Page images
PDF
EPUB

FOREST FLY-FOREST LAWS.

bears no inconsiderable resemblance to that of fleas. The F. F. lives by sucking the blood of quadrupeds, sometimes of oxen, dogs, &c., but most of all of

1

Forest Fly (Hippobosca equina), magnified: 1, natural size; 2, the pupa, as deposited by the mother. horses. High-bred horses with smooth hair are most liable to this annoyance. The female F. F. does not deposit her eggs until they have reached the pupa stage in her abdomen. One only is produced at a time, enclosed in a tough, strong skin, egg-like, black, and shining like a bead, wonderfully large when the size of the abdomen from which it came is considered; the perfect insect finally emerges by bursting open a kind of lid or cap.

FOREST LAWS, in England, laws for the regulation of the royal forests. Forest is defined by Lord Coke to be a safe preserve for wild animals (fera) of the chase, whence comes the term foresta, by the change of e into o (Co. Litt. 233 a). Both words probably spring from the same root as the Latin foris and the French hors, and signify that which is without the range of the peopled or cultivated country. Hence the Italian forestiere and foresto, and the Spanish forestero, signify strange, foreign, wild, and the like. A forest, in the sense of the law of England, is a large tract of open ground, not necessarily covered with wood, but usually containing woodland interspersed with pasture, and forming part of the property of the monarch, and governed by a special code, called the forest law. This particular law had reference not only to matters connected with hunting and the like, but generally governed the persons living within the forest in all their relations. A chase is a smaller forest, in the hand of a subject, but not governed by forest law. Though the privilege of forest belongs of right to the sovereign alone, it may be granted by him in favour of a subject, who becomes entitled to exercise the privileges of forest in the district assigned. This right was exercised by the Saxon kings, who reserved large tracts of country for the royal pastime of hunting, and a charter of the forest was said to have been passed by Canute at Winchester in the year 1016. But the authenticity of this document is doubted by Lord Coke (Inst. iv. 320). William the Conqueror greatly extended the royal forests, by laying desert vast districts in Hampshire and Yorkshire; he also introduced penalties of the severest kind for offences against the game. The penalty for killing a stag or boar was loss of eyes; for William loved the great game as if he had been their father (Sax. Chronicle). It was not till the reign of Henry III. that the laws of the forest were reduced into a regular code. In the reign of that monarch was passed the charter of the forest, 9 Henry III. (A. D. 1224). The right of the sovereign to create a forest is by the common law confined to lands of his own demesne. Henry II. had arbitrarily exercised his power by afforesting the lands of his subjects; but by the 1st and 3d chapters of the charter of the forest, it is provided that all forests so made should be disafforested. At a subsequent time, when Henry VIII.

