FORFEITURE FORK. 



233 



as were accounted game, was IieKl to belong to the 

 king, or to such only as were authorized under him. 

 The right thus newly vested in the crown was 

 exerted witli the utmost rigour at and after the time 

 of the Norman establishment, not only in the ancient 

 forests, but in the new ones which the Conqueror 

 made by laying together vast tracts of country depo- 

 pmated for that purpose, and reserved solely for the 

 king's royal diversion ; in which were exercised the 

 most horrid tyrannies and oppressions, under the 

 colour of forest law, for the sake df preserving the 

 beasts of chase; to kill any of which, within the limits 

 of the forest, was as penal as the death of a man. 

 And, in pursuance of the same principle, king John 

 laid a total interdict upon the winged as well as the 

 four-footed creation: ' capturam avium per totam 

 Angliam interdixit.' The cruel and insupportable 

 hardships which those forest laws created to the 

 subject, occasioned our ancestors to be as zealous for 

 tlieir reformation, as for the relaxation of the 

 feudal rigours, and the other exactions introduced by 

 the Norman family ; and, accordingly, we find the 

 immunities ofcarta de foresta as warmly contended 

 for, and extorted from the king with as much diffi- 

 culty, as those of magna carta itself. By this charter, 

 confirmed in parliament, many forests were disaf- 

 forested, or stripped of their oppressive privileges; 

 and regulations were made in the regimen of such as 

 remained ; particularly, killing the king's deer was 

 made no longer a capital offence, but only punished 

 by a fine, imprisonment, or abjuration of the realm. 

 And by a variety of subsequent statutes, together 

 with the long acquiescence of the crown, without 

 exerting the forest laws, this prerogative is now 

 become no longer a grievance to the subject. " 



FORFEITURE, in law; the effect of a transgres- 

 sion or offence, as the loss of privilege, right, estate, 

 honour, office or effects, either in civil or criminal 

 cases. In civil cases, as when a tenant in tail makes 

 leases not warranted by the statute, a forfeiture is 

 committed, and he who has the immediate reversion 

 may enter upon possession. In criminal cases, it is 

 twofold ; of real and personal estates, as by attain- 

 der in high treason ; or, in petty treason and felony, 

 of all chattel interests absolutely, and the profits of 

 all freehold estates during life and after death, of all 

 lands and tenements in fee simple (but not those in 

 tail), to the crown for a year and a day, &c. Lands 

 are forfeited upon attainder, and not before ; goods 

 and chattels are forfeited by conviction. 



FORGE ; a little furnace, as that used by smiths, 

 &c., or, simply, a pair of bellows, the muzzle of which 

 is directed upon a smooth area, on which coals are 

 placed. See Bellows. 



Forge is also used when speaking of a large fur- 

 nace, wherein iron ore, taken out of the mine, is 

 melted down; or it is more properly applied to another 

 kind of furnace, wherein the iron ore, melted down, 

 and separated in a former furnace, and then cast into 

 sows and pigs, is heated and fused over again, and 

 beaten afterwards with large hammers, and thus 

 rendered more soft, pure, ductile, and fit for use. 



FORGE FURNACE. The forge furnace consists 

 of a hearth, upon which a fire may be made, and 

 urged by the action of a large pair of double bellows, 

 the nozzle of which is inserted through a wall or 

 parapet constructed for that purpose. Black lead 

 pots, or small furnaces of every desired form, may be 

 placed, as occasions require, upon the hearth ; and, 

 the tube of the bellows being inserted into a hole in 

 the bottom of the furnace, it becomes easy to raise 

 the heat to almost any degree required. 



FORGERY, at common law; the fraudulent making 

 or alteration of a writing to the prejudice of another 

 man's rights, or making, malo animo, of any written 



instrument for the purpose of fraud and deceit ; tha 

 word making, in this last definition, being consid- 

 ered as including every alteration of, or addition to, 

 a true instrument. Besides the offence of forgery at 

 common law, which is of the degree only of misde- 

 meanour, there are very numerous forgeries especially 

 subjected to punishments, by the enactments of a 

 variety of English statutes, which, for the most part, 

 make the forgeries to which they relate capital 

 offences. The offence of forgery may be complete 

 though there be no publication or uttering of the 

 forged instrument; for the very making with a frau- 

 dulent intention, and without lawful authority of any 

 instrument, which, at common law, or by statute is 

 the subject of forgeiy, is of itself a sufficient comple- 

 tion of the offence before publication. Most of the 

 statutes, however, which relate to forgery, make the 

 publication of the forged instrument, with knowledge 

 of the tact, a substantive offence. It is said by Haw- 

 kins (P. C., c. 70, s. 2), that the notion of forgery 

 does not seem to consist in the counterfeiting of a 

 man's hand and seal, which may often be done inno- 

 cently, but in endeavouring to give an appearance 

 of truth to a mere deceit and falsity, and either to 

 impose that upon the world as the solemn act of 

 another, which he is in no way privy to, or at least 

 to make a man's own act appear to have been done 

 at a time when it was not done, and, by force of such 

 a falsity, to give it an operation which, in truth and 

 justice, it ought not to have. A deed forged in the 

 name of a person who never had existence, is forgery 

 at law, as was determined in Bolland's case. (O. 

 B., 1772; 1 Leach, 83; 2 East's P. C., 19, sec. 49.) 

 A writing is forged where one, being directed to 

 draw up a will for a sick person, doth insert some 

 legacies therein falsely out of his own head. It is 

 not material whether a forged instrument be drawn 

 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 misdemeanour, by 

 fine, imprisonment, and such other corporeal punish- 

 ment as the court in its discretion shall award. The 

 punishments ordained for the offence by the statute 

 law in England are, with scarcely an exception, 

 capital. In America, the punishment is generally 

 imprisonment, with hard labour for a term of years, 

 or for life, according to the degree of the offence. 



FORGET-ME-NOT (myosotis palustris) is a small 

 herbaceous plant, common in wet places throughout 

 all Europe and a great part of North America. The 

 root is perennial ; the stem about a foot high, bear- 

 ing alternate and lanceolate leaves, and small blue 

 flowers, disposed in long, lateral, and terminal spikes; 

 the corolla is longer than the calyx, tubular at the 

 base, with a flat border divided into five equal seg- 

 ments : the stamens are five, and the style single ; 

 the fruit consists of four naked seeds. It belongs to 

 the natural order boragineee. The brilliancy of the 

 flowers renders them conspicuous, notwithstanding 

 their diminutive size; and it is considered the emblem 

 of friendship among most of the nations of 

 Europe, probably owing to its clear blue, the colour 

 of fidelity. This little flower plays a conspicuous 

 part in albums. 



FORK. Forks are first mentioned in an inventory 

 of a prince's plate, in 1379. Before this period, the 

 knife only was used for the purpose of cutting up 

 food. The use of the fork spread from Italy to the 

 northern parts of Europe. Thomas Coryate is said 

 to have introduced it into England. The use of the 

 fork was considered so great a luxury, that many 

 monastic orders forbade their members to indulge in 

 it. The Asiatics, even to this day, use no forks, ;s 

 is also the case with the Turks. The Chinese, 

 instead of forks, make u?c of two small sticks, which 



