Till within a few years before the period in question, the law of England regarded the act done by Mr. Steggars as amounting only to a breach of trust, and consequently subjecting him to no criminal liability; on the ground that the £700 never having been actually in his master's possession, could not be the subject of a felonious taking. The alarming consequences of this doctrine led to the passing of stat. 39 Geo. III. c. 85, [passed on the 12th July 1799,] which declared such an act of embezzlement to be felony, punishable with fourteen years' transportation: this was lately repealed, but re-enacted by stat. 7 and 8, Geo. IV. c. 29, § 47, [passed on the 21st June, 1827,] on the occasion of consolidating that branch of the criminal law.—See 4 Coleridge's Blackst. Comment. p. 231 (note).