or tellers of banks, clerks, public officers, agents and officers of corporations, book-keepers, in short all persons entrusted with the care of money or property belonging to others, who unlawfully and with fraudulent intent convert it to their own use, are embezzlers. If it appears that the money or thing taken was in the actual or constructive possession of the owner, the offense would be larceny and not embezzlement.

§ 644. Extortion.-Extortion signifies in an enlarged sense any oppression under color of right, but in a stricter and more accurate sense it is the demanding and receiving of money by an officer by color of his office, either where none is due or where the sum demanded and received is in excess of the amount due. It is an offense which can be committed only by officers, whether federal or state, ministerial or judicial. One who acts as an officer can not plead in defense to a charge of extortion that he did not hold the office rightfully. The most common form of the offense is the demanding and receiving fees for official services in excess of the amounts fixed by law.

§ 645. False imprisonment.-False imprisonment is the unlawful restraint of a person contrary to his will, either with or without process of law. There must be a forcible detention of the person, and the detention must be unlawful. An officer who arrests and holds one in obedience to a writ directed to him from a court of competent jurisdiction is not guilty of the offense unless there was something on the face of the writ itself showing that it was not properly issued.

§ 646. Forgery.-Forgery at common law is the falsely making or materially altering or uttering with intent to defraud, any instrument in writing which if genuine would impose a legal liability. The false making must be with the intent that it shall appear to be the act of another, and with the intent to defraud. One who honestly believes that he has the authority to sign the name of another, or to make a material alteration in a written instrument, is not guilty of forgery though no such authority existed in fact. While the intent to defraud is necessary, it is not essential that the party intended to be defrauded should be injured thereby. It is no defense for the forger to say that his work was done so blunderingly that it would deceive only stupid and careless persons. An alteration of an instrument which though intended to do so does not in fact and law alter the rights or obligations of the parties to it is not a forgery, though the party making it did so with a fraudulent intent. The uttering of the forged instrument is complete when the forger by words or actions declares that the forged instrument is genuine with a knowledge that it is false. By the statutes of most states the possession of forged or counterfeit bank notes with intent to utter or pass them is punishable as forgery.

§ 647. Fornication.-Fornication is voluntary illicit sexual intercourse under circumstances not constituting adultery. Single acts of fornication have been made criminal in some states, while in others it is punished only when it is habitual and notorious.

§ 648. Homicide.-Homicide is the killing of a

human being, and it may be a lawful and an innocent act or a criminal act. Where it is criminal it is designated as murder or manslaughter. In most of the states there are grades of murder, as murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree.

The highest grade of murder, that is, murder in the first degree, is the unlawful and felonious killing of another human being with malice aforethought. Murder in the second degree is like murder in the first degree, except that it lacks the premeditated design which is essential to the first, it being the intentional unlawful killing with malice, but without premeditation.

§ 649. Voluntary manslaughter.-Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another human being without malice, and is either voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary manslaughter is where the act causing death is committed in the heat of sudden passion caused by provocation. There must be a purpose to kill or to inflict serious bodily harm. It is not necessary that the passion should be such as to dethrone the reason, but it must be sufficient in degree to negative the idea of malice in the slayer. Whether in the particular case the provocation was adequate, or the passion excited sufficient to rebut the idea of malice, is for the jury to determine. The provocation may consist of abusive language, or an unlawful assault. And where two engage in a combat with or without weapons and one is killed, it is voluntary manslaughter, unless the combat was sought by one merely as a pretext for killing the other.

§ 650. Involuntary manslaughter.-Involuntary manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human be

ing without malice, and without intent to kill or to inflict the injury causing death, committed accidentally in doing an unlawful but not felonious act, or in the improper or negligent doing of a lawful act. The following are instances of involuntary manslaughter when death results:

The reckless handling and discharge of firearms, gross carelessness on the part of a locomotive engineer or the master of a vessel, the grossly negligent use of defective material in building a house, reckless riding of a horse or driving a vehicle, cruel and immoderate punishment of a child or pupil.

§ 651. Justifiable homicide.-Homicide is justifiable where life is taken by the proper officer in pursuance of the lawful sentence of a court adjudging the execution of a convict; where the killing is in the necessary self-defense of the person of the slayer, or of a husband or wife, parent or child, master or servant, or a man's habitation; where it is necessary for the preservation of the peace, or to arrest or prevent the escape of a felon, or to prevent the commission of a felony. So also is the slaying of enemies in time of war, or the execution of persons guilty of certain breaches of the rules of military law. In cases of necessity where an alternative exists between two or more lives having equal rights, and it is apparent or extremely probable that one or more must be sacrificed in order to save the others, it is justifiable to take such life or lives. In the case of an overloaded boat, where the sailors threw some passengers overboard to lighten the vessel, the court held that they were guilty of manslaughter, and that

in such an extremity the victims should have been selected by lot.

To justify homicide on the ground of self-defense the accused must show that he was in apparent danger of losing his own life, or of suffering grievous bodily harm at the hands of his assailant. It may turn out that the danger was not real, but if the conduct of the assailant was such as to create in the mind of the person assaulted a reasonable apprehension of danger at the time, it is sufficient. The same rule applies where the plea is urged by one who takes life in the defense of those to whom he owes the duty of protection.

§ 652. Malice.-Malice and the intent to kill are essential ingredients of murder, but this malice does not necessarily involve the notion of ill will toward the person slain. Where by one's conduct it is shown that he has a heart regardless of social duty and fatally bent on mischief, malice is sufficiently proved. Proof of a formed purpose to take the life of the victim is sufficient to establish the existence of what is called malice aforethought, and it is enough if the intent to kill exists at the moment of killing, if it is deliberate. The jury may infer malice from the act and manner of killing where it is unlawful, and it is for them to determine from all the circumstances whether malice in fact existed.

§ 653. Incest.-Incest is sexual intercourse by persons who are related to each other in degrees within which marriage is prohibited by law. It is a crime unknown to the common law, and the statutes of the different states must be consulted to ascertain what constitutes the offense in any given locality.