Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/498

* FALSE POSITION. 4J.s FAMA. solved by this assumption. The method con- sisted in assuming any number for the unknown quantity, testing its ability to satisfy the given conditions, and finally correcting it by means of a simple proportion; e.g. what number is that whose half exceeds its third by 12? Assume 96 to be the number; 48- — 32=16, which is too great; but 16:12 = 96:72; 72 is the number. FALSE PRETENSES. In law, willful mis- representations of fact, whereby a person is in- duced to part with money or other property to the person making the false statements or to another. By the common law of England, a man is not punishable as a criminal who has induced another, by fraudulent representations, to part with the property of money or goods, unless the loss occasioned by the deception be of a public nature. Larceny or theft was the only species of wrongful abstraction of articles of value which was recognized ; and where the consent of the owner to the transaction was obtained, no matter how fraudulently, the loser was left to a civil action for deceit, or to an indictment for the crime of cheating. But neither of these reme- dies was of sufficient scope to cover all cases of the obtaining of money or other property by false pretenses, and accordingly a statute was passed in the thirty-third year of Henry VIII., whereby it was enacted that if any person should falsely and deceitfully obtain any money, goods, etc., by means of any false token or counterfeit letter made in any other man's name, the offender should suffer any punishment short of death, at the discretion of the judge. This statute, how- ever, only reached the case of deception by use of a false writing or token ; the statute 30 Geo. II., c. 24, was therefore passed for the purpose of including all false pretenses whatsoever. Further alterations have been made by subsequent stat- utes. The general principle is that, wherever a person fraudulently represents as an existing fact that which is not an existing fact, and so obtains money or other property from the victim of the deception, he commits an offense within the act. A false representation as to the hopes or expecta- tions of the person making them, as a deceitful calculation of anticipated profits, or the like, is not a violation of the law, however it may mis- lead the person to whom it is made. The pro- visions of the statute of Geo. II. have been the basis of legislation on this subject in our States, but the penal statutes of a particular jurisdic- tion must be examined, if the reader would be certain of the exact state of the law therein on this topic. (See Cheat; Fraud; Larceny.) Con- sult the authorities referred to under CRIMINAL Law. FALSE RELATION. In music, the discrep- aney arising from t he use in successive chords, but in different parts, of any given tone and oi i i1 - chromatic derivatives. Thus : I i n i;M ion, but rect, since the given tone (a) and it-< chromatic derivative (a|>) are in the same part. Mozarl and Schubert, in pianoforte compositions, fre- quently used effects of false relation, trusting to i to obviate the unpleasantness by empha izing the chromatic note. FALSE SWEARING. See Perjury. FALSET, or FALSETTO. See Voice. FALSE VERDICT. See Jury. FALSE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. See Weights and Measures. FALSTAFF, fal'staf, Sir John. A fat, cowardly, boastful character, unsurpassed in lit- erature as a comic portrait. He is repre- sented by Shakespeare in The Merry Wived of Windsor as the lover and dupe of Mis- tress Page; in Henry IV. as a soldier and man of wit. It has been supposed that the character was intended to ridicule an Eng- lish general, Sir John Fastolfe, who at Patay fled before Joan of Arc and was degraded in con- sequence. In the first draft of Henry IV., Fal- staff is called Sir John Oldcastle, the name of a prominent Wielifite, Lord Cobham, who was put to death under Henry V., the name being sub- sequently changed in deference to Oldcastle's de- scendants. The character has also been made the central figure of operas by Dittersdorf (1796), Salieri (1796), Balfe (1838), Nicolai (1849), Adam (1856), Verdi ( 1892), and others. FALSTER, fiil'ster. A Danish island in- the Baltic Sea, lying to the south of Zealand, from which it is separated by Masned Sound, and east of Laaland, from which the narrow Guldborg Sound divides.it (Map: Denmark, E 4). Area, 183 square miles. Its surface is flat, nowhere exceeding an altitude of 150 feet. It is very fruitful and well cultivated, though the lowest districts are swampy and unhealthful. The in- habitants are chiefly engaged in agriculture and dairying. The chief towns are Xykjobing. on the Guldborg Sound, and Stubbekjbbing. Population, in 1901, 34,422. FALSTER, Christian (1690-1752). A Dan- ish poet and philologist, born at Branderslev (island of Laaland). He became rector of the school at Ribe in 1712, and although offered better positions from time to time, refused to give up his rectorship, preferring to live there for his special studies. While in the midst of his work he committed suicide. He published translations of Ovid (1719) and Juvenal (1731); eleven original satires often reprinted (1720- 39) : and in Latin a number of works, such as 1 nul,. i Prima Noctium Ripensium (1721); Me- mora; Obscures (1722): Imosnitates Philological (1721-32). FALUN, fiilitn. A town of Sweden, in the Liin of Kopparberg, situated on the banks of a. brook near the northern end of Lake Runn (Map: Sweden. F 0). The city consists of nine ancient villages, and is now regularly built, but is dirty, owing to the adjacent melting-works. The principal buildings arc tlir Kopparbergs Kvrka — dating from the four- teenth century with its green copper roof, a town hall, a gymnasium, and a mining school. To the southeast of the city are situated (lie fa mous copper-mines <>( Falun, which are classed among the richest in the world. The machinery is inn by water-power. The quantity of copper prodl 1 is not as plentiful as formerly, and more attention is paid to the production of vitriol. Silver, sulphur, and gold are also < >T > tained. Population, in 1900, 9606. FA'MA ll.at.. from C.k.tf-fmi/.plirmf; Dor. dfui, phama, from ^m, phfnai, to speak). A person!'