to defraud the person so named and another or others, as the case may be." (Ib. s. 25.)

"In all prosecutions by indictment or information against any person or persons for any offence punishable under this act, no person shall be deemed an incompetent witness in support of the prosecution by reason of any interest which such person may have or be supposed to have in respect of any deed, writing, instrument or other matter given in evidence on the trial of such indictment or information; But the evidence of any person or persons so interested, or supposed to be interested, shall in no case be deemed sufficient to sustain a conviction for any of the said offences, unless the same is corroborated by other legal evidence in support of such prosecution." (Ib. 8. 26.)

"If any person who, before the first of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, having committed any offence against any act repealed by the statute 10, 11 Vic. c. 9, relating to forgery, or thereby declared to be no longer in force, has been convicted of the same since the said first of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, or after this act takes effect be convicted of the same, and if such offence was punishable with death, in every such case the person convicted of such offence shall not suffer the punishment of death, but shall in lieu thereof be confined in the penitentiary for any term not less than two nor more than ten years, or be imprisoned in any common gaol for any term less than two years." (Ib. s. 27.)

OF CERTAIN DOCUMENTS, &c.-" Any person who forges any seal, stamp or signature of any document mentioned or referred to in the act respecting witnesses and evidence, or who tenders in evidence any such document with a false or counterfeit seal, stamp or signature thereto, knowing the same to be false or counterfeit, is guilty of felony, and shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for any term not exceeding ten years, or be imprisoned in any common gaol or house of correction with hard labor for any term not exceeding one year nor less than two months." (Con. Stat. U. C. c. 101, s. 1.)

"Whenever any such document has been admitted in evidence, the court or the person who has admitted the same may, at the request of any party against whom the same has been admitted in evidence, direct that the same shall be impounded and be kept in the custody of some officer of the court or other proper person, for such period and subject to such conditions as to the said court or person seems ineet." (Ib. s. 2.)

OF SEALS OF DIVISION COURTS.-" Any person who forges the seal or any process of any division court, or serves or enforces any such forged process, knowing the same to be forged, or who delivers, or causes to be delivered to any person, any paper falsely purporting to be a copy of any summons or other process of any such court, knowing the same to be false, or who acts or professes to act under any false color or pretence of the process of any such court, is guilty of felony." (Ib. s. 3.)

OF SIGNATURES TO AFFIDAVITS.-"Any person who forges any signature to any affidavit made or taken under the Common Law Procedure Act, or who uses or tenders in evidence any such affidavit with any false, forged or counterfeited signature thereto, knowing the same to be false, forged or counterfeit, is guilty of felony, and shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for any term not more than ten years nor less than four years." (Ib. s. 4.)

OF DEBENTURES, &c.-"Any person who forges or counterfeits any debenture issued under the authority of any act providing for the accommodation of the superior courts, or any stamp, endorsement or writing thereon or therein, or who demands to have such counterfeited debenture, or any debenture with such counterfeited writing or other endorsement thereon or therein, exchanged for money by any person, liable or required to exchange the same, or by any other person, knowing the debenture so tendered, or the endorsement or writing thereon or therein to be so forged or counterfeited, with intent to defraud Her Majesty or the person appointed to pay the same, or any other person or persons, body or bodies politic, or corporate, is guilty of felony, and shall suffer such punish

ment as may be adjudged in that behalf, not exceeding imprisonment in the penitentiary for seven years." (Ib. s. 5.)

OF CERTIFICATES IN RESERVED CASES.-"Any person who forges, or alters, or offers, utters, disposes of, or puts off, knowing the same to be forged or altered, any certificate, or copy, certified under the act respecting the reservation of points of law in criminal cases, tried at any assizes, quarter sessions, or recorder's court, by a chief justice or senior judge, or by a clerk of assize, clerk of the peace or recorder's clerk, with intent to cause any person to be discharged from custody, or otherwise to prevent the course of justice, is guilty of felony, and shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for any period not more than seven nor less than three years." (Ib. s. 6.)

VENUE. "Every person charged with committing any felony under this act may be dealt with, indicted, tried, and, if convicted, be sentenced, and the offence may be laid and charged to have been committed in the county or place in which he may be apprehended or is in custody.” (Ib. s. 7.)

ACCESSORIES.-"Every accessory before or after the fact to any such offence may be dealt with, indicted, tried, and, if convicted, sentenced, and his offence may be laid and charged to have been committed in any county or place in which the principal offender may be tried." (Ib.. 8.)

OF RAILWAY DEBENTURES, &c.-"The offence of forging any debentures, or a coupon of any debenture, issued under the authority of this act, or of the special act, or of uttering any such debenture or coupon, or of being accessory before or after the fact to any such offence, shall be deemed felony, and be punished accordingly." (Con. Stat. C. c. 66, s. 121.)