created Hampton Court Forest, he was obliged to
obtain the consent of the freeholders before he
could erect a chase or forest over their grounds
(Coke, Inst. iv. 301). Mr Hallam remarks: 'It is
well known that Charles I. made Richmond Park
by means of depriving many proprietors not only of
their common rights, but of their freehold lands.
It is not clear that they were ever compensate 1.
but I think this probable, as the matter excited no
great clamour in the Long Parliament.'-Hallam,
Const. Hist. i. 463, note, 1st ed. By the charter of
the forest, the penalties for destroying game are
greatly modified. By cap. 10, it is provided that
no man shall lose life or limb for slaying deer,
but that the punishment shall be restricted to fine
or imprisonment for year and day. Cap. 11 con-
tains the following curious privilege: Whatsoever
archbishop, bishop, earl, or baron, coming to us at
our commandment, passing by our forest, it shall be
lawful for him to take and kill one or two of our
deer by view of our forester if he be present; or else
he shall cause one to blow an horn for him, that
he seem not to steal our deer; and likewise they
shall do returning from us.' This law is still unre-
pealed; so that a bishop may kill the Queen's deer
when summoned to, or returning from parliament.
Charles I. attempted to fill his empty exchequer
by imposing penalties and exacting fines for alleged
encroachments on the ancient boundaries of the
forests, though the right to the lands thus taken
was fortified by possession for several centuries.
This was one of the first grievances with which
the Long Parliament dealt, and since the passing
of the act for the certainty of forests' (16 Car.
I. c. 16), the laws of the forest have practically
ceased. In Coke's time, there were sixty-nine
royal forests, all of which, with the exception
of the New Forest and Hampton Court Forest,
had been created before the period of record. Of
these, the principal were the New Forest, Sher-
wood, Dean, Windsor, Epping, Dartmoor, Wich-
wood, in Oxfordshire, Salcey, Whittlebury, and
Rockingham, in Northamptonshire, Waltham, in
Lincolnshire, and Richmond, in Yorkshire. Dur
ing the present reign, several of the royal foresta
have been disafforested by act of parliament-
Hainault, 14 and 15 Vict. c. 43; Whittlewood, 16
and 17 Vict. c. 42; Wichwood, 19 and 20 Vict. c. 32.
Public necessity is the plea on which these spots,
long so famous for their silvan scenery, have been
condemned. The plea is one which cannot be
altogether disregarded; but it is to be hoped
that it will not be suffered to prevail to the entire
destruction of our royal forests, some of which,
from their vicinity to large towns, afford resorts for
public recreation highly prized by the citizens,
and which never can be equalled in beauty and in
healthfulness by any new-made pleasure-ground.

The royal forests of Scotland, in ancient times,
seem to have been nearly as numerous as those of
England. In Perthshire, there were the forests of
Athole, Mamlorn, Glenartney, Glenfynlas, Glen-
almond, Birnam, Cluny, Alyth, &c. In Forfarshire,
there were Platan, Montrethmont, Kilgerry; in
Kincardineshire, Cowie and Durris; in Aberdeen-
shire, the Stocket, Dyce, Kintore, Benachie, Drum,
Birse, Braemar; in Banffshire, the Boyne and the
Enzie; in Morayshire, Darnaway, &c. South of
the Forth, there were the forests of the Torwood,
Cadzow, Ettrick, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Traquair, the
New Forest in Dumfriesshire, &c. The Leges Forest-
arum-the Scottish Forest Laws-have been printed
more than once; the best edition is in The Acts of
the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 323-328
(Edin. 1844). The forest code of Scotland, though
neither so complete nor administered with the same

FOREST MARBLE-FORFAR.

rigour as that of England, was still generally complained of for its severe penalties or vexatious restraints. The grant of a right of forestry conferred the same privilege as if the ground over which it extended had been originally, and had continued to be, a king's forest. Hence arose great oppression and annoyance to neighbouring proprietors, and in 1680 the supreme civil court suggested that a representation should be made to the king against the granting of new forests. From a case which has just been decided, it would seem that the high pretensions of royal foresters have in some places survived to the present day. The Dukes of Athole still hold the extensive mountainous district called the forest of Athole, either in their own right or as foresters for the crown. In virtue of his rights of forestry, the present duke claimed the power of preventing his neighbour, the Laird of Lude, from killing deer on his own lands, and maintained that he was bound to allow the duke and his keepers to enter on his lands, and drive back any deer that might stray upon them from the forest of Athole. But the court decided (March 1, 1862) against the duke on both points.

Forest Courts were courts established for the purpose of enforcing the forest laws in the royal forests. Of these courts, there were in England four-viz., the Court of Attachments, the Court of Regard, the Court of Swainmote, and the Court of the Lord Justice in Eyre in the Forest, or Justice Seat. The last Court of Justice Seat that was held where business was transacted was in the reign of Charles I., before Lord Holland.

FOREST MARBLE, a member of the Lower Oolite, so called because of the occurrence of the typical beds in Wichwood Forest, Oxfordshire. The principal bed is a fissile limestone, containing large numbers of dark-coloured shells, and capable of sustaining a fine polish. On this account, it is used to some extent as 'marble.' It is interstratified with blue marls and shales, and fine oolitic sandstones. The whole thickness of the group seldom exceeds forty feet.

