Peculation

Peculation, forgery, or fraudulent bankruptcy, the only crimes that can bring decent folks so low, enjoy the privilege of the better cells, and then the prisoner scarcely ever quits it.

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life 2007

Peculation, that the Justice of the Nation did not first purge, and then hang me; that I was a publick Robber, and deserv'd the Gallows more richly than a common Thief.

A Voyage to Cacklogallinia With a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners of That Country Captain Samuel Brunt

Peculation is the crime of those who make a fraudulent use of the public money.

Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various

And as Cleon is satirized in the play [615] as having "his hands among the Ætolians, but his soul in Peculation-town," so the soul of the curious man is at once in the mansions of the rich, and the cottages of the poor, and the courts of kings, and the bridal chambers of the newly married; he pries into everything, the affairs of foreigners, the affairs of princes, and sometimes not without danger.

Plutarch's Morals 46-120? Plutarch

Hadria suggested to Madame Vauchelet, whose advice she always sought in practical matters, that perhaps the landlady might be induced to pursue her lucrative art in moderation; could she not put it honestly down in the bill "Peculation -- so much per week?"

The Daughters of Danaus Mona Caird

Peculation and extortion in these high functions were offences, in theory, of the gravest kind; but the offender could only be tried before a limited number of his peers, and a governor who had plundered a subject state, sold justice, pillaged temples, and stolen all that he could lay hands on, was safe from punishment if he returned to Rome a millionnaire and would admit others to a share in his spoils.

Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History 1906

Peculation in Russia, indeed, assumed enormous proportions, but this was

Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15) The Romance of Reality Charles Morris 1877

Peculation did not cease, but a day of reckoning was at hand.

Montcalm and Wolfe Francis Parkman 1858

Peculation and extortion in these high functions were offences in theory of the gravest kind; but the offender could only be tried before a limited number of his peers, and a governor who had plundered a subject state, sold justice, pillaged temples, and stolen all that he could lay hands on, was safe from punishment if he returned to Rome a millionaire and would admit others to a share in his spoils.

Caesar: a Sketch James Anthony Froude 1856

Peculation meant the clandestine application by a public officer of public funds to his private profit: whereas he had taken nothing clandestinely, and was ruined root and branch.

The Roman Question Edmond About 1856