OF SEALS, &C., OF SURROGATE COURTS.-"If any person forges the signature of any judge or registrar of a surrogate court, or of any commissioner for taking affidavits as aforesaid, or forges or counterfeits any seal of a surrogate court, or knowingly uses or concurs in using any such forged or counterfeit signature or seal, or tenders in evidence any document with a false or counterfeit signature of such judge, registrar or commissioner, or with a false or counterfeit seal, knowing the same signature or

seal to be false or counterfeit, such person shall be guilty of felony, and liable to be imprisoned in the provincial penitentiary for any term not exceeding seven years." (Con. Stat. U. C. c. 16, s. 16.)

OF CERTIFICATES, &c., REQUIRED BY CUSTOMS ACT.-" If any person counterfeits or falsifies, or uses when so counterfeited or falsified, any paper or document required under this act, or for any purpose therein mentioned, whether written, printed or otherwise, or by any false statement procures such document; or forges or counterfeits any certificate relating to any oath or affirmation hereby required or authorized, knowing them to be forged or counterfeited, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being thereof convicted, shall be liable to be punished accordingly." (Con. Stat. C. c. 17, s. 68.)

(As to forgery of post office stamps, &c., see "Post Office," post.)

OF PAWNBROKERS' NOTES. "If any person counterfeits, forges, or alters any note or memorandum given by a pawnbroker for goods pledged, or causes or procures the same to be done, or utters, vends, or sells such note or memorandum, knowing the same to be counterfeited, forged or altered, with intent to defraud any person, such offender shall be punished as hereinafter mentioned." (Ib. c. 61, s. 24.)

PERSONS SUSPECTED OF FORGING HOW DEALT WITH.-"In case any note or memorandum aforesaid is uttered, shewn or offered to any person, and such person has reason to suspect that the same has been forged, he may seize the person offering the same and deliver him to a bailiff or constable, who shall convey him before some Justice of the place where the offence has been committed, or nearest thereto; and if upon examination it appears to the satisfaction of such Justice that such person is guilty, he shall commit him to the common gaol of the district or county for any time not exceeding three months."* (Ib. s. 25.)

*WHAT IS FORGERY?-Forgery is the fraudulent making or altering a written instrument, to the detriment of another. It is a felony for which the punishment is imprisonment in the provincial penitentiary for any period not less than two

GAOLS, &c.

The conduct, management, discipline and police of the provincial penitentiary, and the inspection and regulation of all the gaols in the province, are committed to the five Inspectors of gaols, who at their meetings constitute a board. (See Con. Stat. C. c. 110.)

GAOLS AND COURT HOUSES.-"Every county council may pass by-laws for erecting, improving and repairing a court house, gaol, house of correction and house of industry, upon land being the property of the municipality, and shall preserve and keep the same in repair, and provide the food, fuel, and other supplies required for the same." (Con. Stat. U. C. c. 54, s. 403.)

"The gaol, court house and house of correction of the county in which a town or city, not separated for all purposes from a county, is situate, shall also be the gaol, court house and house

years, or in any common gaol for any term less than two years. No kind of forgery is now punishable with death. (Con. Stat. C. c. 94, s. 4.)

To constitute a forgery it is not necessary the whole instrument should be fictitious. Making a fraudulent insertion, alteration, or erasure, in any material part of a true document, by which another may be defrauded: the fraudulent application of a false signature to a true instrument, or a real signature to a false one; and the alterations of the date of a bill after acceptance, by which its payment may be accelerated, are forgeries.

If a note be made payable at a banker's, and he fails, it is a forgery to introduce a piece of paper over the name of the banker who has failed, containing the name of another banking house; expunging an endorsement on a bank note with a liquor unknown is held to be an erasure within the statute.

The essence of forgery is an intent to defraud another; and therefore the mere imitation of another's writing, the assumption of a name, or the alteration of a written instrument, where no person can be injured, does not come within the definition of the offence. Neither does the using of a fictitious name, though for the purpose of concealment and fraud, amount to forgery, unless it were for that precise species of fraud of which the forgery forms a part.

Whether the fraud be effected on the party to whom the instrument is addressed, or whose writing is counterfeited, or upon a third person, who takes it upon the credit it assumes, is immaterial; nor is it of consequence whether the counterfeited instrument be such as if real would be effectual to the purpose it intends, so long as there is sufficient resemblance to impose upon those to whom it is altered. Thus the fabrication of an order for the payment of a sailor's prize money is forgery, though it be invalid as wanting the requisites required by law. Lastly, to complete the offence, the instrument forged should be parted with, or tendered, or offered, or used in some way, to get money or credit upon lt. Delivering a box containing among other things forged stamps to the party's own servant to be forwarded by a carrier to a customer in the country, is an uttering within the statute. But merely shewing a man an instrument, the uttering of which would be criminal, is not an uttering.