The efficacy of this law would, however, be considerably increased if foreign
governments would co-operate in its execution.
I am aware of the difficulties which present themselves in these States when
it seems desirable to extend the powers of the central government. I,
nevertheless, feel confident that your excellency will be pleased to give
some attention to this subject, in order to see if there is any means of
coming to an agreement in relation to the matter. The government of the King
would be happy to take into serious consideration any
[Page 630]
proposition that the Government of the United
States might think proper to make to it, either for the adoption of
additional articles to the extradition treaty now in force between the two
countries, or for any thing else.
I have, to this effect, the honor to inclose to your excellency the text of
the law in question, and I beg you to accept the assurances of my very high
consideration.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
A law to prohibit the employment of children in
vagrant occupations, December 21, 1873.
Victor Emanuel II, by the grace of God and the will of the
nation, King of Italy.
The senate and the chamber of deputies have approved; we have sanctioned
and promulgated the following:
Article 1. Whosoever shall intrust, or, under
any pretext, shall deliver, to Italians or foreigners, persons of either
sex who have not attained the age of eighteen years? although they may
be his own children or wards; and whosoever, whether an Italian or a
foreigner, shall receive them, for the purpose of employing them in the
kingdom in any manner and under any title in vagraut occupations, as for
instance in the capacity of mountebanks, performers of tricks,
charlatans, strolling musicians or singers, rope-dancers,
fortune-tellers, or expounders of dreams, explainers of the acts of
animals, beggars, and the like, shall be punished by imprisonment for a
term of from one to three months, and by a fine of from fifty to” two
hundred and fifty livres, (lire.) The sentence of condemnation includes,
in the case of guardians, deprivation of their guardianship. The court
may order guardians to be deprived of their rights as such, and parents
to be deprived of their parental authority for such time as may be
deemed proper in the interest of the children, according to articles 233
and 269 of the civil code.
Art. 2. Whosoever, within the kingdom, shall
have with him, employed in the occupations specified in article 1,
persons who have not attained the age of eighteen years, and who are not
his children, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of from three
to six months, and by a fine of from fifty to five hundred livres. If
the minor shall have been abandoned, or if, in consequence of
deprivation of food or maltreatment, he shall have suffered serious
injury to his health, or shall have been obliged to escape from the
person who had charge of him, the imprisonment shall be for a term of
from six months to one year, provided the offense do not render the
person committing it liable to a more severe punishment.
Art. 3. Whosoever shall intrust or deliver,
within the kingdom, or shall convey to a foreign country, for the
purpose of intrusting or delivering them to Italians or foreigners,
persons who have not attained the age of eighteen years, although his
own children or wards; and whosoever, be he an Italian or a foreigner,
shall receive such persons for the purpose of conveying, intrusting, or
delivering them abroad, in order that they may be employed in any manner
and under any title in the occupations specified in article 1, shall be
punished by imprisonment for a term of from six months to one year, and
by a fine of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty livres.
Guardians and parents who maybe guilty of the offenses specified in this
article shall be liable to the penalties provided in the second
paragraph of article 1.
Art. 4. Italians in a foreign country who may
have with them, employed in the occupations specified in article 1,
Italians who have not attained the age of eighteen years, shall be
punished by imprisonment for a term of from one to two years, and by a
fine of from five hundred to one thousand livres.
Whenever it shall appear, from an investigation of the case, that the
minor has been abandoned, or that, in consequence of deprivation of food
or of cruel treatment, he has suffered serious injury to his health, or
has been obliged to escape from the person who had charge of him, the
term of imprisonment may be extended to three years, provided the
offense do not render the person committing it liable to a still more
severe punishment.
Art. 5. Whosoever shall, by violence or fraud,
kidnap, or cause to be kidnaped, persons who have not attained the age
of twenty-one years, or whosoever shall, by artifice or seduction,
entice, or cause to be enticed, persons who have not attained the age of
eighteen years away from their parents, guardians, or whomsoever may
have the care or direction of them, for the purpose of employing them in
the occupations
[Page 631]
specified in
article 1, shall be punished, in the case of violence or fraud, with
reclusion for a term of from three to five years, if the persons
kidnaped are to be so employed within the kingdom, and with reclusion
for a term of from five to seven years if they are to be employed in a
foreign country; and, in the case of artifice or seduction, with
inprisonment for a term of from one to three years, if the persons
enticed away are to be employed within the kingdom, and with
imprisonment for a term of from three to five years if they are to be
employed in a foreign country.
Whoever shall have under his control, either within the kingdom or in a
foreign country, and employed in the occupations specified in article 1,
persons who have not attained the age of eighteen years, who have been
kidnaped by violence or by fraud, or enticed away by artifice or
seduction, shall be liable to the same penalties, to be enforced in the
minimum of their duration, according to the nature of each case.
Art. 6. In case the minor kidnaped or enticed
away shall have been abandoned, or, in consequence of deprivation of
food or of maltreatment, shall have suffered serious injury to his
health, or shall have been obliged to escape from the person who had the
control of him, the guilty party shall be punished, in the case of
kidnaping by violence or fraud, with reclusion for a term of from five
to seven years, if the adandonment or maltreatment shall have taken
place within the kingdom, and with reclusion for a term of from seven to
ten years, if the abandonment or maltreatment shall have taken place in
a foreign country; and in case of enticement by artifice or fraud, with
imprisonment for a term of from three to five years, if the act of
abandonment or maltreatment shall have taken place within the kingdom,
and with reclusion for a term of from three to seven years, if it shall
have taken place in a foreign country.
