"An instrument, document, or writing, being or purporting to be, a process or mandate issued by a competent court, magistrate, or officer of the state, or the return of an officer, court or tribunal, to such a process or mandate; or a bond, recognizance, undertaking, pleading, or proceeding, filed or entered in any court of the state, or a certificate, order or allowance by a competent court, or officer, or a license or authority granted pursuant to any statute of the state or a certificate, document, instrument, or writing, made evidence by any law or statute; or,

"An instrument or writing, being or purporting to be the act, of another, by which a pecuniary demand or obligation is or purports to be or to have been created, increased, discharged, or diminished, or in any manner affected, or by which any rights or property whatever are or purport to be or to have been created, transferred, conveyed, discharged, increased, or diminished, or in any manner affected, the punishment for forging, altering, or counterfeiting which is not herein before prescribed, by which false making, forging, altering, or counterfeiting, any person may be bound, affected or in any way injured in his person or property; or,

"3. Makes or engraves a plate in the form or similitude of a promissory note, bill of exchange, bank note, draft, cheque, certificate of deposit, or other evidence of debt, issued by a banker, or by any banking corporation or association, incorporated or carrying on business under the laws of the state, or of the United States, or of any other state or territory of the United States, or of any foreign government, or country, without the authority of such banker, or banking corporation or association; or,

"Without like authority, has in his possession or custody such a plate, with intent to use, or permit the same to be used, for the purpose of taking therefrom any impression to be uttered; or,

"Without like authority, has in his possession or custody any impression taken from such a plate, with intent to have the same filled up and completed for the purpose of being uttered; or,

"Makes or engraves, or causes to be made or engraved, upon any plate, any figures or words, with intent that the same may be used for the purpose of falsely altering any evidence of debt hereinbefore mentioned." N. Y. Penal Code, § 511.

"An instrument partly written and partly printed, or wholly printed with a written signature thereto, and any signature or writing purporting to be a signature of, or intended to bind an

individual, a partnership, a corporation or association, or an officer thereof, is a written instrument or a writing, within the provisions of this chapter. N. Y. Penal Code, § 513.

"A person, who, with intent to defraud or conceal any larceny or misappropriation by any person or any money or property, either,

"1. Alters, erases, obliterates, or destroys an account, book of account, record, or writing, belonging to, or appertaining to the business of, a corporation, association, public office or officer, partnership, or individual; or,

"2. Makes a false entry in any such account or book of accounts; or,

"3. Willfully omits to make true entry of any material particular in any such account or book of accounts, made, written, or kept by him or under his direction;

"Is guilty of forgery in the third degree." N. Y. Penal Code, § 515.

500. Two Witnesses Required to Prove.

501. One Witness Insufficient.

502. Proof Required that Defendant was on Oath.

503. Impeaching Evidence always Competent.

504. Testimony of an Accomplice Received with Suspicion. 505. Authorities Considered.

§ 499. Term Defined. This offense at common law is defined to be a willful false oath, by one who being lawfully required to depose the truth in any judicial proceedings, swears absolutely in a matter material to the point in question, whether he be believed

or not.

If we analyze this definition we will find, 1st. That the oath must be willful. 2d. That it must be false. 3d. That the

party was lawfully sworn. 4th. That the property was judicial.

5th. That the assertion was absolute. was material to the point in question.

6th. That the falsehood

The intention must be willful. The oath must be taken and falsehood asserted with deliberation, and a consciousness of the nature of the statement made; for if it has arisen in consequence of inadvertency, surprise or mistake of the import of the question, there was no corrupt motive (1 Hawk, P. C. chap. 69, § 2); but one who swears willfully and deliberately to a matter which he rashly believes, which is false, and which he had no probable cause for believing, is guilty of perjury. Com. v. Cornish, 6 Binn. 249. See United States v. Shellmire, 1 Baldw. 370; State v. Cockran, 1 Bail. L. 50.

The oath must be false. The party must believe that what he is swearing is fictitious; for, if intending to deceive, he asserts that which may happen to be true, without any knowledge of the fact, he is equally criminal, and the accidental truth of his evidence will not excuse him. 3 Coke, Inst. 166; 1 Hawk, P. C. chap. 69, § 6.

