he fhould be nonfuited, &c; and no hundred or franchife fhall be chargeable by virtue of thefe ftatutes, if one or more of the felons be apprehended within forty days next after notice in the London Gazette. By 22 Geo. II. c. 24. no perfon fhall recover against any hundred more than 200l. unless the perfon fo robbed thall at the time of the robbery be together in company, and be in number two at least, to atteft the truth of the fame; nor by 30 Geo. II. c. 3.; and 4 Geo. III. c. 2. unlefs three perfons be prefent, if the plaintiff is receiver of the land tax.

REWARDS. In order further to encourage the apprehending of certain felons, rewards and immunities are beftowed by divers acts of parliament. The ftatute 4 & 5 W. & M. c. 8. enacts, that fuch as apprehend a highwayman, and profecute him to conviction, fhall receive a reward of 40/. from the public; to be paid to them (or, if killed in the endeavour to take him, their executors) by the fheriff of the county; befides the horfe, furniture, arms, money, and other goods taken upon the perfon of fuch robber; with a refervation of the right of any perfon from whom the fame may have been ftolen; to which the ftat. 8 Geo, II. c. 16. fuperadds 10l. to be paid by the hundred indemnified by fuch taking. By ftatutes 6 & 7 W. III. c. 17. and 15 Geo. II. c. 28. perfons apprehending and convicting any offender against those ftatutes, refpecting the coinage, fhall (in cafe the offence be treafon or felony) receive a reward of 40/; or 10/. if it only amount to counterfeiting the copper coin. By 10 & 11 W. III. c. 23. any perfon apprehending and profecuting to conviction a felon guilty of burglary, houfe-breaking, horfe-ftealing, or private larceny, to the value of 55. from any shop, warehouse, coach house, or ftable, fhall be excufed from all parish offices; and by 5 Ann. c. 31 any perfon fo apprehending and profecuting a burglar, or felonious houfe-breaker, (or, if killed in the attempt, his executors,) fhall be entitled to a reward of 40/. By 6 Geo. I. c. 23. perfons difcovering, apprehending, and profecuting to conviction, any perfon taking reward for helping others to their ftolen goods, fhall be entitled to 40. By 14 Geo. II. c. 6. explained by 15 Geo. II. c. 34. any perfon apprehending and profecuting to conviction fuch as fteal, or kill with intent to fteal, any fheep or other cattle specified in the latter of the said acts, fhall for every fuch conviction receive a reward of 10. Laftly, by 16 Geo. II. c. 15. and 8 Geo. III. c. 15. perfons difcovering, apprehending, and convicting felons and others being found at large during the term tor which they are ordered to be tranfported, fhall receive a reward of twenty pounds.

PIRACY.

PIRACY. Next to the robberies already defcribed, Piracy would be confidered; but it is already treated of in this vol. p. 275.

CHEATS. In forming a judgment who are cheats, it is neceffary to keep in mind the diftinction formerly noticed, whether the property, or only the poffeffion was parted with by the party deceived. If only the poffeffion was furrendered, it has already been fhewn to be a larceny, if the perfon who gains it with an intent to fteal, fulfils that intent by retaining or difpofing of the goods. If the abfolute propert were intended to be paffed by the delivery, but fuch delivery were obtained by means of a falfe token or pretence, the cafe can only be reached in the first inftance by a profecution for a cheat, either at common law, or by help of the ftat. 33 Hen. VIII. or in the inftance of a falfe pretence by the 30 Geo. II. Where indeed the poffeffion is honeftly obtained upon a contract or trust in the first inftance, the fubfequent difhoneft converfion of it is no other than a breach of truft, for which the party injured has a civil remedy. To this there is an exception, where the privity of contract is determined; that is, where the property has been committed to a perfon for a limited time or ufe, and he, instead of returning it according to his engagement, and the reafonable expectation of the owner, fells or makes away with it. The fraud or difhonefty, to become the fubject matter of a criminal charge at common law, must be fuch as affects the public, fuch as is public in its nature, calculated to defraud · numbers, to deceive the people in general, and against which ordinary care or prudence is not fufficient to guard.

