“ The earliest act in the statutes of the realm dealing with larceny appears to be the Carta Forestae of 1225, by which fine or imprisonment was inflicted for stealing the king’s deer. The next act appears to be the statute of Westminster the First (1275) , dealing again with stealing deer. It seems as though the beginning of legislation on the subject was for the purpose of protecting the chases and parks of the king and the nobility. A very large number of the old acts are named in the repealing act of 1827. An act of the same date removed the old distinction between grand and petit larceny. ”

“ The value of anything else not fixed by statute is its market value. Grand larceny, in the first degree, is punishable by imprisonment not exceeding ten years; in the second degree, not exceeding five years. Petit larceny is a misdemeanour (Penal Code, §§ 530–535) . Bringing stolen goods into the state knowing them to be stolen is punishable as larceny within the state (id. § 540) . A “pay ticket” for removing a load of snow may be the subject of larceny and its value the amount to be paid on it. ”

“ The latter would be in English law an abduction under certain circumstances but not a theft. One of two married persons could not commit furtum as against the other, but larceny may be so committed in England since the Married Women’s Property Act 1882. As a furtum was merely a delict, the obligatio ex delicto could be extinguished by agreement between the parties; this cannot be done in England. In another direction English law is more considerate of the rights of third parties than was Roman. The thief can give a good title to stolen goods ”

“ The quadruple value included the stolen thing itself, so that the penalty was in effect only a triple one. It was inclusive, and not cumulative, as in furtum.
In England theft or larceny appears to have been very early regarded by legislators as a matter calling for special attention. The pre-Conquest compilations of laws are full of provisions on the subject. The earlier laws appear to regard it as a delict which may be compounded for by payment. Considerable distinctions of person are made, both in regard to the owner and the thief. ”

“ The inconveniences of the common law rules of interpretation of indictments led to certain amendments of the law, now contained in the Larceny Act, for the purpose of avoiding the frequent failures of justice owing to the strictness with which indictments were construed. ”

“ This explains the reason of the division of furtum into manifestum and nec manifestum. The manifest thief was one taken red-handed—“taken with the manner,” in the language of old English law. The Twelve Tables denounced the punishment of death against the manifest thief, for that would be the penalty demanded by the indignant owner in whose place the judge stood. The severity of this penalty was afterwards mitigated by the praetor, who substituted for it the payment of quadruple the value of the thing stolen. ”

“ In later times, a criminal remedy to meet the graver crimes gradually grew up by the side of the civil, and in the time of Justinian the criminal remedy, where it existed, took precedence of the civil (Cod. iii. 8. 4) . ”