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commonly inserted at the end of the act to remove the doubt. Private bills in passing into laws go through the same stages in both houses of parliament with public bills: but relating as they do for the most part to matters as to which the public attention is not so inuch alive, various additional regulations are established with regard to them, for the purpose of securing to them in their progress the observation of all whose interests they may affect. No private bill, in the first place, can be introduced into either house except upon a petition stating its object and the grounds upon which it is sought; nor can such petitions be presented after a certain day in each session, which is always fixed at the commencement of the session, and is usually within a fortnight or three weeks thereafter. In all cases the necessary documents and plans must be laid before the house before it will proceed in the matter, and it must also have evidence that sufficient notice in every respect has been given to all parties interested in the measure. To a certain extent the consent of these parties is required before the bill can be passed. For the numerous rules, however, by which these objects are sought to be secured, we must refer to the Standing Orders themselves.

An important respect in which the passage through parliament of a private bill differs from that of a public bill is the much higher amount of fees paid in the case of a private bill to the clerks and other officers of the two houses. Although the high amount of the fees payable on private bills has been the subject of much complaint, and is undoubtedly, in some cases, a very heavy tax, it is to be remembered that the necessary expense of carrying the generality of such bills through parliament must always be very considerable, so long as the present securities against precipitate and unfair legislation shall be insisted on. The expenses of agency, of bringing up witnesses, and the other expenses attending the making application to parliament for a private bill, at present often amount to many times as much as the fees. These fees, on the other hand, are considered to be some check upon unnecessary applications

for private bills, with which it is contended that parliament would otherwise be inundated. The misfortune is, that it is not the most unnecessary applications which such a check really tends to prevent, but only the applications of parties who are poor, which may be just as proper to be attended to as those of the rich. BILL OF EXCHANGE. CHANGE, BILL OF.] BILL OF EXCHEQUER. CHEQUER BILL.]

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BILL OF LADING, an acknowledgment signed usually by the master of a trading ship, but occasionally by some person authorised to act on his behalf, certifying the receipt of merchandise on board the ship, and engaging, under certain conditions and with certain exceptions, to deliver the said merchandise safely at the port to which the ship is bound, either to the shipper, or to such other person as he may signify by a written assignment upon the Bill of Lading.

The conditions stipulated on behalf of the master of the ship are, that the person entitled to claim the merchandise shall pay upon delivery of the same a certain specified amount or rate of freight, together with allowances recognised by the customs of the port of delivery, and known under the names of primage and average. Primage amounts in some cases to a considerable per centage (ten or fifteen per cent.) upon the amount of the stipulated freight, but the more usual allowance under this head is a small fixed sum upon certain packages; e. g. the primage charge upon a hogshead of sugar brought from the West Indies to London is sixpence. This allowance is considered to be the perquisite of the master of the ship. Average, the claim for which is reserved against the receiver of the goods, consists of a charge divided pro rata between the owners of the ship and the proprietors of her cargo for small expenses (such as payments for towing and piloting the ship into or out of harbours), when the same are incurred for the general benefit.

The exceptions stipulated on behalf of

the shipowners are explained on the face of the Bill of Lading, and are "the act of God, the king's enemies, fire, and all and every other danger and accidents of the seas, rivers, and navigation, of whatever nature and kind soever excepted." In every case where shipments are made from this country, one at least of the bills of lading must be written upon a stamp of the value of sixpence. One of the bills (unstamped) is retained by the master of the ship, the others are delivered to the shippers of the goods, who usually transmit to the consignee of the goods one copy by the ship on board which they are laden, and a second copy by some other conveyance. In case the ship should be lost, when the goods are insured, the underwriters require the production of one of the copies of the Bill of Lading on the part of the person claiming under the policy of insurance as evidence at once of the shipment having actually been made, and of the ownership of the goods.

By the act 6 George IV. c. 94, § 2, it is declared "that any person in possession of a Bill of Lading shall be deemed the true owner of the goods specified in it, so as to make a sale or pledge by him of such goods or bill of lading valid, unless the person to whom the goods are sold or pledged has notice that the seller or pledger is not the actual and bonâ fide owner of the goods."

The property in the goods represented by a Bill of Lading can be assigned like a bill of exchange by either a blank or a special indorsement, and as, in the event of the first mode being used, the document might accidentally fall into improper hands a fact which the master of a ship could not reasonably be expected to discover it is manifestly only justice to shield him from responsibility when acting without collusion. Should he, on the other hand, act either negligently or collusively in the matter, the law will compel him to make good their value to the real owner of the goods.

The stamp duty received on bills of lading in Great Britain for 1843 was 19,5187., and in Ireland 19737. The duty in England and Scotland was reduced from 3s. to 6d. by 5 & 6 Vict. c. 79, and

in Ireland the duty was reduced from 18. 6d. to 6d. by 5 & 6 Vict. c. 82. Previous to this reduction, in 1841, the duty in Ireland produced only 10791. The duty for England cannot be given, as the duty was applicable also to protests.

