LAWS AND CUSTOMS IMPUTING BILLS AND NoTIDC A Bill of Exchange may be defined to be an open letter of request or order from one person, the draw. er, to aner person, the drawee, who is thereby desired to pay a sum of money, therein specified, to a third person, the payee. When the drawee obeys the request or order, by subscribing the document, a he becomes acceptor. If the contrary do not appear on the face of the bill, it is presumed that the drawee has funds of the drawer's in his hatids to the amount of the bill, and that the drawer is indebted to the payee to that extent. The bill thus operates as a transfer, or mercantile assignment to the payee, of the drawee's debt to the drawer. But a bill may also be drawn payable to the drawer or his order, • in which case, when accepted, the document is not an assignment, but merely the acknowledgment or constitution of a debt. This is also accomplishable by promissory-note, which is a promise by one per son, the maker (Seotick Granter), to pay a certain aura to another person, the payee (Scotice Grantee). The bill and the promissory-note have now equally the privilege of being assignable, or transferable from one person to another by indorsement, that is, by the payee subscribing his name on the back of the document. In this case the payee becomes an indorser, and the person in whose favour the in. dorsement is made is called the indorsee, who may again indorse to another; and in this manner the bill or note may pass from hand to hand without limitation. Each indorsation may be made in full or in blank; in full, by filling up the name and de scription of the party in whose favour it is made, which is attended with several advantages if the do cument should be lost or stolen; in blank, by mere ly subscribing the indorser's name, which is equiva lent to making it payable to the bearer. All the in dorsements, or any one of them, may also be qualified by the words without recourse, and when this is done, neither the indorsee nor any subsequent holder of • the bill or note can have recourse on the indorser who thus qualifies his indorsation. If none of the indorsations be so qualified, the last holder for value and in bona fide, has all the prior indorsers and other parties to the bill or note bound to him jointly and severally. He may select any one of them, or pro ceed against them all at the same time; and if all were to become bankrupt, he could claim on the estate of each for the whole debt, and be entitled to receive dividends from all the estates until he ob tained full payment, but which he must not exceed. An indorser may also qualify his indorsation by the condition that his indorsee shall not have the power of making an indorsement from himself.
From the negotiability thus conferred upon them, bills have been compared to bags of money; but it should be remembered that, in. the former case, we transfer only a right ; in the latter, the property it self. The comparison is best supported in those transferences which are made without recourse, since, in those instances, the bill passes from hand to hand without any alteration in the rights and duties of those interested in it, and without any one acquiring an additional security. In the simplest case, however, the rights arising on a bill may be preserved or loit by the conduct of the holder, and where there has been even one unqualified indorsa tion, the duties of the holder are of a delicate and important nature. But these will be more readily understood after we have pointed out the requisites of a bill.
The general requisites of a bill are, that it must be payable at all events; that it must be for pay ment of money only; and that the money must not be payable from any particular fund. Of the more special requisites the first is, that any bill or note drawn or made in Great Britain (though dated . broad •) or in its colonies, is, that it be written on paper stamped according to the law of the mother country or colony, as it happens to be drawn in the one or the other. The stamp-duty varies accord ing to the sum in the bill, and the extension of the term of payment; but for these particulars, and the mode of complying with the provisions of the law, reference should be made to the statutes in force at the time. The present regulating statute is that of the 55th Geo. III. c. 184, both as to inland bills and notes, and bills of exchange drawn here on foreign countries. As to bills truly drawn in foreign states, not colonies of Great Britain, on traders in this country, our law takes no cognizance of them as to whether they are or are not stamped ; but pro missory-notes made out of Britain are declared not to be negotiable or payable unless stamped agreeably to our laws. Bills drawn at home must also be writ ten on the stamp appropriated for bills. If on a stamp of another denomination, though of equal or superior value, they are invalid if not got re.stamp ed, which they may be for payment of the duty and a penalty of 405. when carried to the stamp-office before they are due, but when after due, the penalty is L.10. If written on a stamp below the proper value, a penalty is incurred of L.50, and the bills besides are null (Bell's Com. on Bankrupt Lam, Vol. II. p. 249); but it has been found with us in England, that if a bill is not properly stamped, a neglect to present for acceptance or payment will not relieve parties who were otherwise hable in the ori ginal debt in respect of which the bill was granted. The relief, in this case, is granted by a court of equity, but which relief is not extended to remote in dorsers, not responsible for the original debt. Re lief, however, is given when a party has bound him self to grant a valid note or bill, but gives one by mistake or design on a defective stamp. Negotiable bills under L.5 must, by 87th Geo. III. c. 32, be payable within twenty-one days, and bear the name of the place where they are made, without which also checks on bankers are liable to stamp-duty. Pe nalties are likewise imposed on the post-dating of such checks, or of bills for the of reducing the duty by apparently shortening the term of pay ment; and there are provisions in those laws respect ing bills drawn in sets or otherwise, with which every trader should make himself acquainted. This, how ever, it is very difficult to do in all its bearings; since the penalties and provisions of the prior sta tutes are retained in every subsequent one, except as therein specially altered. This is one great evil in our fiscal regulations. Where the law cannot be known, transactions are rendered uncertain, proper. ty insecure, and litigation is increased to a mischie vous extent. But the worst evil is, that this state of the law increases in a prodigious degree the influence of the crown, by the power over traders which is thus placed in the hands of solicitors of stamps, excise, customs, and other crown officers.