the money paid to him by the bank in that city, and the title and ownership of the checks passed to the bank at that time, the court in Missouri had no jurisdiction to try the offense set forth in those counts of the indictment already referred to. There was no question that such was the fact, and it was error to submit the matter to the jury to find some other fact not supported by any evidence. The court said:

"The Government claims that the compensation referred to in this count was sent to the accused by the Rialto Grain and Securities Company, in the form of a check, drawn by it on the Commonwealth Trust Company, payable to the order of the accused, by mail; that he received the check representing this compensation at Washington, in the District of Columbia, and then and there indorsed the check, deposited it to his own credit in the Riggs National Bank at Washington; that the last mentioned bank afterwards forwarded the check by and through its correspondents to St. Louis for payment by the Commonwealth Trust Company, upon which it was drawn, and that the Riggs Bank and its correspondents in all this matter became and were the agents of the accused for securing this money, and when the money called for by the check was finally paid at St. Louis, Missouri, by the trust company, on which it was drawn, it amounted to a payment of that money to the accused at St. Louis, Missouri. This suggests an important feature of the case, for the reason that unless it be true that the accused received the money represented by and paid on this check at St. Louis, this court would have no jurisdiction to try the case."

"The Constitution of the United States confers upon the accused in every criminal case the right to be tried by an impartial jury of a State and district where the crime shall have been committed.

"The receipt of the money is the gist of the crime charged against the accused, and if he did not receive it in this district, in fact in St. Louis, where he is charged to have received it, he is not amenable to the law in this district, and cannot be con

victed in this court on this sixth count. Accordingly, it becomes your duty to ascertain and find from the evidence what were the true relations between the accused and the Washington bank, when he deposited the check in question with that bank, and what was the understanding between them as to their respective rights in relation to the check and the proceeds thereof. On this question the court charges you as follows: "If it was the intent and understanding of the Wasnington bank and the accused at the time the latter deposited the check in question with the former, that the bank should forward the same in the usual course by and through its correspondents to St. Louis, for payment, and that in so doing it and its correspondents should act only as the agents of the accused for that purpose, then the final payment by the Commonwealth Trust Company at St. Louis, of the check to the correspondents of the Washington bank, would amount in law to a payment in St. Louis as charged in the sixth count, of the amount of the check to the accused. If on the contrary it was the understanding and intent of the Washington bank and the accused at the time the latter deposited the check in question with the former that the bank should become the purchaser of the check, and should thereafter be the absolute owner thereof, and not act as just indicated, as the agent of the accused in the collection of the check, then the payment at St. Louis by the Commonwealth Trust Company would amount in law to a payment to the Washington bank and not to the accused. In the latter event no crime would have been committed by the accused in this district, by reason of the check referred to in the sixth count of the indictment.

"In order to find the accused guilty on the sixth count, you must find from the evidence, by the same measure of proof as is required in all criminal cases, that the check referred to in the sixth count was deposited by the accused in the Washington bank for collection, and that the bank was to act in collecting the same, as the agent of the accused, and not as the owner of the check in question.

"In determining this issue, you are at liberty to and should consider all the evidence adduced; the actual transaction as it occurred at the Riggs Bank where the check was deposited, the check itself and all its endorsements, the rights and privileges which were immediately accorded the accused upon making the deposit, the actual conduct and purpose of the Riggs Bank in forwarding the check to St. Louis for payment, the customary conduct and usage of that bank, and all banks in Washington at the time so far as shown by the proof. And if from all these facts and all other facts disclosed by the proof you find that the check in question was in fact deposited by the accused, with the intent and knowledge on his part, as well as on the part of the bank itself, that it should be forwarded to St. Louis for collection for account of the accused, the bank and its correspondents acting as agents for the accused to - make such collection, you should find that when the same was actually paid to the last indorser on the check at St. Louis by the trust company upon which it was drawn, it was in contemplation of law paid to the accused himself.