FOREST OAK, a name sometimes given in commerce to the timber of Casuarina torulosa, and other species of Casuarina (q. v.), Australian trees. This timber, which is light yellowish brown, and prettily marked with short red veins, is imported into Britain, and used for ornamental work.

FORESTA'LLING. See ENGROSSING.
FORESTS. See ARBORICULTURE.

FORESTS, FOSSIL, have been frequently observed in the coal measures. The seams of coal having in general been formed from the vegetation of the locality where they occur, it is to be expected that when the coal is removed, the stools and roots of the trees would be observed in the immediately subjacent bed of shale the ancient

Ground-plan of the Fossil Forest at Parkfield Colliery.

soil. Such a forest

was laid bare in an

open work at Parkfield Colliery, near Wolverhampton, in

were generally shorter. They were invariably converted into coal, and flattened to the thickness of 1 or 2 inches. The upright stems shew that some of them had a circumference of more than 8 feet. Similar fossil forests have been observed in the coal-fields of Nova Scotia, and have been carefully described by Lyell, Logan, and Dawson. The usual height of the trees observed by Lyell was from 6 to 8 feet; but one tree was about 25 feet high, and 4 feet in diameter. Brogniart describes the remains of a fossil forest preserved in an upright position, in strata of micaceous sandstone, belonging to the coal measures at St Etienne, near Lyon. Though most abundant in strata of the carboniferous period, fossil forests have been observed in other formations. The Dirt-bed (q. v.) of the Lower Purbeck series is the remains of an ancient forest. Instances are also abundant in the pliocene strata. Sometimes, as on the coast of Devonshire and on the shores of the Firth of Tay, they are exposed on the surface, stretching from high-water mark to far below the furthest limit of low water; or they are exhibited in section, as in the cliffs of Eastern Norfolk, where, resting on the chalk or crag, there is a stratum in which the stools and roots of the trees stand in their natural position, the trunks having been broken short off, and imbedded with their branches and leaves. This stratum is covered with fresh-water beds and drift. The position of these forests indicates a variation, in recent geological time, of the relative level of land and water. The instances in Devonshire and Fifeshire may imply a simple subsidence of the land; at Norwich, however, a considerable depression must have taken place, to admit of the deposition of the fresh-water beds and the till, and a subsequent elevation, to expose the beds so high above the sea-level.

The remains of ancient forests, belonging to a yet later period, are to be found in beds of peat. There is good evidence that some kinds of peat had their origin in the destruction of forests. Trunks and branches of beech, hazel, fir, &c., are found in them, and their roots may be traced in the underclay. The rapidity with which this peat is At Blair-Drummond, formed is very remarkable. the stratum of peat is eight to ten, and in some places even twenty feet in thickness. Many of the trees here have been felled with the axe, and that this was done while the Romans were in possession of the country, is proved by the discovery of 'corduroy roads,' leading from one camp to another, and the finding of camp-kettles at the bottom of the peat.

FORFANG, or FOREFANG (Sax. fore, before, and fangen, to take), the taking of provisions from any one in fairs or markets, before the king's purveyors were served with necessaries for his majesty. (Charter of Henry I. to the hospital of St Bartholo mew in London, anno 1133, referred to in Tomlin's Dic.) It is also used to signify the rescuing of stolen or strayed cattle from a thief, or from those having illegal possession of them; or the reward fixed for such rescue (Wharton's Dic.).

