Memoranda on Notes. A memorandum at the bottom of a note payable on demand, below the maker's signature, in these words: "One half to be paid in twelve months, the balance in twenty-four months," - if written before the note is passed to the payee, was held to form a part of the note, and limit the generality of the words "on demand," in the body of the instrument. (Heywood v. Perrin, 10 Pick. 228.) And parol evidence was held admissible to show when, by whom, and under what circumstances, the memorandum was affixed to the note. (Ibid.) Notes signed by a Mark. If the note be made by a person who cannot write, and merely makes his mark, it is important to have a witness who can testify to the genuineness of the mark, because this would be required. Witnessed Notes. In the State of Massachusetts it has been enacted, that the statute of limitation shall not apply to any promissory note, attested by a witness, when the action thereon is brought by the payee or by his executor or administrator. It may sometimes create an inconvenience to have a note witnessed, because then the note must be proved by the attesting witness, and not otherwise, unless the witness be dead or abroad, or otherwise necessarily absent; and then the proof of the handwriting of the attesting witness may be required. Joint and several Notes. If more than one person make a note, it may be either joint, or it may be joint and several. If two or more persons write, "We promise to pay," it is a joint note only, unless they add the words "jointly and severally." When the note is written, "I promise to pay," and signed by two or more persons, it is a joint and several note. If the note is signed by a firm, or by one person of a firm in the name of the firm it is a joint note, whether it be written "I" or "We" promise to pay. When a note is written, "We promise," and signed, "A. B. principal, C. D. surety," it is still the joint note of both; and if it be written, "I promise," and signed in the same manner, it would be the joint and several note of both. For the language merely serves to point out the relation of the makers to each other, and does not change the rights of the payee or holder. (Story on Notes, $ 57.) 8 CHAPTER VI. PRESENTMENT OF BILLS OF EXCHANGE AND PROMISSORY NOTES When to be Made. THE presentment of an accepted bill of exchange or of a promissory note for payment should be made at its maturity, and not before, nor generally after, and at the proper time and place. Although the ac ceptor of a bill and the maker of a note are bound, generally speaking, to pay absolutely, the undertaking of a drawer of a bill, and that of the indorsers of it, or of a promissory note, are conditional; namely, provided that the holder will demand payment at the proper time and place, and of the proper person, and in case of failure of payment, that he will give them proper and due notice We have already seen, that the presentment of a bill for acceptance is not excused by the drawee's death, bankruptcy, insolvency, or absconding. If he is dead, it should be presented to his personal representatives, if any, or at his last domicile; and if he has absconded, it should be presented at his last domicile or place of business. The same rules which we laid down there obtain also in regard to presentment for payment of both bills and notes. The presentment for payment must be made personally upon the acceptor or maker, at his place of business, or at his dwelling house, and cannot be made by a written demand sent to him through the post-office. Time of Maturity. We will first state when a bill or note arrives at maturity. A bill or note importing to be payable within a limited time after a certain event, or on a given future day, or at sight, or a number of days after sight, is not in fact payable nntil three days after the expiration of that time. Those three extra days are called days of grace, and allowed in England and the United States, except where the statute law expressly di rects otherwise, or the usage of the place is different, or where the bill or note is made payable without grace, on the face of it. For instance, in the District of Columbia four days of grace were allowed by the banks formerly, but no longer now. In counting time by days, the day of the date of the bill or note is excluded from computation, and by months is understood calendar months. If a bill or note is payable ten days after date without grace, and the bill is dated on the 1st of January, the bill or note is due on the 11th. So a bill payable ten days after sight without grace, if accepted on the 1st of January, is payable on the 11th. A bill of exchange or a note payable one month after date without grace, if the date of the instrument is the 10th of January, would be due on the 10th of February. No allowance would be made for the fact that February contains only twenty-eight days. A bill of exchange or a note payable six months after date, or after sight, without grace, will be payable on the corresponding day of the sixth month, whatever number of days those months contain. So if it were dated the 1st of January, six months after date without grace, it would be payable the 1st of July. Days of Grace. In respect to the allowance or non-allowance of days of grace, the rule is, that it is to be governed by the law of the place where the bill of exchange or note is payable. In France and Germany no days of grace are allowed by law. In the United States three days are generally allowed. A bill or note payable ten days after date, or sight, and dated the 1st of January, would be payable on the fourteenth; or if payable one month after date, it would fall due on the 4th day of February; or if payable thirty days after date, the days of grace would begin on the 1st day of February, and end on the third day. In each case, the time of running of the bill or note is calculated exclusive of the day of its date. If a bill is drawn payable at a certain number of days after sight, the time would begin to run only from the acceptance thereof, and exclusive of that day. The days of grace are to be all counted consecutively, without any deduction on account of there being any Sunday or holidays, or other nonsecular days, intermediate between the first and the third. If the first day of grace should be on Saturday, the third day of grace would be 'on Monday; so if the first day of grace commences on Sunday, the last or third day would be on Tuesday. But whenever the last day of grace falls on a Sunday or other holiday, the bill or note becomes due and payable on the preceding day, that is to say, the latest business day occurring within the days of grace is the day on which the bill or note becomes due. If the last day of grace should fall on a Sunday, the bill or note would be due on the Saturday preceding. And if two holidays should succeed one another, as Sunday and the Fourth of July on Monday, and the third day of grace should fall on that Monday, the bill or note would be due on the preceding Saturday, the 2d of July. The general non-secular days in the United States are Sundays, Thanksgiving and Fast days, Fourth of July, and in some States also Christmas and New Year's days. The statute regulations in regard