BILL OF RIGHTS is the name commonly given to the statute 1 William and Mary, sess. 2, chap. 2, in which is embodied the Declaration of Rights, presented by both Houses of the Convention to the Prince and Princess of Orange, in the Banqueting-House at Whitehall, on the 13th of February, 1689, and accepted by their Highnesses along with the crown. The Bill of Rights was originally brought forward in the first session of the parliament into which the Convention was transformed; but a dispute between the two Houses with regard to an amendment introduced into the bill by the Lords, naming the Princess Sophia of Hanover and her posterity next in succession to the crown after the failure of issue to King William, which was rejected in the Commons by the united votes of the high church and the republican parties, occasioned the measure to be dropped, after it had been in dependence for two months, and the matter of difference had been agitated in several conferences without effect. The bill was however again brought on immediately after the opening of the next session, on the 19th of October, 1689, and the amendment respecting the Princess Sophia not having been again proposed, it passed both houses, and received the royal assent in the same shape in which it had formerly passed the Commons, with the addition only of a clause inserted by the Lords, which enacted that the kings and queens of England should be obliged, at their coming to the crown, to take the test in the first parliament that should be called at the beginning of their reign, and that if any king or queen of England should embrace the Roman Catholic religion, or marry with a Roman Catholic prince or princess, their subjects should be absolved of their allegiance. This remarkable clause is stated to have been agreed to without any opposition or debate.

The Bill of Rights, after declaring the late king James II. to have done various

acts which are enumerated, utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and statutes and freedom of this realm, and to have abdicated the government, proceeds to enact as follows:

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1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of parliament, is illegal. 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal. 3. That the commission for creating the late court of commissioners for ecclesiastical causes, and all other commissions and courts of the like nature, are illegal and pernicious. That levying of money for or to the use of the crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of parliament, for longer time, or in other manner, than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal. 5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. 6. That the raising or keeping of a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law. 7. That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence, suitable to their condition, and as allowed by law. 8. That election of members of parliament ought to be free. 9. That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of parliament. 10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 11. That jurors ought to be duly empannelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders. 12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons, before conviction, are illegal and void. 13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently."

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It is added that the Lords and Comdo claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular the premises as their undoubted rights and liberties; and that no

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declarations, judgments, doings, or proceedings, to the prejudice of the people in any of the said premises, ought in anywise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example."

The act also recognises their Majesties William III. and Mary as King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging: and declares that the crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions shall be held by their said majesties during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them; that the sole and full exercise of the regal power shall be only in and executed by King William, in the names of himself and her majesty, during their joint lives; and that after their decease the crown shall descend to the heirs of the body of the queen, and, in default of such issue, to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the heirs of her body, and, failing her issue, to the heirs of the body of the king.

The Declaration of Rights is understood to have been principally the composition of Lord (then Mr.) Somers, who was a member of the first and chairman of the second of two committees, on whose reports it was founded. The original draft of the Bill of Rights was also the production of his pen. In the latter especially there is very apparent a desire to preserve in the new arrangement as much as possible of the principle of the hereditary succession to the crown. The legislature, for instance, in strong terms expresses its thankfulness that God had mercifully preserved King William and Queen Mary to reign over them

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upon the throne of their ancestors;" and the new settlement is cautiously designated merely "a limitation of the crown." Mr. Burke has, from these expressions, contended (in his Reflections on the Revolution in France') that the notion of the English people having at the Revolution asserted a right to elect their kings is altogether unfounded. "I never desire," he adds, in repudiation of the opposite opinion, as held by one class of persons professing Whig principles, "to be thought a better Whig than Lord Somers, or to understand the principles of the Revolution better than those by

whom it was brought about, or to read in the Declaration of Rights any mysteries unknown to those whose penetrating style has engraved in our ordinances and our hearts the words and spirit of that immortal law."

The Declaration and Bill of Rights may be compared with the Petition of Right which was presented by Parliament to Charles I. in 1628, and passed by him into a law. [PETITION OF RIGHT.]

BILL OF SALE, a deed or writing under seal, evidencing the sale of personal property. In general the transfer of possession is the best evidence of change of ownership, but cases frequently occur in which it is necessary or desirable that the change of property should be attested by a formal instrument of transfer; and in all cases in which it is not intended that the sale shall be followed by delivery, such a solemnity is essential to the legal efficacy of the agreement. The occasions to which these instruments are commonly made applicable are sales of fixtures and furniture in a house, of the stock of a shop, of the good-will of a business (which of course is intransferable by delivery), of an office, or the like. But their most important use is in the transfer of property in ships, which being held in shares, cannot, in general, be delivered over on each change of part ownership. It seems to have been from ancient times the practice, as well in this country as in other commercial states, to attest the sale of ships by a written document; and at the present day a bill of sale is, by the registry acts, rendered necessary to the validity of all transfers of shares in British ships, whether by way of sale or of mortgage.

BILL OF SIGHT is an imperfect entry of goods at the custom-house when the importer is not precisely acquainted with their nature or quantity. A Bill of Sight must be replaced by a perfect entry within three days after the goods are landed. (3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 52, § 24.)

BILL OF STORE, a licence granted by the collectors and comptrollers of customs to ship stores and provisions free of duty for consumption and use during the voyage. (3 & 4 Vict. c. 52, § 33 and 34.)

