in Law, one guilty of FORGERY.

(from the French forger, i.e. accudare, fabricare, "to beat on an anvil, forge, or form,") may be defined at common law, to be "the fraudulent making or alteration of a writing, to the prejudice of another man's right;" for which the offender may suffer fine, imprisonment, and pillory. And also, by a variety of statutes, a more severe punishment is inflicted on the offender in many particular cases, which are so multiplied of late as almost to become general. We shall mention the principal instances.

By statute 5 Eliz. c. 14. to forge or make, or know- Forgery. ingly to publish or give in evidence, any forged deed, court-roll, or will, with intent to affect the right of real property, either freehold or copyhold, is punished by a forfeiture to the party grieved of double costs and damages; by standing in the pillory, and having both his ears cut off, and his nostrils slit and seared; by forfeiture to the crown of the profits of his lands, and by perpetual imprisonment. For any forgery relating to a term of years or annuity, bond, obligation, acquittance, release, or discharge of any debt or demand of any personal chattels, the same forfeiture is given to the party grieved; and on the offender is inflicted the pillory, loss of one of his cars, and half a year's imprisonment: the second offence, in both cases, being felony without benefit of clergy.

Besides this general act, a multitude of others, since the Revolution (when paper credit was first established), have inflicted capital punishment on the forging, altering, or uttering as true when forged, of any bank bills or notes, or other securities; of bills of credit issued from the exchequer; of South Sea bonds, &c.; of lottery tickets or orders; of army or navy debentures; of East India bonds; of writings under seal of the London or royal exchange assurance; of the hand of the receiver of the pre-fines, or of the accountant-general and certain other officers of the court of chancery; of a letter of attorney or other power to receive or transfer stock or annuities; and on the perforating a proprietor thereof, to receive or transfer such annuities, stock or dividends: also on the perforating, or procuring to be perforated, any seaman or other person, entitled to wages or other naval emoluments, or any of his personal representatives; and the taking, or procuring to be taken, any false oath in order to obtain a probate or letters of administration, in order to receive such payments; and the forging, or procuring to be forged, and likewise the uttering or publishing, as true, of any counterfeited seaman's will or power; to which may be added, though not strictly reducible to this head, the counterfeiting of Mediterranean passes under the hands of the lords of the admiralty, to protect one from the piratical states of Barbary; the forging or imitating of any stamps to defraud the public revenue; and the forging of any marriage register or licence: all which are, by distinct acts of parliament, made felonies without benefit of clergy. By statutes 13 Geo. III. c. 52. and 59. forging or counterfeiting any stamp or mark to denote the standard of gold and silver plate, and certain other offences of the like tendency, are punished with transportation for 14 years. By statute 12 Geo. III. c. 48. certain frauds on the stamp-duties, therein described, principally by using the same stamps more than once, are made single felony, and liable to transportation for seven years. And the same punishment is inflicted by statute 13 Geo. III. c. 38. on such as counterfeit the common seal of the corporation for manufacturing plate glass (thereby erected), or knowingly demand money of the company by virtue of any writing under such counterfeit seal.

There are also two other general laws with regard to forgery; the one 2 Geo. II. c. 25. whereby the first offence in forging or procuring to be forged, acting or assisting therein, or uttering or publishing as true, any forged deed, will, bond, writing obligatory, bill of exchange, promissory note, indorsement or assignment thereof, or any acquittance or receipt for money or goods, with intention to defraud any person (or corporation), is made felony without benefit of clergy. And by statute 7 Geo. II. c. 22. it is equally penal to forge, or cause to be forged, or utter as true, a counterfeit acceptance of a bill of exchange, or the number of any accountable receipt for any note, bill, or any other security for money, or any warrant or order for the payment of money, or delivery of goods. So that, through the number of these general and special provisions, there is now hardly a case possible to be conceived, wherein forgery, that tends to defraud, whether in the name of a real or fictitious person, is not made a capital crime.