BILL of EXCHANGE. 
iri fome cafes for damages, int&red; and cods; and lie is 
equally anfwerable whether the bill was drawn on his own 
account, or on that of a third perfon j for the holder of 
the bill is not to be affected by the circumdances that may 
exift between the drawer.and another; the perfonal credit 
of the drawer being pledged for the due honour of the 
bill. If a man write his name on a blank piece of paper, 
and deliver it to another, with authority to draw on it a 
bill of exchange to any amount, at any didance of time; 
he renders himfelf liable to be called on as the drawer of 
any bill fo formed by the perfon to whom he has given 
the authority, i H. Black. Rep. 3.13. If acceptance be re - 
fufed and the bill returned, this is notice to the drawer of 
the refufal of the drawee ; and then the period when the 
debt of the former is to be coniidered as contracted, is the 
moment he draws the bill; and an aCtion may be imme¬ 
diately commenced againd him ; though the regular time 
of payment, according to the tenor of the bill, be not ar¬ 
rived. For the drawee not having given credit, which 
was the ground of the contraCt, what the drawer had un¬ 
dertaken has not been performed. Doug. 53. Mitford v. 
Mayor. 
When a bill of exchange is indorfed by the perfon to 
whom it was made payable, as between the indorfer and 
indorfee, it is a new bill of exchange; as it is alfo between 
every fubfequent indorfor and indorfee : the indorfor there¬ 
fore/ with refpect to all the parties fubfequent to him, 
dands in the place of the drawer, being a collateral fecu- 
rity for the acceptance and payment of the bill by the 
drawee: his indorfement impofes on him the fame engage¬ 
ment that the drawing of the bill does on the drawer; and 
the period when that engagement attaches is the time of 
the indorfement. Nothing will difeharge the indorfor 
from his engagement but the abfolute payment of the mo¬ 
ney, not even a judgment recovered againd the drawer or 
any previous indorfor. 3 Mod. 86. 2 Show. 441. Neither 
is the engagement of an indorfor difeharged by an inef¬ 
fectual execution againd the drawer or any prior or fub¬ 
fequent indorfor. 2 Black. Rep. 1235. .4 Terra Rep. 825. 
The engagement of the drawer and indorfors is however 
dill but conditional. The holder, in order to intitle him¬ 
felf. to call upon them in confequence of it, undertakes to 
perform certain requifites on his part, a failure in which 
precludes him from his remedy againd them. Where the 
payment of a bill is limited at a certain time after fight, 
it is evident the holder mud prefent it for acceptance, 
otherwife the time of payment would never come : it does 
not appear that any precife time, within which this pre- 
fentment mud be made, has in any cafe been ascertained : 
but it mud be done as foon as, under all the circumdan- 
ces of the cafe, conveniently may be ; and what has been 
laid on the prefentment of bills and notes payable on de¬ 
mand, feems exactly to apply here. 
Whether the holder of a bill, payable at a certain time 
after the date, be bound to prefent for acceptance immedi¬ 
ately on the receipt of it, or whether he may wait till it 
become due, and then prefent it for payment, is a quef- 
tion which feems never to have been direCtly determined: 
in practice however it frequently happens that a bill is 
negotiated and transferred through many hands, without 
acceptance ; and not prefented to the drawee till the time 
of payment, and no objection is ever made on that ac¬ 
count. If, however, the holder in faCt prefent the bill 
for acceptance, and that be refufed, he is bound to give 
regular notice to all the preceding parties to whom he in¬ 
tends to refort for non-payment; to the drawer, that lie 
may know how to regulate his conduCt with refpeCt to the 
drawee, and make other provifion for the payment of the 
bill ; and to the indorfors, that they may feverally have 
their remedy in time againd the parties on whom they 
have a right to call ; and, if on account of the holder’s de¬ 
lay, any lofs accrue by the failure of any of the preceding 
parties, lie mud bear the lofs. 3 Burr. 2670. 1 Term Rep. 
712. It is alfo the duty of the holder of a bill, whether 
accepted or not, to prefent it for payment within a limited 
Vol, III. No. 113. 
