incapable of being re-appointed or re-elected to any public office for not less than one nor more than two years.

Art. 268. If any one shall by force attempt to prevent any officer or other person, authorized to enforce the payment of any tax or other debt due to the state, or to any public corporation, from performing the duties required of him by law, relative to the collection of such tax or debt; or shall by force, or threats of force, actually prevent any such officer or person above described from performing such duties-he shall be fined in a sum double to that of which he prevented or attempted to prevent the collection, and shall be imprisoned not less than ten nor more than sixty days, in addition to the other penalties which may be incurred for any act of violence committed in the course of the opposition forbidden by this article.

TITLE XII.

OF OFFENCES WHICH AFFECT COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.

CHAPTER I.

Of offences which affect foreign commerce.

Art. 269. If any one shall export from this state, or ship for the purpose of exportation, any article of commerce which, by the laws now in force are, or by any laws hereafter to be passed may be, required to be inspected by a public inspector, without having caused such article to be inspected, according to the direction of such laws, he shall be fined one hundred dollars.

Art. 270. If any one shall counterfeit the mark, or brand or stamp, directed by any such law to be put on any article of commerce, or on the cask or package containing the same, he shall be fined not less than one hundred nor more than three hundred dollars, and be imprisoned at hard labour not less than one nor more than three years.

Art. 271. If any one shall, with intent to defraud, put into any hogshead, barrel, or other cask, or in any bale, box or package, containing merchandise usually sold by weight, any article whatever of less value than the merchandise with which such cask, bale, box or package is apparently filled; or shall sell or barter, or give in payment, or expose for sale, or ship for exportation, such cask or bale, or package of merchandise, with any such article of inferior value concealed therein, with intent to DEFRAUD; he shall pay a fine not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned at hard labour not less than one nor more than three years.

Art. 272. If any one, being a citizen of or a person DOMESTICATED in this state, shall, on the high seas; or if any person whatever shall, within the limits of this state, injure or DESTROY any VESSEL of which such per

son is the owner, part owner, or freighter, or on board of which he shall be employed as master, supercargo, under officer, seaman, or in any other capacity whatsoever, with intent to defraud or injure the owner of such vessel, or of the cargo on board, or the underwriters on such vessel or cargo, or any part thereof, or any other person interested in such vessel or cargo, or in the voyage, or the freight or other profits of such ship or vessel; he shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than six nor more than fourteen years.

Nothing in this article applies to any act that would be piracy by the laws of the United States.

Art. 273. If any one shall cause insurance to be made in this state on any merchandise, represented as shipped, or about to be shipped, at any place, whether within this state or elsewhere; or shall cause such insurance to be made at some place not within this state, on goods said to be shipped or about to be shipped within this state, and shall, with intent to defraud the insurer, ship articles of less value and different from those insured, or, if of the same kind, being less than one-half of the value of the articles insured, pretending that the articles so shipped are of the kind or of the quality with those insured; he shall be fined not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars, and shall be imprisoned not less than sixty days nor more than six months in close custody.

Art. 274. Any person, not a citizen of or resident in this state, is guilty of an attempt to commit either of the offences described in the preceding articles, who shall make any agreement for the commission thereof within this state, and shall Do any ACT PREPARATORY thereto, whether the act be done in this state or elsewhere; or who shall make such agreement out of the state, and do the preparatory act within this state. A citizen of or a resident in this state is guilty of such attempt, if he make the agreement or does the preparatory act, above described, any where.

Art. 275. No person shall be punished under either of the two last preceding articles who shall have been tried and acquitted, or punished, on an accusation for the same offence either in any court of the United States, of either of the United States, or of any foreign country having cognizance of the offence.

CHAPTER II.

Of offences against the laws regulating seamen in the merchant service, and the police of the port.

Art. 276. If any keeper of a tavern, or lodging or boarding-house, shall lodge, entertain or conceal any seaman who has deserted from any merchant vessel, in any port of this state, within one month after such desertion, and knowing that he had so deserted, he shall forfeit one hundred dollars; and for a second offence, in addition to such fine, be imprisoned for thirty days.

Art. 277. Any master of any ship or vessel who shall in or at any port of this state, ship any seaman, who has not produced a discharge

in the form required by law from the master of the vessel with whom he last sailed, in the cases in which such discharge is by law required, shall pay a fine of fifty dollars.

Art. 278. The police of the ports of this state is regulated by ordinances, passed by the corporations of the cities and places where such ports are situated.

CHAPTER III

Offalse weights and measures.

Art. 279. Whoever shall use a false balance, weight or measure, in the weighing or measuring of any thing whatever that shall be purchased, sold, bartered, or shipped or delivered for sale or barter, or that shall be pledged or given in payment, knowing such balance, weight or measure to be false, and with intent to defraud, shall be fined not less than twenty nor more than two hundred dollars, and shall be imprisoned in close custody not less than ten nor more than ninety days.

Art. 280. The false weights and measures intended by the last preceding article, are such as shall not be conformable to the standard of weights and measures of length or capacity which are or may be established by law; the false balance thereby intended is any machine whatever used for ascertaining the weight of any personal property, which is so constructed as to make the article weighed appear to have more or less than the real weight.

Art. 281. Any person who shall sell bread or meat by a false weight or balance, shall incur double the punishment directed by the first article of this chapter.

Art. 282. The magistrate, granting the warrant or arrest for this offence, shall also direct the seizure of the false weights, balances or measures; and if the party be convicted, or they be found to be false, they shall be broken, or otherwise destroyed.

