A. B. on the first day of June in the year of our Lord 1906 one
oak tree of the value of five pounds the property of C. D. then
growing in a certain park of the said C. D. situate in the parish of
E. in the county of F. feloniously did steal take and carry away
contrary to the statute, &c."
Only one offence should be stated in one count; and separate and
distinct felonies should not be charged in the same indictment. If they
are, the court makes the prosecution choose one upon which to proceed.
This rule is altered by statute in certain cases: e.g. by allowing a
limited number of separate thefts, or receivings of stolen property to
be included in the same indictment. Misdemeanours and felonies may not
be included in the same indictment because of the difference of
procedure on the trial; but any number of misdemeanours may be included
in different counts of the same indictment, subject to the right of the
court to order separate trials or to quash the indictment if it is
rendered vexatious by the agglomeration of charges.
There is no general limitation of the time within which indictments may
lawfully be preferred; but various limitations have been fixed by
statute for certain offences, e.g. in the case of certain forms of
treason, of riot, of night poaching and of corrupt and illegal practices
at elections. In this respect English law differs from European law, in
which limitations of time for prosecution are the rule and not the
exception.
Until the mitigation of the draconic severity of the English law in the
early part of the 19th century, little or no power existed of amending
defective statements or indictments, and the courts _in favorem vitae_
insisted strictly on accurate pleading and on proof of the offences
exactly as charged. Since 1827 numerous enactments have been passed for
getting rid of these technicalities, which led to undeserved acquittals,
and since 1851 the courts have had power to disregard technical
objections to the form of indictment and to amend in matters not
essential in case of variance between the indictment and the evidence.
These changes apply to ordinary offences; but for the most part do not
touch charges of treason, as to which the old law in the main still
applies. At the present time the looseness of pleading in criminal cases
is carried almost too far; for while there is no danger in such
looseness when times are quiet and when law is administered by the
judges of the High Court in England, yet when crimes of a certain
character are committed in times of great political excitement and the
law is administered by an inferior judiciary, there may be some danger
of injustice if the strictness of pleading and procedure is too much
relaxed. In the Criminal Code drafted by Sir James Fitz James Stephen
and revised by a judicial commission (Lord Blackburn and Lords Justices
Lush and Barry), it was proposed to substitute for the old form of
indictment a statement of the particulars of the offence with a
reference to the section of the code defining the offence.
The law of Ireland as to indictments is in substance the same as that of
England; but is to a certain extent expressed in different statutes.
In Scotland the terms indictment or criminal letters are used to express
the _acte d'accusation_. But except in the case of high treason there is
no grand jury, and the indictment is filed like an English criminal
information by the lord advocate or one of his deputies: and it is only
by order of the court of justiciary that a prosecution can be instituted
without the general or particular assent of the lord advocate. By the
Criminal Procedure Scotland Act 1887 the form of Scots indictments is
much simplified. They are drawn in the second and not in the third
person.
In those of the British colonies in which by settlement or statute the
English criminal law runs, the form of indictment is substantially the
same, and is found by a grand jury as in England. But in certain
colonies, e.g. the Australian states, an indictment by a public officer
without the intervention of a grand jury has been adopted. In India and
British Asiatic possessions the procedure is regulated by the Indian
Procedure Code or its adaptations. In South Africa indictments are
framed under Roman Dutch law as modified by local legislation.
In the United States prosecution or indictment by a grand jury is the
rule: the form of indictment is the same, substituting the state or
commonwealth of the United States for references to the king, and the
conclusions "against the form of the statute" and "against the peace"
are still in use. (W. F. C.)
"INDIES, LAWS OF THE," in the colonial history of Spain, a general term
designative either (1) of certain codifications of legislation for the
colonies listed below, and especially the compilation of 1680; or (2) of
the whole body of colonial law, of which those compilations were but a
selection, and which was made up of a multitude of royal _cédulas_,
orders, letters, ordinances, provisions, instructions, _autos_,
dispatches, pragmatics and laws--all emanating from the crown (or crown
and cortes) and all of equal force--that were passed through various
departments of government to various officers and branches of the
colonial administration, or between the different departments of
government in Spain. The transfer of Spanish law to Ultramar began with
the first days of the Conquest; and especially the civil law was
translated with comparatively slight alteration. Many things, however,
peculiar to colonial conditions--the special relations of the crown and
the papacy in America, the _repartimientos_ and _encomiendas_
("divisions of lands" and "commendations," a system of patronage, or
modified slavery) of the Indians, the development of African slavery,
questions of natural and international law, the spread of discovery and
establishment of new settlements and administrative areas, the sales and
grants of public lands, the working of the mines--necessitated the
organization of a great mass of special law, made up of a body of
general doctrine and a vast quantity of administrative applications, _la
matéria de Indias_--to which references are already found in the time of
Ferdinand. The general doctrine was applicable everywhere in Ultramar,
and the difficult and inconstant communication between the provinces,
and other considerations, early counselled some work of codification.
