 This also had the effect of abolishing the offences of misprision of felony and compounding a felony (but these offences were replaced with new ones in sections 4 and 5).Although all offences were now misdemeanours, the maximum penalties were not affected.Section 2 created a new category of arrestable offences, since powers of arrest had depended on whether an offence was a felony or a misdemeanour.