1844. In the space FORFAR, supposed to be the ancient Orrea, the of about one-fourth county town of Angus or Forfarshire, situated near of an acre, the a small lake of the same name, on a rising-ground stumps of 73 trees, of no great height, in the fertile valley of Strathwith their roots more. Pop. (1861) 9258. It has been a roval attached, appeared burgh since the reign of King David I. (1124as shewn in the 1153). It had a royal castle, of which no vestige annexed ground-plan. The trunks, broken off remains, said to have been situated on a round close to the root, were lying prostrate in every hill, on the north side of the town, and to have direction, often crossing each other. One of them been destroyed by order of King Robert Bruce, in measured 15, another 30 feet in length, but they the year 1307. Its staple manufacture is linen

[ocr errors]

FORFARSHIRE-FORFEITURE AND CORRUPTION OF BLOOD.

It is connected by railway with Aberdeen, Arbroath, and the south. It joins with Montrose, Arbroath, Brechin, and Bervie, in sending a representative to parliament.

occur.

FORFARSHIRE, or ANGUS, is a maritime county in the east of Scotland, being bounded on the E. by the German Ocean, on the N. by Kincardine and Aberdeen shires, on the W. by Perthshire, and on the S. by the Firth of Tay. It extends from north to south 38 miles, and from east to west 27 miles, with 45 miles of coast. There are several valleys of considerable extent, the principal of which are Glen Isla, Glen Prosen, Glen Esk, Clova, and Lethnot, which are all well watered, and mostly productive. The surface of the county is irregular, and it is intersected with hills, the Sidlaw being 1400 feet high, and Catlaw, the highest, 2264 feet. The soil, which is various, ranging from the finest alluvial to the moorish, rests mostly on the old red sandstone and the trap. Devonian paving-stones, limestone, porphyry, and jasper, The chief rivers are the Tay, North Esk, South Esk, and Isla; and there are some small lochs. F. is the chief seat of the Scotch linen manufacture. Cattle, corn, salmon, and pavingstone are the principal exports. The climate partakes of the qualities common to the east coast. The average of the fall of rain is about 25 inches. In 1857, the last year in which the agricultural statistics were taken, the number of acres under tillage was 223,245, the chief crops being 20,371 acres of wheat, 22,947 barley, 51,104 oats, 34,693 turnips, 12,963 potatoes, 77,4014 sown grasses. The average produce per acre of wheat was 26 bushels 2 pecks; barley, 32 bushels 2 pecks; oats, 37 bushels 2 pecks; turnips, 13 tons 6 cwt.; potatoes, 2 tons 14 cwt. There were 2109 occupants above £10, and 5843 acres were occupied by tenants below £10 of rent. F. contains 54 parishes. Pop: (1861) 206,696, being an increase over that of 1851 of 13,064. In 1851, there were 187 places of worship (67 Established, 51 Free, and 23 United Presbyterian); 303 day-schools, with 22,120 scholars. The chief towns are Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, Forfar (the county town), Brechin, and Kirriemuir. The county returns one member to parliament, and the boroughs two. Angus was the province of a Mormaer during the Celtic period of Scottish history. It appears as an earldom in the 12th century. Its first earls were probably the descendants of the old Mormaers; it passed subsequently to the Umphravilles, the Stewarts, and the Douglases. The castle of Forfar was the residence occasionally of some of the kings, until the time of Alexander III. The chief antiquities are some Roman camps, the vitrified fort of Finhaven, the remarkable stone forts of the White Caterthun, near Brechin, and of the Laws, near Dundee; the sculptured stone pillars at Meigle, Aberlemno, St Vigean's, Glammis, Kirriemuir, Aldbar, Invergowrie, &c.; the fortified island of St Margaret's Inch in the Loch of Forfar, the round tower and cathedral of Brechin, the ruins of Restennet Priory and Arbroath Abbey; and the old baronial castles of Glammis, Red Castle, Edzell, Melgund, Finhaven, Airlie, Careston, Inverquharity. At Stracathro, it is said Baliol resigned the crown to Edward I. Several eminent men were born in this county; among whom may be mentioned Hector Boece, Andrew Melville, the Marquis of Montrose, Joseph Hume, Sir Alexander Burnes, Robert Brown the botanist, James Mill the historian of British India; and Graham of Claverhouse had a seat at Fintry Mains.