Cafes on this fubject are precifely regulated by two ftatutes; the first is that of 33 Hen. VIII. c. 1. which enacts, that if any perfon falfely and deceitfully obtain any money, goods, or other things, by colour and means of any falfe token, or counterfeit letter made in any other man's name, he fhall, if convicted before the lord chancellor, or before the justices of aflize in their circuits, or juftices of the peace in their general feffions, or by action in any of the king's courts of record, fuffer imprisonment, pillory, or other corporal pain, except pains of death, as fhall be adjudged by the court, faving to the party grieved his civil remedy; and the justices of aflize, or two juftices of the peace, (one being of the quorum) may commit or bail offenders to the allizes or general feffions to answer the fame. A false "privy token" within the ftatute has generally been taken to denote fome real vifible mark or thing, as a key, a ring, &c.; a mere falfe affirmation or promife is certainly not fuch; and

although

although writings, generally speaking, may be confidered as tekens, yet they must be fuch as are made in the names of third perfons; whereby fome additional credit may be gained to the party using them. The falfe token must be fich as is calculated to gain the party fome additional credit and confidence beyond his own affertion, or that which is refolvable into fuch. This inquiry however is become lefs important from the following act.

In furtherance of the provifions of the above ftatute, it is furth enacted by 30 Geo. II. c. 24. that all perfons who knowingly and defignedly by falfe pretence or pretences fhall obtain from any perfon money, goods, wares or merchandizes, with intent to cheat or defraud them of the fame, thall be deemed offenders against law and the public peace; and the court before whom they fhall be tried fhall, on conviction, order them to be fined and imprifoned, or put in the pillory, or publickly whipped, or tranfported for the term of feven years. And any juftice of peace, before whom fuch perfon is brought, may commit or bail him, to anfwer the complaint at the next general or quarter feffions, or next feflions of oyer and terminer; and thall bind over the party complaining to profecute in a reasonable fum not lefs than double the amount of the money or goods fraudulently obtained if they fhall exceed 20/. in value; and the ccrtiorari is taken away.

The term "falfe pretences" is of great latitude, and was ufed to pretect the weaker part of mankind, because all are not equally prudent: it feems difficult therefore to restrain the interpretation of it to fuch falfe pretences only against which ordinary prudence cannot be fuppofed fuflicient to guard; but fill it may be a queition whether the ftatute extends to every falfe pretence, either abfurd or irrational upon the face of it, or fuch as the party has at the very time the means of detecting at hand; or whether the words which are general shall be conflrued co-extenfively with the cheat actually effected by means of the falfe pretence ufed. Thefe may perhaps be matters proper for the confideration of the jury, with the advice of the court.

There are various other provifions by ftatute for the punishment of particular kinds of frauds or cheats; such as those by goldfmiths, &c. in working up plate, embezzlements and frauds by fervants, by officers of the bank, and of other public companies, by perfons in the post-office, by manufacturers, by lodgers, by perfons intrutted with the king's naval and military flores, and by thofe intrufted with hips and goods at fea. Frauds committed by bankrupts will be confi

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dered

dered hereafter. Others it is fufficient here barely to refer to, as the ftat. 6 Geo. I. c. 18. againit entering into public fubfcriptions for certain fchemes of commerce, &c. which is made indictable as a nufance; and the ftat. 37 Geo. III. c. 143. which gives a fummary jurisdiction to juftices of the peace in petty feffions to punish retailers in whofe poffeffion falfe weights and balances fhall be found. Fraudulent conveyances are provided against by the 13 Eliz. c. 5. and by the 27 Eliz. c. 4.

