BILL OF COSTS-BILL OF EXCHANGE. facts and circumstances relied on; and it should exchange performs two kinds of offices in commerce pray specifically for the particular relief which the-it saves the transmission of coined money, and it plaintiff conceives himself entitled to, and also for enables creditors not only to fix down debtors to a general relief, or, as the bill itself usually states, day of payment, but to get the use of a sum equivafor such further and other relief as the court may lent to the debt (less a small discount) before it is think proper;' the object and advantage of which properly due. general prayer is, to decree equity and justice without regard to the particular equity sought for. It is indispensable that the bill be signed by counsel, in order to guard against irrelevant and improper matter. It is indeed usually not only signed but drawn by counsel, from instructions laid before him by the plaintiff's solicitor. Where the object is the administration of the estate of a deceased person, the procedure is by summons, and is of a simple and very summary nature. In cases of this description, without either formal pleading or any direct application to the court itself, a summons may at once be obtained, and the estate thereupon put in a course of administration. There are also cases where the chancellor's aid is sought for in the form of a petition. Generally speaking, the modern English bill in Chancery very much resembles the Scotch summons and condescendence. See on the subject of this article, EQUITY, SUIT IN; CHANCERY; CHANCELLOR, LORD; PLEADING; SUMMONS; CONDESCENdence. BILL OF COSTS is an account stating articulately and in detail the charges and disbursements of an attorney or solicitor in the conduct of his client's business; and which costs may be recovered under the regulations of the Attorneys' and Solicitors' Act, 6 and 7 Vict. c. 73. See CoSTS. BILL IN CRIMINAL CASES is the formal name of an indictment for a crime or misdemeanour, when preferred before a grand jury. If that body finds a true bill,' the prisoner or party accused is thereupon tried before a petty jury, whose verdict determines his guilt or his innocence; but if the grand jury 'ignore the bill,' the accused is at once set at liberty. In the latter event, however, other bills may be sent up against him, with or without the same result. See ARRAIGNMENT, GRAND JURY, INDICTMENT, PROSECUTION, TRIAL. BILL OF EXCEPTIONS is а statement of objections, by way of appeal, against the ruling or charge of a judge in a civil cause. See TRIAL. * The origin of this important mercantile instrument is attributed by Montesquieu and others to the Jews and Lombards, when banished from France and England in the 13th c., for their usury and other alleged vices, in order the more easily to recover the effects they had left behind in these countries; but Blackstone shews its earlier use in the Mogul Empire in China; and Depauw, in his Philosophical Researches respecting the Greeks, has attempted to prove that bills of exchange were in use among that people, and particularly among the Athenians. However this may be, it is certain that hitherto no trace of them has been discovered either in the Roman code, or in any other system of ancient jurisprudence. The first notice of them in modern times occurs about the middle of the 12th c., and by the end of the 14th they had got into general use in all the commercial states of Europe. In England, from about the middle of the 14th c. down to the time of James I., and for many years after, bills of exchange were restricted to the purposes of foreign commerce. What are called inland bills-that is, bills drawn by and upon persons resident in this country-were not employed much earlier than the reign of Charles II., and even then they were regarded with distrust and jealousy by the English judges. Another restriction upon bills of exchange was, that the were merchants; and there is an old case tried privilege of their use was confined to parties that by the Court of King's Bench, in the days of William and Mary, where it was decided that an action on a foreign bill of exchange could not be mainnot a merchant! But all restraints on such instrutained, because the defendant was a gentleman, and ments gradually yielded to the wants and conveniences of society, and now any one capable of making a contract can be a party to a bill transaction, without regard to position, calling, or occupation. In Scotland, inland bills were put on the same footing with foreign bills, by an act of the Scottish parliament passed in 1696. A bill of exchange, as distinguished from a proBILL OF EXCHANGE, a document purport-missory-note (q. v.), is defined in law-books to be a ing to be an instrument of pecuniary obligation for written and open letter of request, addressed by a value received, and which is employed for the pur- person who is called the drawer, to another person pose of settling a debt in a manner convenient to called the drawee, desiring him to pay a certain the parties concerned. The original and simple idea sum of money, either to the drawer himself, or to of a bill is this: Two parties residing at a distance a third party called the payee, within a certain from each other can settle their transactions without time after its date, or after it is presented for paythe trouble or risk of sending money direct from the ment, or on demand. If the drawee signs the bill debtor to the creditor. Thus, A