Tunbridge Wells, Bath, Margate, and Ramsgate;
doing business with wonderful unconcern
and "face" all along their journeys. These
usually expensive, but to them profitable
enjoyments, were continually coming to light at
the trials of the lesser rogues who undertook
the issue department; for, from the ease with
which close imitation was effected, the
manufacture was more readily completed than the
uttering. The fraternity and sisterhood of
utterers played many parts, and were banded
in strict compact with the forgers. Some
were turned loose into fairs and markets,
in all sorts of appropriate disguises. Farmers,
who could hardly distinguish
standing wheat from a field of barley:
Butchers who never wielded more deadly
weapons than two-prong forks: Country boys
with Cockney accents, bought gingerbread,
and treated their so-called sweethearts with
ribbons and muslins, all by the interchange of
false "flimseys." The better mannered
disguised themselves as ladies and gentlemen,
paid their losings at cards or hazard, or
their tavern bills, their milliners, and coach-
makers, in motley money composed of part
real and part base bank paper. Some went
about in the cloak of the Samaritan, and
generously subscribed to charities whereever
they saw a chance of changing a bad
"five" for three or four good "ones." Ladies
of sweet disposition went about doing good
among the poor; personally inquired into
distress, relieved it by sending out a daughter
or a son to a neighbouring shop for
change; and left five shillings for present
necessities, walking off with fifteen. So openly
––in spite of the gallows––was forgery
carried on, that whoever chose to turn utterer
found no difficulty to get a stock-in-
trade to commence with. Indeed, in the days
of highwaymen, no travelling gentleman's
pocket or valise was considered properly
furnished without a few forged notes where-
with to satisfy the demands of the members
of the "High Toby." This offence against
the laws of the road, however, soon became
too common, and wayfarers who were stopped
and rifled had to pledge their sacred words of
honour that their notes were the genuine
promises of Abraham Newland; and that
their watches were not of the factory of Mr.
Pinchbeck.

With temptations so strong, it is no wonder
that the forgers' trade flourished, with only
an occasional check from the strong arm of
the law. It followed, therefore, that from the
issue of small notes in February 1797, to the
end of 1817––twenty years––there were no
fewer than eight hundred and seventy
prosecutions connected with Bank Note Forgery,
in which there were only one hundred and
sixty acquittals, and upwards of three hundred
executions! 1818 was the culminating point
of the crime. In the first three months there
were no fewer than one hundred and twenty-
eight prosecutions by the Bank; and by the
end of that year, two-and-thirty individuals
had been hanged for Note Forgery. So far
from this appalling series of examples having
and effect in checking the progress of the
crime, it is proved that at, and after that
very time, base note were poured into the
Bank at the rate of a hundred a day!

The enormous number of undetected forgeries
afloat, may be estimated by the fact, that
from the 1st of January 1812, to the 10th
April 1818, one hundred and thirty-one
thousand three hundred and thirty-one pieces of
paper were ornamented by the Bank officers
with the word "Forged"––upwards of one
hundred and seven thousand of them were
one-pound counterfeits.

Intrinsically, it would appear from an
Hibernian view of the case, then, that bad notes
wwere nearly as good, (except not merely having
been manufactured at the Bank), as good ones.
So thoroughly and completely did some of
them resemble the authorised engraving of
the Bank, that it was next to impossible to
distinguish the false from the true. Countless
instances, showing rather the skill of the
forger than the want of vigilance in Bank
officials, could be brought forward. Respectable
persons were constantly taken into custody
on a charge of uttering forgeries, imprisoned
for days and then liberated. A close
scrutiny, proving that the accusations were
made upon genuine paper. In September,
1818, Mr. A. Burnett, of Portsmouth, had
the satisfaction of having a note which had
passed through his hands returned to him
from the Bank of England with the base
mark upon it. Satisfied of its genuineness,
he re-inclosed it to the cashier, and demanded
its payment. By return of post he received
the following letter :

"Bank of England, 16 Sept., 1818."

"Sir,–––I have to acknowledge your letter to
Mr. Hase, of the 13th inst. inclosing a one pound
note, and, in answer thereto, I beg leave to
acquaint you, that, on inspection it appears to be a
genuine Note of the Bank of England ; I therefore,
agreeably to your request, inclose you one of the
like value, No. 26,276, dated 22nd August, 1818.

"I am exceedingly sorry, Sir, that such an
unusual oversight should have occurred to give you
so much trouble, which I trust your candour will
induce you to excuse when I assure you that the
unfortunate mistake has arisen entirely out of the
hurry and multiplicity of business.

"I am, Sir,
"Your most obedient servant,
" A. BURNETT, ESQ. J. RIPPON."
" 7 Belle Vue Terrace.
"Southsea, near Portsmouth."

A more extraordinary case is on record.
A note was traced to the possession of a
tradesman, which had been pronounced by
the Bank Inspectors to have been forged.
The man would not give it up and was taken
before a magistrate, charged with "having a
note in his possession, well knowing it to be
forged." He was committed to prison on