FORFEITURE AND CORRUPTION OF BLOOD are penalties consequent on convictions

In cases of

for treason or felony. The penalty of forfeiture for treason is founded on this consideration, that he who hath thus violated the first principles of govern ment, and broken his part in the original contract between king and people, hath abandoned his connection with society, and hath no longer any right to those advantages which before belonged to him purely as a member of the community (Stephen's Com. iv. 497). The penalty of forfeiture for treason clear from the fact, that lands held in gavelkind, prevailed in England before the Conquest, as is which is a Saxon tenure, may be forfeited for treason. But after the Conquest, forfeiture of lands and goods came to be regarded as the peculiar punishment of felony, of which treason against the sovereign was the highest kind, and was denominated high treason, to distinguish it from all other felonies, treason, the offender forfeits all his lands absowhich were called petty treason. lutely to the crown. In felony, according to the old law, the offender forfeited to the crown the profits of all estates of freehold during his life, and all his estates in fee-simple for a year and a day, after which they became escheat to the lord. The crown, during the year of occupancy, was entitled to commit upon the lands what Waste (q. v.) it pleased. By Magna Charta, this power of committing waste was restrained. But by 17 Ed. II. c. 16, the king's title to waste was again recognised. As the law now stands, murder is the only felony by which forfeiture for year and day is incurred. In all felonies, the goods and chattles of the offender are, on conviction, forfeited to the crown; but until conviction, forfeiture of the goods does not operate. Where, therefore, a person has disposed of his goods before conviction, the crown cannot reach them. Forfeiture of lands does not take effect until sentence of Attainder (q. v.) has been pronounced. So that before sentence, or killed in open rebellion, does not a person committing Felo de se (q. v.), or a rebel dying forfeit his lands. But sentence of attainder, as soon as pronounced, has a retro-active effect, and annuls all conveyances made between the act of treason or felony and the pronouncing of sentence. Conveyances made before the act of treason are not affected. Hence, a wife's jointure is not forfeited, because settled on her before the commission of the act. But dower is forfeited by 5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 11. Counterfeiting the coin was formerly treason; but by various statutes, it is provided that the wife's dower should not be forfeited, and that the lands should be forfeited only for the life of the offender. Forfeiture for treason and felony is accompanied by corruption of blood, whereby the offender is incapable to an heir. But where the lands were not vested of inheriting any lands or of transmitting any title in the offender at the time of the act, they are not forfeited to the crown, but to the overlord. England, this distinction is of little moment, except overlord of nearly all the freehold land in the kingin copyhold lands, the crown being, in fact, the dom. By 7 Anne, c. 21, it was enacted that, after the death of the Pretender and his sons, no attainder for treason should operate to the prejudice of other than the offender himself; but this provision was But in Scotland, repealed, 39 Geo. III., c. 93. where subinfeudation still subsists, the distinction the Union, forfeiture of estate was incurred on In Scotland, before is of practical importance. account of treason and certain other crimes, as theft by a landed man, and uttering false coin. Stair is of opinion that the doctrine of corruption of blood did not prevail in Scotland to exclude those claiming, through a person attainted, where the offender was only apparent heir (Stair, iii. 3, 38). Since the Union, the law of Scotland in regard

In

Lord

FORFEITURE OF LANDS-FORGERY.

to forfeiture for treason has been assimilated to that of England.

In America, forfeiture of estate for crimes is very mach reduced, and the corruption of blood is universally abolished. Several of the state constitutions have provided that no attainder for treason or felony shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate, except during the life of the offender, and some of them have taken away the power of forfeiture absolutely, without any such exemption. Every person convicted of any manner of treason, under the laws of New York, forfeits his goods and chattels, and also his lands and tenements, during his lifetime; but the rights of all third persons existing at the time of the commission of the treason, are preserved. Kent's Commentaries, ii. 505.