"If on the contrary you find from the evidence that the accused and the Riggs Bank, at the time of the deposit of the check in question, understood and intended that the bank should become the purchaser of the check and be its absolute owner, then the subsequent forwarding of it to St. Louis for payment was the act of the bank itself, and the final payment of the check by the trust company at St. Louis was a payment not to the accused, but to the bank, and if such is the fact your verdict on the sixth count must be not guilty."

A careful scrutiny of the evidence with relation to this charge to the jury shows that there was no foundation for submitting to the jury the question of what was the understanding (other than such as arose from the transaction itself, as shown by uncontradicted evidence) between the defendant and the bank at the time when these various checks were deposited with the bank and their proceeds-placed to the credit of the defendant. There was no agreement or understanding of any kind other

than such as the law makes from the transaction detailed, which was itself proved by uncontradicted evidence offered by the Government itself. In the absence of any special agreement that the effect of the transaction shall be otherwise (and none can be asserted here), there is no doubt that its legal effect is a change of ownership of the paper, and that the subsequent action of the bank in taking steps to obtain payment for itself of the paper which it had purchased can in no sense be said to be the action of an agent for its principal, but the act of an owner in regard to its own property. The learned judge in his charge to the jury did not, indeed, deny the general truth of this proposition, but he left it to the jury to determine whether there was not an agreement or understanding made or arrived at by the parties at the time the checks were taken by the defendant to the bank, which altered the legal effect of the transaction actually proved. This, as we have said, there was not the slightest evidence of, and it was error to submit that question to the jury.

The general transactions between the bank and a customer in the way of deposits to a customer's credit and drawing against the account by the customer constitute the relation of creditor and debtor. As is said by Mr. Justice Davis, in delivering the opinion of the court in Bank of the Republic v. Millard, 10 Wall. 152, in speaking of this relationship, page 155:

"It is an important part of the business of banking to receive deposits, but when they are received, unless there are stipulations to the contrary, they belong to the bank, become part of its general funds, and can be loaned by it as other moneys. The banker is accountable for the deposits which he receives as a debtor, and he agrees to discharge these debts by honoring the checks which the depositors shall from time to time draw on him. The contract between the parties is purely a legal one, and has nothing of the nature of a trust in it. This subject was fully discussed by Lords Cottenham, Brougham, Lyndhurst and Campbell in the House of Lords in the case of

Foley Hill, 2 Clark & Finnelly, 28, and they all concurred in the opinion that the relation between a banker and customer, who pays money into the bank, or to whose credit money is placed there, is the ordinary relation of debtor and creditor, and does not partake of a fiduciary character, and the great weight of American authorities is to the same effect."

When a check is taken to a bank, and the bank receives it and places the amount to the credit of a customer, the relation of creditor and debtor between them subsists, and it is not that of principal and agent. This principle is held in Thompson v. Riggs, 5 Wall. 663, and also in Marine Bank v. Fulton Bank, 2 Wall. 252. See also Scammon v. Kimball, 92 U. S. 362, 369; Davis v. Elmira Savings Bank, 161 U. S. 275, 288.

The case of Cragie v. Hadley, 99 N. Y. 131, contains a statement of the rule as follows, per Andrews, J.:

"The general doctrine that upon a deposit made by a customer, in a bank, in the ordinary course of business, or of money, or of drafts or checks received and credited as money, the title to the money, or to the drafts or checks, is immediately vested in and becomes the property of the bank, is not open to question. (Commercial Bank of Albany v. Hughes, 17 Wend. 94; Metropolitan Nat. Bank v. Loyd, 90 N. Y. 530.) The transaction in legal effect is a transfer of the money, or drafts or checks, as the case may be, by the customer to the bank, upon an implied contract on the part of the latter to repay the amount of the deposit upon the checks of the depositor. The bank acquires title to the money, drafts or checks, on an implied agreement to pay an equivalent consideration when called upon by the depositor in the usual course of busi.ness."

In Metropolitan Nat. Bank v. Loyd, 90 N. Y. 530, one of the cases referred to by Judge Andrews, Judge Danforth, in speaking of the effect of placing a check to the credit of a depositor in his account with the bank, said that

"The title passed to the bank, and they (the checks) were not again subject to his control. [See Scott v. Ocean Bank in