Bill
a written or printed paper containing a statement of any particulars. In common use a tradesman's account, or a printed proclamation or advertisement, is thus called a bill. In legislation a bill is a draft of a proposed statute submitted to a legislative assembly for approval, but not yet enacted or passed and made law. When the bill has passed and received the necessary assent, it becomes an act. Bill of Adventure. A writing signed by a merchant, in which he states that certain goods shipped in his name really belong to another person, at whose risk the adventure is made.
Bill of Attainder. - A bill declaring that the person named in it is attained and his property confiscated. The Constitution of the United States declares that no State shall pass any bill of attainder.
Bill of Costs. - A statement of the items which form the total amount of the costs of a suit or action. This is demandable as a matter of right before the payment of the costs.
Bill of Credit. - A letter sent by an agent or other person to a merchant, desiring him to give the bearer credit for goods or money. It is frequently given to one about to travel abroad, abroad, and empowers him to take up money from the foreign correspondents of the person from whom the bill or letter of credit was received.
Bill of Entry. -A written account of goods entered at the custom-house, whether imported or designed for exportation.
Bill of Exceptions. A bill of the nature of an appeal from a judge who is held to have misstated the law, whether by ignorance, by inadvertence, or by design. This the judge is bound to seal if he be requested by the counsel on either side so to do. The exceptions noted are reviewed by the court to which appeal is taken, and if the objections made to the rulings of the trial judge are well founded, the finding in the case is reversed, and usually the cause is remanded for a new trial. Bill of Exchange. - A bill or security originally introduced for enabling a merchant in one country to remit money BILL to a correspondent in the other. It is an body for its approbation and enactment. open letter of request from one man to another desiring him to pay to a third party a specified sum and put it to the account of the first. In such a transaction, B., the person who writes the bill of exchange, is called the drawer; A., to whom it is written, is termed up to the time that he accepts it, the drawee, and after he has done so, the acceptor; and C., his order, or the bearer-in short, whoever is entitled to receive the money-the payee. The bill may be assigned to another by simple indorsement; the person who thus transfers it is named the indorser, and the one to whom it is assigned the indorsee or holder. Every one whose name is on the back of a bill is responsible if the person on whom payment should legitimately fall fails to meet his engagement. The first bills known in commerce were about A. D. 1328. Bills of exchange are also called drafts.
Bill of Health. - A certificate given to the master of a ship clearing out of a port in which contagious disease is epidemic, or is suspected to be so, certify ing to the state of health of the crew and passengers on board.
Bill of Indictment.-A written accusation made against one or more persons of having committed a specified crime or misdemeanor. It is preferred to and presented on oath by a grand jury. If the grand jury find the allegations unproved, they ignore the bill, giving as their verdict, "Not a true bill"; if, on the contrary, they consider the indictment proved, their verdict is a "True bill."
Bill of Lading. - A document by which the master of a ship acknowledges to have received on board his vessel, in good order and condition, certain specified goods consigned to him by some particular shipper, and binds himself to deliver them in similarly good order and condition-unless the dangers of the sea, fire, or enemies prevent him to the assignees of the shipper at the point of destination, on their paying him the stipulated freight. Usually two or three copies of a bill of lading are made, worded thus: "One of which bills being accomplished, the others stand void." A bill of lading may be transferred by indorsement like a bill of exchange.
Bill of Parcels. An account given by a seller to a buyer, giving a list of the several articles which he has purchased, and their prices.
Bill of Parliamentary Procedure. An instrument drawn or presented by a member or committee to a legislative BILL After it has successfully passed both houses and received the constitutional sanction of the chief magistrate, where such approbation is requisite, it becomes a law.
Bill of Particulars. -A paper stating in detail a plaintiff's case, or the set off on defendant's side.
Bill of Rights. A bill which gave legal validity to the claim of rights, i. e., the declaration presented by the Lords and Commons to the Prince and Princess of Orange on Feb. 13, 1688, and afterward enacted in Parliament when they became King and Queen. It declared it illegal, without the sanction of Parliament, to suspend or dispense with laws, to erect commission courts, to levy money for the use of the crown on pretense of prerogative, and to raise and maintain a standing army in the time of peace. It also declared that subjects have a right to petition the King, and, if Protestants, to carry arms for defense; also that members of Parliament ought to be freely elected, and that their proceedings ought not to be impeached or questioned in any place out of Parliament. It further enacted that excessive bail ought not to be required, or excessive fines imposed, or unusual punishment inflicted; that juries should be chosen without partiality; that all grants and promises of fires or forfeitures before conviction are illegal; and, that, for redress of grievances and preserving of the laws, Parliament ought to be held frequently. Finally, it provided for the settlement of the crown.
In the United States, a bill of rights, or, as it is more commonly termed in this country, a declaration of rights, is prefixed to the constitutions of most of the States.
Bill of Sale. - A deed of writing, under seal, designed to furnish evidence of the sale of personal property. It is necessary to have such an instrument when the sale of property is not to be immediately followed by its transference to the purchaser. It is used in the transfer of property in ships, in that of stock in trade, or the good-will of a business.
It is employed also in the sale of furniture, the removal of which from the house would call attention to the embarrassed circumstances of its owner; hence the statistics of the bills of sale act as an index to measure the amount of secret distress existing in times of commercial depression. In not a few cases bills of sale are used to defeat just claims against the nominal or real vendor of the goods transferred.
BILL BROKER Bill of Sight. A form of entry at the custom-house by which one can land for inspection, in presence of the officers, such goods as he has not had the opportunity of previously examining, and which, consequently, he rately describe. which, consequently, he cannot accu-