THE BILLS OF EXCHANGE ACT, 1882 (45 & 46 VICT., c. 61.) M. D. CHALMERS (Draftsman of the Act, Editor of the Indian Negotiable Instruments Act, PREFACE TO NINTH EDITION. The Eighth Edition having been exhausted, the M. D. CHALMERS. March, 1900. HANDBOOK TO STAMP DUTIES. Containing the Text of the Stamp Act, 1891, and of the subsequent Revenue Acts, with a complete Alphabetical Table of all Documents liable to Stamp Duty. INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION. The Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, which codifies the law relating to Bills of Exchange, Cheques, and Promissory Notes, was passed on the 18th of August, and came into immediate operation. Under these circumstances, a handy edition of the Act, with an index and short explanatory notes of a non-technical character may perhaps be acceptable to merchants, bankers and others who will frequently have to consult the provisions of the Act in the hurry of business. I hope later on to publish a legal treatise on the Act, dealing more completely with the whole law on the subject of negotiable instruments, and comparing the Act with the foreign codes.* The Act applies to the whole of the United Kingdom, and subject to a single exception, enacts one and the same body of law for England, Ireland, and Scotland. The exception is contained in s. 53, which preserves, as regards Scotland, the Scotch rule as to the operation of a bill as an assignment of funds. The Scotch attach great importance to this rule, but the English merchants and bankers were not prepared to accept it for England, See now Chalmers' Digest of the Law of Bills of Exchange, &c. 4th Edition, 1891. |