and B are two in token of his agreeing to this request, he is parties in business in London; and C and D are called the acceptor. For the constitution of the bill merchants in Cadiz. A owes C £1000; and D owes itself, no particular form of words is necessary, B a like sum. Instead of A sending cash to C, and provided its characteristic qualities clearly appear D to B, A pays B and receives B's bill on D, which on the face of it, as an essentially pecuniary instruhe sends to C, who receives the amount from D; so ment; a bill of exchange is only good for a certain that the transaction throughout is settled, without sum in money: such an instrument for the delivery a farthing in money being sent from Cadiz to of goods or property other than money, would be London, or from London to Čadiz. Another simple invalid. But although no particular words are idea of a bill is this: One person owes another £100 required in a bill or note, it is always advisable to for goods, for which he is to have credit for three adhere, as much as possible, to their customary months. The creditor, however, not being able con- form. To this general rule, however, there are veniently to be without the money for that length of exceptions: thus, by the 48 Geo. III. c. 88, negotime, gets from the debtor an obligation or bill bear- tiable bills or notes for less than 208. are void; and ing that the £100 is to be paid in three months. by the 17 Geo. III. c. 30, s. 1-made perpetual by This bill, being a negotiable instrument, will be dis- the 27 Geo. III. c. 16, and 7 Geo. IV. c. 6-such counted by a banker, or other capitalist, who now bills and notes under 20s. are illegal, and above stands in the position of the creditor, and receives this amount and less than £5, are also void, unless patment when the bill is due. Thus, a bill of they specify the name and place of abode of the BILL OF EXCHANGE. person to whom, or to whose order they are made due. While the bill is in the possession of A. B. payable, and are attested by one subscribed witness at the least, and bear date at or before the time when they are issued, and are made payable within twenty-one days after the date, and are in the form prescribed by the act. There are also certain forms prescribed with respect to cheques, and with respect to bills and notes issued and reissuable by bankers at certain distances. In regard to foreign bills, the risk of miscarriage to which they are liable in their transmission to distant countries has given rise to the custom of drawing them in sets; that is, writing out two or three of the same form and tenor, and transmitting them to the payee by different channels, so that if one or two of the individuals of any set are lost, the other might reach its destination. The first of the set that is presented and accepted is alone entitled | to payment, and payment of it discharges the acceptor; but foreign bills, of course, may also be drawn singly. Besides the other requisites mentioned, bills of exchange must be duly stamped. The regulations on this subject are contained in the 17 and 18 Vict. c. 83, and are to be found in almanacs and other publications in common use. By sections 3 and 5 of the Act, it is provided that the duties on bills drawn out of the United Kingdom shall be denoted by adhesive stamps, to be affixed by the holder of the bill before negotiating it, under a penalty of £50. The following are the usual forms of the bills of exchange. From the first form it will be seen that there are usually three parties to a Bill of Exchange, these three being: 1st, The drawer (C. D.); 2d, The payee, or party in whose favour the bill is drawn, and who is entitled to receive the contents (A. B.); and 3d, The acceptor or drawee (E. F.). The transaction, however, may be simply between the drawer and acceptor, without the interposition of a third party; and there are other modifications and changes of form, according to the circumstances of the case, and the mode in which it is desired to have the bill negotiated. The bill being thus in proper form, and duly authenticated, is then presented for acceptance, which may be defined to be the act by which the drawee evinces his consent to comply with, and be bound by, the request contained in the Bill of Exchange directed to him; or, in other words, it is an engagement to pay in money the bill when he is the holder, but if he pass it to G. H., A. B. is the indorser and G. H. the indorsee or ultimate holder. Acceptance in the case both of inland and foreign Bills of Exchange must now be in writing on the bill, and signed by the acceptor, or some person duly authorised by him. In England, the mode of acceptance is by the acceptor simply signing his name across the bill, or with the word 'accepted' before his name; but in Scotland acceptance is usually made by the acceptor signing his name immediately under the drawer. There are certain precautions to be observed before accepting. The drawee should, upon presentment for acceptance, and before he accepts, assure himself that the signature of the drawer is genuine, and that there has not been a fraudulent substitution of a larger sum than that originally inserted in the bill by the drawer. And if the drawee accept a forged bill, or a bill for a larger amount than that originally named by the drawer, he will nevertheless be liable to pay a bona-fide holder; nor will he have any right to recover against the drawer for the larger amount. There is also