Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan … > Volume 2, C-L

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fcim acknowledge *ms rubfcription ; otherwife they are de¬
clared punifliable as acceflbry to forgery. Deeds, de¬
crees, and other fecurities, confifting of more than one
(heet, may be written by way of book, in piace of the
former cuilom of parting together the federal flieets, and
ligning the joinings on the margin ; provided each page
be figned by the granter, and marked by its number ; and
the tefting claufe exprefs the number of pages.
6. Inltruments of feifin are valid, if fubfcribed by one
notary, before a reafonable number of witnertes ; which
is extended by practice to inrtruments of refignatioo.
Two witnefles are deemed a reafdna*ble number to every
deed that can be executed by one notary. It is not ne-
ceflary, that the witneffes to a notorial inftrument, or
execution, fee the notary or meflenger fign ; dor they are
called as witneffes to the tranfadlion which is atterted,
and not to the fubfcription of the perfon atterting.
7. A new requifite has been added to certain deeds
Cnee the union, for the benefit of the revenue: They
muft be executed on damped paper, or parchment, pay¬
ing a certain duty to the crown. Charters, inftruments
of refignation, feifins, and retours of lands holden of a
fubjedt, are charged with 2 /. 3d. of duty: Bonds, tacks,
contradls, and other perfonal obligations, paid at fi;rt 6 d.
to which a farther duty of 1 f. has been fince added.
Bail bonds, bills, tertaments, difeharges, or acquittances
.of rent or of intereft and judicial deeds, as notorial in¬
ltruments, bonds of cautionry in fufpenfions, ire. are
excepted.
8. The grantor’s name and defignation are effential,
not properly as folemnities, but becaufe no writing can
have effedt without them. Bonds were, by our ancient
pradtice, frequently executed without filling up the ci e-
ditoi’s name ; and they palled from hand to hand, like
notes payable to the bearer : But as there was no method
for the creditor of a perfon poffeffed of thefe to fecure
them for his payment, all writings taken blank in the
creditor’s name are declared null, as covers to fraud ;
with the exception of indorfations of bills of exchange.
9. Certain privileged writings do not require the or¬
dinary folemnities. 1. Holograph deeds (written by the
granter himfelf) are effedtual without witneffes. The date
of no holograph writing, except a bill of exchange, (fee
next paragr.) can be proved by the granter’s own affertion,
in prejudice either of his heir or his creditors, but muft
be fupported by other adminicle*. 2. Tertaments, if ex¬
ecuted where men of Ikill in bufinefs cannot be had, are
valid though they (hould not be quite formal: and let
the fubjedt of a teftament be ever fo valuable, one notary
ligning for the tertator, before two witneffes, is in prac¬
tice fufficient. Clergymen were frequently notaries be¬
fore the reformation ; and, though they were afterwards
prohibited to. adt as notaries, the cafe of teftaments is ex¬
cepted : fo that thefe are fupported.by the attellation of
one minifter, with two witneffes. 3. D'fcharges to te¬
nants are furtained without v. itneffes, fiom their prefunltd
rurticity, or ignorance in bufinefs. 4. Miilive letters in
re mercatoriu, commiflions, and fitted accounts in the
ceurfe of trade, and bills of exchange, though they are
not holograph, are, from the favour of commerce, fuf-
fcained without the ordinary folcmnities.
w.
10. A bill of exchange is an obligation in the form of
a mandate, whe eby the drawer or mandaht defires him
to whom it is diredted, to pay a certain fum, at the day
and place therein mentioned, to a third party. Bills of
exchange are drawn by a perfon in one country to his
coi refpondent in another ; and they have that name, be¬
caufe it is the exchange, or the value of money in one
place compared with its value in another, that generally
determines the precife extent of the fum contained in the
draught. The creditor in the bill is fometimes called the
the poffeffor, or porteur. As parties to bills are of dif¬
ferent countries, quertions concerning them ought to be
determined by the received cuftom of trading nations,
unlefs where fpecial ftatute interpofes. For this reafon,
bills of exchange, though their form admits not of wit-
peffes, yet prove their own dates, in queftions either with
the heir, or creditors of the debtor; but this dodhine
is not extended to inland bills payable to the drawer him¬
felf.
11. A hill is valid, without the defignation, either of
the drawer, or of the perfon to whom it is made payable:
It is f nough, that the drawer’s fubfcription appears to be
truly his ; and one’s being pcfl'effor of a bill marks him
out to be the creditor, if he bears the name given in the
bill to the creditor : Nay, though the perfon drawn on
fhouid not be defigned, his acceptance prefumes that it
w'as he whom the drawer had in his eye. Bills drawn
blank, in the creditor’s name, fall under the ftatutory
nullity; for though indorfations of bills are excepted from
it, bills themfelves are not. Not only the perfon drawn
upon muft fign his acceptance, but the drawer muft fign
his draught, before any obligation can be formed againft
the accepter : Yet it is fufficient in praftice, that the
drawer figns, before the bill be produced in judgment;
though it ffiould be after the death both of the creditor
and accepter. A creditor in a bill may tranfmit it to a-
nother by indorfation, though the bill ffiould not bear to
his order ; by the fame rule that other rights are tranf-
miflible by affignation, though they do not bear to af-
Jigneys.
12. The drawer, by ifigniog his draught, becomes li¬
able for the value to the creditor in the bill, in cafe the
perfon drawn upon either does not accept, or after accep¬
tance does not pay; for he is prefumed to have received
value from the creditor at giving him the draught, though
it ffiould not bear /or value received-. But, if-the drawer
was debtor to the creditor in the bill before the draught,
the bill is prefumed to be given towards payment of the
debt, unlefs it exprefsly bears for value. The perfon
drawn upon, if he refufe to accept, while he has the
drawer’s money in his hands, is liable to him in damages.
As a bill prefumes value from the creditor, indorfation
prefumes value from the indorse ; who therefore, if he
cannot obtain payment from the accepter, has recourfe
againft the indorfer, unlefs the bill be indorfed in thefe
words, •without recourfe.
13. Payment of a bill, by the accepter, acquits both
the drawer and him at the hands of the creditor; but
it intitles the accepter, if he was not the drawer’s debtor,
to an attion of recourfe againft him; and, if he was, to