FORFEITURE OF LANDS was originally a penalty of the feudal law, incurred on account of some act by the tenant inferring disloyalty to his overlord. The acts inferring forfeiture might be of either a civil or a criminal nature. Forfeiture

for crimes was incurred by treason or felony. See

FORFEITURE AND CORRUPTION OF BLOOD.

Civil forfeiture may be incurred in England in three ways-viz., by tortious alienation, by wrongful disclaimer, and by alienation in mortmain; the first two of these modes were incidents of the feudal tenure, the latter was introduced by statute. It must be observed that, according to the earliest feudal customs, a gift of lands was always made in favour of a particular person, and that alienation, without consent of the overlord, involved a forfeiture of the fee. But this strictness having by degrees ceased to be observed, forfeiture was only incurred in case of a tortious alienation. Tortious alienation was where the owner of a particular estate conveyed by common law conveyance, as feoffment, fine, or recovery, a greater estate than that to which he was himself entitled, as where a tenant-for-life made a feoffment in fee. The immediate effect of this act was the forfeiture of the land to the remainder man or reversioner. By 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 74, abolishing fines and recoveries, and 8 and 9 Vict. c. 106, s. 4, declaring that a feoffment should not have a tortious operation, forfeiture by tortious alienation has ceased to have a practical importance. For feiture by wrongful disclaimer was where a tenant holding under a superior lord, on being summoned in any court of record, either disclaims his allegiance, or does any act which amounts to a disclaimer. Since the abolition, by the statute of quia emptores, of subinfeudation, this species of forfeiture can only arise in lands held of the crown. Forfeiture by alienation in mortmain is incurred by the conveyance of lands or tenements in favour of any Corporation (q. v.), sole or aggregate, ecclesiastical or temporal. As by vesting the land in a tenant of this description, the overlord was deprived of all the duties and services due by his vassal, this act was declared by various acts of parliament to infer the forfeiture of the lands. See MORTMAIN. Forfeiture of copyholds was incurred by committing waste, and by other acts of a wrongful kind inconsistent with the fealty due to the lord. See Blackstone, Com. ii. 284. Forfeiture on breach of condition, subsequent is where an estate is held upon a condition contained in the grant itself. On failure of the condition, the grantor or his heirs may enter upon the lands.

In Scotland, civil forfeiture may arise either from statutory enactment, at common law, or by agreement. By 1597 c. 246, it is enacted that vassals failing to pay their feu-duties for two years shall forfeit their right. This forfeiture must be established by an action to recover the feu-duties in arrear, and may be avoided by payment at the bar. At common law, a vassal forfeited his land by dis

clamation or purpresture. The former is analogous to the English disclaimer, and consists in the denial by a vassal of his lawful superior. Purpresture was incurred by the vassal's encroachment on the streets, highways, or commonties belonging to the crown or other superior. These forms of forfeiture are fallen into disuse. Forfeiture on special agreement depends wholly upon the terms of the condition inserted in the titles to the land. The condition must be fortified by irritant and resolutive clauses, and must enter the sasine, in order that it may be effectual against purchasers of the lands (Erskine, ii. 3, s. 13). Of this kind of forfeiture are breaches of Entails (q. v.).

ing red-hot iron or steel into any required shape is FORGE, FORGING. The process of hammer. called Forging, and the workshop in which the operation is performed, a Forge. The principal tools of a common smith's forge are the forge-fire or hearth, with its bellows, the anvil, and the various hammers, swages, &c. For large work, an airfurnace, blown by steam-bellows, supplies the place of the simple hearth of the blacksmith, powerful cranes swing the work to its place on the anvil, and a steam-hammer (see HAMMER) strikes the blows that squeeze the red-hot mass into shape. Besides these, there are portable forges of various sizes and forms, used for military and other purposes. They usually consist of an iron frame, to which a bellows, worked by the foot, is attached; and above the bellows is an iron tray, with a hearth, &c., upon which the fire is made; and the anvil is either attached to this frame, or has a separate stand.

