otherwise there may be difficulties in negociating the bill, or enforcing pay

ment.

Care must be taken that the name be properly spelled; and where there are two persons of the same name, the payee should be described in such manner as to prevent any mistake.

Instead of any express limitation by months or days, bills are sometimes drawn payable at usance; that is, the usage between those places and this country. Usance is the time of one, two, or three months after the date of the bill, according to the custom of the places between which the exchanges run.

Though foreign bilis are frequently drawn payable at usance or usances, yet they, like inland bills, may be drawn payable at sight, at days, weeks, months, or years, after sight or date, or on demand: bills, however, are seldom drawn payable on demand; but usually, where it is intended they should be paid immediately, are drawn payable at sight. When drawn at sight, the drawer of a foreign bill should mention it to be payable according to the course of exchange at the time of making it,' or the drawee must pay according to the exchange of the day when he has sight of the bill.

Usance between London and any part of France, is thirty days after date. Between London and the following places, one calendar month after the date of the bill, viz. Hamburgh, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Middleburgh, Antwerp, Brabant, Zealand and Flanders.-Between London and Spain and Portugal, two calendar months.-Between London and Genoa, Leghorn, Milan, Venice and Rome, three calendar months.-The usance of Amsterdam, on Italy, Spain, and Portugal, is two months.-On France, Flanders, Brabant, and on any place in Holland or Zealand, is one month.-On Frankfort, Nuremberg, Vienna, and other places in Germany, on Hamburgh and Breslau, fourteen days after sight; two usances 28 days; an half usance, seven.

A double usance is double the accustomed time; an half usance, half the time.

When a month is divided, an half usance contains fifteen days.

Where the time, after the expiration of which a bill is made payable, is limited by months, it must be com- ! puted by calendar, not lunar months: thus, on a bill dated the first of January, and payable at one month after date, the month expires on the first of February.

There are eleven days difference between the old and new style; or, in other words, the first day of any month, according to the old style, is the twelfth according to the new. The old style prevails in Muscovy, Denmark, Holstein, Hamburgh, Utrecht, Gueldres, East Friesland, Geneva, the Protestant Principalities of Germany, and the Protestant cantons of Switzerland. The new style is followed in all the dominions of George IV.; in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leyden, Haerlem, Ghent, Brussels, Middleburgh, Brabant, and all the Netherlands, except Utrecht and Gueldres. It is also observed in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Poland, and the Popish Principalities of Germany, and the Popish Cantons of Switzerland.

When a bill, payable after date, is drawn at a place using one style, and remitted to a place using the other, the time is computed according to that of the place where drawn.

A bill payable after sight must evidently be computed according to the style of the place where it is payable.

Though none of our acts of parlia ment require any stamp, on a foreign bill made out of this country, yet as the courts will take notice of the revenue laws of a foreign country, and will resort to the laws of the country in which the instrument was made, every bill must be stamped as required by the laws of the country where made, otherwise the holder cannot recover upon it.

Difference between a Bill payable at Sight, and a Bill payable on Demund.

A bill payable at sight, is not to be considered as a bill payable on demand. It has been held that three days grace is to be allowed for the

payment of a bill at sight; but a note or bill on demand is payable immediately.

Days' of Grace.

By the custom of merchants, a person to whom a bill is addressed, is allowed a short time for payment beyond the term mentioned in the bill, called days of grace. But the custom of this varies according to the custom of the different places.

In the united kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, three days of grace are allowed; but whenever the third day falls on a Sunday, Christmas Day, or Good Friday, the bill becomes payable the day before. At Hamburgh, but no where else, the day on which the bill falls due, makes one of the days of grace.

At Vienna and Bergamo, three days are also allowed. At Frankfort, out of the time of the fair, four days. At Venice, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Middleburgh, Antwerp, Cologn, Breslau, Nuremburgh, and Portugal, six days. Leipsic, Naumburgh, and Augsburgh, five days. Dantzic, Koningsburgh, and France, ten days. Hamburgh and Stockholm, twelve days. Naples eight, Spain fourteen, Rome fifteen, and Genoa thirty days. Leghorn, Milan, and some other places in Italy, no fixed number.

(To be continued.)

APPRENTICING A YOUTH TO A
TRADE.

