decreed, on the ground of the directors not having made use of the powers of regulating the affairs of the so. given them by the deed. He said, in effect, "If they do not avail themselves of these powers, then comes the question whether Bignold has not as much right as they to keep the books, so long as they do not appoint a proper hand to hold them." The Co. lingered but a few more years, and then died. We hear no more of Mr. Bignold. BIGOUSE, THE COUNT L. M. DE, for several years Man. for the European, in France. He died in 1871. BILATERAL CONTRACT.-A contract in which both the contracting parties are bound to fulfil obligations reciprocally towards each other; as a contract of sale, where one becomes bound to deliver the thing sold, and the other to pay the price of it.— Civil Law. BILBOA, INS. ORDINANCES OF.-The first Marine Ordin. of Bilboa was promulgated in 1560; and its leading features will be found embodied in the Ordin. of 1738. In 1737 another Ordin. was promulgated; but as this last related almost entirely to the contract of Bottomry, we shall reserve our remarks upon it for that head. [BOTTOMRY.] In 1738 was pub. what is generally known as the Marine Ordin. of Bilboa. It is a somewhat lengthy document, and is divided into two heads: (1) Of Averages-of which we have already spoken under AVERAGE MARITIME. (2) Of Ins., their Pol. and the Manner of making them, with which we propose now to deal. Under the first sec. of this division it sets forth: I. In regard that it is customary in this commerce to make various contracts of ins. as well by sea as land, which consist in the assurers taking the risk, losses, and contingencies, in fortuitous cases on them, viz., for what regards the sea-of shipwrecks, averages, jettisons, captures of enemies, detention of princes, barratry of the master and sailors, fires, and other unfortunate accidents, that may expectedly or unexpectedly happen to the merchandize and other things, obliging the assurer or assurers to pay the assured the sums which the pol. shall express, according to and as it is disposed by the ancient Ordin. of this Consulado, confirmed by His Majesty on the 15th Dec., 1560; and for as much as experience has since then demonstrated that from not making the pol. of the said ins. in due form and perspicuity many doubts, differences, and lawsuits have arisen, to the great prejudice of merchants, which to avoid for the future, it is ordained, that the said pol. are to be made before a notary, either by the intervention of a broker between the assured and assurers, or without it, as shall seem best to them; observing that they are to contain the christian and surnames, with the places of abode of the assurer or assurers and assured; the value of the goods and things ins., whether for the proper account of the assured or by commission; the names also of the ship, captain, and master; the place or port where the goods or things ins. are to be loaded; the road or port from whence the ship is to sail; that to which she is bound for her discharge; and if she is to touch at several places, their names, or the ports she is to stop at; the date (with the day and the hour) of the pol.; from what time the risk is to begin running, and when it shall end at the port she is bound to; the sum or sums which each assurer shall take to his charge, which every one ought to express above his firm; the prem. that according to agreement is to be paid the ins., with declaration of having received it down, or in any other manner; the obligation to be given by the assurer to the assured to pay in case of misfortune all the damages that shall supervene to what he shall ins.; the term for the payment of it; and with express submission to the decree of the Consulado of this town; and to be bound, and to go by the contents of this Ordin., without making use of any pretext to submit to others of these kingdoms or foreign ones. II. The pol. of ins, which shall be made between the parties, or by means of a broker, are to have the same force and validity as those passed before a notary by a public writing; and equal faith and credit is to be given to them, that they may be complied with, kept, and executed, although they should want some force, or instrumental clauses, which by the notaries ought to be inserted; and to avoid ignorance, and that all may know how to act in these cases, there shall be inserted at the end of this chap. two formularies of pol.; and besides there shall a number be printed of them of the same tenor, with spaces correspondent to what there may be to treat of and adjust between the parties, that they may there extend it accordingly; that every merchant may have those in his power which he shall want according to his dealings that have obtained the royal approbation of this Ordin. Then follow several clauses providing for sets of circumstances differing from the case of ordinary ins. Next the question of over-ins. is dealt with as follows: VII. As the making ins. for a greater sum than what each assured is concerned for in a ship may occasion great damages and inconveniences, it is ordained that henceforward no person for himself, nor in the name of another, shall get more insured than what the goods or things assured, the customs, charges till on board, and prems. of ins., shall collectively amount to, on penalty of the annulling such ins.; understanding it that the assured shall be obliged to run the risk in the