§ MR. WALPOLErose, pursuant to notice, to move for leave to bring in a Bill to make provision concerning bills of exchange and promissory notes payable in the metropolis on the day appointed for the funeral of the Duke of Wellington. This course was taken in consequence of the representations make, to him by bankers 148 and members of the commercial interest as to the great inconvenience that would arise from having bills of exchange payable on a day when the streets would be filled with the dense crowds that might be expected to assemble on that occasion, and which would render it impossible for persons engaged in business to pass from place to place. The Bill would provide that bills of exchange and notes falling due on the day of the funeral should be payable on the day before. It was evident that this arrangement could not be injurious to the holders of bills, while the only inconvenience which could result to payers would be, that in the event of their not being prepared to take up their acceptances on the day before their funeral, they would incur certain notarial charges on account of the noting of bills, To obviate this inconvenience, he proposed that the payers of bills of exchange should not be liable to notarial charges, provided their bills should be paid by two o'clock on Friday, the day following the funeral.
§ Leave given.
§ Bill brought in (the Standing Orders being suspended), was read a first and second time, and committed, without observation.
§ On the Question, that it be read a Third Time,
§ MR. MANGLESsaid, he wished to know whether there was any objection to extending the provisions of the Bill to the whole country? He had reason to know that a wish prevailed generally to have the day of the funeral observed with solemnity throughout the Kingdom.
§ MR. GLYNbegged to express the thanks of the commercial public of London to the right hon. Gentleman for having introduced this Bill, and to the House for the disposition which it showed to pass it. The measure was rendered necessary, not so much from a desire to make a holiday of the day appointed for the funeral, as on account of the absolute impossibility of transacting business on that occasion. Whether or not the rest of the country should be placed on the same footing as London on any future similar occasion, was a question which could not now be properly considered; but he hoped that the right hon. Gentleman would turn his attention to it.
§ MR. J. L. RICARDOsaid, it would be desirable to fix the payment of bills peremptorily for Wednesday; otherwise persons in the country—Manchester, for instance—who had payments to make on 149 Friday dependent on the honouring of hills of exchange in London on Thursday, might be subjected to great inconvenience.
§ MR. WALPOLEsaid, in reference to what had fallen from the hon. Member for Guildford (Mr. Mangles), as to the propriety of extending the operation of the Bill beyond London; that he had considered that point a great deal, and it seemed to him that as the inconvenience to be provided against— namely, the obstruction to business likely to be caused from a dense mass of people, would not extend beyond the metropolis, it was useless to make the measure applicable to the whole country. As to the general question mooted by the hon. Member for Kendal (Mr. Glyn), it was well worthy of consideration whether it would not be expedient to introduce a general Bill repealing former Acts, and giving the Crown power, by proclamation, to place days devoted to any peculiar solemnity on the same footing—as regarded bills of exchange—as Sundays, Fast days, and Thanksgiving days.
§ MR. J. L. RICARDOsaid, that as the Bill provided that a bill of exchange paid before two o'clock on Friday should be subject to no notarial charges, it might be assumed that it would be duly honoured if paid under those circumstances.
§ MR. WALPOLEsaid, that the Bill would make hills of exchange due on the 18th presentable and payable on the day before, in the same way as if the 18th wore a Sunday; but, inasmuch as the presenting of bills on the 17th might subject payers to certain notarial charges, it was provided that in the event of their meeting their liabilities by two o'clock on the following Friday those notarial charges should not be enforced.
An HON. MEMBERasked whether it would not be better to make all bills duo on the 18th payable on the day after the funeral?
§ MR. WALPOLE,in reply, said, that the point had been fully considered. All the commercial authorities whom he had consulted strongly recommended that there should be no departure from commercial usages.
§ Bill read 3°, and passed.