Suppose a young man has been placed by his friends to a trade or calling to which his bodily strength is fully adequate: nothing in this respect ought to be submitted to his own will, seeing most boys are too much wedded to home; so that, if the choice were left entirely to their own decision, they would come to none, but vacillate between two or more trades, the result of which must be a nullity, and a return to the scenes of their childhood, which, by our natures, are ever attractive. Indolent, overgrown young men are most liable to fall into this untoward propensity to hang about home, though they have so much less dread to being

pushed about in the busy world than the less hardy, puny offspring of large families

It seldom happens that young men choose well for themselves: there is something very wayward in the prompt decision of many, which, upon inquiry, will be found to rest upon whim, or the caprice of opposition to the opinions of parents or guardians, whose restraining authority sits more heavily as the youth advances towards manhood. His reasons for adopting a given trade should be sifted indirectly, and if well founded, should be complied with; but it frequently happens that some adventitious circumstances sway his mind to the most objectionable calling that an illdirected choice could possibly have chalked out for him.

But when we say that boys' opinions are not to be previously consulted, nor their caprices gratified, we are far from maintaining that their tastes, and the bent and inclination of their juvenile minds, should be neglected, in taking a step so important to the future welfare of the youth, as his occupation or trade through life must be. This forms the bias of his mind, and sways his conduct, to the end of his days; for how unhappy must that man be who is in the constant habit of exercising an uncongenial calling? With what glee, do not some men carry on apparently disagreeable trades, when their ideas and feelings are adapted thereto.

No doubt, whatever way of life we are thrown upon, the most advisable step is to adapt our minds thereto with firmness; but then, let it be always accompanied by propriety of conduct, not insulting to, or injuring those, with whom, or against whom, it is our destiny to act, in the discharge of a painful duty, by rivalry in trade, or being otherwise opposed to the weak, the needy, or the unfortunate.

Let parents, in the choice of a calling, act firmly up to, and inculcate those principles in the choice of a trade for their offspring, and a young man cannot have been placed amiss in the calling so chosen for him, and which it now becomes his duty

to fulfil properly, and to follow to the end of his days. With a very small attention being paid to his childish pursuits, and remarks upon matters and things, to his early likes and dislikes of persons and occupations, a parent may betimes discern what trades may more probably be adapted to them; or be enabled to judge accurately enough what others cannot possibly suit the temper, disposition, or genius of the youth. In this manner the bent and inclination of his mind may be consulted to advantage, without asking pointed questions upon the subject; and a parent or guardian cannot well make a bad choice. Whatever course of investigation is set on foot, care should be taken by the parent in the progress of it, not to evince too much overweening attention to his whims and caprices, though all the while the inclinations of the youth are only to be come at through them; nor in the ultimate settlement of the terms of apprenticeship ought the boy to be present when stipulations are made for his comforts and conveniences, notwithstanding we administer to both with the most sedulous affection. Those boys generally turn out the best men, who have some difficulties to struggle with; which, having surmounted, they feel their own strength, as they rise in usefulness and importance, Lastly, no one in his senses would require a boy of slender make to work at a trade which demands great muscular strength, nor, unless for special reasons, apprentice a stout boy to a tailor, or a retailer of small wares.

SATURDAY NIGHT.

There is something social in the sound of Saturday night: Saturday night at sea cheers the mariner, and draws his thoughts to home-the toast, "Sweethearts and Wives," goes round-they merrily join in the chorus

"For Saturday night still comes, my boy,

We'll drink to Poll and Bess." Burn has admirably described the "Cotters' Saturday Night"

Saturday night brings a cessation of labour to the industrious workman, and the wages of his industry and application; it brings comfort and happiness to his family, if unanimity and kindness prevail; the elder children assisting the mother in getting ready the clothes, or preparing the Sunday's repast, or in setting the house in order; the man, if not otherwise engaged, lending a helping hand, or cheering them with his conversation, or provident remarks; Saturday night brings hopes to the publican, often deferred; the profligate spendthrift, who has run up a score (never to be wholly erased) of coach-wheels, demi-wheels,,, round O's, with all the hieroglyphic et cætera of pots and pints, and pipes, and glasses of gin; he now brings

his wages to the pot-house, and, probably, equally divides it with the landlord, in part payment of the last week's score, at the same time spending a third of the remainder in intemperate indulgence.

