by John Marshall Harlan

“ It is proper to add that section 1025 of the Revised Statutes, providing that 'no indictment found and presented by a grand jury in any district or circuit or other court of the United States shall be deemed insufficient, nor shall the trial, judgment, or other proceedings thereon be affected by reason of any defect or imperfection in matter of form only, which shall not tend to the prejudice of the defendant,' is not to be interpreted as dispensing with the requirement in section 5396 that an indictment for perjury must set forth the substance of the offense charged. ”

“ The requirement that it shall be sufficient in an indictment for perjury to set forth the substance of the offense is not new in the statutes of the United States. It is so provided in the crimes act of April 30, 1790 (1 Stat. 112, 116, c. 9, § 18) ; and the latter act, in the particular mentioned, was the same as that of 23 Geo. II. c. 11 (7 British Stat. at Large [Ed. 1769] p. 221) . ”

“ It gave the name of the officer before whom the alleged false oath was taken; averred that he was competent to administer an oath; set forth the very words of the statement alleged to have been willfully and corruptly made by the accused; and charged that such false statement was part of a deposition given and subscribed by the accused before that officer, and was material to an inquiry then pending before, and within the jurisdiction of, the commissioner of pensions of the United States. ”