CHAPTER IV.

Of false marks.

Art. 283. If any one shall falsely alter any stamp, brand or mark, on any cask, package, box or bale, containing merchandise or produce, made by a public officer appointed for that purpose, in order to denote the quality, weight or quantity of the contents thereof, with intent to DEFRAUD, he shall be fined not less than two hundred nor more than five hundred dollars, and shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than one nor more than three years.

Art. 284. Any one who shall counterfeit any mark, stamp or brand, intended to imitate one, such as is described in the last preceding

article, with intent to defraud, shall incur the same punishment as is directed by the said article.

Art. 285. Any one who, with a fraudulent intent, shall use any cask, package, box or bale, so marked, stamped or branded, for the sale of merchandise, of inferior quality, or less in quantity or weight, than is denoted by such mark, stamp or brand, shall incur one-half the punishment designated by the last preceding article.

CHAPTER V.

Of offences affecting the credit of written instruments.

Art. 286. Whoever shall be guilty of the crime of forgery, shall be imprisoned at hard labour not less than seven nor more than fifteen years, and shall forfeit his political and civil rights.

Art. 287. He is guilty of forgery, who, without lawful authority, and with intent to injure or defraud, shall either make a false INSTRUMENT in writing, purporting to be the ACT of another, or alter an instrument in writing then already in existence, by whomsoever made, in such a manner that the false instrument so made (if the same were true), or the alteration in the true instrument (if such alteration had been legally made), would have created, increased, defeated, discharged, or diminished, any PECUNIARY OBLIGATION, or would have transferred or in any manner have affected any PROPERTY whatever.

Art. 288. He is guilty of making, under the last preceding article, who, knowing the illegal purpose for which it is intended, shall write, or cause to be written, the SIGNATURE, or the whole or any part of the forged instrument. Therefore several persons may be each guilty of making the same forged instrument.

Art. 289. He who, under a void authority, but which he shall suppose good, shall make an instrument in writing in the name of another, is not guilty of making a false instrument, although it may be made without lawful authority. But if any one, without a legal authority, or without an authority which he shall have good reason to believe to be a legal one, shall make any writing over a blank signature, or on the back of a paper containing a blank signature of another person, such writing is a false instrument in writing, and if the other parts of the definition concur, is forgery.

It

Art. 290. The words, "instrument in writing," comprehend every writing purporting to testify the will or intent of the party whose act it purports to be, whether of RECORD by AUTHENTIC ACT, under seal, or PRIVATE SIGNATURE, or in whatever form it may be couched. must be on paper, vellum, or parchment, or on some substance made to resemble one of them, and it comes within the definition, whether the words be traced with a pen, or stamped, or made by any other device to resemble a manuscript. An instrument, partly printed and partly written, is a written instrument. But if the whole, including the signature, be printed with types or plates, not made to resemble manuscript, it is not a written instrument, as that term is used in this chapter.

Art, 291. A name, or commercial firm, or the style of a corporation, without any other writing, is an instrument, when made for the purpose of conveying, creating, or destroying an interest.

Art. 292. In order to constitute the making a false instrument, it must purport to be the act of another. Therefore no one can be found guilty of forgery for making an instrument signed by himself, or by his authority, in his true name. Such act, when done with a fraudulent intent, is a different offence, hereinafter provided for.

Art. 293. The word "another," in the definition of the crime of forgery, includes the United States, each of the states and territories of the union, and all the several branches of the governments of either of them, including this state; all public or private bodies, politic and corporate; all partnerships in trade; all courts; all officers, public or private, in their official capacities; and all persons whatever, whether real or fictitious, except the person making the forgery, as is provided in the last preceding article.

Art. 294. The word "whomsoever," in the said definition, as applied to the person by whom the altered instrument was originally made, is used in its most extensive sense, and includes not only all those mentioned in the last preceding article, but (in cases where the instrument at the time of making the alteration was the property of another) it includes also the person whose act it purports to be.

Art. 295. The word "alter," in the said definition, signifies not only erasing or obliterating some words, letters, or figures, or extracting the writing altogether, but the substituting other words, letters, or figures, for those erased, obliterated, or extracted, and also the adding any other words, letters, or figures, to the original instrument, or making any change therein that shall have any of the effects pointed out in the said definition.

Art. 296. The words, "if the same were true," in the said definition, in describing the effect of an instrument falsely made, apply as well to the person whose act the instrument purports to be, as to the instrument itself; therefore, although the writing be made in a fictitious name, it is forgery, if the instrument would have had any of the effects detailed in the said definition, in case it had been made by a real person of the same name, or description, and if the act be done with a fraudulent intent.

Art. 297. The words, "PECUNIARY OBLIGATION," used in the said definition there, and throughout this system, mean not only such as have money for their object, but every obligation for the breach of which damages might be legally, equitably, or justly demanded.

Art. 298. The words, which would have transferred, or in any manner have affected any property whatever," are used in the most extensive sense. All property, REAL or PERSONAL is included, as those terms are defined in this system; and the transfer or affecting such property, includes every species of disposition, whether to take effect immediately, or in future, on condition, or absolutely, by sale, delivery, will, donation, exchange, pledge, mortgage, release, discharge, or any other act that supposes a right to dispose of, or change the condition of said property.

Art. 299. The limitation, at the beginning of the said definition, is strictly to be adhered to: no act is a forgery, unless done with an intent either to injure or defraud.