Eyidenoe  that  Notes  may  be  of  Some
Value.  —  Indictment  for  fsUse  pretences
in  passing  a  note  of  a  bank,  that  had


lently  offered  a  one-pound  Irish  bank  note    stopped  payment,  as  a  good  note.     The

785


Falsa  Writing.
FALSE  PRETENCES.
Notes  ajid  BiUs.
it  has  been  held  that  if  a  person  obtain  goods  by  transmitting  the
halves  of  bank  notes,  he  may  be  indicted  for  false  pretences.^

3.  Hotes  and  Bills. — At  common  law  a  promissory  note  payable  by
an  individual  was  not  a  public  token,  and  it  was  not  an  indictable
offence  to  represent  such  notes  as  genuine  and  valuable,  and  thereby
defraud  third  persons.*  But  false  pretences  used  in  negotiating
notes  aje  now  deemed  to  bring  the  person  making  them  within
the  operation  of  the  statute.  And  it  is  held  that  the  mere  fact
of  uttering  a  counterfeit  note  as  a  genuine  one  is  tantamount  to
a  representation  that  it  was  so.*  Similarly  it  has  been  held  that  if
a  person  tenders  to  another  a  promissory  note  of  a  third  person  in
exchange  for  goods,  though  he  says  nothing,  yet  he  should  be
taken  to  affirm  that  the  note  had  not,  to  his  knowledge,  been  paid,


prisoner  knew'  that  the  bank  had  stopped
payment;  but  it  appeared  that  two  only
of  the  partners  of  the  bank  had  become
bankrupt,  and  that  the  third  had  not.
Heldy  that  the  prisoner  must  be  acquitted.
Rex  V,  Spencer,  3  Car.  &  P.  420.
1.  Obtainine^  Goods  by  Use  of  Half
Bank  Notes. — A  was  indicted  for  obtain-
ing goods  from  several  persons,  by  false
pretences,  to  whom  she  had  forwarded
half  bank  notes,  requesting  goods  to  the
vulue  of  the  entire  notes  to  be  sent  to  her.
