the property. It may, however, be safer to require an undertaking to execute a regular mortgage if called on to do so.

A banker has no right to detain, or appropriate to the payment of an overdrawn account, property of any description which has been placed in his hands for safe custody; it must be given up to the owner on his application, although he may be indebted to the banker at the time to the full amount of the property. Nor can a banker (without the express consent of his customer) appropriate any balance realised by the sale of securities, deposited to cover a specific advance, towards the liquidation of any claim that may have arisen since such deposit.

CHAPTER IV.

CHEQUES.

What is a Cheque-How it should be drawn-As to Stamps-Postdating Cheques-Crossing Cheques-Indorsement-Presentation -Bankers bound to pay Cheques - Exceptions - To whom the Banker is liable for negligent dishonour-Forgeries-Cheque not a legal tender-Cheque in payment of Bill of Exchange-Cheque as evidence.

CHEQUES, which are such an important part of the circulation of the country, appear to have had their origin so far back as the times of the Romans, though it is difficult to fix the exact date of their introduction. The names by which these documents were known were 'attributio' and prescriptio.' We cannot discover that any great use of them took place either in this country or abroad until about the year 1780, when the bankers in London adopted them instead of the goldsmiths' notes, of which they then discontinued the issue. Since that time the use of cheques has extended year by year; and although there do not exist any data by which either the

number or amount drawn may be arrived at, it must come to a total of some hundreds of millions per annum. A cheque is an order addressed to a banker by his customer to pay a sum of money on demand.

It is not necessary that a cheque to be legal should be couched in any particular form of words, although the banker, if he give due notice, may refuse to pay cheques not drawn according to his directions. The best plan is to adhere to the printed cheques, which all bankers now issue to their customers free of charge, as the use of plain paper does away with one difficulty for the forger -the obtaining possession of the blank cheque.

We believe it is now correct to say that all bankers issue printed cheques to their customers; it is, however, only within the last fifteen years that the custom has been adopted by the oldestablished firm of Child & Co. The place where a cheque is drawn ought to be truly stated, and the date must be that of the day on which it is issued.

Prior to 1853 all cheques were unstamped, and were illegal documents if dated more than fifteen miles from the bank on which they were drawn ; in that year an Act was passed by which such

cheques were legalised, provided they bore either an impressed or adhesive penny stamp, and the drawers were allowed the privilege of making these cheques payable to 'order' instead of to 'bearer,' the effect of which will be mentioned below. This Act was constantly evaded by dating the cheque from the town on which it was drawn ; it led, moreover, to endless disputes as to distance, and finally was a failure as a source of revenue. An Act which came into operation in 1858 obliged all cheques drawn by private individuals to bear the penny stamp, with the exception of those payable to 'self,' drawn at the bank counter, or paid to an authorised person for the use of the drawer.

This exception has been since abolished, and at present the only cheques which are legal unstamped are those of some of the Government offices, poor-law unions, and charities; the transfers passing between bankers are likewise exempted.

The stamp should be put on by the drawer, but should he omit it, the payee, or any one who presents the cheque, can legalise it by affixing a stamp.. Cheques drawn out of the United Kingdom are considered by law as foreign bills, and

require to have ad valorem' foreign stamps. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are included in the word foreign.

Post-dated cheques, i.e. cheques bearing date subsequent to the actual drawing, are illegal; the drawer, payee, and the banker who knowingly pays such cheques, incur penalties of 100l. in the drawer and banker's case, and 207. in that of the payee.*

The reason of this is obvious, as post-dated cheques if used may do away with the necessity for bills of exchange, and thus defraud the revenue of the stamp duty thereon.

The practice of crossing cheques, which is now so general, is a most important safeguard against fraud.

It originated with the Clearing-house, the clerks of which used to cross the cheques they delivered to other bankers with the name of their own house; and gradually the public adopted the system. For many years, however, although bankers used to act upon the crossing, it was not compulsory to do so; and it appears, by decisions

* There seems to be some doubt whether a post-dated cheque, if payable to order,' is invalid.—Byles on Bills, 8th edit. p. 16; Grant on Banking, 2nd edit. p. 15.