By s. 25, if a person obliterate or alter a cheque or its crossing, drawn on a banker, with intent to defraud, he is liable to penal servitude for life or three years, or imprisonment for two years.

Forging the attestation to a power of attorney is punishable with penal servitude for seven, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for two years, s. 4. Clerks of the Bank of England or Ireland fraudulently making out dividend warrants for a greater or less sum than due, are punishable as in the case of a forged attestation.

Deeds, Bonds, and False Bail.--Forging or uttering a deed, bond, receipt, acquittance, or order for delivery of goods, is penal servitude for fourteen or seven years, or imprisonment for two years. Fraudulently acknowledging any recognizance, bail, fine, recovery, or judgment, in the name of another, seven years' penal servitude, or two years' imprisonment.

Bank of England or Ireland Paper.-Knowingly purchasing or receiving, or having in possession without lawful excuse, the proof of which lies on the party accused, forged bank-notes; making or selling any mould for making paper with the words "Bank of England or Ireland," or other words in Roman letters visible in the substance, or for making paper with carved or waving wire lines, except paper used for bills of exchange and notes, not in imitation of the watermarks and lines of the banks; engraving on any plate or material any bank-note, or using or having such plate, or uttering or having paper on which a banknote is printed; engraving on any plate or material any word, number, character, or ornament resembling any part of a banknote, or using or having such plate, or uttering or having any paper on which there is any of the aforesaid impressions in all these cases, knowingly committed without lawful excuse, the offender is punishable with penal servitude for fourteen, or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not above two years, ss. 12, 19.

Private Bankers' Paper.-Making or having in possession any mould or instrument for manufacturing paper with the name of a private banker in the substance; manufacturing or having such paper, or causing the name to appear in the substance of any paper; engraving on any plate or material any bill of exchange or promissory note of any private banker, or any words resembling the subscription thereto, or using such plate; or uttering or having any paper upon which any part of any such bill or note is printed,— in all these cases, knowingly and unlawfully committed, the punishment is penal servitude for fourteen or not less than three years, or imprisonment for not above two years, s. 18. A like protection is extended to the bills, notes, and commercial papers of any foreign State, or public company recognized by such State, s. 19.

Register of Marriages, Baptisms and Burials.-Knowingly to

insert, cause, or permit to be inserted in any register of baptisms, marriages, or burials, any false entry relating thereto; forging, altering, or knowingly uttering any such false entry; wilfully to destroy, cause, or permit to be destroyed or injured, any such register or part thereof, are punishable with penal servitude for life or seven years, or imprisonment for not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour or solitude, s. 36. But the officiating minister, discovering any error in an entry, he may, in the presence of the parents of a child baptised, or parties married, or of two persons present at the funeral, or of the churchwardens, within one calendar month after, correct it in the margin. In the copy of register transmitted to the registrar of the diocese, the corrections made by the minister must be certified.

By s. 35, the forging, altering, or uttering a marriage license, or certificate, is penal servitude for not above seven, nor less than three years, or imprisonment for not above two years.

Stamp Duties and Plate Marks.-To forge any stamp or die, or expose to sale any vellum or paper impressed with such forgery, or to cut, tear, or get off any stamp, with intent to use the same a second time, is punishable with penal servitude for life, or lesser term, or imprisonment. Offenders are liable to similar punishment for forging any plate, stamp, or die, pertaining to any newspaper or stage-coach license; or knowingly using such forgeries; also to counterfeit any mark or die on any gold or silver plate, or to sell or transpose any such mark, or knowingly to have such in possession.

Further provisions against forgery have been made by the Forgery Act, 1870, 33 & 34 V. c. 58, which imposes penalties (penal servitude or imprisonment) on the forgery of stock certificates issued under the National Debt Acts, or the personation of owners of stock, or the engraving plates for stock certificates.

CHAPTER XVI.

Theft.

THEFT, or larceny, which last is the legal term for stealing, is the felonious taking and carrying away of personal property, with intent to despoil or detriment to the owner, lawful possessor, or some other party.

It is sometimes distinguished into simple and compound larceny; simple, when the taking is unaccompanied with aggravating circumstances; compound, when the theft is aggravated by being committed upon the person, or in the dwelling-house. Stealing from the person may amount to robbery, if attended with violence; or, if from the house, to burglary or housebreaking, according as it is perpetrated in the night, or the entry or exit of the offender has been effected by any degree of force.

Formerly, grand larceny was punishable by death, but the present punishment for all larcenies is penal servitude for a greater or lesser term, or imprisonment; to which last, hard labour, solitary confinement, or whipping, if a male under sixteen, may be added.

Upon a conviction for theft, it is usual to order immediate restitution of such goods as are brought into court, or the party may peaceably retake his goods wherever he happen to find them; or, if the offender be convicted on the evidence of the owner of the goods, and afterwards be pardoned, the owner may bring trover against him, or against any one in whose possession the goods may be found after the conviction. But no action will lie against a man who may have fairly purchased them in open market, and sold them before the conviction, notwithstanding the owner gave him notice of the theft while they were in his possession.

Petty stealing may be punished summarily by a single justice of the peace.

Thieves taken in the act may be apprehended without a warrant, by the aggrieved party, or his servant, or any person authorized by him, or by any peace officer, and carried before a magistrate.

Let us return from the punishment and apprehension of the thief to the characteristics of his crime. In the definition of theft given above, it is said the taking must be felonious; by which is meant, against the will of the owner, either in his presence or clandestinely, or by force, surprise, fraud, or trick, the owner not voluntarily parting with his entire interest in the property.