to them may be found below. In England and America, days of grace are allowed on all bills, whether they are payable at a certain time after date or after sight, or at sight. Bills payable at sight are allowed the days of grace, but not bills payable on demand; these latter are immediately payable upon presentment. The rule applies to promissory notes, bank post-notes, and in some of our Western and Southern States, bonds are put on the same footing with notes, by statute. (Dol The law of a foreign country, in respect to days of grace, in the absence of proof to the contrary, is presumed to be the same as our own. fins v. Frasch, 1 Denio, 367.) The question whether bills of exchange payable at sight are entitled to three days' grace, does not seem to have been settled in the United States by direct decisions. Although we have stated the rule as fixed, we wish at the same time to state that the usage and practice in many cities and states are the other way; namely, that bills of exchange payable at sight are to be paid at once upon presentment, like bills and notes payable on demand. The text-writers, however, lay down the rule as above stated. Chancellor Kent, in his Commentaries, Vol. III. p. 102, says: "The three days of grace apply equally to bills payable at sight, but a bill, note, or check payable on demand, or where no time of payment is expressed, is payable immediately on presentment, and is not entitled to the days of grace." He cites Chitty and Bayley on Bills as authority to this point, but remarks in the note (d): "On the other hand, though the weight of authority would seem greatly to preponderate in favor of the rule as laid down in the text, yet it may be considered as a point not entirely settled, and a different rule is laid down in Beawes's Lex Mercatoria, pl. 256, and in Kyd on Bills, p. 10." Judge Story, in his work on Bills of Exchange, § 342, says: “In England, days of grace are allowed on all bills, whether they are payable at a certain time after date, or after sight, or even at sight. As to the latter (bills payable at sight), there was some diversity of opinion among the profession, as well as among the elementary writers. But the doc trinė seems now well established, both in England and in America, that days of grace are allowable on bills payable at sight. And the same rule has been applied, as in strict analogy it should apply, to bank postnotes, payable after sight, for they differ in nothing from ordinary inland bills of exchange. But bills payable on demand are immediately payable upon presentment, without allowing any days of grace." Bayley on Bills, p. 233, says: "A bill or note importing to be payable within a limited time after a certain event, or on a given future day, or at sight, is not in fact payable until two days after the expiration of that time, nor, unless the third be a day of public rest, until three.” Chitty on Bills, ch. 9, pp. 408, 410, says: "With respect to a bill payable at sight, though, from the very language of the instrument, it should seem that payment ought to be made immediately on presentment, this does not appear to be so settled. The decisions and the treatises differ on the question, whether or not days of grace are allowed." He then quotes Pothier, regarding the old French law, Beawes's Lex Mercatoria, and Kyd on Bills, all of whom state that days of grace are not allowable on bills payable at sight; and then continues: "But it appears now to be considered as settled, that days of grace are to be allowed. In Dehers v. Harriot (1 Show. 163), it was taken for granted, that days of grace were allowable on a bill payable at sight. The same doctrine was entertained in Coleman v. Sayer (Barnard. K. B. R. 303). And, in another case, where the question was whether a bill, payable at sight, was included under an exception in the Stamp Act 23 Geo. III. c. 49, § 4, in favor of bills payable on demand, the court held that it was not; and Buller, J. mentioned a case before Willes C. J., in London, in which a jury of merchants were of opinion that the usual days of grace were to be allowed on bills payable at sight. And in Forbes on Bills (p. 142), the same practice is said to prevail. And Mr. Selwyn, in his Nisi Prius (p. 339, 4th edit.), observes that the weight of authority is in favor of such allowance. And they were allowed on such bills at Amsterdam." R. Brooke, in his treatise "on the Office and Practice of a Notary of England," says (p. 163): "The course usually pursued when it [a bili of exchange] is payable at sight, is to present such a bill for acceptance, and if refused, and if a foreign bill, to protest it for non-acceptance; after a refusal and protest of the bill for non-acceptance, it is at once, according to the laws of this country, dishonored, and there does not appear to be any absolute necessity also to protest such a bill three days afterwards for non-payment, though in practice it is occasionally done; but as our laws may not be well known in other countries, it is submitted that it may be advisable to add in the protest for non-acceptance, that the drawee declared (if the fact be so) that the bill would neither be accepted nor paid; the course, however, which is recommended in order to obviate all doubt, is to protest it first for non-acceptance, and three days afterwards to present it again and protest it for non-payment.' : Page 164: "It is a general rule, that three days of grace are allowed upon foreign and inland bills of exchange, and promissory nctes, unless they are payable on demand; and consequently the onus rests spon the holder, who may feel disinclined to allow them in any particular case, of proving that such case does not come within the rule. When no time of payment is expressed, the bill is payable on demand." Page 62 If a bill be drawn, payable at a certain period after sight, it is necessary that it should be presented for acceptance, in order to fix the day of sight, from which the period is to run, and consequently the time when it will become due. Bills payable at sight are also presented for acceptance. Such bills as are payable on demand, as we shall afterwards see, and promissory notes, are never presented for acceptance; checks upon bankers, however, are occasionally accepted by bankers, when their customers consider that when accepted they would be more satisfactory to any persons to whom the checks are intended to be paid away." He adds in a note: "The above observation is not intended to apply to promissory notes made payable after sight. They are very rarely made in that form, but when so made it seems to be the practice to present them for acceptance; the general Stamp Act, 55 George III. c. 184, contemplates the making of them payable after sight; and the author has occasionally seen such notes, and has known instances of their having been presented for acceptance. In Wray v. Bassett, cor. V. C. Wigram, Michaelmas Term, 1845, promissory notes of that description were read in evidence when the author happened to be in court. Judge Story says, in his treatise on Promissory Notes, § 207: "Promissory notes are not ordinarily made payable at sight, or at a fixed time after sight, although they may be so. If the note be payable at |