At common law the punishment for a cheat is, as in other cafes of mifdemeanor, by fine, imprifonment, or, further, by infamous corporal pain in aggravated cafes. How this has been confirmed or extended by the two ftatutes of Hen. VIII. and Geo. II. has been already fhewn. And where goods have been obtained from another by mere fraud, the court has no power of awarding reftitution on conviction of the offender, as in cafes of felony.

FORGERY. To forge, (a metaphorical expreffion borrowed from the occupation of the fmith), means, properly speaking, no more than to make or form; but in law it is always taken in an evil fenfe, and therefore forgery at common law denotes a falfe making, which includes every alteration of, or addition to, a true inftrument; a making malo animo, of any written inftrument for the purpose of fraud and deceit. This offence is punishable as a mifdemeanor at common law; but it has been enhanced in a variety of inftances by different ftatutes, upon which it is now moft ufual to pro

fecute.

To conftitute Forgery, the intent must be deceitful and fraudulent. The very making, with fuch fraudulent intent and without lawful authority, of any inftrument which at common law or by ftatute is the fubject of forgery, is of itself a fufficient completion of the offence even before publication, and of confequence before any actual injury fuftained: for though publication be the medium by which the intent is ufually made manifeft, yet it may be proved as plainly by other evidence. And by the ftatute law, the publication, with knowledge of the fact, is for the moft part made a fubftantive offence. Forgery may even be committed by a party's making a falfe deed in his own name; as if he make a fubfequent deed of feoffment, as of a date prior to a former deed of his own, conveying the fame lands, thereby attempting to give the laft an operation which in juftice it ought not to have, in order to defraud his own feoffee. So, if a bill of exchange payable to A. or order get into the hands of another perfon of the fame

Tt3

fame name with the payee, and fuch perfon, knowing that he is not the real payee in whofe favour it was drawn, indorfe it for the purpose of fraudulently poffefling himself of the money, he is guilty of forgery. So, if one put off a note fubfcribed with his own name as the note of another, it is a falfe uttering and publifhing within the ftatute. Making a fraudulent infertion, alteration, or erafure in any material part of a true inftrument, although but in a letter, and even if it be afterwards executed by another person, he not knowing of the deceit; or the fraudulent application of a true fignature to a falfe inftrument, for which it was not intended, or vice verfa; are as much forgeries, as if the whole inftrument had been fabricated; for any fuch alteration gives it a new operation; as by altering the date of a bill of exchange after acceptance, whereby the payment was accelerated. The wilful infertion of a legacy in another's will unknown to him prior to and at the time of its execution is a forgery. But a bare nonfeafance or omiflion is faid not to be fuch; as by omitting a legacy out of a will which one is directed to draw for another; unlefs, as fome have holden, fuch omiffion makes a material alteration in other parts of the will. In all cafes the thing made must be falfe; for certainly a man cannot be guilty of forgery merely by paffing himself off for the perfon whofe real fignature appears, although for the purpose of fraud, and in concert with fuch real perfon; for there is no falfe making.

To what inftruments the crime of forgery was applied at common law feems to have been very indiftinaly marked. It was never doubted but that it extended to the falfification of records and other inftruments of a public nature; as a parifl regifter, a privy feal, a licence from the barons of the exchequer to compound a debt, a certificate of holy orders, a protection from a member of parliament, or the like. It is equally clear that it extended to private deeds or inftruments under feal, but how far beyond thefe is fomewhat doubtful.

But the various modes of forgery are amply provided against by a great variety of ftatutes, of which a brief mention will be made under certain heads.

1. Records. The ftat. 8 Hen. VI. c. 12. provides againft the stealing and avoiding any records, or any part of them, in any of the courts at Weflminfter, declaring fuch acts to be high mifdemeanors. The word avoid is taken in a large fenfe, and includes rafing, clipping, or any other kind of avoiding: and not only any alteration of a record whereby the judgment is reverfed, (by which is to be understood annulled) but alfo whereby it is fo made void as to be reverfible, is within the ftatute;