All parties expecting property on the death of a relative or friend, and finding none, should be careful to have the signatures of the witnesses examined, to test whether they are genuine; and also the signature of the testator.
Every will can be seen at the district court, where they are proved, on the payment of a shilling. Such an examination is the only likely method of detecting the forgery.
There are several other classes of forgery in addition to those already noticed, such as forging certificates of character, and bills of lading.
A case of the latter kind was recently tried at Guildhall. A merchant, near the Haymarket, and an artist also in the West-end, were arraigned with having feloniously forged and altered certain bills of lading; one of these represented ten casks of alkali amounting to the value of 84l., and another, twenty-six casks of alkali worth 140l., with the intention of defrauding certain merchants in London. All the bills of lading were with one exception to a certain extent genuine, that is, were filled up in the first instance. But after being signed by the wharfinger, they were altered by the introduction of words and figures, to represent a larger quantity of goods than had been shipped. The prisoners were committed for trial.
| Number of cases of forgery in the metropolitan districts for the year 1860 | 27 |
| Ditto ditto in the City | 20 |
| 47 |
| Amount of loss thereby in the metropolitan districts | £254 |
| Ditto ditto in the City | 736 |
| £990 |
CHEATS.
Embezzlers.
This is the crime of a servant appropriating to his own use the money or goods received by him on account of his master, and is perpetrated in the metropolis by persons both in inferior and superior positions.
Were a party to advance money or goods to an acquaintance or friend, for which the latter did not give a proper return, the case would be different, and require to be sued for in a civil action.