whole of 10 p.c., and can only ins. the remaining 90 p.c. But in case the assurers agree that the whole shall be ins., any one may do it, expressing this circumstance in the pol., except the same assured owner shall sail with his goods in the vessel; because in this case he shall be precisely obliged to run the risk of the 10 p.c., under the said penalty of nullity. Next follow a series of regulations regarding ins., "imaginary gains," and of “men's lives," which were not permitted; and of ins. against captivity, which was permitted; and regarding "over-ins.," and "double ins.,” all of which will be noticed under their proper heads. Then the following: XXV. Ins. may be made on ships, effects, and merchandize perished, stolen, or damaged, even after the loss, robbery, or damage; but if the ship, effects, or merchandize shall have perished, been stolen, or damaged a long time before that in which the ins. was made (whether by sea or land, making the account by land of a league per hour, night and day), the ins. shall be held as null, without liberty of hearing it in judgment, or admitting any proof which the assured may want to offer, that he had no advice, good or bad; unless it be expressed in the pol. that the ins. is made upon bad or good advicefor then it shall be valid, if the assurer cannot prove that the assured knew of the loss, robbery, or damage before making the ins. XXVI. If the assurer, having advice of the arrival of the ship and goods, sign a pol., the ins. shall be null. XXVII. When it shall be proved against the assured, that he made the assu. after having advice of the loss or damage, he shall be obliged to return to the assurer what he shall have received from him, with 50 p.c. by way of a penalty, which shall be applied to the benefit of the river's mouth. XXVIII. Every assurer, as well as the assured, ought, when they shall go to sign a pol., or to treat, and agree on the prem., to manifest to the person who shall intervene, the good or bad advices that they shall have of the ship and cargo, that they may thereout treat of an agreement for the prem. XXIX. Whenever the assured has any advice of the ship's being forced out of her course, an average, the captain's death, or any other misfortune happening to what shall be ins., he shall communicate it to the assurer, or assurers, viz. they being of this town of Bilboa, immediately on his having the said advice; and being distant, he shall advise him who by their order shall have made the ins., without losing a port, that he may communicate it to the said underwriters. Then follow a series of clauses regarding "abandonment" in the ordinary understanding of the term; with a special provision regarding what may be termed "fraudulent abandonment," which we shall speak of under head of FRAUDS. The following is the form of pol. furnished by the Ordin. for merchandize. The form for ins. the ship being after the same model: In the name of God, Amen. Be it known to all men, that we, the persons who at the foot of this pol. sign our names, do thereby take to our risk and adventure that which shall run on . . . bales of valued at.. which inhabitant of. loads on the ship named whose captain or master is (or any other who shall go out in her as such), which at present is riding and anchored at. and, Providence permitting, is to make a voyage from it to...; and we run the said risk from or from the moment and hour that the aforesaid bales and goods shall be loaden in the said ship, and all the time that they shall be in her and spend in arriving at..., and that it the discharge is boat, lighter, pinnace, or any other sort of vessel, until they are, God pleasing, in in good safety, without the river's mouth. And in performing the voyage the said ship may sail backwards or forwards, to the right or to the left, and touch wherever is necessary; loading and unloading according to the will and liking of the said captain, or master, without its being deemed an alteration of the voyage. And the said risk we take is of the sea, winds, friends, or enemies, fire, barratry of the master, and detention of Kings, Princes, and States; and the damages, losses, or wastes, which the said goods shall receive at sea, by the aforesaid or by any other danger, or hazard they run; we take them on us to pay them to the said and to him that shall have his power, proportionably, without attending among ourselves to being the first or last, for to pay them to the said , or to whom shall have his right, every one of us in the sum which each of us shall express at the foot of this pol. and no more, with the condition that the said goods being put in safety in the place of. without the river's mouth, it be acknowledged that we have complied with our obligation; and this to be in itself null and of no value or effect; and if (which God forbid) by a storm, and with the opinion of the pilots, mariners, and passengers, to save the lives or to ransom them, or for any other common benefit, it shall be expedient to lighten the ship, let it be done, without waiting for our consent; or let them carry the goods to the most convenient port, and there sell them by judicial authority, and we will pay the costs and charges which they shall occasion, although there be no proof nor testimony; for we will, that the charges, damage, and waste, which from thence shall occur to the said goods, rest upon the oath of the said captain or master, or of the assured