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owner becomes, in the case of hiring, entitled also to the premium or price for which the horse was hired.

As to the borrowing of money, provisions were formerly made preventing above a certain interest (called usury) from being taken, but by the 2 & 3 Vict. c. 37 (continued by other acts), any rate of interest may be taken on bills of exchange and promissory notes payable within 12 months, or on any loan above £10, except where lands are taken as a security (ad).

Debt.]-Debt is the last species of contracts whereby a chose in action, or right to a certain sum of money, is mutually acquired and lost; and any contract whereby a determinate sum of money becomes due, and is unpaid, raises a debt. Debts are either of record, by specialty, or by simple contract.-A debt of record is, where any specific sum is adjudged to be due from the defendant to the plaintiff, on an action or suit at law; and is a contract of the highest nature. Recognisances also, entered into to the Crown, together with statutes merchant, statutes staple, &c., are debts of record. Crown recognisances must be registered as against creditors, purchasers, and mortgagees (a e). Debts by specialty are such, whereby a sum of money becomes, or is acknowledged to be due by deed or instrument under seal; as covenants, bonds, &c. These are the next class of debts after those of record. Debts by simple contract are such where the contract, upon which the obligation arises, is neither ascertained by matter of record, nor yet by deed, or special instrument, but by mere oral evidence, the most simple of any; or by notes unsealed. But there is one species of simple contract, by bills of exchange and promissory notes, which we must

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more particularly describe. A bill of exchange is a written order or request, and a promissory note a written promise for payment of money; the peculiar privileges of which are, that they are always prima facie presumed to have been made upon sufficient consideration, and negotiable. The privileges of bills of exchange depend upon the custom of merchants; and by 9 & 10 Will. 3, c. 17, 3 & 4 Anne, c. 9, 7 Anne, c. 25, notes are put on the same footing (af). The maker of a bill or note is called the drawer; he to whom it is directed the drawee; and the person to whom it is payable the payee. The payee has a property in action vested in him by the express contract of the drawer, in the case of a promissory note; and in the case of a bill of exchange, by his implied contract, viz., that provided the drawee does not pay the bill, the drawer will; for which reason it is usual (though by no means necessary), in bills of exchange, to express that the value thereof hath been received by the drawer, in order to show the consideration upon which the implied contract of repayment arises. The payee may, by indorsement, or merely writing his name on the back of the bill, assign over his whole property to the bearer, or, by a special indorsement, to any particular person by name; and in either case, the person to whom the bill is so transferred is called the indorsee, or holder of the bill. Indeed, if the bill be payable to "bearer" it may be transferred by mere delivery. If not payable to order or bearer, it is not transferable at all. The holder must carry the bill to the drawee for acceptance; which acceptance must be in writing except in the case of a foreign bill. If the drawee accepts the bill, he then makes himself liable to pay it; this being now a contract on his side, founded on an acknowledgment that the drawer has effects

in his hands to warrant the acceptance. If the drawer refuse acceptance, it must be protested, though this is not essential except in the case of a foreign bill; if it be accepted and not paid, there must be a protest also for non-payment. The amount of the bill, when refused, must be demanded of the drawer on the following day, if residing in the same town, if not, then by the post of the same day; for the responsibility of the drawer is not only conditional, with respect to the non-payment by the drawee, but that the holder should give him notice of such non-payment, in order that he may get the money which the bill supposes he has in the hands of the drawee. The indorsee of the bill may call upon either the drawer or the indorser for payment, on default of the drawee; or if there be several indorsers, upon any or all of them; for each indorser is a warranter for the payment of the bill; but the first indorser can only resort to the drawer (a g).

Bottomry.]-Bottomry is where a sum of money is lent, for the security of which the keel or bottom of the ship is pledged; where only the merchandise of a ship is given as a security, the money is said to be taken up at respondentia. By the 19 Geo. 2, c. 37, if a borrower at respondentia hath not an interest in the ship, or in the effects on board, equal to the value of the sum borrowed, he shall be responsible to the lender for so much of the principal as hath not been laid out, with legal interest and all other charges, though the ship and merchandise be totally lost (ah).

Policies of Insurance.]—A policy of insurance, is a contract between A and B, that upon A's paying a premium equivalent to the hazard run, B will indemnify or insure him against a particular event,

POLICIES OF INSURANCE, ETC.

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By the 14 Geo. 3, c. 42, no insurance shall be made on lives, or on any other event, wherein the party insured hath no interest: in all such policies the name of the interested party shall be inserted; and nothing more shall be recovered thereon than the amount of the interest of the insured. This act does not extend to marine insurances (ai). By the 19 Geo. 2, c. 37, s. 4, in marine insurances no reassurance shall be lawful, except the former insurer shall be insolvent, a bankrupt, or dead. Still a man may make a double insurance, upon which full satisfaction (but no more) may be obtained; the insurers being entitled to contribution inter se.

Annuities.]-To prevent the great abuses that used to arise in the purchase of annuities for lives, it is enacted by the 53 Geo. 3, c. 26 (amended by the 3 Geo. 4, c. 92, and 7 Geo. 4, c. 75), that upon the sale of any life annuities the true consideration shall be set out and described in a memorial which is also to contain particulars of the date of the security, of the name of the parties, cestui que trusts, cestui que vies, witnesses, &c. The memorial must be enrolled within thirty days after its execution in the Court of Chancery, else the security shall be null and void and all contracts for the purchase of annuities from infants are void, and cannot be confirmed after such infants come of age (aj).

CHAP. XXXI.

BANKRUPTCY.

[See 2 Black. Com. ch. 31; 2 Steph. Com. Bk. II. pt. 2, ch. 6.]

The principal statute relating to bankruptcy is the 6 Geo. 4, c. 16, since which the 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 56, 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 114, 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 47, 5 & 6 Vict. c. 122, and 10 & 11 Vict., c. 102, have effected some minor alterations. The system of bankruptcy involves the three general principles of a summary and immediate seizure of all the debtor's property, a distribution of it among the creditors in general (instead of merely applying a portion of it to the payment of the individual complainant), and the discharge of the debtor from future liability for the debts then existing.

Bankruptcy Judges.]-We may observe that the Court of Bankruptcy sits in London and consists of six commissioners sitting there, and of district courts at some of the larger towns. The commissioners may form subdivision courts for special matters. There also existed, as a superior court of general jurisdiction and of appeal, the Court of Review;

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