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In the first place then, the payee, or perfon to whom or whofe order fuch bill of exchange or promiffory note is payable, may by indorsement, or writing his name in dorfo or on the back of it, affign over his whole property to the bearer, or else to another perfon by name, either of whom is then called the indorfee; and he may affign the fame to [469] another, and fo on in infinitum. And a promiffory note, payable to A or bearer, is negotiable without any indorfe ment, and payment thereof may be demanded by any bearer of it. But, in cafe of a bill of exchange, the payce, or the indorfee, (whether it be a general or particular indorsement) is to go to the drawee, and offer his bill for acceptance; which acceptance (fo as to charge the drawer with costs) must be in writing, under or on the back of the bill (23). If the drawee accepts the bill, either verbally or in writing w, he then makes himself liable to pay it; this being now a contract on his fide, grounded on an acknowlegement that the drawer has effects in his hands, or at leaft credit fufficient to warrant the payment. If the drawee refufes to accept the bill, and it be of the value of 20%. or upwards, and expreffed to be for value received, the payee or indorfee may proteft it for non-acceptance; which proteft must be made in writing, under a copy of fuch bill of exchange, by fome notary public; or, if no fuch notary be refident in the place, then by any other fubftantial inhabitant in the prefence of two credible witneffes; and notice of fuch proteft muft, within fourteen days after (24), be given to the drawer.

v2 Show. 235.-Grant v. Vaughan. T. 4 Geo. III. B. R.

w Stra. 1000.

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(23) It is fully fettled, that a verbal acceptance will bind the drawee. Str. 1000. Yet it appears from the ftatutes, which are very far from being fo intelligible as the importance of the fubject demanded, that if the drawee refufes to accept in writing, the bill Ann. c. 9. & 4 may be protefted for non-acceptance. 3 if a verbal acceptance is received by the holder, the bill cannot afterwards be protefted for non-payment, fo as to charge the drawer with colts, damages, and intereft, in confequence of the proteft. f. 5.

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(24) See note 26.

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BUT, in cafe fuch bill be accepted by the drawee, and after acceptance he fails or refufes to pay it within three days after it becomes due (25), (which three days are called days of grace) the payee or indorfee is then to get it protested for non-payment, in the fame manner, and by the fame perfons who are to proteft it in cafe of non-acceptance, and fuch protest must also be notified, within fourteen days after, to the drawer. And he, on producing fuch proteft, either of non-acceptance or non-payment, is bound to make good to the payee, or indorfee, not only the amount of the faid bills, (which he is bound to do within a reasonable time after nonpayment, without any protest, by the rules of the common law*) but also interest and all charges, to be computed from the time of making such protest. But if no protest be made or notified to the drawer, and any damage accrues by fuch neglect, it shall fall on the holder of the bill. The bill, [470] when refufed, must be demanded of the drawer as foon as conveniently may be: for though, when one draws a bill of exchange, he subjects himself to the payment, if the person on whom it is drawn refufes either to accept or pay, yet that is with this limitation, that if the bill be not paid, when due, the perfon to whom it is payable shall in convenient time give the drawer notice thereof; for otherwife the law will imply it paid: fince it would be prejudicial to commerce, if a bill might rife up to charge the drawer at any distance of time; when in the mean time all reckonings and accounts may be adjusted between the drawer and the drawee (26).

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(25) A bill or note is not now confidered due or demandable till the last day of the three days grace; as if a bill or note is dated on the 12th of any month, and made payable ten days, one week, or one month after date, payment must be demanded on the 25th, the 22d of the fame, and on the 15th of the next month refpecively. Days of grace are allowed upon promiffory notes, in like manner as upon bills of exchange. 4 T. R. 148.