acceptance supra protest, which takes place where, after a foreign bill has been protested for non-acceptance, but not before, the drawee or any other person may accept it supra protest, which acceptance is so called from the manner in which it is made. And where the drawee of a foreign bill cannot be found, or is not capable of making a contract, or refuses to accept, this description of acceptance is frequently made in order to save the credit of all or some of the parties to the bill, and prevent legal proceedings. In this country it is called an acceptance for the honour of the person or persons for whose use it is made, and in France an acceptance par intervention. It had been a question in England what amounted to a qualified acceptance, but that was set at rest by the 1 and 2 Geo. IV. c. 78 for England, and 9 Geo. IV. c. 24 for Ireland, which required an acceptance, in order to be a qualified acceptance, to express that the bill is payable at a banker's elsewhere. And now, as against the acceptor, the house or other place only, and not otherwise or absence of these words from the acceptance leaves it at large, an unqualified acceptance, not requiring presentment at a particular place, notwithstanding that, in the body of the instrument, a particular place of payment is expressly specified by the drawer. There may likewise be conditional acceptance—that is, acceptance in such a form as will subject the acceptor to payment of the bill on a contingency only, of which there are numerous examples in the law reports; for instance, to pay 'as remitted for,' or on account of the ship Thetis, when in cash, for the said vessel's cargo,' or on condition of getting a certain house by a given term, or when certain goods are sold, or when certain funds come to hand. The bill as a negotiable instrument being thus complete in all its parts, may either be held by the drawer or other payee till due, when it may be presented for payment to the acceptor, or it may at once be transferred by indorsement (q. v.), the indorsee taking it for its value at maturity, and in the meantime cashing or discounting it to the holder. There may be a succession of indorsees, the last of whom is entitled to payment; and to him all the other indorsees as well as the drawee and drawer, are bound. When the bill comes to maturity-that is, when the period arrives for its presentment-it must either be at once paid, or the parties must arrange for its renewal (q. v.). If the latter course is not agreed on, and the necessary funds are not forthcoming, the holder can only then proceed to recover at law; and this is now done in a very speedy form under BILL-BILL OF SALE. a recent act, the 18 and 19 Vict. c. 67. This act, however, does not extend to Ireland, where the old form of action still prevails. But in Scotland payment of bills may be enforced even more summarily without any action, under the severe provisions of two old Scotch acts passed in 1681 and 1696. See INDORSEMENT, PROMISSORY-NOTE, RENEWAL. Bills are sometimes drawn at sight,' on demand,' or at one day's date; and in these cases it is doubtful whether the three days of grace allowed for payment beyond the literal time specified in the document are applicable. Unless in special cases, bills, by the Statute of Limitations (q. v.) in England, and by Prescription (q. v.) in Scotland, do not cease to be valid documents for six years. qualifying them to hold their respective offices. See ACT OF INDEMNITY, and ABJURATION. BILL OF LADING is a receipt from the captain of the vessel to the shipper (usual termed the consignor), undertaking to deliver the goods -on payment of freight-to some person whose name is therein expressed, or endorsed thereon by the consignor; and the delivery of this instrument— independently of the actual delivery of the goods— will suffice to pass and transfer to the party so named (usually termed the consignee), or to any other person whose name he may think fit to indorse thereon, the property in such goods; and by a recent statute, 18 and 19 Vict. c. 111, it is now expressly provided that every consignee and every endorsee of a B. of L. shall also have transferred to him all rights of suit, and be subject to the same liabilities in respect of the goods as if the contract in the B. of L. had been made with himself. It is also provided that every B. of L. shall be conclusive evidence of the shipment made. The act, however, declares that nothing contained in it shall prejudice or effect any right in transitu, or any right to claim freight against the original shipper or owner, or any liability of the consignee or indorsee, by reason or in consequence of his being such consignee or indorsee, or of his receipt of the goods, by reason or in consequence of such consignment or indorsement. See STOPPAGE in Transitu. BILLS OF MORTALITY are accounts of the births and deaths within a certain district; and In the United States there has sprung up a method of dealing with bills of exchange which is not much known in England. This consists in selling bills without a concurrent obligation by indorsement to make them good. Instead of discounting his bills in the usual form through a banker, a merchant in New York will sell his bills to a broker or dealer in this kind of instrument, the price paid being according to the state of the money-market and the creditworthiness of the acceptor. In such cases, the purchaser stands in the place of the drawer, undertakes all