manoeuvre, Childs' must have
made a large sum, from Bank paper being at a considerable discount.

The day on which a forged note was first presented at the Bank of
England forms a remarkable era in its history; and to Richard William
Vaughan, a Stafford linendraper, belongs the melancholy celebrity of
having led the van in this new phase of crime, in the year 1758. The
records of his life do not show want, beggary, or starvation urging him,
but a simple desire to seem greater than he was. By one of the artists
employed--and there were several engaged on different parts of the
notes--the discovery was made. The criminal had filled up to the number
of twenty, and deposited them in the hands of a young lady, to whom he
was attached, as a proof of his wealth. There is no calculating how much
longer Bank notes might have been free from imitation, had this man not
shown with what ease they might be counterfeited. (Francis.)

The circulation of L1 notes led to much forgery, and to a melancholy
waste of human life. Considering the advances made in the mechanical
arts, small notes were rough, and even rude in their execution. Easily
imitated, they were also easily circulated, and from 1797 the executions
for forgery augmented to an extent which bore no proportion to any other
class of crime. During six years prior to their issue there was but one
capital conviction; during the four following years eighty-five
occurred. The great increase produced inquiry, which resulted in an Act
"For the better prevention of the forgery of the notes and bills of
exchange of persons carrying on the business of banker."

In the year 1758 a judgment was given by the Lord Chief Justice in
connection with some notes which were stolen from one of the mails. The
robber, after stopping the coach and taking out all the money contained
in the letters, went boldly to a Mr. Miller, at the Hatfield
post-office, who unhesitatingly exchanged one of them. Here he ordered a
post-chaise, with four horses, and at several stages passed off the
remainder. They were, however, stopped at the Bank, and an action was
brought by the possessor to recover the money. The question was an
important one, and it was decided by the law authorities, "that any
person paying a valuable consideration for a Bank note, payable to
bearer, in a fair course of business, has an undoubted right to recover
the money of the Bank." The action was maintained upon the plea that the
figure 1