1798.) 
St their bufinefs to fupply this defici- 
ency. 
Quintilian, who wrote his celebrated 
treatile on Oratory, about the year 88, 
{peaks of commas, colons, and periods ; 
but it muft be obterved, that by thefe 
terms he means claufes, members, and 
complete fentences, and not the marks of 
punctuation *. 
ZElius Donatus + publifhed a treatife 
on Grammar in the fourth century, in 
which he explains the d:/fix‘tio, the me- 
dia diftindio and the fubdiliZio: that 
is, the ufeof a fingle point in the various 
pofitions already mentioned. 
Jerom 4, who had been the pupil of 
Donatus, in his Latin Verfion of the fcrip- 
tures, made ule of certain diltinétions or 
divifions, which he calls cela and com- 
mata. I(t has however been thought 
probable, that thefe divifions were not 
made by the addition of any points or 
ftops ; but were formed by writing, in one 
line, as many words as conftituted a claute,’ 
equivalent to what we diltinguifh by a 
commaeracclon. Thefe divifions were 
called orsyar OF pacre ; and had the ap- 
pearance of fhort irregular verfes in poe- 
try. ‘There are fome Greek manufcripts 
ftill extant, which are written in this 
manner ||. 
The beit treatife upon punctuation I 
have feen, and from which thete autlori- 
ties are partly taken, was publifhed fome 
years ince and dedicated to Sir CLIFTON 
WINTRINGHAM, bart, the name of the 
author I know not, 
J. WARBURTON. 
—— ae 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
VI UCH has latelv been faid and done 
on the fubje& of detefting the 
forgery of bank-notes; but no plan has 
been adopted which can put an ena to 
this {pecies of iraud; indeed, F think fo 
fsr on the contrary, that no art or con- 
trivance can be emploved entirely free 
from the poflibility of being imitated; and 
fo much imitated, as to preclude the pub- 
lic from at all difcoveriag the impofition : 
while a fecret mark is known only at the 
bank for its own fecurity, the trade inan is 
Open to the artifice of forgery, and there- 
by the private mark is invalid; except to 


* Ouint. Lib. ix. c. 4. t A. D. 340. 
{ Hieron. Pref in Efaiam. Vide etiam, 
Pief. in jofuam, &c. tom. iii, p. 26. 
| Vide Montf. Paleog. Graca, lib. iii, 
8. 
Cautions refpecting Bank Notes. 
187 
the iffuers of the bills; yet it is highly 
incumbent on them to encourage cvery 
artiit who can produce a plan that may 
leflen the hazards arifing from forged- 
paper. However this be, Mr. MOLt- 
NEUX, in your laft number, endeavours 
to do away (in his imagination) the 
idea of lofs attached to any bills, by 
writing on the back of them ‘ the name 
of the perfon from whom it is received.”? 
This I admit to be pratticably true, but 
under very few circumiances ; and even 
with him who pays the very note he has 
counterfeited: how eafy is it for fuch a 
perfon to iffue it under a fictitious name ? 
how eafy for him to write (according to 
Mr. M.’s plan) a lift of names, real ar 
feigned, fuppofing his end to be accom- 
plifhed of getting rid of his paper? And 
this is always to be done with facility, 
_on the ground that a bill is apparently 
of more value with names upon it than 
without them. Where is the utility of 
Mr. M.’s charaéters? A forger is not to 
fuffer more than one death, when de- 
tected in his crime ; and if he be detected, 
his ignominy is not increafed if he imi- 
tated a thotifand hand-writings; and, 
perhaps, he thinks ‘¢ it 1s as good to be 
hanged fer a whole fheep as a half of 
one,” 
It Mr. M. writes a character for the 
name of him from whom he receives a 
bill, that name may be right or wrong, 
and the perfon lives no one knows where: 
if there be one or fifty charaéters on it, 
fiznitying the bill has paffed through fo 
many hands, yet it may be a forged one 
notwithftanding, and the lat holder has 
no refource to which he can apply to get 
his money. If he do not know the per- 
fon’s name which a previous character re- 
prefents, he is the fufferer; but if the 
ame be written as is now done for en- 
dorfements, it is not unlikely he may find, 
out one or other from the litt; fo that if 
any method be introduced as an altera- 
tron of the prefent mode among bill- 
coiners, I fhould recommend that every 
one is to <vrite bis name at full length on 
al! the bills paffiag through his hands; and - 
then it is probable that every-morfel of 
paper-money may be traced te fome re- 
fponble perfon or other; at leaft, the 
fraud,is, more tally guarded againfi, as it 
is apparent, that the delcription of biils 
endorfed, are not attempted to be forged 
in any: degree equal to the quantity of 
notes ‘« payable to Abraham Newland, 
or bearer, ondemand,” I am, Sir, very 
re{pectiully, your obedient fervant, 
Exon, Fuly 3, 1798. M. B. 