risks, and as custodier of the bill, has the power of legally exacting payment. The method of transacting with bills is called discounting without recourse. ACCOMMODATION BILL. A bill in its legitimate sense is a document constituting a debt, and they were an expedient, with the view of communias such is beneficial to all parties connected with cating to the inhabitants of London, to the court, and to the constituted authorities of the city, its negotiation. A owes B £100. A cannot conveniently pay the amount, while B is in need of it; decrease in the number of deaths. These bills were accurate information respecting the increase or B draws on A, and C (a banker) discounts, i. e., commenced in 1592, during a time when the plague for a consideration pays the amount to B. B thus was busy with its ravages; but they were not gets his money at once, A obtains time, while C makes a profit for advancing. These facilities have another plague in 1603, from which period, up to continued uninterruptedly until the occurrence of had the effect of inducing bills to be resorted to the present time, they have been continued from for raising money where no value is given, and week to week, excepting during the great fire, in which one party gives the use of his name when the deaths of two or three weeks were given for the accommodation of another. In the above in one bill. In 1605, the parishes comprised within case, for example, let us suppose that A does not owe B, but yet accepts B's draft. If C discounts the B. of M. included the 97 parishes within the the bill, it is immaterial whether he knows that walls, 16 parishes without the walls, and 6 conA has got value or not as an onerous holder, 1662, the city of Westminster was included in the tiguous out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey. In he can compel payment from A if B cannot pay bills; in 1636, the parishes of Islington, Lambeth, the bill. But if merely in B's hands, the amount is not recoverable from A if the latter can prove that Stepney, Newington, Hackney, and Redriff. additions were made from time to time. At present, no value was received by him. Accommodation bills the weekly B. of M. include the 97 parishes within the walls, 17 parishes without the walls, 24 outdistrict churches, and 10 parishes in the city and parishes in Middlesex and Surrey, including the liberties of Westminster. The parishes of Marylebone and St. Pancras, with some others, which, at the beginning of last century, had only 9150 inhabitants, but now contain a rapidly increasing population, were never included in the bills. give rise to much fraud and rash speculation, and many attempts have been made to suppress the system; but it is difficult to do so without unduly interfering with the negotiation of bone-fide bills. BILL, EXCHEQUER. See EXCHEQUER BILL. BILL OF HEALTH, a certificate or instrument, signed by consuls or other proper authorities, delivered to the masters of ships at the time of their clearing out from all ports or places suspected of being particularly subject to infectious disorders, certifying the state of health at the time that such ship sailed. A clean bill imports that at the time the ship sailed no infectious disorder was known to exist. A suspected bill, commonly called a touched patent or bill, imports that there were rumours of an infectious disorder, but it had not actually appeared. A foul bill, or the absence of a clean bill, imports that the place was infected when the vessel sailed. See M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary. BILL OF INDEMNITY, an act of parliament, passed every session, for the relief of those who have unwittingly or unavoidably neglected to take the necessary oaths, &c., required for the purpose of Other But these bills are now, from want of proper machinery, of little or no value, and the only true bill is now that prepared at the Registrar-general's office under the new Registration Act. The first of these weekly bills was commenced January 11, 1840, and the series has been continued from that See Wharton's Law time without interruption. Dictionary, 2d edition, 1860, and Knight's London. BILL IN PARLIAMENT. See ACT OF PARLIAMENT and PARLIAMENT. BILL OF RIGHTS. See RIGHTS, BILL OF. BILL OF SALE is a writing under seal, evidencing a grant or assignment of chattels personal. The occasions to which these instruments are commonly made applicable are sales of fixtures and furniture BILL OF SIGHT-BILLARDIERA. in a house, of the stock of a shop, of the good-will of a business, of an office, or the like. But their most important use is in the transfer of property in ships, which being held in shares, cannot, in general, be delivered over on each change of part-ownership. Such B. of S. may be either absolute or conditional; in the former case, operating as a conveyance, and in the latter, as a security. By the 17 and 18 Vict. c. 36, passed to prevent frauds upon creditors by secret bills of S., it is provided that every B. of S. must be filed in the Court of Queen's Bench within 21 days after its execution, together with an affidavit of the time of such B. of S. being given, and a description of the residence and occupation of the deponent, and of every attesting witness of such B. of S., otherwise it will be void, as against assignees in bankruptcy and insolvency, and creditors. The residence and occupation of each attesting witness should appear in the B. of S., and also in the