and his representative; and in these and other cases in which the damage and loss of said goods appears, we oblige ourselves, on the same time of this ins. expiring, to the payment of the sum that it shall import, distinguished in the oath of the said the assured, or of him that shall have his power, without admitting any exception, although we have it lawfully and of right; because we make this pol. at all our risk, hazard, and adventure; and with all the conditions, strength, and firmness, contained in the Ordin. lastly made by the University and House de Contratacion of this town of Bilboa, with its Consulado, which is confirmed by His Majesty (whom God preserve); all which we acknowledge as if inserted verbatim, and we confess to have seen and understood it. This for as much as there is to be paid us in ready money [or there has been paid us] which corresponds to . . . per cent. as a prem. for this ins., which is made in . . . [name, place, day, hour, month, and year]. The pol. was signed at foot by the underwriters, each of whom appears to have subscribed a sort of sub-contract as follows: from I..., inhabitant of..., one of those contained in the above pol., am content to run the risk in the aforesaid ship, named . . . for the goods which the said shall, or has loaded in her, in the voyage for of money, which I am to pay if lost by the causes and according to and as is expressed in the said pol.; and for it I declare to have received from the said . . . the sum of... for prem. at... p. c. from his hand, or by that of an exchange and bill broker of this said town, and I have signed it in [state day, month, and year].'" Another covenant was sometimes entered into in this form : And the assured must give us security to our satisfaction that he will be obliged to abide by the sentence which shall be imposed, if the case shall arise, that we should pay some losses or damages on the merchandize that we ins., and should afterwards prove that it was unjustly recovered; that in such case he restore and pay it. That if by this ins., we shall owe some dues, averages, and expenses, and they shall not be asked of us in the time appointed in the said new Ordin. of the House de Contratacion and Consulado of this town, the said. . . . must lose his right to demand them of us, and we are to remain free from this obligation. And on executing the pol. before the notary with the above and any other special conditions inserted, there was added the following: And to the performance and payment of what is said we oblige ourselves with our persons and goods that we possess and may acquire; and we give power to His Majesty's Justices, and especially and expressly to the Tribunal and Court of Messieurs the Prior and Consuls of the University and House de Contratacion of this said town, to whose jurisdiction we submit; and renounce our habitation that we have and may gain anew, and the law Si convenerit de Jurisdictione emnium judicum; and the last Pragmatica of the submissions, and the laws besides in our favour and the general; that the said tribunal, and no other court whatever, may compel us as by a sentence passed authoritatively in a thing determined, and consented to by us; and we so execute it before the present notary, in this said town of Bilboa [state day, month, and year, with the hour], witnesses and testimony of being known. This Ordin., which applied more particularly to the ports of Spain bordering on the Atlantic, was again ratified in 1774. It was further revised and ratified in 1819, and may now be regarded in a great measure as the Maritime or Ins. Ordin. of Spain. BILGE WATER.—The water that collects in the bottom of a ship by leakage or otherwise. When a ship is tight, the bilge water pumped up is dark; in a leaky ship, clear. It has usually a peculiar and offensive smell. BILGED. In nautical phrase having the bottom of a ship stove in. The lower or flat part of the bottom of a ship on which she rests when aground is called the "bilge" of a ship. The word is prob. connected with "bulge." BILIOUS (bilis, bile).-A term employed to characterize a class of diseases caused by a too copious secretion of bile. Biliary concretions.-Concretions occurring in some part of the biliary apparatus, comprising all the parts concerned in the secretion and concretion of the bile.-Hoblyn. BILLINGSLEY, MR. CASE, was the acting partner in the firm of Bradley and Billingsley, Solicitors, Mercers Hall, for several years preceding 1720; and his name frequently occurs in connexion with the various applications for charters to carry on marine and other branches of ins. [ANNU. ON LIVES.] [LIFE INS., HIST. OF] [MARINE INS., HIST. OF.] BILLINGSLEY'S INSURANCE.-An account of this project, set on foot in 1716, will be found under MARINE INS, HIST. OF. BILL OF EXCHANGE.