The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

8O LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1847-8
Singular Frauds.
In the early days of money-order transactions, it
was the lenient custom of the office, in cases where an
order had been paid to a forged signature, still to pay
it to the right party. This dangerous indulgence did
not fail to become known to the knavish class, who
made profitable use of the opportunity. Thus two
persons, perhaps lodging at the same house, would
purposely arrange that an order obtained in favour of
one should fall into the hands of the other ; and when
the latter, by forging the signature of the former, had
obtained payment, the former, applying
in his own
name, and showing that the signature given was not
his, was able to obtain payment a second time. To
put a stop to this systematic fraud, which had become
a thing of daily practice, it became necessary so to
modify the existing law as to provide that when an
order had once been paid, even though to the wrong
person, no legal claim should remain against the Post
Office. In accordance with the old practice, the order
was still paid where it appeared that the blame rested
with the Post Office itself. This new rule, though re-
garded by many as a great stretch of power, not only
put an immediate stop to the fraud against
which it
was directed, but produced so little complaint from any
quarter as to make it clear that the previous indulgence
had been almost as superfluous as it was dangerous.
Nevertheless the exceptional authority of the Post-
master-General was soon afterwards put in requisition
in the following case :
In a large provincial town a person applied in haste
at the post office, stating that on his way thither he
seemed to have dropped an order which he was
bringing for payment ; at the same time giving in