Page:United States Reports, Volume 1.djvu/267

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1788. will operate as a difcharge of the indorfor. This rule, we admit, is juft and proper, when he courfe of trade is regular, and the communication by poft is uniform and free. For, as it is ufual among merchants to lend their names to one another, all faith and credit would be at an end, if the holder of a note, inftead of attempting to procure the payment from the perfon who ought really to pay it, might, tacitly, keep it in his poffeffion,‘till the infolvency of the drawer, had deprived the indorfor of his only remedy. If, therefore, he retains it two or three months, or any other unreafonable period, he ought certainly to bear the lofs ; and, accordingly, the law deems this the giving of a new credit to the drawer, and difcharges the indorfor.

Upon the whole, the facts in the prefent cafe, are ftrong in favor of the Defendant ; but ftill we fhould be forry to take it from the determination of the Jury, upon a queftion refpecting the reafonablenefs of the notice : For, as it has been already faid, it is impoffible to eftablifh a general rule,  alike applicable to all the parts of the State ; and until fuch a rule can be eftablifhed, every cafe upon its own circumftances muft be left to the Jury, as a queftion of fact, and not of law.

The Jury afterwards gave a verdict for the Defendant. SUPREME