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The customs of merchants, which were established when the

barbarous laws of Europe did not enforce the performance of their

contracts, and which, during the course of the two last

centuries, have been adopted into the laws of all European

nations, have given such extraordinary privileges to bills of

exchange, that money is more readily advanced upon them than upon

any other species of obligation; especially when they are made

payable within so short a period as two or three months after

their date. If, when the bill becomes due, the acceptor does not

pay it as soon as it is presented, he becomes from that moment a

bankrupt. The bill is protested, and returns upon the drawer,

who, if he does not immediately pay it, becomes likewise a

bankrupt.