3

C

Of Falshoods in general

instrument were at the time at which they purport to

have been under as much signs of his ideas as of he himself had

made them: for instance that the individual A. B. who is now on

the 1st of Jan: 1780 is making the counterfeit writing as was on the 1st

Jan. 1770 the individual Y. Z. and that being so he did on the said

1st Jan. 1770 make those characters which in truth he is now making on the

1st of Jan. 1780. The averment respecting the act thus asserted to

have been done,

this averment, I say when coupled with the averment respecting

the personality, is that which narrows if to a short

and particular period period of time: viz the the

period of time falsely affected to have been occupied

in the making of the characters which are falsely asserted to

have been making at that time.

There is one circumstance that may make the propriety of the

account given of this analogy between forgery and personation appear

suspicious. This is that in the case of personation one is apt to

suppose there must be some little resemblence between the person

counterfeiting and the person he counterfeits in order to give the offence

a possibility of success. Whereas it is evident that forgery

may be committed and commonly is committed without any the

least constancy between those two persons. In

personation therefore