The first efforts to this end were begun in Mexico in 1525; a volume was
published in 1563, and other inadequate compilations in 1596 and 1628,
and finally the great _Recopilación de Leyes de las Reinos de las
Indias_ of 1680. This code has enjoyed great fame, and in some ways even
extravagant praise. The greatest praise that has been given it is that
its dominant spirit through and through is not the mercantile aim but
the political aim--the principle of civilization; and this praise it
deserves. It had various defects, however, of an administrative nature;
and as time passed its basic doctrines--especially its minute
administrative strangulation of colonial political life, and its
monopolistic economic principles--became fatally opposed to conditions
and tendencies in the colonies. Two centuries in formation, the code of
1680--continually altered by supplementary interpretation and
application--was only one century in effect; for in the
seventeen-sixties Charles III. began, in a series of liberal decrees, to
break down the monopolistic principles of colonial commerce. This change
came too late to save the mainland colonies in America, but its
remarkable effects were quickly seen in the aggrandizement of Cuba. It
is in the history of this colony (as also in Porto Rico and the
Philippines) that one must follow the later history of the Laws of the
Indies (see CUBA).
Of the _Recopilación_ of 1680, five editions were issued by the
government, the last in 1841 (Madrid, 4 vols.); and there are later,
private editions approved by the government. See also J. M. Zomora y
Coronado, _Biblioteca de legislacion Ultramarina_ (Madrid, 1844-1849,
6 vols., with appendices often bound as vol. 7); J. Rodriguez San
Pedro, _Legislacion Ultramarina concordada_, covering 1837-1868 (12
vols., Madrid, 1865-1868, vols. 10-12 being a supplement); the
_Boletin oficial del Ministerio de Ultramar_, covering 1869-1879; and
M. Fernandez Martin, _Compilacion legislativa del gobierno y
administracion civil de Ultramar_ (Madrid, 1886-1894); the gap of
1879-1886 can be filled for Cuba by the series of _Reales Ordenes ...
publicadas en la Gaceta de la Habana_ (annual, Havana, 1857-1898,
covering 1854-1898).
INDIGO (earlier _indico_, from Lat. _indicum_, the Indian substance or
dye; the Sans. name was _niti_, from _nila_, dark blue, and this through
Arab. _al-nil_, _annil_, gives "aniline") one of the most important and
valuable of all dyestuffs. Until comparatively recently it was obtained
exclusively from the aqueous extract of certain plants, principally of
the genus _Indigofera_ which belongs to the natural order Leguminosae.
Small quantities are also obtained from _Lonchocarpus eyanescens_ (west
coast of Africa), _Polygonum tintorium_ (China) and the woad plant
_Isatis tinctoria_. The latter is of historical interest, since up to
the middle of the 17th century it was the only blue dyestuff used by
dyers in England and on the adjoining continent; at the present time
woad is still cultivated in Europe, but serves merely as a ferment in
the setting of the fermentation indigo vat or so-called "woad vat" used
in wool dyeing.
The bulk of the natural indigo which is brought into the market comes
from India, while smaller quantities are imported from Java, Guatemala
and other places. The plant from which indigo is made in Bengal is the
_Indigofera sumatrana_, which is reared from seed sown about the end of
April or the beginning of March. By the middle of June the plant has
attained a height of from 3 to 5 ft., and it is at this period that the
first manufacturing begins, a second crop being obtained in August. The
indigo is contained in the leaf of the plant in the form of a colourless
glucoside, known as indican, C14H17O6N·3H2O. This substance is soluble
in water and by the joint action of an enzyme, contained in the leaf,
and atmospheric oxygen it yields indigotine, the colouring matter of
indigo. It is on these facts that the manufacturing of indigo from the
plant is based.
The plant is cut early in the morning and transported to the factory in
bullock carts. Here it is steeped in water in steeping vats having a
capacity of about 1000 cub. ft. for periods varying, according to
circumstances, from nine to fourteen hours, when the liquid--the colour
of which varies from a bright orange to an olive green--is run into the
beating vats which lie at a lower level. The beating, the object of
which is to bring the liquor as freely as possible into contact with the
air, was formerly done by striking the surface with bamboo sticks, but
is now effected either by means of a paddle wheel or by forcing a
current of air from a steam blower or a compressor through the liquid.