(26) It is probable, when the ftatute 9 & 10 W. III. c. 17. was paffed, which requires notice of a proteft to be fent within fourteen'

days,

BOOK II. If the bill be an indorsed bill, and the indorfee cannot get the drawee to discharge it, he may call upon either the drawer or the indorfer, or if the bill has been negociated through many hands, upon any of the indorfers; for each indorfer is a warrantor for the payment of the bill, which is frequently taken in payment as much (or more) upon the credit of the indorfer, as of the drawer. And if fuch indorfer, fo called upon, has the names of one or more indorfers prior to his own, to each of whom he is properly an indorfce, he is alfo at liberty to call upon any of them to make him fatisfaction; and fo upwards. But the first indorfer has nobody to refort to, but the drawer only (27).

days, that fuch time was thought a reasonable notice of the bill's being dishonoured; but it is now fully fettled, that if the holder of a bill intends to have his remedy against the drawer or indorfer, he must give him notice without delay of the non-acceptance or nonpayment, and that he expects payment from him. It used to be held, that the reasonablenefs of the notice was a queftion of fact for the jury to determine; but it is now fo far a queftion of law, that the courts will grant new trials till the jury adopt the rule which they have established: which feems to be this, viz. that notice must be given to the drawer or indorfer, by the firft or next poft, if the time will permit, after the dishonour of the bill. 1 T. R. 168. Doug. 497. It might perhaps be more convenient to extend the rule till the poft goes out on the next day, as this would cut off all questions and litigation upon the poffibility of giving notice on the fame day. The drawer and indorfers are discharged, without fuch due notice, from all actions brought upon the bill; with this exception, if the holder can prove that the drawer had no effects in the hands of the drawee when the bill was difhonoured, he may still recover against the drawer, though he omitted to give. him notice. For the intent of the notice is to give him the earlieft opportunity of regaining his property out of the hands of the drawee; and he can sustain no poffible injury by the want of notice, when he has no property in the drawee's poffeffion. 1 T. R. 712. But this reafon does not extend to an indorfer; and therefore the circumftance of the drawee's having no effects is immaterial in an action against him. Ib.

(27) The holder of the bill may bring actions against the acceptor, drawer, and all the indorfers at the fame time; but though he may

WHAT has been faid of bills of exchange is applicable also to promiflory notes, that are indorfed over, and negociated from one hand to another; only that, in this cafe, as there is no drawee, there can be no proteft for non-acceptance; or rather, the law confiders a promiffory note in the light of a bill drawn by a man upon himself, and accepted at the time of drawing. And, in cafe of non-payment by the drawer, the feveral indorfees of a promiffory note have the fame remedy, as upon bills of exchange, against the prior indorfers.

obtain judgments in all the actions, yet he can recover but one fatisfaction for the value of the bill; but he may fue out execution against all the reft for the costs of their respective actions. Bayley, 43.

This important fubject will be more fully difcuffed by the Editor upon a future occafion.

CHAPTER THE THIRTY-FIRST.

OF TITLE BY BANKRUPTCY.

THE

HE preceding chapter having treated pretty largely of the acquifition of perfonal property by feveral commercial methods, we from thence fhall be easily led to take into our prefent confideration a tenth method of tranfferring property, which is that of

X. BANKRUPTCY; a title which we before lightly touched upon, fo far as it related to the transfer of the real eftate of the bankrupt. At prefent we are to treat of it more minutely, as it principally relates to the difpofition of chattels, in which the property of perfons concerned in trade more ufually confifts, than in lands or tenements. Let us therefore first of all confider, 1. Who may become a bankrupt: 2. What acts make a bankrupt: 3. The proceedings on a commiffion of bankrupt: and, 4. In what manner an estate in goods and chattels may be transferred by bankruptcy.

1. WHо may become a bankrupt. A bankrupt was before defined to be "a trader, who fecretes himself, or does "certain other acts, tending to defraud his creditors." He was formerly confidered merely in the light of a criminal or offender ; (1) and in this spirit we are told by fir Edward Coke, a Sec page 285. c Stat. 1. Jac. I. c. 15. § 17. b Ibid.

d 4 Inft. 277.

(1) Throughout the three firft ftatutes the bankrupt is uniformly called an offender, and the original defign of the bankrupt

laws

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