HAS NEVER FAILED IN FIDELITY TO THE PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY PROTECTED BY LAW, THIS WORK IS WITH HIS PERMISSION RESPECTFULLY INSCRIDED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. SINCE the last edition of this work was issued, just three years ago, interest in the subject of “Negotiable Instruments" has in nowise abated, but steadily increased. It ranks now second to no title of the law. This is shown by the multitude of cases which appear in the reports and the legal periodicals, and by the number of books published on Bills and Notes, and cognate subjects. It is also shown by the fact that the second edition of this treatise was more speedily exhausted than the first, and by the numerous orders which have anticipated the appearance of the third. The reason is obvious. This is an age of rapid transit, of vast material development, and of ever-extending commerce. And Negotiable Instruments are the instruments of commerce, their forms and varieties taking shape to suit its usages and needs. As rapidly as was consistent with the engagements of an active practice at the bar, the author has prepared this new edition ; and, gratefully appreciative of the favor with which its predecessors were received by the Bench and Bar, he hopes that it will be found more useful in assisting their labors and more worthy of their commendation. The plan and framework of the original text have undergone but slight alterations. But the result of the most recent and best considered adjudications have been embodied in it ; some of the chapters (notably those on Certificates of Stock and Bills of Lading) have been considerably enlarged; many passages have been rewritten where elaboration seemed desirable ; and citations of over fifteen hundred cases (for the most part new ones) have been added. The decisions of the higher courts (Federal and State) of the United States, and of England, have been the chief sources of quotation; but on important questions, and especially where the opinions seemed to possess more than ordinary merit, the adjudi (v) cations of the Canadian, and other provincial courts, have been cited. To present the Law of Negotiable Instruments as it is to-day interpreted has been the author's design, and to accomplish it he has not only consulted the reports, but also the advanced publications of judicial opinions in legal transcripts and journals. His researches have been greatly facilitated by the courtesies of the excellent publishers of the work, Messrs. BAKER, VOORHIS & Co., and to them he again renders his thanks. J. W. D. LYNCHBURG, Va., July, 1882. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE rapid sale of the first edition of this work has demonstrated the correctness of the opinion expressed by its author, that a treatise on the subject of “Negotiable Instruments " was a desid- . eratum to the legal profession ; and the flattering utterances with which it has been received by the Bench and Bar induce him to hope that he has not altogether failed in his effort to supply it. In response to continuous demands, a second edition is now put forth, containing one hundred and four pages of new matter, and citations of over a thousand cases not embraced in the first edition. The important adjudications of the English and American courts since the spring of 1876 have been carefully collated, and the text presents, as the author hopes, a faithful record of “The Law of Negotiable Instruments,” as it is now interpreted and practiced. To those who have so generously encouraged and favored his work the author returns his thanks, and to his publishers, Messrs. BAKER, VOORHIS & Co., he begs leave to renew the assurances of his highest consideration. J. W. D. LYNCHBURG Va., June, 1879. 1 1 1 . WHEN LORD HOLT, in the year seventeen hundred and three, indignantly denied that promissory notes payable to bearer were negotiable and inveighed against the "obstinacy and opinionativeness of the merchants who were endeavoring to set the law of Lombard street above the law of Westminster Hall," he had no prophetic vision of the great part which negotiable instruments were to play in the transactions of commerce, and little dreamed that the struggling idea of Lombard street was destined to develop, expand, and diversify itself, until it overspread the civilized globe. From that day to this, negotiable instruments have been a subject of such rapid and continuous growth that the sheets of the various compilations on the subject have scarcely dried from the printer's hand, ere they have successively become historic records rather than mirrors of existing things. It is true that certain general principles permeate the law affecting every variety of negotiable instruments, and that in Malynes, Marius, Molloy, and Beawes, we may yet find the rudiments of that system which in our own day has received ample illustration from the hands of Story and Parsons; but the pioneer who stood on the borders of our western civilization thirty years ago, and who to-day sees the same landscape, then covered with primeval forests, or stretching wide in solitary prairies, now brilliant with gorgeous cities, and teeming with the industries of crowded millions, recognizes a change not more marked than that which has been exhibited in the rapid and diversified development of the subject of our treatise. And the development was scarcely more marked in the long period elapsing between the days of the first commentators to whom we have referred and the last, than it has been since the latter put forth their admirable works. Chancellor Kent remarks, with an evident spirit of congratulation, that “the law of negotiable paper has at length become a science which can be studied with infinite advantage in the various codes, treatises, and judicial |