Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Doctrine of Constructive Larceny Considered: As Developed in the Recent Case of George Tyson, the Stock and Exchange Broker, Who Was Tried at the Mayor's Court, for the City of Philadelphia, at the March Session, in 1825
It is not easy to see the reason of these distinctions, they are not founded 1n reason, and jet such notoriously 18 the law. Why it should be felony when a falsehood only 18 used, and a fraud when other means, better calculated-to' deceive, are-employed, and why no criminal in'dict able offence at all, when the right of property is fraudulently acquired, whatever may have been the means used to do so, it is difficult to say. To admit a prosecution for felony, without evidence of an actual tak ing, is to do so on one requisite only of the crime. It seems to destroy the legal barrier between the two species of crimetalthough in a moral point of view they may be the same. It IS to permit them to run so much into each other, that it becomes difficult to distinguish them, to mark the precise point Where the one ends and other begins. By ad hering to the fraudulent intention, whether at, before the time, or sub. Sequent to the taking, and making that alone the criterion of crime, we may preserve the boundary between guilt and innocence, contract and crime, but th ali'destinction between fraud and felony will be lost sight of. For a] ough in morals there is no distinction between a. Concealed artifice, by which a man is induced to part with his property, or the open violence, or secret means, by which he is deprived of it, when we come to the consideration of the legal crime, the necess1ty of keeping offences distinct, and the dangerous length to which the doc trine of constructive offences may be carried, it is a matter of the ut most imrtance that other considerations should be taken into view.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
