Eaft Friesland, Geneva, and in all the Proteftant principalities in Germany, and the Cantons of Switzerland.

NEW Style, in all the dominions fubje&t to the Crown of Great Britain, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leyden, Haerlem, Middleburg, Ghent, Bruffels, Brabant, and in all the Netherlands, except Utrecht and Gueldres; and in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Poland, and in all the Popish principalities of Germany, and the Cantons of Switzerland.

WHERE a bill, payable at a certain time from the date, is drawn at a place using one flyle, and remitted to a place ufing the other, the time is to be computed according to the ftyle of the place at which it is drawn. Thus, on a bill payable the 1ft of March, old ftyle, and payable here one month after date, the month is to be reckoned from the twelfth of March, because that day, according to the new flyle, correfponds to the first according to the old.*

SOMETIMES the drawer of a bill makes the date both according to the old and new ftyle, writing the one above and the other below a fmall line drawn between them, thus:

* Beawes, in his Lex Mercatoria, page 484, fect. 251, fays, that a bill payable on a certain day, is due on the day mentioned, according to the ftyle of the place on which it is drawn, which seems contrary to the reason and nature of the thing.

WHERE a bill is payable at a time after fight, there can be no difficulty; the time muft evidently be computed according to the flyle of the place where it is payable.

A CUSTOM has obtained among merchants, Days of that a person to whom a bill is addreffed, fhall Grace, be allowed a little time for payment, beyond the term mentioned in the bill, called days of grace. But the number of thefe days varies,. according to the cuftom of different places. GREAT BRITAIN, Ireland, Bergamo, and Vienna, three days.

FRANKFORT, out of the time of the fair, four days.

LEIPSICK, Naumburg, and Augsburg, fivedays.

VENICE; Amfterdam, Rotterdam, Middleburg, Antwerp, Cologn, Breslau, Nuremberg, and Portugal, fix days.

DANTZICK, Koningsberg, and France, ten days.

HAMBURG and Stockholm, twelve days. NAPLES eight, Spain fourteen, Rome fifteen, and Genoa thirty days.

LEGHORN, Milan, and some other places in Italy, no fixed number.

SUNDAYS and holy days are included in the refpite days at London, Naples, Amiterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Middleburg, Dantzick, Koningsberg, and France, but not at Venice, Cologn, Breslau, and Nuremberg. At Hamburg, the day on which the bill falls due makes one of the days of grace, but it is not fa elfewhere.

IN

Form of

change,

Beawes,

484.

IN England, if the laft of the three days happens to be Sunday, the bill is to be paid on Saturday,

BUT bills payable at fight, are to be paid without any days of grace

THE ftyle admits of feveral variations, acBills of Ex- cording as one or more bills are granted for the fame fum; or according to the time of payment, or the place of payment, (though the latter be feldom mentioned) as, at his own houfe-at the houfe of A. B. &c. or accor ding to the fpecie in which payment is to be made, as in English money, French money, &c. or according to the different kinds of value received for them; for though bills in Britain bear only value received, in general, yet bills drawn in other countries ufually particularize whether the value was given in money, goods, or bills, or according to the number of perfons concerned in the bill; for bills may be drawn by and upon, and payable to, not only fingle perfons, but alfo perfons in company or co-partnership; or according as the perfon on whom it is drawn is to expect further direction or not from the drawer, and fo run thus as per advice from your humble Jervant or thus: as per advice from A. B. or, without further advice.

BILLS of Exchange are diftinguished by the appellation of foreign and inland bills; the first being thofe which pafs from one country to another, and the latter fuch as pass between parties refiding in the fame country. The univerfal confent of merchants had eftablished a fyftem of cuftoms relative to foreign

bills, which was adopted as part of the law in every commercial state.

THOUGH the object of Bills of Exchange was at first to be the medium of remittance between different countries, yet in Italy, Germany, and France, where the trading cities, though included within the limits of an extended government, were in effect under the diftin&t jurifdiction of fovereigns independent of one another, the merchants of different cities of the fame country very foon adopted them in their mutual tranfactions, and they were in every respect considered in the fame light in the one cafe as in the other. But in this country, which was united under one firm government, where in the infancy of commerce, the transactions of one trading town with another were of but little importance; and where, from the better regulated police and eafier communication between the different parts of the kingdom, gold and filver could be conveyed with greater fafety; it appears that this mode of negociation was introduced at a very late period; for Lord Chief Mich. Juftice Holt is reported to have faid, that he 2 Anne. remembered when actions on inland bills of 6 Mod, 29. exchange first began, fo that inland bills themfelves cannot be fuppofed to have been very frequent before the reign of Charles II. And when they were introduced, they were not regarded with the fame favour as foreign bills, differing in fome circumftances, of which notice will be taken in a subsequent part of this treatife. At length, however, the legislature, fenfible

III. c. 17. 3 & 4 An. c. 9.

9 & 10 W. fenfible of the advantage arifing to trade from this mode of payment, by two different ftatutes, fet them on nearly the fame footing with foreign ones; so that what was the law and cuftom of merchants with respect to the one, is now, in most refpects, the established Jaw of the country with respect to the other.

Lex Men catoria, 45.

THERE is, however, one circumftance in which they differ with refpect to practice: Inland bills are generally fingle, there being only one of the fame tenor and date, whereas foreign bills are ufually in fets, confifting of three bills of the same tener and date, a method adopted by way of precaution to guard against the risk of miscarriage.

THE following precautions are recommended by Beawes, in the drawing of a Bill of Exchange: ft, That it have its date rightly and clearly expreffed. 2dly, That it have the name of the place where it was made. 3dly, That the fum be expreffed fo diftinctly, both in words and figures, that no exceptions can be taken against it. 4thly, That the payment be ordered and commanded. 5thly, That the time of payment be not dubioufly expreffed, nor fooner nor later than has been agreed on. 6thly, The perfon remitting the bill must particularly observe, that the name of the perfon to whom payment is to be made, be properly fpelled; or if it be made to his order, that thofe words be clearly written. 7thly and 8thly, He muft obferve whether his own name be there, and the value

of