False Pretences. Any one who acquires property by means of false pretences has no i legal title to it, and it may be recovered by the party from whom it was thus obtained, ! and who is still the legal owner. (See Fraud.) But besides this civil remedy, the statutes of England and of the United States make the obtaining of property by false pretences an in-dictable offence. The expressions in our state statutes are various; but in general, any one who by means of false pretences, and with a fraudulent design, obtains possession of money, merchandise, goods, or wares of any escrip-tion, or obtains the signature of another to a deed, note, or other contract or writing for the transfer of property or the payment of money, becomes liable under the statute. It is impos-sible to define precisely the false pretences which expose one to this punishment. It is obvious that they cannot be slight suggestions which are without foundation, or open and ob-vious falsehoods by which no man in his senses would be deceived. In the first place, they must be intended to produce an injurious effect; and in the next place, they must be such as would be likely to deceive a person of ordinary discretion, who is to a reasonable extent on his guard.

They must relate to existing facts, and not be mere promises of something to be done in the future. If the pretences or misrepresentations are numerous, and most of them are honest, but some one of them is at once material, false, and fraudulent, the offence is committed; and this is so, although the statements which were true exercised the principal influence in obtaining the property for the guilty party, provided it would not have been given him but for the statement also which was false. It may be remarked that no false pretences made after the contract was completed will constitute the offence, even if they were made before the property was delivered, unless the delivery or execution was at first withheld, and then brought about by the false pretences. At common law the nearest provision to this of the modern statutes was one which exposed to indictment and punishment as a cheat a person who obtained possession of money or goods by means of what were called false tokens, by which was meant forged papers, or other counterfeit symbols or evidence of own-ership or authority.

Language similar to this ancient rule is used in some of our statutes, as in those of Pennsylvania. The first statute against false pretences in England was 30 George II., c. 24; and this has been followed by the different states of the Union, more or less exactly. The most common instances of indictments under these statutes are for the obtaining of goods by buyers under false pre-tences'as to their responsibility or resources; and it was mainly to suppress these that the statutes were intended.