The Bakers-Painted Birds........ ib. Reflections, Maxims, &c. ........... 413 COOKERY-Soups and Broths ........ USEFUL RECEIPTS-A strong Paste for Paper-To give a fine Colour to Mahogany-To destroy Crickets-To make Flannels keep their Colour, and Shrink Paste for Chapped Hands, and which will preserve them smooth by constant use-For Chap. ped Lips......... not 415 DOMESTIC MEDICINE-Abernethy's Medicine for Indigestion-An Excellent Stomachic Cordial, good in the middle of the Day ORIGINAL POETRY-Rhimes, Illus trative of English Pronunciation Notice to Correspondents.............. 1. 416 ib. THE MARKETS. PROVISIONS of every description are getting dearer. Beef, 3 d. to 64d. per lb. by the carcase, will bring prime sirloin or ribs to 9d. the lb.; mutton is a halfpenny a pound dearer than beef; veal (but little at market) fetches wholesale from 44d. to 6 d. per lb.; pork, very fine, is worth, by the whole pig, 8d. the lb. POULTRY One turkey, couple of fowls, cost 7s. ; one goose, or three ducks, 6s. or a A hundred eggs, 9s. ; fresh butter, very bad, ls. Id.; not very good, 1s. 3d. per lb.: old salt butters getting scarce, and the new indifferent; Irish butter on the advance. FISH-A pretty good supply in the early part of the week; prices much the same as last week: the ninth brought its usual concomitant sprats. BREAD, the same as last week. COALS The best Lambton's Wallsend laid in for 54s. 6d. ; good burning coals may, however, be had six or seven shillings cheaper. unwholesome sleep the precious hours which bring health and wealth-those hours of the morning which breathe nature's delicious freshness both to mind and body. His nights are a dungeon, in which he is unconscious of the world about him, and wastes that life like a worm, which might be spent as a man. If he possess a wife, she is doomed to sorrow and want if he possess children, they are born the heirs to his misery. If he in early life acquired knowledge, or by nature possessed talents, all-all these qualities are swallowed up in that Vampire-bed which sucks his life away. The sluggard has no friend but forgetfulness; life and bustle and active manhood are tortures to him. The demon of sloth, like madness, addles his brain, and he lives only in his body, and that body but for a short time. His bloated face, his yellow eye, his filth and poverty, mark him well out for a long sleep. TRADES.NO. III. (Book-binding.) (Continued from p. 388.) All stationery work is sewed with strong waxed thread; and as the vellum or parchment is never attached to the back like leather, but lies hollow and loose, when the book is open, it cannot, of course, afford that security to the back which leather does; it is therefore common to line the back, between the slips, with coarse canvas or slips of leather, letting them come as much over the sides as to paste down with the boards and slips. The boards for stationery are not so thick in propor tion as for printed work, and when put on, are placed at least half an inch from the back, on each side of the parchment slips which books are sewed upon: you must cut with scissars a very narrow strip, which is not to be pasted down, but left for the purpose of drawing through the parchment when the cover is applied, serving to attach the cover before it is pasted to the boards. Parchment or vellum covers should always be lined before they are put on, and ap plied before they are quite dry. Different kinds of bindings are distinguished by different names, such as law binding, marble binding, French binding, Dutch binding, &c. In Dutch binding the backs are of vellum. In French binding a slip of parchment is applied over the back between each band, and the ends are pasted on the inside of each pasteboard. This indorsing, as it is called, is peculiar to the French binders, who are enjoined, by special ordonnance, to back their books with parchment. The parchment is applied in the press, after the back has been grated to make the paste take hold. The Italians still bind in a coarse thick paper, and this they call binding alla rustica. It is extremely inconvenient, as it is liable to wear without particular care. New books are now generally sold in boards; they are sewn more loosely, and are not beaten; the boards are covered with coloured paper. The immense increase of new books has given employ to a great number of persons who have engaged in this peculiar line of business, and are called boarders. Many of them, to increase their profit, adopt an expeIdient which deserves exposure and reprehension: they advertise for a number of girls to learn the business, and employ them without wages for two or three years; they are then dis • Law-books are usually bound in white calf, with plain white edges. Some years ago the sides of boarded books were usually covered with blue or marble paper. Mr. Cobb, a papermaker, obtained a patent