THE BILLS OF EXCHANGE ACT REVISED STATUTES OF CANADA, CHAPTER 119 WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM CANADIAN, ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DECISIONS, AND REFER- ENCES TO ANCIENT AND MODERN FRENCH LAW. BY THE HONORABLE J. J. MACLAREN, D.C.L., LL.D., Justice of Appeal, Ontario; Author of Banks and Banking, FOURTH EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED. TORONTO: THE CARSWELL COMPANY, LIMITED. 1909. IN N consolidating the Bills of Exchange Act, 1890, and amendments for the Revised Statutes, the order was to a large extent changed, the sections rearranged and many of them subdivided, so that it now consists of one hundred and eighty-seven sections instead of ninety-seven in the original Act. An expression of opinion as to the manner in which the work of revision was done, and as to some of these changes, will be found on pages six and seven. Nearly five years have now elapsed since the third edition of this work was published. In the meantime a number of points that were then doubtful have been settled by judicial decision or legislation. In consequence of this and the revision, a considerable part of the work has been re-written, and a number of changes made. The decisions have been brought down to the beginning of the present year. The endeavor has been to give all those in our own and the English and colonial reports upon the respective Acts which have discussed or settled a principle, and a selection from those in the United States upon the Negotiable Instruments Law. The number of new cases is over two hundred. The changes in the numbering of the sections has added very largely to the work of preparing the present edition. A concordance to aid in connecting the references in the older reports with the present statute will be found immediately following the list of overruled cases; also references to the Act of 1890 and the Imperial Act at the foot of the respective sections. In the preparation of the present edition no pains have been spared in the endeavor to make it as far as possible merit a continuance of the unusual favor accorded by the profession to its predecessors, which necessitated the issuing of four editions within seventeen years. Toronto, April, 1909. J. J. M. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. IN the course of his work upon the Act of 1890 the writer found that in a number of instances where our Parliament had not followed the Imperial Act, the changes had not been carried into other sections where this was necessary in order to make the Act consistent with itself. The absence of any general rule for unprovided for cases, it was also thought, would interfere with the uniformity of the law in the different provinces, which was one of the main objects of the Act. The Minister of Justice signified his approval of these changes, and the amending Act of 1891 was introduced and passed. The present work was delayed in order that these amendments might be embodied in their proper places. Meantime the notes and illustrations were extended beyond the limits originally contemplated. The references to cases, statutes and other authorities in the work number nearly four thousand. The number of separate decisions cited is two thousand three hundred, and the number of illustrations nearly a thousand. The decisions are brought down to January, 1892. Where a summary of the law is given for any country it is taken as a rule from the latest edition of one of the leading text writers. Thus, for a summary of the law in England reference is usually made to Byles on Bills, 15th ed., 1891, or to Cliner, thed. 1891. For the United States, Daniel on Negotiable Instruments, 4th ed., 1891, and Randolph on Commercial Paper have been selected. For the old French law, Pothier, Contrat de Change, is usually cited; and for the modern French law, the Code de Commerce, and Nouguier, Lettres de Change, 4th ed., 1875. |