—An instrument (generally on a long and narrow slip of paper), which contains an order of payment on a debtor at a distance from his creditor, and which may thus become a means for liquidating transactions by transference to some third party, without the actual conveyance of specie. Bills of exchange are generally stated to have been invented by the Jews of Lombardy concurrently with marine ins. There can be no doubt that the same development of commerce which rendered bills of exchange a desirable medium of payment for merchandize transmitted from a distance, rendered marine ins. also a necessity as a means of maintaining the credit of the merchant in the event of maritime disaster. That prob. is the extent of the connexion. Beckmann (Hist. of Inventions) says the first bills of exchange are mentioned by the jurist Baldus, and bore date A.D. 1328; but that they were not in common use until the following century. A bill of exchange is assignable at Common Law by mere indorsement, so that very many names are frequently attached to one bill, and each, any, or all of them may be sued upon the bill if it be not paid in due time. The person who makes or draws the bill is technically called the drawer; he to whom it is addressed is before acceptance the drawee, and after acceptance the acceptor; the person in whose favour it is drawn is the payee or holder; if he indorse the bill to another, he is called the indorser; and the person to whom it is thus assigned or negociated is the indorsee or holder; and so on ad infinitum. In 1833, by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 98, s. 7, bills of exchange and promissory notes having not more than three months to run were declared to be not subject to the Usury Laws. In 1837, by 7 Geo. IV. c. 80, this exemption was extended to bills, etc., at or within 12 months. On the abolition of the Usury Laws, all these distinctions were happily swept away. Bills of exchange drawn or negociated in Great Britain are subject to the Stamp Laws; as also are foreign bills negociated here. BILL OF GROSS ADVENTURE.-an instrument in writing which contains a contract of bottomry respondentia, and every species of maritime loan.-French Law. 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 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 that it had not actually appeared. A foul hill, or the absence of clean bills, imports that the place was infected when the vessel sailed.-McCulloch's Com. Dic. Bills of health were issued in Italy as early as 1527. BILL OF LADING.-A memorandum signed by masters of ships, in their capacity of carriers, acknowledging the receipt of merchants' goods, of which there are usually three partsone kept by the consignor, one sent to the consignee, and one preserved by the master. It is the evidence of the title of the goods shipped, and by its indorsement and delivery the transfer of the property in the goods specified therein is generally effected. And the bills of lading do declare what goods are laden, and bindeth the master to deliver them well conditioned to the place of discharge, according to the contents of the charter-party; binding himself, his ship, tackle, and furniture of it, for the performance thereof. Of these bills of lading, there is commonly three bills of one tenor made of the whole ship's lading, or of many particular parcels of goods, if there be many laders; and the marks of the goods must therein be expressed, and of whom received, and to whom to be delivered. These bills of lading are commonly to be had in print in all places, and several languages. One of them is inclosed in the letters written by the same ship, another bill is sent overland to the factor or party to whom the goods are consigned, the third remaineth with the merchant, for his testimony against the master, if there were any occasion or loose dealing; but especially it is kept for to serve in case of loss, to recover the value of the goods of the assurers that have undertaken to bear the adventure with you.—Malynes, 1755. VOL. I. 19 Bills of lading thus have a very intimate bearing upon marine ins. We have not been able to trace the origin of these instruments. The earliest one we have met with was in Philadelphia a few years since. It bears date 1711. We place by the side of it a bill as now in use: . Shipped, in good conditioned, by order, and wellin and upon the whereof is good ship called the Shipped, by the grace of God, in good order, and well-conditioned, by Pentecost Teague, in and upon the good sloop called the St. James, whereof is master under God for this present voyage William Wade, and now riding at anchor in the port Philadelphia, and, by God's grace, bound for Carosoe; to say sixteene half barrells of flower, three terces of bread, two boxes of candles, on ye proper account and risk of said Pentecost Teague, and goes consigned to said William Wade, marked and numbered as in the margin, and are to be delivered in the like good order and well-conditioned at the aforesaid port of Carosoe (the danger of the seas only excepted), unto said William Wade, or to his assigns, he or they paying fraight for the said goods eight pounds per tunn, with primage and average accustomed. In witness whereof, the master or purser of the said ship hath affirmed to three bills of lading all of this tenor and date, the one of which three bills being accomplished, the other two to stand void. And so God send the good ship to her desired port in safety. Amen. Dated, in Philadelphia, ye 18th 2nd mo. 1711. (Signed), William Wade. of this tenor and date, the one of which By 18 & 19 Vict. c. 111 (1855), the rights of suit under a bill of lading vest in the consignee or indorsee, without prejudice to any right of stoppage in transitu or of freight. By the 23 & 24 Vict. c. 22 (1860), s. 21, a bill of lading becomes the entry or shipping-bill of goods exported. BILLS OF MORTALITY.