When the beating is finished, the precipitated indigo is allowed to
settle, the supernatant liquid being drawn off and run to waste. The
indigo mud thus obtained, which is known as mal, is strained, boiled for
a short period for the purpose of sterilizing, formed into bars, cut
into blocks of about 3 in. cube and dried.[1] The actual amount of
colouring matter yielded by the leaf is but small, averaging, according
to Ch. Rawson, 0.5%, but the yield from the whole plant is considerably
less, since the stalks and twigs contain practically no colour.
Since the introduction on a large scale of synthetic indigo efforts have
been made in India and in Java to place the cultivation of the plant and
the manufacture of the natural product on a more scientific basis. But
although many important improvements have been achieved from the
agricultural as well as from the manufacturing point of view, resulting
no doubt in the retention of a portion of the industry, the synthetic
product has gained the upper hand and is likely to retain it.
Natural indigoes vary considerably in composition, containing in some
qualities as much as 90% and in others as little as 20% of colouring
matter. The blue colouring matter which indigo contains is known as
indigotine, but there are usually also present in small quantities other
colouring matters such as indigo red or indirubrine, a yellow colour
known as kaempferol, indigo green and indigo brown, as well as indigo
gluten and more or less mineral matter.
The bulk of the indigo which now comes into the European market is
prepared synthetically from coal tar. The following figures indicate the
values of the imports into England of natural and synthetic indigo, and
are taken from the official Board of Trade returns:--
+--------+-----------------+-------------------+
| | Natural Indigo. | Synthetic Indigo. |
+--------+-----------------+-------------------+
| 1899 | £986,090 | .. |
| 1900 | 542,089 | .. |
| 1901 | 788,820 | .. |
| 1902 | 498,043 | £143,613 |
| 1903 | 262,775 | 110,970 |
| 1904 | 316,070 | 83,397 |
| 1905 | 116,902 | 121,269 |
| 1906 | 111,455 | 147,325 |
| 1907 | 151,297 | 158,481 |
| 1908 | 136,882 | 134,052 |
+--------+-----------------+-------------------+
During the period 1899-1908, the average price of indigo had declined
from a fraction under 3s. to about 2s. 2½d. per lb. At first sight it
might appear that the use of indigo in England was rapidly declining,
but this does not necessarily follow when it is borne in mind that
London was formerly the distributing centre of natural indigo for the
continent and America.
_Chemistry._--Our knowledge of the chemistry of indigo is largely
derived from the classical researches of A. von Baeyer and his
collaborators. In 1841 Erdmann and Laurent observed that on oxidation
indigo yielded isatin; and in 1848 Fritzsche obtained aniline by
distilling the dyestuff with potash. In 1870 A. v. Baeyer and Knop
succeeded in preparing indigotine by heating isatin with phosphorus
trichloride, acetyl chloride and phosphorus. In the same year, C.
Engler and A. Emmerling obtained small quantities of the dyestuff by
heating nitroacetophenone with soda-lime and zinc dust, while in 1875
M. v. Nencki prepared it by the oxidation of indol by ozone. Indol had
been previously obtained from albuminoids by means of the pancreas
ferment. It was not, however, until 1880 that v. Baeyer, who had been
at work on the subject since 1865, was able to obtain indigotine from
more or less easily accessible coal tar derivatives of known
constitution. The most important of these synthetic processes due to
the researches of v. Baeyer was the production of the dyestuff from
ortho-nitrophenylpropiolic acid (see Propiolic Acid), which yields
indigotine on being treated with caustic soda and a reducing agent
such as grape sugar or xanthate of soda. Although used in small
quantities in calico printing, it never attained any commercial
importance as a means of producing indigo, the cost of production
being far too high.
Many synthetic processes of preparing indigotine have since been
devised, but the one which stands out pre-eminently from a technical
point of view and the one which ultimately led to the commercial
success of the synthetic product is that of Heumann who showed in 1890
that indigotine can be prepared by melting phenylglycocoll
(phenylglycine), C6H5·NH·CH2·COOH, with caustic alkalis. The yield
was at first very unsatisfactory. It was subsequently found, however,
that by starting with phenylglycocoll-ortho-carboxylic acid, the yield
was sufficiently good to render the process a practical success. The
starting-point for the manufacture of synthetic indigo is naphthalene,
C10H8, which is oxidized, by heating with concentrated sulphuric acid
in the presence of a little mercury, to phthalic anhydride,
C6H4(CO)2O, which is then converted into ortho-aminobenzoic acid,
C6H4(NH2)(CO2H), by treatment with an alkaline hypochlorite. This acid
is then condensed with monochloracetic acid to form
phenylglycocoll-ortho-carboxylic acid, C6H4(NH·CH2·CO2H)(CO2H), which
on being melted with caustic alkali yields indoxylic acid,
/C(OH)\\
C6H4 / \\ C·CO2H,
\ NH /
and this readily loses carbon dioxide and passes over into indoxyl,
/C(OH)\\
C6H4 / \\ CH.