for the manufacture of paper coloured in the pulp, which he proposed snould be used for writing upon; the public, however, did not fall into his plan, and a large quantity of this paper came into the market cheap, some of which was purchased by a book-binder, who used it to cover the sides of some common books, as a substitute for marble-paper; this was much admired, and the use of coloured paper for the same purpose soon became generally adopted, and occasioned a great demand for Mr. Cobb's patent paper, which was thus, as it were by accident, brought into general consumption. charged, umable to procure employ : having been accustomed to do their business in the most expeditious and slovenly manner, they are unfit to work for the regular binder, and the boarders are contented with fresh novices to do their work; this will account for the shameful misplacing of leaves so frequently observable in new publications. Great improvements have been made within a few years in bookbinding; some beautiful specimens may be seen in the shops of respectable booksellers at the west-end of the town, the Strand, Fleet-street, Cheapside, and the Poultry. Amongst the principal bookbinders in London, Mr. Francis Westley may be noticed. The business of a book-binder, as a journeyman, is as good, or perhaps better, than most others; he generally can meet constant employment, and may earn from thirty shillings to four pounds a week, according to his superiority as a workman: as to the ordinary business, it requires little ingenuity or strength of body; and in the higher branches, a workman's success will greatly depend upon his taste and industry. It does not re quire a large capital to set up trade as a master, nor where dependance can be placed upon a binder's punctuality, is it difficult to procure employers. Apprentice-fees in this business are generally moderate; indeed, seven years labour is a handsome remuneration to the master; a lad becomes useful from the commencement of his apprenticeship: from 10l. to 40l. are given as premiums. The price of binding is regulated by a certain printed list, agreed upon between the bookseller and the bookbinder; but in large concerns, these prices are seldom strictly adhered to, the parties usually making separate and independant contracts. LAWS RELATING TO BILLS OF EX CHANGE, PROMISSORY NOTES, &c. In a commercial country like England, a knowledge of the laws relating to Bills of Exchange is of, the utmost importance, and many per sons have suffered great loss from a want of knowledge in this particular. We trust our observations under this head will not prove unacceptable to the readers of The Economist. Of Bills of Exchange. A bill of exchange is a mercantile contract, generally written on a broad, but short slip of paper, whereby one person orders or requests another to pay a certain sum of money to a third person, or to his order, at a time therein specified. Bills of exchange may be divided into foreign and inland; the former, when one of the parties is resident abroad, and the latter, when both the drawer and the drawee reside within the realm. The person who writes the bill is I called in law the drawer, and he to whom it is addressed, the drawee; the third person, or negotiator, to whom it is payable, whether specially named, or to the bearer generally, is called the payee. When a bill or note is indorsed, the person indorsing it, is called the indorser; and the person to whom it is indorsed, the indorsee. Of Drawing Bills. A bill of exchange must be made in writing, drawn by the party himself, or by some person by him legally authorized; and such drawing raises a contract to pay the same without reference to any other transaction between the parties. The form of a bill is not an essential part of it for the same strictness and nicety are not required in penning bills current between merchant and merchant, as in deeds, &c. A note or bill must purport the money mentioned in it shall be payable absolutely; if it purports to make the payment depend on any uncertainty or contingency, the instrument is not a bill or note. It has been a point much agitated, whether it was necessary that a bill or note should import to have been given for value received; but that question was settled in the negative in the case of White v. Ladwick, K. B. H. 25 G. 3. A declaration on a bill of exchange was demurred to, because it was not stated to have been given for value received; but the Court said it was a settled point, that it was not necessary, and gave judgment for the plaintiff. Of Alterations in Bills. If a bill made with a proper stamp be afterwards altered, although by the consent of the parties, and before negotiation, a new stamp is necessary, as this becomes a new contract. If, while a bill is in the hands of a payee, or other holder, or in any case it is altered in any material