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tradesmen, and publicans, and others, by the circulation of forged copper-plate notes and bills for smail sums, of 51. and rol. the latter purporting to be drawn, by bankers in the manufacturing and sea-port towns, on different banking-houses in London.

This species of forgery has been carried to a considerable extent; suggested no doubt by the confidence which is established from the extensive circulation of country bankers' notes and bills, now made payable in London; by which the deception is, in some degree, covered and detection rendered more difficult.

The great qualifications, or leading and indispensable attributes of a Cheat, are to possess a genteel exterior, a demeanor apparently artless, and a good address.

Like the more violent depredators upon the public, this class (who are extremely numerous) generally proceed upon a regular system, and study as a trade all those infamous tricks and devices by which the thoughtless, the ignorant, and the honest are defrauded of their property.

The common law has defined the offence of cheating-to be a deceitful practice in defrauding, or endeavouring to defraud, another of his own right, by means of some artful device, contrary to the plain rules of common honesty.

The Statue of the 33d of Henry the Eighth, cap. 1. entered into a more specific explanation of what might constitute such an offence, and fixed the mode of punishment; by declaring "that if any person "shall falsely or deceitfully obtain, or get into

his hands or possession, any money, goods, &c. "of any other person, by colour or means of any false privy token, or counterfeit letter, &c.-he

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From this remote period, until the 30th of George the Second, the legislature does not appear to have seen the necessity of enacting any new law, applicable to this species of offence.

In the progress however of society and commerce, joined to the consequent influx of riches, producing luxury and extravagance, a larger field opened for cheats and sharpers of every description; insomuch, that the evil became so great, and existing laws were found so insufficient, as to render it necessary to provide a legislative remedy.

In applying this remedy, it seems that the great increase of a new species of cheating, practised by persons known in modern times by the name of swindlers, had suggested the propriety of defining the offence, in a more applicable and specific manner, and of rendering the punishment more severe. By the act of 30 Geo. II. cap. 24. it is declared, "that all persons obtaining money, good, wares, 66 or merchandize, by false pretences, shall be "deemed offenders against the law and the pub. "lic peace; and the Court, before whom any such "offender shall be tried, shall on conviction, order "them to be put in the pillory, or publicly "whipped, or transported for seven years."

Thus stand the laws at present with regard to Cheats; and there appears to be a deficiency in the last mentioned act in omitting to add bank-notes after the word money, and also horses, cattle, sheep, or other animals after goods, wares and merchandize, since it has been held that Bank-notes are not mo

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ney, nor are horses, cattle, &c. considered as goods, wares, or merchandize, according to the legal construction of any existing statute.* An amendment of the law with regard to them and other ob. jects is the more necessary as bank notes and horses are perhaps, more the objects of cheating than other species of property. The laws ought certainly to embrace a wider field so as to reach those artifices by which depraved persons obtain money from the ignorant and unwary, by assuming false characters, taking genteel lodgings and cheating innocent tradesmen who lose large sums annually by such depredations. Colquhoun.

On the 22d. of March 1793, a genteel man went into a Jeweller's shop in Conduit street and saying he was recommended by his friend the Marquis of Salisbury (who actually dealt at that shop) ordered a pair of diamond earrings, a diamond necklace and a gold watch set round with brilliants, to be sent to Lord Massey, at half past 4, in St. James's Street. When the articles were brought (which amounted to upwards of 700l.) The pretended Lord Massey agreed to take them and presented for pay, ment a draught for 1400l. purporting to be drawn by Lord Tankerville on Messrs. Couts & Co. ban

Why should not bank-notes, which are constantly paid as money and can be changed into cash, and why should not horses, cattle, &c. which constitute the livelihood of many and are the instruments of traffic, be considered as money and goods? The true meaning and not the strict letter of a statute should be considered; otherwise the best formed may be twisted and tortured for the sake of evasion. Editor.

kers,

kers. The jeweller entertaining no doubt of the bill, sent his lordship the balance and proper cases for the jewels. Having called soon after, no Lord Massey was to be fond, and having visited the bankers, he was informed that Lord Tankerville kept no money at their house. See SHARPERS.

CHILD STEALING.

This nefarious crime is generally practised by women who pretend a sudden liking to any child they meet with unprotected, and under pretence of buying cakes, &c. delude it to some private place and strip it of all its cloaths.

Children are likewise stolen and detained when very young for the purpose of exciting charity; and it is well known, that these wicked mendicants, lend children to each other on certain condi tions. In 1790 a female mendicant was apprehended at Ingatestone, in Essex, with a beautiful child under 2 years of age. Suspicion arising that she was not its mother, but stole it from its real parents, she was taken before the magistrates then attending a petty session, and committed to the house of correction: she confessed that the infant was not hers, but that she had it from a person in Shoreditch, and the object was to excite compassion whilst begging. It was afterwards discovered that the child was sto len, and the till then unhappy parents thus recover. ed their babe. Editor.

CHINESE LAWS.

The Chinese code of penal laws is compiled in such a manner as to have a punishment appropriated for every crime.

The wisdom of the Chinese Legislature is no where more conspicuous than in its treatment of robbers, no person being doomed to suffer death for having merely deprived another of some temporal property, provided he neither uses nor carries any offensive weapon. This sagacious edict renders robbery unfrequent; the daring violater of the laws hesitating to take with him those means, which might preserve his own life, or affect that of the plundered, in the event of resistance, generally confines his depredations to acts of private pilfering, and a robbery attended with murder is, of course, very rarely perpetrated. This instance of justice, moderation, and wisdom in the laws of China, receives an unfavourable contrast in the decree, which pronounces the wearing of a particular ornament, to be a capital crime, and in the custom of attending to the fallacious information extorted by the Rack. Preface to punishments of China.

By the laws of China, treason and rebellion are punished with a rigor even beyond the severity of our judgments, for the criminals are ordained to be cut in ten thousand pieces.

Children cursing or striking their parents was considered as next in atrocity to treason and rebellion, and in like manner punished by cutting the delinquent in one thousand pieces Colquhoun. See BEHEADING, CHAIN, CORD, TORTURE, &c.

COINERS

The crime of coining false money is deemed high treason in the second degree, and justly, To rob

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