small work is described. For the largest work to Under CUTLERY, the general method of forging which hand-hammers are still applied, such as anchor-forging, two gangs of from six to twelve hammermen are employed; they swing the large hammers with such wonderful precision and regularity, that the instant one hammer is withdrawn, another falls upon the same place. A foreman, with a wand, directs the hammering. The two gangs relieve each other alternately, on account of the great severity of the labour. Shovels, spades, mattocks, and many other tools and implements, are partly forged under the tilt-hammer. See STEEL.

importance to obtain the greatest possible rapidity In all processes of forging, it is of primary in the succession of the blows. There is a double reason for this: first, and simply, that the work is cooling, and the more slowly it is forged, the more frequently it must be re-heated; and secondly, that percussion generates actual heat, and if the blows the work may be fully maintained out of the fire are sufficiently heavy and rapid, the temperature of for a considerable length of time. The hammer used for tilting steel not only maintains the heat of the bar, but raises it from a dull to a bright red heat.

FORGERY (Fr. forger, to form metal into shape; to fabricate), the crimen falsi of the Roman law, is held in England, at common law, to be the fraudulent making or altering of a writing or seal, to the prejudice of another man's right, or of a stamp to the prejudice of the revenue. As regards writings, the instrument forged must be executed with such skill or in such circumstances as to be capable of being mistaken for a genuine document by a person of ordinary intelligence and obser vation. It is not necessary that there should be even an attempt at imitation. If there was intention to deceive, and the circumstances were such as to render deception possible, the crime has been committed, and it has consequently been held in Scotland that it is possible to forge the name

FORGET-ME-NOT-FORKS.

of a person who cannot write (1 Alison, p. 372), flowers small, and generally blue. The genus is

[ocr errors]

and further that the crime may be committed by the adhibition of a cross or mark (Macmillan, January 24, 1859). Any material alteration, however slight, is a forgery just as much as the subscription of the name of the pretended maker, or the fabrication of the entire deed. It will not lessen the crime, though the whole deed should be genuine, the name only being forged, or the name being really the handwriting of the party to whom it belongs, but appended to a forged deed. Even if the name be a fictitious one, but appended for the purpose of deceiving, a forgery has been committed just as much as if it belonged to a real person. Long before the recent extensions took place in the law of evidence, by which parties were admitted as witnesses in their own causes, it was provided by 9: Geo. IV. c. 32, that the party whose name had been forged might be a witness to the effect that the writing was not his. But, on the other hand, it is an established rule of law that the proof of forgery, by a mere comparison of handwriting, is incompetent (Tailor on Evidence, p. 1428, n. 5, 2d ed.). Identification of handwriting is, if possible, more difficult than identification of the person, which so often forms the chief difficulty in criminal trials. As illness, strange dress, unusual attitude, and the like, cause mistakes in identifying the individual, so a bad pen, or rough paper, a shaking hand, hurry, and many other things, change the appearance of a person's handwriting.'-Dickson on Evidence, p. 474. There are besides resemblances in handwritings proceeding from many accidental causes, so that much caution is necessary in weighing this kind of evidence. 'It ought never, therefore, to be regarded as full proof by the crown in criminal trials, and even in civil cases, corroborative evidence should be required, unless the proof of handwriting is so clear as to shift the onus probandi.' Though writing-masters, engravers, bankers' clerks, and other persons in the habit of examining handwritings are often adduced as witnesses in trials for forgery, their evidence is really of very little value, and generally so conflicting that it can be produced with equal effect on either side. The best witness is one who has often seen the party write, through whose hands his writing has been continually passing, and whose opinion is not the result of an inspection made on a particular occasion for a special purpose. The act 11 Geo. IV., and 1 Will. IV. c. 66, makes the forging of the great seal, the privy seal, or any privy signet, the sign-manual, the seals of Scotland, or the great seal and privy seal of Ireland-treason. The same statute declares the offence of forging, or uttering with intent to defraud, stamps, exchequer bills, Bank of England notes, bills of exchange, promissory notes, deeds, receipts, orders for the payment of money, transfers of stock, wills, &c., to be felony. Capital punishment was first abolished with regard to special cases of forgery by 2 Geo. IV., and 1 Will. IV. c. 66, and 2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 123; and then altogether done away with by 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 84. The offender is now liable to penal servitude, the length of which is at the discretion of the court; but which cannot be for less than three years, or he may be imprisoned for not more than four, or less than two years, with or without hard labour and solitude. As to the forgery of Bank of England notes, see 16 Vict. c. 2. As to obtaining property by false pretences, see FRAUD.