In respect to the carrying away there must be a fraudulent intent at the time in the offender to convert the property to his own use. In cases where horses or carriages are hired and never returned, if the jury be of opinion, from the circumstances, that the person to whom they are delivered, intended at the time of the hiring, never to restore them, he is guilty of stealing. But it is not theft if the design of wrongfully appropriating them was conceived and executed subsequently to the hiring.

Further, as to the carrying away essential to the offence, a bare removal from the place in which the goods are deposited is sufficient. So, if a thief, intending to steal plate, take it out of the chest in which it is laid, and lay it down upon the floor, but is surprised before he can make his escape, it is larceny. When a man snatched an earring from a lady's ear, and afterwards dropped it in her hair, it was held a sufficient asportation to constitute a robbery. The removal of a parcel from one end of a waggon to another, with an intent to steal, amounts to a larceny. But where a bale of goods was raised, and placed upon end, this was not thought to be a sufficient carrying away, there not being a complete removal from the place it before occupied.

When a person has lawfully obtained possession of goods unde a charge of keeping them, he will be guilty of stealing at common law in embezzling them. Thus, if a master deliver property into

the hands of a servant for a special purpose, as to leave it at the house of a friend, or to get change, or deposit with a banker, the servant will be guilty of felony in applying it to his own use, 2 Leach, 870. And if several persons play together at cards, and deposit money for that purpose, not parting with their property therein, and one sweep it all away and take it to himself, be will be guilty of theft, if the jury find that he acted with a felonious design.

It seems doubtful whether extreme necessity is sufficient to negative a felonious intention to appropriate. The inference of a felonious design is not necessarily excluded by the circumstance that property of equal value has been left in exchange; though leaving the price of the goods would be presumptive of innocence, 2 Criminal Law Report, 17.

The finder of property that has been lost is only trustee for the owner, and his lawful possession of it is determined by breaking a parcel, or opening a box, with intent to embezzle part or the whole of the contents. But though the breaking of bulk is by a strained legal inference deemed theft, the implied trust would not be determined by purloining or disposing of the whole package.

Theft is distinguishable from a mere trespass by the intent to despoil, and fraudulently appropriate another man s goods.

It is distinguishable from the offences of obtaining by false pretence, extortion by threat, deceit, and embezzlement, by the circumstance that a taking and wrongful removal, in the first instance, are essential to the offence.

It is also distinguishable from the offences of obtaining by false pretence, deceit, and extortion by threat, by the circumstance, that (except in the case of robbery) the taking does not constitute theft, where the owner intends to transfer the right of property. For instance, whatever may have been the intent of a purchaser who has bought goods on credit, the conversion of such goods to his own use will not amount to larceny, however gross the fraud may be, the seller having parted with the possession of his property on the credit of the buyer in the way of sale. But if a cheat is practised, as to whom the goods shall be delivered, and the party thereby contrives to get the goods into his possession, or where it appears from circumstances that the owner has not voluntarily parted with his property, the transaction may be theft.

Theft cannot be committed by one who is either the sole, or a joint, or part owner of the thing taken. To this rule, however, there is an exception; as in the case of a man purloining the goods he has entrusted with a carrier or servant, with intent to defraud the latter, or the hundred, by charging either with the value of the property the owner himself has abstracted, 4 Criminal Law Report, 65.

Neither can a wife be charged with theft in taking the goods of the husband; nor is a stranger guilty in receiving them from

the wife, unless he has committed adultery with her, 1 Russ. on Crimes, 27.

Every chattel which is the subject of theft is presumed to have an owner, though such owner cannot always be ascertained. The ownership of some particular descriptions of property is as follows: of grave-clothes, in the personal representatives of the deceased; children's clothes, either in the parents or the children, according to circumstances, and the general rules regarding property.

Theft can be committed of such things only as are of some intrinsic value; but it may be committed of things valuable to the owner, though not of value to any one else, nor saleable.

Theft cannot be committed of animals that are wild by nature and at large, as deer in a chase or forest, hares, rabbits in a warren, or wild fowl-rooks, for instance; but deer in an enclosure, fish in a tank, or pheasants in a mew, as well as swans marked, and all valuable domestic animals, are subjects of larceny. Dogs, birds, pigeons not enclosed, and other animals kept for pleasure, not being subjects of larceny at common law, are protected by statute or summary proceedings before justices, and will fall under the head of Game Laws.

A human body, living or dead, is not the subject of theft. The stealing of children, however, is, in certain cases, made felony, p. 591.

The 24 & 25 V. c. 96, consolidates and amends the statute law of England and Ireland relating to larceny and similar offences. Theft by one of several beneficial owners or partners is punishable by 31 & 32 V. c. 116. A classification and summary of the act 24 & 25 V. c. 96, is subjoined.

STEALING IN A DWELLING-HOUSE.

By s. 61, the stealing any property in a dwelling-house, with menace or threat, by which any one therein is put in bodily fear, is felony, subject to penal servitude for not exceeding fourteen, nor less than three, years, or imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour or solitary confinement.

By property is defined any "chattel, money, or valuable security." Simply stealing in a dwelling-house without violence, is punishable with penal servitude for four years, or imprisonment; but stealing in a dwelling-house to the value of £5 or more, is felony, and subjects to the same punishment as stealing with menace, or threat, by which bodily fear is produced.

By s. 54, to enter any dwelling-house in the night, that is, between 9 P. M. and 6 A. M., with intent to commit felony, is liable to penal servitude for any term not exceeding seven years, or to imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour or solitude.