'33 
time; for othenvife the law will imply, that payment has 
been made ; and it would be prejudicial to commerce if a 
bill might rife up to charge the drawer at any didance of 
time, when all accounts might be adjuded between him 
and the drawee. A prefentment either for payment or ac¬ 
ceptance mud be made at feafonable hours ; which are the 
common hours of bufmefs in the place where the party 
lives to whom the prefentment is to be made. If accept¬ 
ance or payment be refufed, or the drawee of the bill or 
maker of the note has become infolvent, or has abfeond- 
ed, notice from the holder himfelf mud be given to the 
preceding parties ; and in that notice it is not enough to 
lay that the drawee or maker refufes, is infolvent, or has 
abfeonded, but it mud be added, that the holder does not 
intend to give him credit. The purpofc of giving notice 
is not merely that the indorfor fhould know default has 
been made, for lie is chargeable only in a fecondary de¬ 
gree ; but to render him liable, it mud be diewn, that the 
holder looked to him for payment, and gave him notice 
that he did fo. See 1 Stra. 441. 2 Black. Rep. 747. 2 Sira. 
1087. 1 Term Rep. 170. 
With refpeCt to acceptance, it is ufual to leave a bill foir 
that purpofe with the drawee till the next day, and that 
is not confidered as giving him time ; it being underdood 
to be the ufual practice ; but if, on being called on the 
next day, he delay or refufe to accept according to the 
tenor of the bill, the rule now edablidied, where the par¬ 
ties, to whom notice is to be given, refide at a different 
place from the holder and drawee, is, that notice mud be 
lent by the next pod. Under the fame circumdances, the 
fame rule obtains in the cafe of non-payment. 1 Term Rep. 
169. So alfo in cafe the drawee or maker has abfeonded, 
or cannot be found, notice of thefe circumdances, either 
in cafe of non-acceptance or non-payment, mud be fent 
by the fird pod. 
The great difficulty has been to edablifh any general 
rule, where the party entitled to notice refides in the fame 
place, or at a didance from that in which the holder lives. 
On this point, as well as on the quedion of what diall be 
confidered as a reafonable time for making the demand of 
payment, it has been an objeCt of no little controverfy, 
whether it was the province of the jury, or of the judge, 
to decide ; till lately it feems the jury were allowed to de¬ 
termine on the particular circumdances of each individual 
cafe, what time was reasonably to be allowed, either for 
making demand, or giving notice. Doug. 515, (681.) But 
it having been found that this was productive of endlefs 
uncertainty and inconvenience, the court on feveral occa- 
fions have laid it down as a principle, that what fhall be 
confidered as a reafonable time in either cafe is a quedion 
of law : juries have however draggled fo hard to main¬ 
tain their privilege in this refpeCt, that in two cafes they 
narrowed the time for demand, contrary to the opinion of 
the court; and, on a fecond trial being granted, they in 
both cafes adhered to their opinion, contrary to the direc¬ 
tion of the judge. In one of them however, application 
being made for a third trial, the court would have grant¬ 
ed it, had not the plaintiff precluded himfelf by proving 
his debt under a commifiion of bankrupt which had iffued 
againd the drawees of the bill between the time of the 
verdiCf and the application. See Doug. 515. 1 Term Rep. 
171. In a third cafe, where the druggie by the jury was 
to give a longer time for notice than was necedary, the 
court adhered to their principle, and granted no lefs than 
three trials. 1 Term Rep. 167, 9 ; Tindal v. Brown. It 
feems therefore fully edablidied that what diall be reafon¬ 
able time is a quedion of law : and generally that a de¬ 
mand mud be made, and notice given, as foon as, under 
all the circumdances, it is podible fo to do. 
The reafon why the law requires notice is, that it is pre¬ 
fumed that the bill is drawn on account of the drawee’s 
having effefts of the drawer in his hands; and that, if the 
latter has notice that the bill is not accepted, or not paid, 
he may withdraw them immediately. But, if lie have no 
effeCts in the other’s hands, then he cannot be injured for 
K want 