FORGET-ME-NOT, or SCORPION GRASS (Myosotis), a genus of annual or biennial herbaceous plants, of the natural order Boraginea, with 5-cleft calyx and salver-shaped corolla; the

184

diffused over the temperate zone in all quarters of the world, and a number of species are common in Britain, chiefly growing in ditches and damp meadows-as Myosotis palustris, with crooked creeping perennial roots-an angular stem of a foot in height, and calyx covered with appressed bristles. M. sylvatica, with calyx covered with stiff spreading hairs, grows in bushy places and woods, and is often planted in flower-gardens. The dark blue F. of the Azores (M. Azorica) has of late begun to be cultivated in Europe, but requires the green-house. The genus is a favourite one with most persons, both because of the brilliancy of the flowers, and because throughout Europe it is generally regarded as the emblem of friendship. The English name Scorpion Grass is now seldom heard. The German name Vergiszmeinnicht corresponds with the English Forget-me-not.-M. versicolor, very common in Britain, often as a weed in gardeus, is remarkable for the change of colour in the flowers, which are first yellow, then blue. They are very small.-M. alpestris, found on some of the mountains of Scotland, is especially admired for the size and brilliancy of its flowers.

FORIO, a thriving town of Italy, is picturesquely situated on the west coast of the island of Ischia, which stands at the northern side of the mouth of the Bay of Naples. The central portion of the town consists of very narrow streets, but the suburbs are composed of charming white cottages. three highly decorated churches, a good harbour, and some trade with Leghorn, Naples, and Genoa. Pop. 6500.

It has

FORISFAMILIA'TION (literally, the putting forth from or beyond the family) is the separation A child is of a child from the family of his father. said to be forisfamiliated, either when he marries or when he receives from his father a separate stock, the profits of which are enjoyed by himself, though he may still reside with his father, or when he goes to live in another family with the consent of his father The same result is also brought about when a child renounces his legitim, i. e., his legal share of the father's free movable property due to him on the death of the latter. See Bell's Dic. of the Law of Scotland.

FORKS. These table instruments are only about. three centuries old. The Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations knew nothing of forks. They had large forks for hay, and also iron forks for taking meat out of pots, but no instruments of the

nature of table-forks. In ancient times, as is the practice still in the East, meat was commonly prepared as stews; or if roasted, it was cut into small pieces by a carver, so as to be easily taken in mouthfuls by the guests, who used their fingers and a knife for the purpose. It certainly is a strange fact, that the use of any species of forks at table was quite unknown till the 15th c., and they were then known only in Italy, which has the merit of this. invention. None of the sovereigns of England had, forks till after the reign of Henry VIII.; all, high and low, used their fingers. It was accordingly a part. of the etiquette of the table to employ the fingers so delicately as not to dirty the hand to any serious. degree; but as even by the best management the fingers were less or more soiled, it was the custom, to wash the hands immediately on the dishes being. removed from the table. Hence, in the royal household, there was a dignitary called the Ewrar or Ewary, who with a set of subordinates attended at meals with basins, water, and towels. The office: of Ewary survived after forks came partially into use. We learn that when James I. entertained the

433

« PreviousContinue »