affidavit. Notwithstanding these precautions, the practice of disposing of various kinds of movable property, more particularly household furniture and stocks of goods in trade by B. of S., leads to great and injurious deceptions: for as the seller, by an arrangement with the buyer, sometimes retains possession, and is in the eye of the world as much the proprietor as ever, he is enabled to carry on his affairs and get credit as usual. See REfuted Ownership. BILL OF SIGHT. The law on this subject is regulated by the Customs Regulation Act, 3 and 4 Will. Iỵ. c. 52, s. 24 and 25, and is to the effect that when a merchant is ignorant of the real quantities or qualities of any goods assigned to him, so that he is unable to make a perfect entry of them, he must acquaint the collector or comptroller of the circumstance; and the collector is authorised, upon the importer or his agent making oath that he cannot, for want of full information, make a perfect entry, to receive an entry by B. of S. for the packages, by the best description which can be given, and to grant warrant that the same may be landed and examined by the importer, in presence of the officers; and within three days after any goods shall have been so landed, the importer shall make a perfect entry, and shall either pay down the duties, or shall duly warehouse the same. In default of perfect entry within three days, such goods are to be taken to the Queen's warehouse; and if the importer shall not within one month make perfect entry, and pay the duties thereon, or on such parts as can be entered for home-use, together with charges of moving and warehouse rents, such goods shall be sold for payment of the duties. BILL OF STORE, a license under the Customs Regulation Act, the 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 52, granted by the Custom-house to merchants to carry such stores and provisions as are necessary for a voyage, custom-free. BILL OF VICTUALLING, or VICTUALLING BILL, is a document relating to the stores put on board a ship when leaving a British port; it is a safe guard in reference to customs' duties, and is regulated by a clause in an act passed in 1853. The master of a ship, on leaving a British port, for a voyage which (out and home) will not occupy less than 40 days, receives from the customs' authorities an order or permission for the shipment of such stores and victuals as may be required-the data being the number of crew and passengers, and the probable duration of the voyage. When these are shipped, the master prepares a correct account of them, and of any other stores at that time in the vessel; and this account, when approved and countersigned by the customs' officers, constitutes the victualling bill. No stores are allowed to be taken on board the ship, nor any articles taken on board to be deemed as stores, unless they be specified in this document. BILL-BROKERS are persons who, being skilled in the money-market, the state of mercantile and personal credit, and the rates of exchance, engage, either for their own profitable adventure, or that of their employers, in the purchase and sale of foreign and inland bills of exchange, and promissory-notes. They are to be distinguished from discount-brokers, or bill-discounters, whose business consists in discounting bills of exchange and notes which have some time to run before they come due, by means of the funds, or on the faith of the credit of capitalists or other persons having the command of money. See BROKER, BILL OF EXCHANGE, PROMISSORŸNOTE. BILL-CHAMBER is a particular department of the Court of Session in Scotland (coeval with the establishment of that court itself in 1532), the business of which corresponds, in many respects, to the practice of the Judges' Chambers in England. It is called the B., because, formerly in Scotland, judicial proceedings were for the most part commenced by a writ called a bill, which was the skeleton or draft of the legal process which it was sought to have issued, and which bill was obtained in this particular department of the court. For such purpose, as well as for other matters which do not admit of delay, the B. accordingly sat, as it continues to sit, all the year round, and as in England, it is presided over by a single judge. This judge, to whom for the time are delegated the whole powers of the court, is called the Lord Ordinary on the bills, and during the sittings of the Court of Session, the duty is taken by the junior or last appointed judge of the Court; but in vacation-time, the business of the B. is performed in rotation by the six judges of the court who are not justiciary or criminal judges. In case of the indisposition or absence of any of these six judges, any judge of the Court of Session may act for him. A recent act, the 20 and 21 Vict. c. 18, now regulates many of the details of the procedure. The business of the B. consists of all matters of a summary nature; and generally all cases requiring the immediate interposition of judicial authority are proceeded with, in the first instance, in the Billchamber. Applications for interdict or injunction, and for warrants necessary for the execution of process, are there at once made. The preliminary procedure by way of appeal from inferior courts, and in order to stay execution on the judgments of these tribunals, also takes place, in the first instance, in the Bill-Chamber. Matters of bankruptcy or sequestration are also adjudicated on in this department. But the