In case the act shall in itself constitute a grave crime, the penalty
provided for such crime shall be enforced, and never to the least extent
provided by law.
If, before any legal steps shall have been taken, the guilty party shall
voluntarily set at liberty the person who has been kidnaped or enticed
away, without having injured or abused him, restoring him to his family
or to the house and to the persons from whom he kidnaped or enticed him
away, or putting him in a place of safety, the penalty of reclusion
shall be mitigated to that of imprisonment for from one to three years,
and the term of imprisonment shall be for from one to six months.
Art. 7. Not only shall the persons who may
commit the crimes provided for in the foregoing articles be liable to
the penalties therein provided, but also their accomplices.
Art. 8. Any contract, for intrusting or
delivering in any manner, prepared for any of the purposes mentioned in
articles 1 and 3, made either before or after the publication of the
present law, is null and void, in whatever manner the purpose may be
concealed or disguised, even though by means of intermediate cessions,
either within the kingdom or in a foreign county.
Art. 9. It shall be the duty of parents,
guardians, and of any one who may have intrusted or delivered persons
under eighteen years of age to be employed in vagrant occupations, to
give information or notice to the syndic of the commune in which they
reside, or to the diplomatic or consular representative of the kingdom
of Italy, if they are in a foreign country, concerning any of their
children or wards who may be engaged either within the kingdom or in a
foreign country in the occupations mentioned in article 1; and in case
of their failure to do so within three months from the date of the
publication of the present law, they shall be liable to a fine of from
fifty-one to one hundred livres. In giving such information they shall
state the full name, the age, and the birth-place of the minors, and of
the persons to whom they were delivered and with whom they are, the
place of their present and of their last residence, the occupation in
which they are engaged, and any other information that may be of service
in finding them.
Art. 10. Those who may have under their
control, either within the kingdom or in a foreign country, persons
under eighteen years of age engaged in vagrant occupations, shall be
required, under penalty of a fine of from one hundred to five hundred
livres, within four months from the date of the publication of this law,
to report to the syndic of the commune where they reside, or to the
diplomatic or consular representative of the kingdom of Italy, if they
are in a foreign country, the names of such persons under eighteen years
of age as they may have engaged in the said vagrant occupations. It
shall be their duty at the same time to restore them to their families
if they are within the kingdom, or to send them home at their own
expense if they are in a foreign country; and, in ease of their
inability to do so directly, it shall be their duty, within the said
term, to present them to the syndic or to the diplomatic or consular
representatives of the kingdom, who will provide for their restoration
to their families, or for the sending home of the said minors in the
ways indicated in article 12.
Art. 11. It shall be the duty of syndics within
the kingdom, and of representatives of the kingdom in foreign countries,
within six months from the date of the publication of this law, to
prepare an official list, according to the information obtained by them,
of Italian minors in their respective communes or consulates who may be
engaged within the kingdom or in foreign countries in the vagrant
occupations mentioned
[Page 632]
in
article 1. They shall avail themselves of the information provided for
its articles 9 and 10, and shall complete the same so far as may be
necessary; they shall collect and add any other information that may be
useful, either for the restoration of the aforesaid minors to their
families, or for sending them back to their own country, or for the
penal effects of the present law.
Art. 12. The list shall be transmitted to the
minister of the interior, and the syndics and the diplomatic and
consular representatives of the kingdom shall at once make-official
provision for the restoration to their families of the minors whose
names appear in the list, or for their return to their native country.
The necessary expenses, if every other means at the immediate disposal
of the said representatives, of the kingdom are wanting, shall be
anticipated by the state, with the exception of the reimbursement, a carico solidale, of the parents or guardians,
detainers or employers.
Art. 13. If the minors referred to in the
foregoing articles have neither parents nor guardians, nor any person
who is able to take charge of their persons and of their education, they
shall be placed in some public educational or industrial establishment
until they shall have attained their majority, or shall have learned
some trade or profession.
Art. 14. Proceedings to enforce the penalties
provided in the present law shall be instituted by the public ministry,
and in case of the absence of the party accused from the country, he may
be tried in his absence. The first book of the penal code and the
general rules concerning the competency of the judicial authorities are
applicable to the offenses provided for in the present law, so far as
they may not conflict with the provisions of said law. Verbal accounts,
reports, letters, and other documents, although private, coming from a
foreign country may be read on the occasion of the trial.
Art. 15. The provisions of the present law
shall take effect simultaneously with its publication. Those of articles
3 and 4, however, shall not take effect until the expiration of the four
months allowed by article 10. Notwithstanding, if acts shall have been
committed which render those committing them liable to punishment
according to the penal code, the provisions of that code shall be
enforced.
We order that the present law, bearing the seal of the state, be added to
the official collection of the laws and decrees of the kingdom of Italy,
and we command all whom it may concern to obey it and to cause it to be
obeyed as a law of the state.
Done at Some, December 21,
1873.
[
seal.]
VICTOR
EMANUEL.
VISCONTI-VENOSTA.
Vigiliani, Keeper of the
Seal.
