Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/92

* BILL or ATTAINDEB. 74 BILL OF EXCHANGE. yary from those adopted in regard to other bills. But the parties affected have generally been ad- mitted to defend themselves by counsel and wit- nesses before both houses. In impeachments, the Conunons are accusers and prosecutors, and the House of Lords alone are judges, of the crime. In passing bills of attainder, llic t'oninums arc judges of equal jurisdiction and with the same responsibilities as the Lords: and the accused •can be condemned only by the joint assent of the ■Crown, the Loids. and the Commons. In pass- ing bills of attainder, the bishops, contrary to the practice in capital impeachments, take part in the proceedings and vote. In parliamentary attainders, the bill sets out, by way of preain- ble, the facts and evidences on which it is founded, and eonchides, by way of enactment, that the accused "is hereby convicted and at- tainted of high treason, and shall suffer the pains of death, and incur all forfeitures as a person attainted of high treason." See article Treason. BILL OF COSTS. In England, the itemized •statement of account for services rendered by a solicitor (q.v.) or attorney (q^v.) to his client. It is customary to render the items of this ac- count in great detail, and it thereupon becomes the basis of the claim which the law gives the solicitor upon his client. Barristers (q.v.) have no legal claim for compensation, and hence are not privileged to render bills of costs. In the United States, a bill of costs is an itemized statement of the statutory or other fixed costs of a suit, filed by the successful party, -with the judgment. The bill is usually 'taxed,' i.e. verified and allowed, by the clerk of the <ourt in which the judgment was rendered, and its amount thereupon becomes a part of the judgment. See Costs. BILL OF CREDIT. In mercantile law, a letter of credit (q.v.) ; in the constitutional law of the United States, paper money. The issue of such bills of credit by the several States is ex- pressly prohibited by" the Federal Constitution. BILL OF EXCEPTIONS. . formal state- ment, for the purpose of a writ of error or appeal to a court having the proper jurisdiction by way of review, of the exceptions taken, or objections raised, to the rulings or decision of the trial court upon points of law. The object of a bill of exceptions is to bring the points complained of before the proper court for review and possi- ble reversal of the decision. BILL OF EXCHANGE. An unconditional order in writing, adihc-scd by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person' to wiiom 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. Such is now the statutory di'lmition inCJreat Britain, in more than forty <>f her colonies, and in about twenty jurisdictions of the I'nited States. An inland or domestic bill is one which purports to be drawn and payable within a particular State. A foreign bill is one drawn in one State upon a person in another. For this purpose, our States and Territories are deemed foreign to each other. While no set form of words is required to constitute a bill of exchange, an inland bill is ordinarily in the following form : $500 Nkw Youk. starch 4. 1901. Sixty days afterdate pay John Smith, or order. Fiv« Hundred Dollars, value received, with interest, and eharK9 to account of JouN Jonk8. To James Lamb, Albany, N. Y. Accepted, James Lamb. Foreign bills are often drawn in a set of three, numbered respectively, first, second, and third. The following is a eonuuon form of the first of such a set: £100. New York, March 4. 1901. .it eight of this first of Exchange (second nud tliird un. paid) pay John Smith, or order. One Hundred Pounds, value received, with Interest, and charge to account of John Jones. To James Lamb, London. Accepted, ,/ames Lamb. Bills of exchange are of comparatively modern origin, having been used by the Florentines in the Twelfth, by the Venetians in the Thirteenth, and introduced into England during the latter part of the Fourteenth Century. They were used in England but little until the Seventeenth Cen- tury, the first reported case in the courts of that countr3' occurring in IW3. Originally, a bill of exchange was employed to avoid sending money from one country to another. If a London mer- chant, A, owed a debt in Amsterdam, he w<nt to B in I.,ondon, to whom money was owing from C iu .msterdam, paid to B the amount of the debt and received from him a bill of exchange on C directing him to pay that amount to A's creditor in Amsterdam, D, and charge the .same to the drawer's account. Thus the London merchant, A, would pay his Amsterdam creditor, D, with- out sending any money out of the country. It will be noticed that a bill of exchange repre- sented a trade transaction, was drawn by a creditor on his debtor, and for money paid to the drawer by the payee or by the payee's debtor. Such is still the character of a bill in France, where the nature of the value for which it is given must be expressed, and a false statement on this point avoids the instrument in the hands of any holder with notice. Tn Great Britain :ind the Ignited States, on the other hand, a bill of exchange need not represent a trade transaction, and is frequently issued as a mere instrument of credit. The acceptor, the drawer, or an indorser may put his name on the bill, not because he has received the value named therein, but simply for the accommodation of some other party; that is, for the purpose of lending his credit to such accommodated party. In other words, bills of exchange hae come to perform the functions of a paper currency. The lial)ility of the various parties to a bill may be staled hrielly as follows: Tlic drawee is under no obligation on a bill until he accepts it ; that is, until he formally assents to the order of the drawer. An oral acceptance was held valid at eonmion law. and this nilc obtains in some of our States; but in others, and in Great Britain, under the statutes, it must be in writing and signed by the drawee. This statutory require- ment is satisfied by the drawee's signal on' iccros.'j the face of the l)ill. The holder of a bill is en- titled to insist that the acceptance shall be an