decision of the judge or lord ordinary officiating in the B., may, with some exceptions, be brought under review of the court; and the judgment of the court itself thus sitting on B. cases, may be brought before the House of Lords by See COURT of SESSION, appeal, as in ordinary cases. JUDGES' CHAMBERS. BILLARDIE'RA, or A'PPLEBERRY, a genus of twining Australian shrubs of the natural order Pittosporaceæ (q. v.). They have simple alternate evergreen leaves, and axillary pendulous flowers. The flowers have a calyx of five sepals, and a bellshaped corolla of five petals. The fruit is a soft, spongy pericarp, with inflated cells, and many seeds which lie loose in the cells, terminated by the style, and generally bluish when ripe. It is eatable, although not destitute of a resinous character, which prevails in the order. B. longiflora and B. ovalis, the former with nearly globose, the latter with oval fruit, are frequent ornaments of British greenhouses. BILLAUD-VARENNE-BILLIARDS. The fruit of B. mutabilis is larger, cylindrical, and of a pleasant subacid taste. BILLAUD-VARENNE, JEAN NICOLAS, a leader in the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution; took an active part in the September massacres; entered the Convention, where he distinguished himself for his violence against the king and the royal family, and his general unfeeling cruelty. He was the author of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and it was on his proposal that the Duke of Orleans, the queen, and a host of others became its victims. He joined in the end in bringing about the fall of Robespierre, but could not ward off his own accusation as one of the Terrorists, and was transported to Cayenne, where he lived about 20 years, rejecting the pardon offered by the First Consul. In 1816, he came to New York, but was coldly received, and then sought an asylum in Hayti, where he died, 1819. BILLET, in Architecture, an ornament belonging to the Norman style. It was formed by cutting a moulding-generally a round moulding-into notches, so that the parts left resembled billets of wood. When used in several rows, the billets and Billet. empty spaces are placed interchangeably, as in the accompanying illustration. BILLET, in Heraldry. Billets are small oblong figures, sometimes taken to represent bricks, but more commonly billets doux. The latter interpretation, which is that of Guillim, is generally adopted by English heralds, and is supported by the authority of Colombiere. The former, again, which has the Trésor Héraldique and Sir George Mackenzie on its side, is further strengthened by the fact that in German they are called Schindeln, shingles. spirit-vaults, livery-stables, and such-like licensed There being many untoward circumstances connected with this system, a committee of the House of Commons, in 1858, sought how best to remove them. In their report, the committee could not recommend the cessation of the B. system altogether, but they pointed out certain possible ameliorations. BILLETING is a mode of provisioning and lodging soldiers when not in camp or barrack. It is one of the many vexed questions connected with the organisation and administration of the British army. When in camp or barrack, the soldier is supplied with hot food daily by the commissariat officers; or rather, with undressed food, and the means for cooking it. But when it is necessary to keep soldiers for one or more days in a town unprovided with barracks, a difficulty occurs which has never yet been properly surmounted; a burden is sure to rest on some one who is unwilling to bear it. In the early times of our history, monarchs were often wont to quarter their troops on the monasteries. In later times, the soldiers often compelled the inhabitants of towns to receive and support them; and the authorities were either unable or unwilling BILLIARDS (in Fr. billard, which meant orito prevent this. The Mutiny Act, passed for the ginally the stick or staff with which the ball is first time in 1689, put a stop to this pernicious struck, and is allied to Fr. billot, a block or billet practice, by declaring that no housekeepers should of wood). It seems doubtful whether we are be compelled to accommodate soldiers except on indebted for the discovery of this elegant game some recognised and fairly administered system. to France or Italy; but it is certain that it was The chief civil magistrate of a town, on requisition imported hither from the former country. It must from the military authorities, quartered the soldiers have been known, at all events by name, to Englishon the inhabitants as fairly as he could. This con- men as early as the 16th c., since Shakspeare speaks tinued in England until 1745, when all kinds of of it; although, when he represents Cleopatra as persons were exempted from this burden except amusing herself with B. in Egypt, it is probable certain traders; and the new system has been that he commits an anachronism. It is certain that maintained with minor alterations ever since. The the rectangular slate-table, with its resilient sides, alteration was not made in Scotland until 1857. covered with green cloth, and furnished with the At present, the persons liable to have soldiers six brass-bound pockets, the three ivory balls, billetted on them, are the keepers of public-houses, and that long array of cues with leathern tops, hotels, inns, ale-houses, beer-shops, wine-shops, so familiar now-a-days to almost every eye, are |