Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR DAVID DALRYMPLE, LORD HAILES.
Subject_2 BILL OF EXCHANGE.
Subject_3 A bill drawn from Scotland upon England, is accounted a foreign bill, as to the time limited for notification of its dishonour.

John Reynolds of London, Merchant,
v.
James Syme and John Wemyss

Date: 4 February 1774

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[Faculty Collection, VI. 280; Dict. 1,598.]

Hailes. No one values the Union more than I do. The best way to preserve that Union inviolate, is, to take care to preserve the distinction between the covenants and laws of the two parts of the United Kingdom. A bill drawn upon a merchant at London, payable at London to a merchant at London, is a foreign bill with respect to Scotland; just as a bill drawn upon a merchant at Edinburgh, payable at Edinburgh, to a merchant at Edinburgh, is a foreign bill with respect to England. The English authorities for this are express. The English would not consider the bill in the latter case as inland: why should the Scots in the former case? As to the notification on the fifth post-day, the allowing three posts does not mean either three days or six days, but only so many opportunities of notification. When opportunities are more rare, a longer space will be allowed. When more frequent, a shorter. The great purpose of multiplying the post-days was, that intelligence, especially of this kind, might be more expeditiously conveyed from one part of the kingdom to another. Here the argument is, that intelligence must be understood to be no more expeditious now with five posts in the week, than formerly with three.

Monboddo. I imagined that, before the late Act of Parliament, even inland bills, if dishonoured, were to be intimated within three posts. I think that three posts mean three opportunities.

Coalston. In questions that strike so deep as to merchants, in a matter of pure mercantile law, I would have wished to know whether the alteration of the posts had made any difference in practice.

Alva. If we deviate from the rule of three posts we render every thing dubious.

Auchinleck. The public posts are known to every merchant. They have been established for many years. The defenders have not availed themselves of the opportunity of notifying the dishonour which the Postmaster-General afforded them.

Pitfour. Bills between England and Scotland ought not to be considered as foreign bills. For goods coming from England to Scotland have been found not to be foreign goods.

[The point was of his own starting. To render the union more complete, he could not bring one judge to incline to his opinion.]

On the 4th February 1774, “in respect that it is not denied, that the practice is to intimate the dishonour of bills of this nature within three posts, the Lords found no recourse due.”

Act. W. Nairne. Alt. G. Wallace. Reporter, Pitfour.