418 
sory notes, checks and bank-notes are, respec- 
tively, pretty uniform, yet no precise form of 
words is necessary to constitute either of these 
instruments. Any words, purporting to be an 
absolute promise to pay a certain sum of money, 
or an absolute order for its payment to a parti- 
cular person or his order, or to the bearer, is 
either a bill of exchange, promissory note, or 
check. 
Bills of exchange are, in England, either in- 
land, that is, payable in the kingdom, or foreign, 
that is, payable out of the kingdom. A similar 
distinction is made in the United States, where, 
in most of the states, a bill payable in the state 
in which it is made is considered to be inland. 
The material distinction between foreign and in- 
land bills is, that, on inland bills, a protest for 
non-acceptance or non-payment is not usually 
necessary, and that less damages can be claimed 
in consequence of the dishonour of the bill, if, 
indeed, any can be claimed. Generally, in fact, 
if not universally, only the face of the bill can, 
in such case, be recovered of the drawer or in- 
dorser. In one respect, foreign bills most gen- 
erally, and inland bills and promissory notes in 
many places, differ in construction from the 
literal import of the terms of the instrument as 
to the credit or time of payment, being, in fact, 
payable three days after the time specified ; these 
three days of additional credit being allowed un- 
der the name of grace : but this additional credit 
is often expressed in the instrument itself, thus, 
—‘“ Pay to A.B. or order, in sixty days and grace,” 
which is equivalent to sixty-three days. An- 
other mode of expression for the credit to be al- 
lowed on a bill is by the word wsance. Thus a 
bill is drawn payable at one or two usances; and 
it is necessary, in order to ascertain the time of 
payment, to know what period is meant by a 
usance, and this will vary according to the place 
at which, and on which, the bill is drawn. Thus 
a bill drawn in England, at one usance, on Am- 
sterdam, Rotterdam, Altona, or any place in 
France, is payable in one calendar month from 
the date; on Cadiz, Madrid, or Bilboa, in two; 
on Genoa, Leghorn, or Venice, in three months. 
—If, on presentment of a bill of exchange to the 
drawee, he refuses to accept it according to its 
tenor, the holder has an ¢mmediate cause of ac- 
tion against the drawer and indorsers, and may, 
on giving them notice of the non-acceptance, 
forthwith demand the amount of the bill, though 
it was on a long credit, and, if it had been ac- 
cepted, he must have waited three or six months 
for his money. This rule is perfectly equitable, 
‘since the drawer and indorsers impliedly agree 
that the draft shall be accepted on presentment, 
and, on its not being so, their promise is violated. 
But the holder must give notice to the drawer, 
and the other parties to whom he wishes to re- 
sort, of the non-acceptance or non-payment of 
the bill. In case of the dishonour of a bill, the 
holder has generally the right to recover of the 
BILL OF EXCHANGE. 
parties liable to him, that is, the drawer and in- 
dorsers, not only the amount expressed on the 
face of the bill, together with the expenses of 
protest and interest, but.something in addition, 
on account of his disappointment in not having: 
funds at the place on which the bill is drawn, as 
he had a right to expect. The rate or amount 
of this damage must, as is evident, be very vari- 
ous, according to the distance of the places, the 
credit. on which the bill was drawn (in case of 
protest for non-acceptance), and the rise or fall 
of exchange on the same place after the purchase 
of the bill. One rule of estimating the damage 
is the cost of re-exchange, or of another bill on 
the same place, with the addition of one, two, 
&c., up to twenty per cent. damages. In other 
places, no regard is had to re-exchange, but the 
holder recovers a certain per cent. over the face 
of the bill, by way of damage, and this rate is 
the same whether exchange may have risen or 
fallen from the time of purchasing the bill to 
that of its being returned dishonoured. 
Exchange appears to have been known an- 
ciently at Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Corinth, Syra- 
cuse, and Alexandria. ‘The first well-ascertained 
traces of it,,im modern times, are found, subse- 
quently to the 12th century, in some of the pro- 
vinces of France, particularly at the fair of Cham- 
pagne. It was brought to perfection in Italy. Its 
great utility and convenience consist in its nego- 
tiability. Suppose, for instance, a number of 
persons to have, severally, sums of money depos- 
ited in various countries. One, whose funds are 
in South America, wishes to make purchases at 
St. Petersburg; and one, who is entitled to the 
proceeds of a cargo at St. Petersburg, wishes to 
make a purchase at Canton; and another, hay- 
ing funds at Canton, desires to make an impor- 
tation from South America. By merely making 
and delivering a slip of paper, each one will, in 
effect, transfer his funds quite across the globe. 
Another advantage of exchange is the facility it 
affords in adjusting balances. Its effect in this 
respect may be illustrated by the practice of 
banks and bankers in some particular cities. In 
London, for instance, the bankers meet at a cer- 
tain hour every day, to pay and receive payment 
of each other’s checks; but the amount actually 
paid will bear a yery small proportion to the 
whole amount of the checks, since the greater 
part is settled by merely cancelling the checks 
they hold against each other, So where all the 
banks of a city, as is the practice in many com- 
mercial towns, take indiscriminately each other’s 
notes, and settle the balances every day, they all 
make an exchange of the notes which they hold 
against each cther, and only pay over in specie 
the balances. Thus, by the payment in specie of 
a comparatively very small sum, some hundreds 
of thousands may circulate between these institu- 
tions and their respective customers and depos- 
itors. In the same manner the balances are ad- 
justed between two commercial countries, or all . 
