FORGERY, the fraudulent making or al teration of a writing to the prejudice of another man's rights, or malting of any written instru ment for the purpose of fraud and deceit; the word making, in this last definition, being con sidered as including every alteration of or ad dition to a true instrument. The offense of forgery may be complete though there be no publication or uttering of the forged instru ment; for the very making with a fraudulent intention, and without lawful authority, of any instrument which, at common law or by stat ute, is the subject of forgery, is of itself a sufficient completion of the offense before pub lication. Most of the statutes, however, which relate to forgery make the publication of the forged instrument, with knowledge of the fact, a substantive offense. Motive has everything to do with deciding forgery. To endorse another's name on the back of a check in order to i:eal the money is forgery. Yet it is not uncommon for a business man to sign on a check the name of another and his own im mediately below, thus assuming the responsibil ity for collecting the money. He is considered
justified in doing this to meet the bank's rules for cashing checks, and no forgery is com mitted where none is intended. A deed forged in the name of a person ,whd never had existence is forgery at law. A writing is forged when a person up a will for an invalid inserts legacies therein falsely. It is not -naterial whether a forged instrument be drai-m in such manner that if it were in truth that which it counterfeits it would be valid. The punishment of forgery at common law is, as for a misdemeanor, by fine, imprisonment, and such other corporal punishment as the court in its discretion might award. The penalty varies in different States, in some the statutes having been much enlarged to include acts which were not punishable formerly as forgery. The punishments ordained for the offense by the statute law in England were once, with scarcely an exception, capital.