defraud, are forgeries. Marking any false indication of number, quantity, measure, or weight of an article with intent to defraud, penalty equal to the value of the article, and a further sum not above £5, nor under 58. Selling or exposing for sale any article with such false description, or of the place or country in which it has been made, penalty £5, or not less than 5s.

Provisions of the act do not make it an offence to apply names or words known to be used for the description of any particular classes of manufacture. Conviction under the act does not curtail any right of civil remedy.

By s. 13, every person who may aid or procure the commission of any offence which is made a misdemeanor under the act, is also guilty of a misdemeanor. The punishment of such misdemeanor is imprisonment for not more than two years, with or without hard labour, or by fine, or both, by imprisonment with or without hard labour and fine, or by imprisonment until the fine, if any, be paid, s. 14. No action for penalty or proceeding for conviction to ensue after three years subsequent to the offence, or one year next after the discovery of the offence, s. 18.

By ss. 19 and 20, vendors of an article with a trade mark to be deemed liable to contract that the mark is genuine, and that any Persons aggrieved description of its quantity or quality is true. by forgeries may recover damages against the guilty party; but defendant obtaining a verdict to have full indemnity for costs. plaintiff suing for a penalty may be compelled to give security for

costs.

A

To prevent the false representations of grant of medals or certifi cates by the Commissioners of the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, the 28 & 29 V. c. 119, enacts that if any trader falsely represents that he has obtained a medal or certificate from the Exhibition Commissioners in respect of any article or process for which it has been awarded, or falsely and knowingly represents any other trader to have obtained such, or falsely and knowingly represents any article sold or exposed for sale has been made by any process invented by a person who has obtained such distinction, he shall, for a first offence, forfeit to her Majesty not exceeding £5, or, for a subsequent offence, not above £20. Penalties summarily recoverable before two justices in England or Ireland, and in Scotland may be prosecuted before the sheriff or two county justices. Act does not affect any civil right of remedy.

IV. FALSE PRETENCES.

This is another and common species of fraud. In order to constitute a false pretence, there must be a fraudulent misrepresentation as to the existence or non-existence of some specific fact, by which, wholly or in part, property is obtained. If a man purchasing goods promises to call and pay for them the next day, this is a

mere prospective engagement, but no misrepresentation as to any specific fact; but if he be entrusted with goods, on giving his promissory note for payment, falsely representing that the banker to whom such note is directed has a sufficient balance of the maker's in hand, the crime is complete. In one case, where a party, to induce his banker to honour his cheques, drew a bill on a person on whom he had no right to draw, and which had no chance of being paid, in consequence of which the banker paid his cheques, it was adjudged not to be a false pretence, because he only obtained credit; it would have been otherwise had he obtained money upon the bill. But obtaining credit by fraud is now punishable under the Bankruptcy Act, 1869.

By the Mutiny Act, an apprentice enlisting in the army, and when brought before a magistrate to be attested concealing his apprenticeship, may be indicted for obtaining the bounty-money under a false pretence.

A minor going about pretending he is of age, and obtaining money or goods, may be punished as a common cheat.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 96, s. 88, the punishment for obtaining any money, chattel, or valuable security, by any false pretences, with intent to cheat or defraud, is penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour or solitude. Where there is an intent to defraud, coupled with an intent to steal, and the offender receive the goods, he may be convicted of theft though legally entitled to his acquittal for the false pretence. This provision was made to avert an entire failure of justice from the nice legal distinctions between theft and fraud.

Section 90 of the act is important, providing that whoever, with intent to defraud or injure any other person, shall by any false pretence fraudulently cause or induce any person to execute, make, accept, endorse, or destroy the whole or any part of any valuable security, or to write, impress, or affix his name, or the name of any other person, company, firm, or partnership, or the seal of any body corporate, company, or society, upon any paper or parchment, in order that the same may be converted or used as a valuable security, is liable to penal servitude for three years, or imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour, or solitary confinement. This of course includes bills of exchange, promissory notes, and all negotiable securities.

V. FRAUDS BY TRUSTEES, BANKERS, DIRECTORS, AND OTHERS.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 96, s. 80, if any person, being a trustee of any property for the benefit, either wholly or partially, of some other person, or for any public or charitable purpose, shall, with intent to defraud, convert or appropriate the same, or with such intent dispose of or destroy such property, he is guilty of a misdemeanor. Any banker, merchant, broker, attorney, factor, or agent, being

intrusted, for safe custody, with the property of any other person, who shall fraudulently sell, negotiate, transfer, pledge, or convert such property to his own use, is guilty of misdemeanor. Persons under powers of attorney fraudulently selling property, similarly guilty. Bailees fraudulently converting property to their own use, guilty of larceny. Directors, members, or officers of any body corporate or public company, fraudulently appropriating property, or keeping fraudulent accounts, or wilfully destroying books, papers, writing, or securities, or who shall make, circulate, or publish, or concur in any written statement or account which they know to be false in any material particular, with intent to deceive or defraud any member, shareholder, or creditor, or to induce any person to become a shareholder or partner therein, or to enter into any security, are guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by penal servitude for seven or three years, or imprisonment not above two years. Persons are equally guilty in receiving property fraudulently acquired or disposed of, knowing the same to have been so obtained, ss. 75-79.

VI. EMBEZZLEMENT.

This is a kindred offence to the three preceding. It consists in the wrongful appropriation by the offender of money or goods with which he is entrusted for another's use. This is not cheating, because there is no fraudulent contrivance; nor is any false pretence used; neither is it theft, since no property is taken, the offender being previously in lawful possession.

