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[Now, however, by the Bankruptcy and Cessio Act, a debtor in respect to whom decree of cessio has been pronounced, is entitled to be discharged six months after the decree, under the conditions imposed by sec. 146 of the Bankruptcy Act (supra, sec. 1513) in the case of sequestrations, and under a similar provision with regard to a dividend of five shillings imposed in cessios themselves by sec. 7 of the Bankruptcy and Cessio Act.]

1532. The debtor has the privilege of retaining his working tools; but nothing beyond a mere aliment will be allowed, even to half-pay officers and clergymen.

1533. Section 168 of the Bankruptcy Act provides that a majority in number and value of the creditors, if it shall appear to them that the estate is not likely to yield free funds for division after payment of preferable debts and expenses beyond £100, may resolve that the bankrupt shall only be entitled to apply for a decree of cessio, and shall have no right to a discharge in the sequestration. This resolution may be brought under review of the Lord Ordinary or the Sheriff; but if it is confirmed, the bankrupt shall have no right to a discharge in the sequestration, but shall be entitled to apply for a decree of cessio, and the Court shall have power to grant the cessio in the sequestration, without requiring the bankrupt to bring a separate process; and in all other respects the sequestration shall be proceeded with in common form.

CHAPTER VIII.

OF BILLS AND PROMISSORY NOTES.

1534. The constant occurrence of pecuniary transactions amongst merchants has led them, in all civilised countries, to adopt expedients for cancelling their obligations to each other,

without the trouble and risk attendant on the actual transmission of money, and for avoiding the inconveniences inseparable from delay, by substituting credit for present payment.

1535. Bills of exchange, inland bills, and promissory notes, the instruments by which these objects are usually effected, are the simplest in form, whilst at the same time they are the most rapid in execution, of all obligations known in law.

1536. Like all other mercantile instruments, they are exempted from the cumbrous forms of authentication required in common deeds, and this exemption they enjoy even when employed in the constitution of ordinary money obligations. Neither in this nor in other respects is there any distinction in law between these instruments when applied to mercantile and nonmercantile transactions; and as they are now very extensively employed in the latter, it is requisite that the danger of forgery, to which their mercantile privileges expose them, should be guarded against by the strictest conformity to such rules as law and custom have imposed on them.

1537. In addition to that just mentioned, bills and notes possess two other remarkable privileges, viz. transmission by indorsation, or simple delivery, and summary execution.

1538. To the first they are indebted for the great value which they possess as circulating media in trade; by the second, a cheap and efficacious method of enforcing the obligations which they constitute is supplied, without the intervention of litigation.

1539. A Bill of Exchange is a request, in the form of an open letter, addressed by a person called the drawer to his debtor or correspondent abroad, who is called the drawee, desiring him to pay to a third person, usually the creditor of the drawer, called the payee or porteur, a sum of money within a certain time after date, or on demand, or on sight, [or after sight,] of the bill. After the bill has been signed by the person to whom it is addressed (the drawee), in token of his willingness to comply

with the request which it conveys, he is then called the acceptor. The bill then constitutes a debt against him in favour of the payee, and has the same effect as if money for the use of the latter had been actually transmitted and lodged with the acceptor. (Stair, i. 11. 7; Ersk. iii. 2. 25; Bell's Com. i. 386; Bell's Prin. 306.)

1540. To obviate the risk of loss, it is usual to draw foreign bills in sets of two or three, and to transmit them by different conveyances.

1541. Though no express form of words is legally requisite in mercantile instruments, custom has fixed certain modes of expression from which it is scarcely safe to deviate. The following is the usual form of an ordinary foreign bill::

£100 sterling.

Glasgow, March 1, 1884.

At sixty days after sight (or other future time) of this my (first) of exchange, second and third of same date and tenor being unpaid, pay to my order (or to C. D. or order) the sum of one hundred pounds sterling, for value as advised.

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1542. Bills or notes for sums under 20s. are absolutely void.

1543. [The whole law relating to bills of exchange and promissory notes has been recently codified for the three kingdoms by a single statute, the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882 (45 and 46 Vict. c. 61). The Act is mainly a codification of the common law and the law merchant (the rules of which are declared (sec. 97) to be, so far as not inconsistent with its provisions, still in force), and a re-enactment of the former statutory law, though some of the provisions are novel. The laws of the three

[kingdoms are, to a greater extent than formerly, assimilated, though on some points the law of Scotland still retains its own peculiar provisions, differing from those of England and Ireland, while on others the practice, which was previously that of Scotland only, has been adopted for the United Kingdom.

1544. [Definition.-The Act defines a bill as "an unconditional order in writing, addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person, or to bearer."

1545. [If it orders any act to be done in addition to the payment of money, it is not a bill. The bill is also vitiated if the order be to pay the sum mentioned out of any particular fund. But where the order to pay is unqualified, a particular fund out of which it is to be paid, or a particular account to be debited with it, may be indicated in the bill, and a reference to a particular transaction which gave rise to it, as on account of money advanced to me by A. B.," or the like, is unconditional. (Sec. 3.) (Griffin v. Weatherby, L. R. 32 Q. B. 753; Macfarlane, 1864, 2 M. 1210.)

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1546. [A bill is not invalid by being undated, post-dated, ante-dated, or dated on Sunday. But when it is made payable so many days after its date, the date is necessarily essential. Any holder may insert the true date of issue or acceptance in an undated bill, or correct an erroneous date inserted by a previous holder. The date of drawing, acceptance, or indorsement on a bill is presumed to be the true date, but it may be disproved by parole evidence. (Secs. 3, 12, 13, 100.)

1547. [Inland and Foreign Bills.-"An inland bill is a bill which is, or on the face of it purports to be, (a) both drawn and payable within the British Islands, or (b) drawn within the British Islands upon some person resident therein. Any other

[bill is a foreign bill." British Islands means the United King

dom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.

1548. [The following is its simplest form :

£100.

(Sec. 4.)]

:

Leith, March 1, 1884.

Three months after date, pay to me, or order, the sum of one hundred pounds sterling for value.

To C. D., Grocer,

Edinburgh.

(Signed)

A. B.

C. D.

1549. [Where the drawer and drawee are the same person, or where the drawee is a fictitious or legally incapable person, the instrument is either a bill or a promissory note, in the option of the holder. (Sec. 5.) (Bell's Com. ii. 515.) 1550. [The drawee, and, where not payable to bearer, the payee, must be named in the bill or indicated with reasonable certainty, as "to the Secretary of X. Co." A bill may be addressed to two or more drawees, but not to two in the alternative, or in succession, though it may be made payable to two or more payees jointly, or in the alternative. (Secs. 6 and 7; Ersk. iii. 2. 26; Duncan's Trs., 1872, 10 M. 984; M'Cubbin, 1856, 18 D. 1824.)

1551. [All bills and promissory notes are "negotiable" (i.e. transferable by delivery merely) at once, where payable to bearer, and where payable to order, after indorsement, unless they contain words prohibiting transfer. Bills containing such words are effectual only between the parties. The prohibition may be direct, as by writing "not negotiable" upon it, or by indication, as by the words "for my use," or " for collection." (Sec. 8.)

1552. [The sum in a bill must be payable in money, that is, in coin, not in commodities or even in bank notes; but it may be made payable with interest, or by instalments, or according to a certain rate of exchange. Interest, unless otherwise provided

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