BILLON, in coinage, is a composition of precious and base metal, consisting of gold or silver alloyed with copper, in the mixture of which the copper predomi nates. The word came to us from the French. Some have thought the Latin bulla was its origin, but others have deduced it from vilis. The Spaniards still call billon coin Moneda de Vellon.

BILLS OF MORTALITY are returns of the deaths which occur within a particular district, specifying the numbers that died of each different disease, and showing, in decennial or shorter periods, the ages at which death took place. The London Bills of Mortality were commenced in 1592, after a great plague. The weekly bills were begun in 1603, after another visitation of still greater severity. In London, a parish is said to be within the Bills of Mortality when the deaths occurring within it are supposed to be carried to account by the company of parish clerks. In 1605 the London Bills of Mortality comprised the ninety-seven parishes within the walls, sixteen parishes without the walls, and six contiguous_out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey. In 1626 Westminster was included; and in 1636 Islington, Lambeth, Stepney, Newington, and Rotherhithe. Other additions were made from time to time. The parishes of Marylebone, St. Pancras, Chelsea, and several others, which have become important parts of the metropolis within a recent period, were never included. At present the parishes supposed to be included in the Bills of Mortality comprise the City of London, the City and Liberties of Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and thirty-four out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, the whole containing a population of about 1,350,000.

The manner of procuring returns of the number of deaths and causes of death, as described by Grant, in his 'Observations on the Bills of Mortality,' published in 1662, was as follows:-"When any one dies, then, either by tolling or ringing of a bell, or by bespeaking of a grave of the sexton, the same is known to the searchers corresponding with the said sexton. The searchers hereupon, who are ancient matrons sworn to their office, repair to the

place where the dead corpse lies, and by view of the same, and by other inquiries, they examine by what casualty or disease the corpse died. Hereupon they make their report to the parish clerk, and he, every Tuesday night, carries in an account of all the burials and christenings happening that week to the clerk at the Parish Clerks' Hall. On Wednesday the general account is made up and printed, and on Thursday published, and disposed to the several families who will pay four shillings per annum for them." Maitland, in his History of London,' says that the charter of the company of parish clerks strictly enjoins them to make a return of all the weekly christenings and burials in their respective parishes by six o'clock on Tuesdays in the afternoon; and that a bye-law was passed, changing the hour to two, in order "that the king and the lord mayor may have an account thereof the day before publication." The lord mayor, every week, transmitted a copy of the bill to the court. Pepys says, the Duke of Albermarle "shewed us the number of the plague this week, brought in last night from the lord mayor." In 1625 the company of parish clerks obtained a licence from the Star-Chamber for keeping a printing-press at their Hall for printing the bills." So recently as 1837 no improvement had taken place in the mode of collection, or in the value of the statistics of disease and mortality in the metropolis. On the death of an individual within the prescribed limits, intimation was sent to the searchers, to whom the undertaker or some relative of the deceased furnished the name and age of the deceased, and the malady of which he had died. No part of this information was properly authenticated, and it might be either true or false. The appointment of searcher usually fell upon old women, and sometimes on those who were notorious for their habits of drinking. The fee which these official characters demanded was one shilling, but in some cases two public authorities of this description proceeded to the inspection, when the family of the defunct was defrauded of an additional shilling. They not unfrequently required more than the ordinary fee; and owing to the

circumstances under which they paid their visit, their demands were frequently complied with. In some cases they even proceeded so far as to claim as a perquisite the articles of dress in which the deceased died.

For some time before the Act for the Registration of Births, Deaths, &c. came into operation, the Bills of Mortality were of no value whatever. In fact they ceased to be of use after the last visitation of the plague. The inhabitants of London were no longer apprehensive of a sudden increase of deaths, and the Weekly Bills, once so anxiously regarded, and which, on the appearance of the plague, warned those who could afford it to leave town, sank into neglect. In 1832 the bills reported 28,606 deaths, and in 1842 only 13,142. In 1833, out of 26,577 deaths, the causes of decease were returned as unknown in 887 cases, being 1 in 30; and in 1842, out of 13,142 deaths reported, the cause of death was stated to be unknown in 4638 cases, or less than 1 in 3. 'Searchers' are no longer appointed; and the unscientific diagnosis given in the Bills is usually obtained from the undertaker or sexton at the funeral. Besides this, many of the parishes professedly included in the Bills of Mortality make no returns at all. St. George's, Hanover Square, ceased to send in an account of deaths in 1823. If all the deaths were returned which occur within the limits which the bills profess to comprise, the annual number would be about 33,000, instead of 13,142. In the week ending the 18th of November, 1843. the Bill of Mortality issued by the parish clerks "to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, and the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor," stated that "the decrease in the burials reported this week is 149." This very week, however, there was in reality rather an extraordinary increase of mortality, and, for the metropolis, the number of deaths exceeded the average by upwards of 300. In January, 1840, the registrar-general, under 6 & 7 Wm. IV. e. 86, commenced the publication of weekly Bills of Mortality, which are remarkable for their accuracy and their trustworthiness as statistics of disease. The 'cause' of death must be entered in the certificate

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