FORM OF A BILL ABOVE ONE AND r:s.:Torft FIVE POUNDS, As prescribed by stet. 17 'Geo. III. c. 30. [Insert the place, day, month, and year, when and where made.] Twenty-one days after date, pay to A. B. of —, or his order, the sum of —, value received.
To E. F. of —. Witness, G. II. E. D.
From the first form it will be seen that there are usually three parties to a bill of exchange, these three being: 1st, The drawer (C. D.); 2d, The payee, or party in whose favor the bill is drawn, and who is entitled to receive the contents (A. B.); and 3d, The acceptor or drawee (E. F.). The transaction, however, may be simply between the drawer and acceptor, without the interposition of a third party; and there are other modifica tions and changes of form, according to the circumstances of the case, and the mode in which it is desired to have the bill negotiated. The bill being thus in proper form, and duly authenticated, is then presented for acceptance, which may be defined to be the act by which the drawee evinces his consent to comply with, and be bound by, the request contained in the bill of exchange directed to him; or, in other words, it is an engage ment to pay in money the bill when due. While the bill is in the possession of A. H. he is the holder, but if he pass it to G. II., A. B. is the indorser and G. H. the indorsee or ultimate holder. Acceptance in the ease both of inland and foreign bills of exchange must now be in writing on the bill, and signed by the acceptor, or some person duly authorized by him. In England, the mode of acceptance is by the acceptor simply lug his name across the bill, or with the word •' accepted before his name; but in Scotland acceptance is usually made by the acceptor signing his name immediately under the drawer. There are certain precautions to be observed before accepting. The drawee should, upon presentment for acceptance, and before he accepts, assure himself that the signature of the drawer is genuine, and that there has not been a fraudulent substitution of ai larger sum than that originally inserted in the bill by the drawer. And
if the drawee accept a forged bill, or a bill for a larger amount than that originally named by the drawer, lie will nevertheless be liable to pay a bona fide holder; nor will he have any right to recover against the drawer for the larger amount. There is also acceptance supra protest, which takes place where, after a foreign bill has been protested for non-acceptance, but not before, the drawee or any other person may accept it supra protest, which acceptance is so called from the manner in which it is made. And where the drawee of bill cannot be found, or is not capable of making a contract, or refuses to accept, this description of acceptance is frequently made in order to save the credit of all or some of the parties to the bill, and prevent legal proceedings. In this country it is called an acceptance for the honor of the person or persons for whose use it is made, and in Franco an acceptance par interrention. It had been a question in England what amounted to a qualified acceptance, but that was set at rest by the 1 and 2 Geo. IV. c. 78 for ,England, and 9 Geo, IV. c. 24 for Ireland, which required an acceptance, in order to be a qualified acceptance, to express that the bill is "payable at n banker's house or other place only, and not otherwise or elsewhere." And now, as against the acceptor, the absence of these words from the acceptance leaves it at large, an unqualified acceptance, not requiring presentment at a particular place, notwith standing that, in the body of the instrument, a particular place of payment is expressly specified by the drawer. There-may likewise be conditional acceptance—that is, accept ance in such a form as will subject the acceptor to payment of the bill on a contingency only, of which .there are numerous examples in the law reports; for instance, to pay as remitted for," or on account of the ship Thetis, when in cash, for the said " vessel's cargo," or on condition of getting a certain house by a given term, or when certain goods are sold, or certain Thuds come to hand.