Embezzlement is chiefly committed by agents clerks, or servants, having the management of the business of others, and the offence is aggravated by a breach of confidence being coupled with the criminal application of the property of their employer.

The range of punishment for embezzlement is very wide, extending from fine and imprisonment to transportation for life or lesser term, according to the heinousness of the offence.

By 1 V. c. 36, s. 26, every person employed under the Post Office, who shall steal, embezzle, secrete, or destroy a post-letter, shall either be transported for seven years, or be imprisoned for not exceeding three; and if any such post-letter shall contain any chattel or money, or valuable security, shall be transported for life. Stealing, secreting, or delaying printed votes, or proceedings in parliament, or a newspaper, subjects to fine and imprisonment.

By 24 & 25 V. c. 96, s. 68, if a clerk or servant, or any person employed in that capacity, in virtue of such employment receive or take into his possession any chattel, money, or valuable security, on account of his employer, and fraudulently embezzle it, or any part thereof, he is deemed to have feloniously stolen the same, and is liable to penal servitude for fourteen or not less than three years, or to imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour or solitude. (See also 31 & 32 V. c. 116.)

By s. 75, if any money, or security for the payment of money, be intrusted to any banker, merchant, broker, attorney, or other agent, with any direction in writing to apply such money, or part thereof, or the proceeds, for any purpose specified in such direction, and he convert the same to his own use, or any part thereof, such offender is liable to penal servitude for not exceeding seven nor less than three years, or imprisonment not above two years, with or without hard labour or solitary confinement.

A like punishment is enacted if any banker or agent, &c., sell, negotiate, transfer, pledge, or in any manner convert to his own use, any chattel, valuable security, or power of attorney for the transfer of stock, entrusted to him for safe custody, or other special purpose.

But these clauses do not affect trustees or mortgagees; nor banker, merchant, or other agent receiving money due on securities, or disposing of securities on which they have a lien.

VIL. MONOPOLY.

By 21 Jac. 1, c. 3, all monopolies, grants, letters patent, and license, for the sole buying, selling, and making of goods and manufactures, are declared void, except PATENTS for fourteen years for the sole working or making of any new manufacture which is not mischievous to the state or generally inconvenient, Grants by act of parliament to any corporation, company, or society, for the enlargement of trade; and letters patent concerning any printing, making gunpowder, ordnance, &c., are excepted.

VIII. FORESTALLING, ENGROSSING, AND REGRATING.

Forestalling is the buying or contracting for any cattle, provision, or merchandise on its way to the market, or dissuading persons from buying their goods there, or persuading them to raise the price; regrating is the buying corn, or other commodity, in any market, and selling it again in the same market, or within four miles; engrossing is the buying up of large quantities of corn, or other commodity, with intent to sell it again, which it was thought might be injurious to the public, by putting it in the power of two or three great capitalists to raise the price of provisions at their own discretion. Even spreading rumours of the scarcity of an article, with the view of enhancing the price, was held an indictable offence, Rex v. Waddington, 1 E. R. 143. But in the session of 1844, these offences were abolished, and by 7 & 8 V. c. 24, the whole or part of thirty-six acts passed in restraint of the freedom of trade or labour, from the reign of Richard II. to George III., are repealed.

CHAPTER X.

Nuisances and Offences against Public Health.

I. COMMON NUISANCES.

THE nature of private nuisances and the legal modes of individual reparation have been described under the head of Civil Injuries. Common nuisances are annoyances of a more general and heinous character, and are offences against the public, either by doing a thing which tends to the detriment of the community, or by neglecting to do anything which the common good requires.

Injurious and offensive trades and manufactures, which, when hurtful to individuals, are actionable, are, when detrimental to the public health or convenience, punishable by public prosecution, and subject to fine according to the magnitude of the offence.

Keeping of hogs in a city or market town is indictable as a common nuisance; and from the offensive effluvia from tallowmelters, and many other trades, they would, doubtless, fall under the same denomination if their use were less essential.

Disorderly inns or alehouses, unlicensed stage-plays, booths, or stages for rope-dancers, mountebanks, and the like, are public nuisances, which may be indicted and fined, 1 Hawk. 198. The making and selling of fireworks and squibs, or throwing them about in any street, was a nuisance punishable by fine: for the making and selling, £5; and for the throwing or firing, 208., by 9 & 10 W. 3, c. 7, until repealed by the next-mentioned act.

Gunpowder.-Former acts on the keeping and carriage of gunpowder, and compositions of an explosive nature, and on the manufacture, sale, and use of fireworks, are repealed by 23 & 24 V. c. 139. By s. 1 no charcoal is to be kept within twenty yards of any mill or engine for making gunpowder. Regulations made as to the making of loaded percussion caps, and the keeping of ammunition, fireworks, fulminating mercury, or any other explosive preparation, s. 6. No person to sell any fireworks without a license, nor to any person apparently under sixteen years of age; penalty any sum not above £5. A like penalty for throwing any squib or other firework into any thoroughfare or public place, s. 9. Justices to license places for keeping and making gunpowder, and who may make rules for their servants, s. 8. No dealer in gunpowder or manufacturer of fireworks to have or keep above 200lbs. of gunpowder, or, not being a dealer or manufacturer, above 50lbs.; licenses conditional on the adoption of precautions against danger, s. 13. Owners of mills may make exceptions for mines. By s. 20, not more than 30 barrels by land, and 500 by water, to be conveyed at one time. Penalty for smoking on board vessels loaded with