The party must be lawfully sworn. The person by whom

the oath is administered must have competent authority to receive it; an oath, therefore, taken before a private person, or before an officer having no jurisdiction, will not amount to perjury. 3 Coke, Inst. 166; Jackson v. Humphrey, 1 Johns. 498; Bullock v. Koon, 9 Cow. 30; State v. McCroskey, 3 McCord, L. 308; State v. Stephenson, 4 McCord, L. 165; Rex v. Hanks, 3 Car. & P. 419; State v. Alexander, 11 N. C. 182; State v. Hayward, 1 Nott & McC. L. 546; State v. Wyatt, 3 N. C. 56; Com. v. White, 8 Pick. 453; 2 Russell, Crimes, 520; 2 Chitty, Crim. L.

304.

The proceedings must be judicial. Proceedings before those who are in any way entrusted with the administration of justice, in respect of any matter regularly before them, are considered as judicial for this purpose. 2 Chitty, Crim. L. 303; 2 Russell, Crimes, 518; 1 Hawk, P. C. chap. 69, § 3. Vide Respublica v. Newell, 3 Yeates, 414; United States v. Bailey, 34 U. S. 9 Pet. 238, 9 L. ed. 113. Perjury cannot therefore be committed in a case of which the court had no jurisdiction. State v. Alexander, State v. Wyatt, State v. McCroskey, Com. v. White and State v. Hayward, supra.

The assertion must be absolute. If a man, however, swears that he believes that to be true which he knows to be false it will be perjury. 2 Russell, Crimes, 518; Miller's Case, 3 Wils. 427, 2 W. Bl. 881; Pedley's Case, 1 Leach, C. L. 242; Com. v. Cornish, 6 Binn. 249; Gilbert, Ev. (Lofft's ed.) 662.

The oath must be material to the question depending. Where the facts sworn to are wholly foreign from the purpose and altogether immaterial to the matter in question, the oath does not amount to a legal perjury. Chapham v. White, 8 Ves. Jr. 35; Larston's Case, 2 Rolle, 41, 42, 369; 2 Russell, Crimes, 521; 3 Coke, Inst. 167; 1 Hawk, P. C. chap. 69, § 8; Bac. Abr. title Perjury, a; State v. Hathaway, 2 Nott. & McC. L. 118. Nor can perjury be assigned upon the valuation under oath, of a jewel or other thing, the value of which consists in estimation. Leakins v. Clissel, Sid. 146, 1 Keb. 510.

It is not within the plan of this work to cite all the statutes passed by the general government, or the several states on the subject of perjury. It is proper, however, here to transcribe a part of the 13th section of the Act of Congress of March 3, 1825, 4 Stat. at L. 118, which provides as follows: "If any person in any case, matter,

hearing, or other proceeding, when an oath or affirmation shall be required to be taken or administered under or by any law or laws of the United States, shall, upon the taking of such oath or affirmation, knowingly and willingly swear or affirm falsely, every person, so offending, shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and shall on conviction thereof, be punished by fine, not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment and confinement to hard labor, not exceeding five years, according to the aggravation of the offense. And if any person or persons shall knowingly or willingly procure any such perjury to be committed, every person so offending shall be deemed guilty of subornation of perjury, and shall on conviction thereof, be punished by fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment and confinement to hard labor, not exceeding five years, according to the aggravation of the offense."

10. In general it may be observed that a perjury is committed as well by making a false affirmation, as a false oath. Vide generally, 16 Vin. Abr. 307; Bac. Abr. h. t.; Com. Dig. title Justices of Peace, B. 102–106; 4 Bl. Com. 137, 138; 3 Coke, Inst. 163– 168; 1 Hawk, P. C. chap. 69; 2 Russell, Crimes, book V. chap. 1; 2 Chitty, Crim. L. chap. 9; Roscoe, Crim. Ev. h. t.; Burn's J., h. t.; Williams' J., h. t.

"Perjury is an assertion upon an oath duly administered in a judicial proceeding, before a competent court, of the truth of some matter of fact, material to the question depending in that proceeding, which assertion the asserter does not believe to be true when he makes it, or on which he knows himself to be ignorant. In this definition, the word "oath" includes every affirmation which any class of persons are by law permitted to make in place of an oath. The expression "duly administered" means administered in a form binding on his conscience, to a witness legally called before them, by any court, judge, justice, officer, commissioner, arbitrator, or other person who, by the law for the time being in force, or by consent of the parties, has authority to hear, receive, and examine evidence. The fact that a person takes an oath in any particular form is a binding admission that he regards it as binding on his conscience. The expression "judicial proceeding" means a proceeding which takes place in or under the authority of any court of justice, or which relates in any way to the administration of justice, or which legally ascertains any right,