The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-20 00:00:00

BANICE.RS' CHEQUES AND DRAFTS.

A correspondent writing to a contemporary,
says :7" Much inconvenience having been lately
experienced in the commercial world in conse-
quence of a new regulation having been made (by
whom lam at a loss to know) respecting bankers'
cheques, I shall feel obliged by your allowing me
to call your attention to the same. It appears
that now all cheques which are made payable ' to
order' must be endorsed by the payee himself, and
cannot, under any circumstances, be endorsed by
procuration. Now, I wish to point out to you the
very serious inconvenience which arises from this
apparently uncalled-for change. Supposing any
person to whom cheques are made payable ' to
order' to be abroad, or at any distant spot, and
where he cannot be easily communicated with ; his
return must be waited for before such cheques can
be cashed, because no other person than himself
can endorse them, thus causing a great risk. This
new regulation appears to me to be the more ex-
traordinary, as it does not apply to the signing or
endorsing bills of exchange or signing cheques—
all of which can be done by procuration ; and why,
let me ask, cannot the same rule apply to ordinary
cheques ? There is also another plan respecting
cheques which I would recommend as a safeguard
to all persons engaged in business, which is, that in
addition to crossing them with the name of their
banker they should mention their own as well
across the cheques ; thus, supposing a cheque to
be drawn in favour of James Smith, and his bankers
to be Barnett and Co.—across the cheque should
be written, Mr. James Smith's account at Messrs.
I Barnett and Co.'s,'"

On the same subject the writer of the Times'
City Article makes the following observations :
" The question raised some time back as to the re-
sponsibility of bankers in paying checks drawn to
order, on tile signature of a person pretending to
hold a procuration is likely to remain without a
definitive settlement. The facts which induced pub-
Uic attention to the matter were as follow :—An
action was brought against the Bank of England
to recover the amount of a check drawn payable to '
order, and endorsed by a person purporting to sign
by procuration from the payee, but which procura-
tion was denied. The claim was based upon the
view that the 19th section of the Act 16th and 17th
Victoria, c. 59, which protects bankers from respon-
sibility in paying checks purporting to be endorsed
by the payee, did not extend to checks purporting
to be endorsed by another person by procuration. The
action came on for trial at the London sittings in
July last, when Mr. Baron Martin held, without
argument, that the enactment referred to extended
as well to cases of endorsement by procuration as
to those purporting to be by the payer in person,
the object of this proceeding being to obtain a deci-
sion of the full Court upon the question of law in
the current term. It appears, however, that the
plaintiff has decided not to carry the case further,
and that the law must therefore remain in its pre-
sent unsatisfactory state. At the same time it may
be remarked, that few persons can doubt that the
immunity to the bankers conferred by the Act was
intended to bt complete. The clause which, in con-
tradiction to the entire spirit of the statute law of
the ki•ngdorn, exempts bankers from a liability to
wb!tch all the rest of the community are bound to
conform, furnishes the worst example of petty class
legislation witnessed in recent times, but so long as
' it is permitted to remain it will be advisable for the
public to regard it in all its stringency.

THE VACANT ALDERMANIC Gows.—The place of
nomination of the several candidates to represent the Ward
of Walbreok in the Court of Aldermen has been changed
from the Bay Tree Tavern, St. Swithin's-lane, to the School-
room, Oxford-Court, Cannon-street. The election will take
place, as already stated, on Thursday next, at two o'clock,
and the polling on the following day,