Saturday night brings comfort to those journeymen parsons who hang about the house of call, the chapter, and have been engaged to perform the morrow's duties for absenteesto the parish-clerk, sexton, and pewopener, speculating upon the probable receipts of fees, from births, churchings, marriages, and burials -to the bride and bridegroom elect, who are to become one on the Sunday-to the bride-maids and all concerned in the affair-to the young mother, who, with overflowing eye, views her first-born, and pronounces its intended name with an inexpressible delight, while the father, who bears the same name, with tender badinage, vainly offers for her preference a string of others, from Aaron to Zechariah-to the servant of all work, when it precedes the Sunday of her turn to be out-to her sweetheart, James Wilson, who has promised to wait at the corner of the street, to meet her early in the morning, fearing to come to the house in which she dwells, as her mistress will not allow of any followers;-to these, and to many other descriptions of persons, Saturday night brings its joys, and, to conclude, to all the readers of The Economist, I wish every enjoyment of Saturday night.

PUBLIC CHARACTERS.

What can attract our attention, or excite our interest, more than public characters? From the earliest times they have been noticed by their cotemporaries, and their histories handed down to after-ages. To say I knew him I heard him speak-I saw him go in the procession-I visited him-I shook hands with him-I remember his saying, so and so-I followed him to the grave-or I saw him buried, are the every-day boast of the every-day gossip; and to enjoy the honour or the felicity of identifying self with any occurrence connect

ed with public characters, many will admit dates, that upon less interesting occasions they would hesitate in admitting. When one says he remembers the riots of eighty, and Lord George Gordon leading the Protestant mob, it is declaring such an one's age to be hard bordering upon half a century, at the least. Well, never mind age; every year must tell for one. The first public character that I remember was Jeffery Dunstan, with his load of wigs, of all colours, sizes, and fashion. Jeffery, or Sir Jeffery-which knightly appellation was prefixed to his name when advanced to the mayoral dignities of Garratt, to which he was elected without opposition during several successive parliaments, and never representative gave greater satisfaction to his constituents, who, unlike the majority of electors upon like occasions, gave their free and unbought suffrages to the object of their choice had less vanity and pride than most folk. "It is a wise child that knows his own father," is an old saying: now Jeffery boasted not of being wiser than his neighbours; he was equally ignorant of his descent from the female branch of his family as of his worthy sire: the truth is, he obtained his cognomen from the circumstance of his being found exposed in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East. There is something romantic associated with the idea of a foundling: great names might be instanced to prove how frequently foundlings, and those called filii populi, arrive at greatness: not to go farther back into history, than the founders of the city upon the seven hills, Imperial Rome, who were foundlings; the conqueror of England, from whom our present royal race have descended, was a no man's child; Romulus and Remus, William and Sir Jeffery, are great names in history. Why called Jeffery I am unable to discover-I like not the name of Jeffery; there was, to be sure, one Geoffrey Chaucer, and Geoffrey of Monmouth; but then the G gives beauty to the word; but J is a poor letter, and Jeffery a mean, ill-looking word; but never mind

names: let us return to our hero, who had an especial dislike to learning when a boy, insomuch that he could never be persuaded to eat a ginger-bread alphabet, for fear thereby he should learn his letters. Now, as the knight was vehemently suspected to be filii populi, the surgeons considered they had a right to his body for the benefit of the public; and their agents, the resurrectionmen, with a delicacy peculiar to gentlemen of the profession, not unfrequently hinted the circumstance to the desired subject; but Sir Jeffery, although not book-learned, would as readily have sold himself to the evit one (as undoubtedly did Cromwell of old) as part with the reversion of his body. In vain, when young, and when, consequently, his interest in his own person might extend to a considerable number of years, did they offer him a golden guinea; in vain, as the remainder grew nearer in expectancy, did they increase their offers, until they had reached a larger price, by the stone, than was ever bid for wellfed steer in Smithfield or Leadenhall (not to notice the sinking the offal); not only did they offer the golden lure, but they added threats as well as persuasions-" Have your body we will, Sir Jeffery, whether you take the money or not; you're bespoke, that's certain;" and it is said they had actually sold the mayor's body to the faculty, during its tenancy by its living legal owner; but it was selling the skin before the bear was caught. Two parishes have the merit of having afforded protection to Sir Jeffery: St. Dunstan's took care of his infancy, and gave him a name; St. Mary's protected his age, and gave him a grave. In the year of our Lord 1796, in the 68th year of his age, and the 21st of his mayoralty, Sir Jeffery departed this life, and after lying in state three days, he was removed to the place appointed for all living, and was buried in a grave twelve feet deep, close to the watch house in the church-yard of the afore-mentioned parish of St. Mary, Whitechapel-SNUG.