
For the Literary Magazine.
NO method seems to be yet in-
vented for preventing forgery of
money, either of real coin, or of its
representative in written or printed
paper. By denouncing heavy pe-
nalties against the act, by a vigilant
police, and by rigorous execution of
the laws prescribing these penal-
ties, a great deal may be done. How
much efficacy there is in such mea-
sures is illustriously exemplified in
Great Britain. Among the incon-
ceivably immense sums (many thou-
sands of millions of dollars) annually
transferred from hand to hand, by
means of a name carelessly scrawled
by the owner of it on paper, there
are not perhaps a thousand dollars
in a year transferred by spurious or
forged signatures. The easiest of
all things is to imitate such signa-
tures, in such a manner that the
owner of the name would be enabled
to perceive the falschood only by
his recollection; and yet the dread
of punishment makes this crime,
one the easiest of perpetration, one
liable to the strongest temptations,
one for which the sophistry of cupi-
dity or indigence would find the most
numerous pleas, the rarest offence
in the gloomy catalogue.
Judging without experience, one
would naturally imagine, that for
one pound taken by violence from
the person, there would be thousands
annually obtained by forgery; and
yet the reverse is much nearer the
truth. Whether this arises from
the severity of laws and the vigi-
lance of magistrates, from a natural
horror at counterfeiting hands, or
from what other cause, is a problem
―292―
well worthy the attention of the
moralist.
It is also well deserving of enqui-
ry, why the laws have made so vast
a difference between the transfer of
real property, that is, house and
land, and that of money. If I have
ten thousand pounds in a bank, in
order to transfer it to another, I
have only to scrawl my name upon
any casual piece of paper, at the end
of a sentence of three or four words.
This is evidence all-sufficient, and
the display of it at the bank instant-
ly procures me the sum, if the sum
be there. But suppose I want to
transfer a hundred square feet of
ground, with a building on it, in a
certain street, whose value is a tenth
part of that sum; instead of doing
this with a tenth part of the trouble,
I am subjected to a hundred times
the trouble. Indeed, so complicated
and mysterious is the business, that I
cannot do it myself at all, unless the
law be my profession; I must go to
one whose trade it is to do it. He
fills up a large piece of parchment,
with words to the number of a thou-
sand, and summons me to write my
name in the presence of two or
three others, to put my hand upon
a wafer, and rehearse a mysterious
formulary, and then, paying him
eight or ten dollars for his trouble,
the business is done.
That the formality, trouble, and
expence of the transfer is not pro-
portioned to the value of the thing
transferred is evident; since the
land may be worth no more than a
thousand dollars, and yet require all
this ceremony, while the drawing of
a check transfers, with equal faci-
lity and certainty, a hundred or a
million of dollars.
Does the difference arise from the
nature of the thing? This difference
renders one more easily, briefly, and
distinctly described than the other.
No art of man can invent a more
brief, a more accurate description
of money than by the use of a few
figures, followed by the name of the
coin. Land must be identified by a
different process; it must be de-
scribed by metes and boundaries.
The minuteness or circumstantiali-
ty of this description will of course
be different in different cases; but
deducting the description of the
land conveyed, how much of other
things remains in the instrument or
deed of conveyance? Is it more ne-
cessary that this description should
be written on the skin of a sheep,
in letters half a league long, and
perhaps in an outlandish character,
than the description of a sum trans-
ferred by draught?
The minuteness and number of
particulars necessary to identify the
reality tranferred, might in fact be
reduced, by very easy contrivances,
to a very small compass. In Manheim,
a large city, originally planned by one
of the electors Palatine, the whole,
plot has been divided into streets
and squares, geometrically, each
square into smaller lots or divisions.
The whole series of these lots is ac-
curately numbered, from one to
many thousands. A large and au-
thentic plan of the town is preserv-
ed in a public office. In this office
are all transfers made; but no fur-
ther description of a lot is necessary
in these transfers than the mere
number. Any other or further de-
scription would be preposterous and
redundant. Instead of contributing
to certainty or perspicuity, it would
only breed confusion.
The transfer is made by the own-
er's signing an order, consisting of a
few words, directing the registrar
to “convey No. 10 to A. B.” The
conveyance is completed by the
transferree writing his name in a
book, opposite the given number,
with the date annexed. If the pro-
perty be transferred by will or by
descent, the will is recorded and
filed in that office, and the descent,
if questioned, must be proved.
By this arrangement, not only all
tedious or verbose description is
prevented, but the rights of proprie-
tors are ascertained with ease and
precision, and all frauds made im-
practicable.
There are two circumstances,
however, that break in upon the ab-
solute simplicity of this system, and
―293―
render transfers less concise and de-
finite than transfers of money in a
bank. In the first place, the occa-
sions of society require the convey-
ances of rights, either limited in
time or clogged by conditions; and
secondly, of portions only of indi-
vidual lots. These inevitably pro-
duce variety and particularity, but
they are carefully restrained to the
smallest possible limits.
It is very remarkable among our-
selves, that though the absolute
right to real property is conveyed
with so much formality and trouble,
yet a temporary right should most
commonly be conveyed without pa-
pers, signatures, or even witnesses.
Would you grant possession of your
house to another for an annual
rent? This is done by a verbal con-
tract, so careless and unformal, that
it hardly merits the name. The
right of possession which accrues to
him, and the right to a future money
payment which accrues to you, in
consequence of this contract, are of
very great importance to both, and
would require or justify, we should
naturally imagine a much more for-
mal process to identify the thing to be
possessed, and the persons of the
grantor and grantee, and to authenti-
cate the terms of its possession, than
an absolute conveyance; and yet how
few difficulties and disputes occur
between landlords and tenants, in
proportion to the number of trans-
actions between them! There are
at least eight thousand houses in this
city (Philadelphia) held by their oc-
cupants at a stated rent to the pro-
prietors. The sum total of this rent
cannot fall short of 800,000 dollars
a year: at least seven eighths of this
sum is demanded and paid in pursu-
ance of oral agreements, made
without form, witnesses, or regis-
tration. In how few of these cases
is there any dispute or litigation as
to the identity of the thing possessed,
the right of the lessor to let, or the
terms on which possession has been
given!
How many millions are yearly
conveyed in Great Britain and
America, in the public funds, and in
the joint stock companies! these not
absolute sums of money, but merely
a right to receive sums of money
periodically for an indefinite time.
These conveyances are exactly of
the same importance as conveyances
of lands and buildings, since the va-
lue of the latter, like that of the
former, lies altogether in the money
they produce; yet no scollopped
parchments, no seals, no witnesses,
no accumulation of obsolete words
and endless prolixities are deemed
necessary in one case, though super-
stitiously and carefully demanded in
the other.