; — This  principle  does  not  exclude,  in  every  case,  all  considera-
tion of  the  conduct  of  the  injured  person ;  because  such  conduct
sometimes  justifies  in  law  the  other's  act.  For  example,  since  a
man  may  defend  himself  by  blows,  if,  in  such  defence,  in  which
he  goes  no  further  than  the  law  allows,  he  maims  the  assailant,
he  is  not  guilty  of  mayhem.^  And  in  false  pretences  tlie  New
York  court  held,  that  an  indictment  will  not  lie  where  the  com-
plainant parted  with  his  money  under  circumstances  to  have  made
the  transaction  criminal  in  him  if  the  pretences  had  been  true,*
—  a  doctrine,  however,  not  everywhere  accepted.^  In  larceny,  it
is  no  defence  that  the  person  from  whom  the  goods  are  stolen,
himself  stole  them,  or  procured  them  by  other  wrong.^

Unauthorized  Consent.  —  Obviously  a  consent  from  one  having
no  legal  right  to  give  it  avails  nothing.'

§  258.  Continued  —  Civil  and  Criminal,  distinguished.  —  What
would  defeat  a  civil  action  will  not  necessarily  an  indictment.
If,  as  in  a  few  exceptional  cases,  a  consent  to  an  act  ordinarily
criminal  changes  its  nature,  it  may  not  be  a  crime  ;  but  no  man,
and  no  power  short  of  the  legislature,  can  license  crime.  A
private  license,  therefore,  will  not  justify  him  who  commits  it ;
neither  is  it  an  excuse  for  A,  that  B  has  also  broken  the  law.
§  259.   Consent  Unlawful.  —  There  are  injuries  which  no  man


1  Rex  V.  Williams,  1  D.  &  R.  197,  5  Kel.    26 ;    Hutton's    Case,    1    Swinton,
B.  &  Aid.  595 ;  Rex  v.  Haswell,  1  Doug.  497.
387 ;  Reg.  v.  Gregory,  1  Per.  &  D.  110,  8         »  Hayden  v.  The  State,  4  Blackf.  546.