\ NH /
By alkaline oxidation indoxyl is converted into indigotine.
The patent literature of processes for bringing about the conversion
of the phenylglycine or its carboxylic acid into indoxylic acid,
indoxyl and indigotine is enormous; a circumstance due to the fact
that the efficiency of this operation controls the price of the
synthetic dyestuff. Caustic soda has been practically given up, being
replaced partly or wholly by caustic potash; in addition, alkaline
earths, sodamide, nitrides, alkali carbides, &c., have been used. In
1906, Meister, Lucius and Brüning patented the addition of lead and
sodium to a mixture of caustic potash and soda; the Basler Chemische
Fabrik use a mixture of caustic potash and soda at 210°-260°; Léon
Lilienfeld added slaked lime or magnesia to the fused alkali, with a
subsequent heating in a current of ammonia at 150°-300°, and in 1908
patented a process wherein the melt is heated under greatly reduced
pressure; this gave a yield of 80-90%.
Synthetic indigo comes into the market chiefly in the form of a 20%
paste but is also sold in the solid state in the form of a powder.
Indigotine, C16H10N2O2, is a derivative of indol and its constitution
is
CO CO
/ \ / \ / \ / \
| | C:C | |
\ / \ / \ / \ /
NH NH
It can be prepared in an almost pure state by extracting good
qualities of Bengal or Java indigo or synthetic indigo with boiling
nitrobenzene, from which it crystallizes on cooling in dark blue
crystals having a metallic sheen. When heated in an open vessel it
readily volatilizes, yielding a violet vapour which condenses on
cooling in the form of crystals. Indigotine is also soluble in boiling
aniline oil, quinoline, glacial acetic acid and chloroform, but is
insoluble in water, dilute acids and alkalis and ordinary solvents
like alcohol, ether, &c. By nitric acid and many other oxidizing
agents it is readily converted into isatin, C8H5NO2. Heated with
concentrated sulphuric acid it yields a disulphonic acid,
C16H8N2O2(SO3H)2, the sodium salt of which finds application as an
acid colour in wool dyeing under the name of Indigo carmine.[2] By the
action of reducing agents, indigotine is converted into _indigo
white_, C16H12N2O2, which is readily soluble in alkalis or milk of
lime with a yellow colour. On exposing the alkaline solution to the
air the indigo white is rapidly oxidized back to indigotine, and on
these two reactions the application of indigo in dyeing and printing
is based. (See DYEING and TEXTILE PRINTING.)
Various halogen (chlorine and bromine) substitutive derivatives of
indigotine have been introduced which, while not differing essentially
from ordinary indigo in their properties, produce for the most part
redder shades in dyeing. They are claimed to be faster and brighter
colours. It has been shown by Friedländer (Ber., 1909, 42, p. 765)
that the reddish violet colouring matter obtained from the
colour-yielding glands of the mollusc _Murex brandaris_, by means of
which the famous Tyrian purple of the ancients was dyed, is a
dibromindigo, C16H8Br2N2O2. A new departure in the synthetic dyestuffs
belonging to the indigo group was inaugurated by the discovery in 1906
by P. Friedländer of thioindigo red, a derivative of thionaphthen,
which is formed from phenylthioglycol-ortho-carboxylic acid,
/CO2H
C6H4 /
\ S·CH2CO2H.
This substance, on boiling with alkali and then with dilute acid
yields thioindoxyl,
/CO\
C6H4 / \ CH2,
\ S /
which is converted by alkaline oxidation into thioindigotin, having
the constitution
/CO\ /CO\
C6H4 / \ C:C / \ C6H4.
\ S / \ S /
The new dyestuff is therefore analogous to indigotine, from which it
differs by having the imino groups replaced by sulphur atoms.
Thioindigo red can be readily crystallized from boiling benzene, and
forms reddish brown crystals possessing a metallic reflex. Thioindigo
scarlet,
/CO\ /CO \
C6H4 / \ C = C / \ NH,
\ S / \C6H4 /
is also obtained synthetically. Both products come into the market in
the form of pastes and are used in dyeing like indigo (see DYEING).
(E. K.)