LAWS OF MARYLAND.— 1835.

1217

CHAPTER 319.

AN ACT concerning the Punishment of Frauds.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That if any person shall by any false pretence obtain from any
other person, any chattel, money or valuable security, with in-
tent to defraud or cheat any person of the same, every such
offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted
thereof, before any of the county courts of this state, or Balti-
more city court, as the crime may arise within one jurisdiction
or the other, shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be

Persons ob-
taining mo-
ney, &c.
under false
pretence,
guilty.

Punishment

punished by fine and imprisonment, or by confinement in the
penitentiary for a term not less than two years, nor more than
ten years, as the court shall award ; Provided always, that if
upon the trial of any person indicted for such misdemeanor, it
shall be proved that he obtained the property in question in any
such manner as to amount in law to larceny or robbery, he shall
not by reason thereof be entitled to be acquitted of such misde-
meanor, and no person tried upon such misdemeanor shall be
afterwards liable to be prosecuted for larceny or robbery upon
the same facts.

From 2 to
10 years.

Proviso'.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted. That it shall not te necessary to
set forth in any indictment under this act, the particular false
pretences intended to be relied on in proof of the same, but that

As to in-
dictment.

the defendant upon application to the attorney-general or his
deputy, before the trial of any such indictment, shall be entitled
to the names of the witnesses, and a statement of the false pre-
tences as collected from such witnesses, intended to be given in
evidence upon such trial, and that a mere promise for future
payment, though not intended: to be performed, shall not be
sufficient to authorise a conviction under the statute.

Defendant
entitled to
a statement
of false
pretences.

Promise to
pay not false
pretence.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, When any person shall hereafter
be convicted of any statutable felony or misdemeanor for the
false or fraudulent obtention, or embezzlement, secreting or
making way with goods, chattels, valuable effects, money or
securities, the court before whom any stich conviction shall be
had, may and shall have power to award restitution to the real
owner thereof; Provided however, that no bona fide holder
thereof shall be obliged under this act to surrender up the same

Court may
award res-
titution.

CHAPTER 325

A further SUPPLEMENT td the ACT, entitled an Act relating to Free
Negroes and Slaves, passed at December session, eighteen hundred am
thirty-one, chapter three hundred and twenty- three.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland.
That after the passage of this act, it shall be deemed a high

offence against the supremacy of this state, for any person know
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