respect, as, for instance, in the date or sum, without the consent of the drawer, it will discharge him, although the bill may afterwards come into the hand of an indorsee not aware of the altera tion. And if it is altered after acceptance or indorsement, without the acceptor's or indorser's assent, such alteration shall have the same operation. But if a bill is altered before acceptance or indorsement, the ac ceptor or indorser cannot take any advantage of the alteration; and the consent of any one of the parties to the alteration, will in general stop him from taking advantage of it. In such cases, however, a new stamp will be necessary, if the alteration was made after the bill was negotiated, or after it was due. A bill or note altered (though by the consent of all parties) after it has once issued, or after the time when it was originally payable, requires a new stamp. A Caution. If a person sign his name upon blank paper, stamped with a bill stamp, and delivers it to another person to draw such a bill as he may choose thereon, he is the drawer of any bill to which the stamp is applicable which such person may draw thereon. One Emmet signed his name upon a blank paper stamped with a shilling bill stamp (the highest then used for bills) and delivered it to Livesay and Co. that they might draw thereon such bill as they should please. They drew one for 1,551%, at three months date, which was duly Capability of Drawing, Indorsing, or A bill, or note, cannot be made payable to any person who is incapable of suing for its payment. It cannot be properly made or indorsed by, nor can a bill be properly addressed to, any person incapable of making himself responsible for the payment. With respect to competency of the contracting parties, the law has in general rendered the contracts of infants voidable, except for necessaries, and those of married women absolutely void. An infant may, however, by a promise to pay a bill made after he attains twenty-one, render it as operative against him as if he had been of age at the time it was made. Though it has frequently been decided that married women may contract so as to bind themselves, provided they live apart from their husbands, and have a permanent maintenance secured to them by deed; yet the authority of these decisions have been questioned of late by high legal authority. But although the drawer, indorser, or acceptor of a bill is incapable of binding himself, such bill will nevertheless be valid against all other competent persons. Of Promissory Notes. Promissory Notes, or Notes of Hand, are a plain and direct engagement in writing, to pay a sum specified at the time therein limited, to a person therein named, or sometimes to his order, or often to the bearer at large. These are assignable and indorsable in like manner as bills of exchange. Bankers' Notes and Checks. Banters Cash Notes, formerly called Goldsmiths' Notes, and Promissory Notes given by bankers, who were originally goldsmiths, were introduced about thirty years before the beginning of the reign of queen Anne. They were countenanced by the merchants, and generally esteemed as negotiable; but Lord Holt strenuously opposed the negotiability of these, as well as of common promissory notes; and they were not generally settled to be negotiable till the stat. of 3 and 4 Anne, c. 9, was passed, which relates to notes of the two descriptions above mentioned. These bankers' notes seem originally to have been given by bankers to their customers, by way of acknowledgment for having received money for their use. These notes are now rarely made or used, except by country bankers; the introduction of checks having superseded their use. Bankers' notes being payable on demand, are considered as cash, whether payable to order or bearer, and are generally transferred from one person to another by delivery; or they may be negotiated by indorsement; and then the indorser will be liable, under the same rules as bills of exchange. A banker's check is only taken conditionally, if paid, and not otherwise, unless there is an express agreement to take it as cash; but a person in London who receives such a check, ought to present it for payment on the day he receives it, if he has reasonable time. No draft or order for the payment of money to the bearer on demand, bearing date on or before the day on which it is issued, and at the place from which it is drawn and issued, and drawn on a banker acting as such within ten miles of the place where such draft or order was actually made, is subject to any duty. Bills and Notes void. All promissory or other notes, bills of exchange, drafts, and undertakings in writing, being negociable or transferrable, for the payment of less than twenty shillings, are null and void; and it is penal to utter or publish any such, as they are deemed prejudicial to trade and public credit. |