1. Dig. 22. 2. 4. 1
2.Traité du Con. de Change, No. 6.
3. See the pleading of Isocrates, entitled, Trapeziticus. (Isocratis Scripta omnia, edit. H. Wolfius, Basle, 1587.) In that interesting forensic argument which Isocrates puts into the mouth of a son of Sopaeus, the governor of a province of Pontus in his suit against Pasion. an Athenian banker, for the grossest breach of trust, it is stated, that the son, wishing to receive a large sum of money from his father, applied to one Stratocles. who was about to sail from Athens to Pontus, to leave his money, and take a draft upon his father for the amount. This, said the orator; was deemed a great advantage to the young man, for it saved him the risk of remittance from Pontus, over a sea covered with Lacedaemonian pirates. It is added that Stratocles was so cautious as to take security from Pasion for the money advanced upon the bill, and to whom he might have recourse if the Governor Pontus should not honor the draft, and the young Pontian should fail.
4. In 1394, the city of Barcelona by ordinance, regulated the acceptance of bills of exchange; and the use of them is said to have been introduced into western Europe by the Lombard merchants in the thirteenth century. M. Boucher says, he received from M. Legou Deflaix, a native of India, a memoir, showing that bills of exchange were known in India from the most high antiquity. But the ordinance of Barcelona is, perhaps, the earliest authentic document in the middle ages of the establishment and general currency of bills of exchange. (Consulat de la Mer, par Boucher, tom. 1. 614. 620.) M. Merlin says, the edict of Lewis XI of 1462, is the earliest French edict on the subject; and he attributes the invention of bills of exchange to the Jews, when they retired from France to Lombardy, and says, that the Italians and merchants of Amsterdam first established the use of them in France. Repertoire de Jurisprudence, tit. Lettre et Billet de Change, sec. 2.
5. Promissory notes are negotiable throughout the Union, and the endorsee can sue in his own name; and in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, South Carolina, and most of the states, he has all the privileges of an endorsee under the law merchant. But in Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky, his rights under the law merchant are to be taken with some qualification, and especially in the state last mentioned. See Griffith's Law Register, passim.
6.Heylyn v. Adamson, 2 Burr. Rep. 669. Brown v. Harraden, 4 Term Rep. 148.
7.Clerke v. Martin, 2 Lord Raym. 757.
8. The pragmatic of Pope Pius V De Cambiis, as early as 1571, is mentioned by Mr. Du Ponceau, in his able and interesting Dis erlation on the Nature and Extent of the Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United, States, p. 122. as proof of the early recognition of notes as negotiable instruments within the custom of merchants. I would also refer to the appendix to 1 Cranch's Reports, for a very elaborate, painstaking, and powerful argument, in favor of the position, that at common law, and before the statute of Anne, an endorsee of a promissory note could sue a remote endorser.
9. This definition is taken from Bayley on Bills, p. 1. which is a concise, clear and accurate production. The American edition, published at Boston in 1826, is enriched with all the English and American decisions in its very copious notes.
10.Cruger v. Armstrong, 3 Johns. Cas. 5. Conroy v. Warren, ibid. 259.
11.Morris v. Lee, 2 Ld. Raym. 1396. 8 Mod. Rep. 362. Str. 629. Martin v. Chauntry, Str. 1271. Thomas v. Roosa, 7 Johns. Rep. 461.
12. Bayley on Bills, edit. Boston, 1826, p. 6.
13.Keith v. Jones, 9 Johns. Rep. 120. Judah v. Harris, 19 ibid. 144.
14.McCormick v. Trotter, 10 Serg. & Rawle, 94.
15.Dawkes v. De Lorane, 3 Wils. Rep. 207. Beardesley v. Baldwin, 2 Str. Rep. 1151. Roberts v. Peake, 1 Burr. 323.
16.Cook v. Colehan, Str. Rep. 1217. It is even held, that a note payable within two months after such a ship is paid off, is a good negotiable note, as the event is morally certain; (Andrews v. Franklin, Str. Rep. 24.) but, I should think, such a reference was not sufficiently certain, and that the case might well have been questioned, if it had not been subsequently confirmed in 1 Wils. Rep. 262. 3 ibid. 213. The numerous English and American cases all going to the support of this one general proposition, that the money mentioned in the instrument must be payable absolutely, and at all events, and not made to depend on any uncertainty or contingency, are diligently and accurately collected in Bayley on Bills. edit. Boston, 1826, p. 8-15. and Chitty on Bills. edit. Philadelphia, 1826, p. 42-50.
17.Milne v. Graham, 1 Barnw. & Cress. 192.
18. See Huberus, vol. 2. lib. 1 tit. 3. De conflictu legum, passim. Emerigon des Ass. tom. 1, ch, 4. sec. 8. has collected the principles of all the foreign jurists on the point, and poured a flood of learning over the subject. See also, Toullier's Droit Civil, tom. 10. 117, for the doctrine of continental Europe. See Robinson v. Bland, 2 Burr. Rep. 1077. Melan v. The Duke de Fitz-James, 1 Bos. & Pull. 138. Dalrymple v. Dalrymple, 2 Haggard's Rep. 54. Ferguson's Decisions in the Consistorial Court of Scotland, passim, for the doctrine of the English and Scottish Courts. See Van Reims Dyk v. Kane, 1 Gallis. Rep. 371. Slacum v. Pomeroy, 6 Cranch's Rep. 221. Warren v. Lynch, 5 Johns. Rep. 538. Thompson v. Ketcham, 8 Johns. Rep. 146. Hicks v. Brown, 12 Johns. Rep. 142. Van Raugh v. Van Arsdale, 3 Caines' Rep. 154. Powers v. Lynch, 3 Mass. Rep. 77. Grimshaw v. Bender, 6 Mass. Rep. 157. Hazzlehurst v. Kean, 4 Yeates' Rep. 19. Scofield v. Day, 20 Johns. Rep. 102. McCandlish v. Cruger, 2 Bay's Rep. 377, for the principles recognized in our American jurisprudence.
19.Lodge v. Phelps, 1 Johns. Cas. 139. Heath, J., 1 Bos. & Pull. 142.
20.Hill v. Lewis, 1 Salk. Rep. 132. Burchell v. Slocock, 2 Lord Raym. 1545. Smith v. Kendall, 6 Term Rep. 123. Rex v. Box, 6 Tannt. Rep. 325. Gerard v. La Coste, 1 Dallas' Rep. 194. Downing v. Backentoes, 3 Caines' Rep. 137.
21.Cruchley v. Clarance, 2 Maule & Selw. 90.