-B. of mort. are abstracts from parish registers, showing, as their name imports, the numbers that have died in any parish or place during certain periods of time, as in each week, month, or year; and are accordingly denominated weekly, monthly, or yearly bills. They sometimes include the numbers of the baptisms during the same periods, and generally (in later times) those of the marriages. The hist. of B. of mort. occupies an important place in the development of the science of life contin. Each successive step in this direction may be said to have been either dependent upon, or to have led to, improvements in the early bills. It seems hardly too much to say that if there had been no B. of mort. there would have been no T. of mort., and hence no life ins. conducted on exact scientific principles. The B. of mort. have been used in various ways, and for various purposes. Sydenham, it is evident, had the Lond. bills before him in writing his imperishable commentaries. Arbuthnot used them in an argument on Divine Providence, and in the interests of morality He shows from these bills that males always exceed females in the yearly births, but that external accidents make great havoc among males. He concludes, therefore, that polygamy is contrary to the law of nature and justice. Heberden, in a masterly paper, illustrated the use of the weekly obs., and deduced from them an important law, the Influence of Cold upon Health. Simpson and Price constructed life T. from the Lond. bills.-Dr. Farr, 27th Report of R.G. Her Rome had its B. of mort. (Rationes Libitina), which were kept in the Temple of Libitina, the Goddess of Funerals. Her officers were the Libitinarii, our undertakers. temple-in which all the business connected with the last rites was transacted-served the purpose of a regis. office. At this temple an account (ratio, ephemeris) was kept of those who died; and a small sum was paid for the regis. of their names.-Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities. We have it on the authority of Dr. Short, that B. of mort. were kept in some of the country parishes of England as early as 1538; and indeed he gives the bills for Worksop (Notts) and Melton-on-Hill (Yorkshire) for that year. He did not find any at an earlier date, although he entered upon a most painstaking inquiry for the purpose. [Death, CAUSES OF.] [PARISH REGISTERS.] It is generally stated by writers upon the subject that the first B. of mort. for the city of Lond. was pub. at the close of 1592; but it is now known that a bill was pub. at least 30 years earlier, viz., in 1562, in support of whch position we here quote the following interesting passage from Maitland: As neither the parish clerks' account nor that pub. by Mr. Graunt take any notice of the first B. of mort. pub. in this city for the year 1562, nor of those for the years 1593 and 1603, I shall supply these defects from the great and valuable library of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., which, by the vast number of its books and generosity of its owner, is rendered as useful as any of the publick libraries within the city or suburbs of Lond. In the year 1562 a grievous pestilence raged in this city; therefore, in order to know the increase and decrease of the same, 'twas judg'd necessary to take an account of the number of burials, which being the first of the kind that was ever taken in Lond., it commenced on the 1st Jan., 1562, and ended the last of Dec., whereby it appears that the total number buried within the city and suburbs in that year amounted to 23,630, whereof of the plague, 20,136.-Hist. of Lond. Here is an extract from the bill so referred to as given by Stow : Buried in London, and the places near adjoining, from the Ist. of Jan. 1562, to the 1st of Jan. 1563, in the whole number Whereof of the plague ... The true number of all that were buried within the Citie and Liberties. 23,630 20,136 20,414 The true number of all that were buried in places near adjoining to the Citie 3216 and without the Liberties ... Then follows the numbers who died in each parish, making up the above totals. There is now in good preservation at the Hall of the Parish Clerks a printed B. of Mort. for the year 1582, as follows:-The number of all those that hath dyed in the Citie of London, & the liberties of the same, from the 28 of December, 1581, vnto the 27 of December 1582, with the Christenings; and also the number of all those that have dyed of the plague of eury parish particularly.-Reuela. 14 chap. Blessed are the deade that die in the Lorde, even so sayth the Spirite, for they rest from their labours. There is deade this yeere, that is to say, fro. the 28 of December 1581 unto the 27 of December 1582 within the citie and the liberties of the same.. Of the plague Christened Parishes clear of the plague Of the plague ... ... vi.MD.cccc.xxx Here followeth the parishes with their numbers, that hath been buried of the plague. [Making up the above totals.] In 1592, the plague again appearing in Lond., the Fraternity of St. Nicholas instituted and provided a weekly account of the burials, which at the end of the year-Dec. 21, 1592, to Dec. 21, 1593-were announced as amounting to 17,844; "whereof have died of the plague, 10,662; christened this year, 4021; parishes clear of the plague, none." -Parish Clerks' Register. The following is a copy of a bill, given from March to Dec. of the same year [1592] by the author of the Four Great Plagues, pub. in 1665: ... ... 25,886 The total of all the burials of the time above said This is the bill which is generally, but as we have seen erroneously, spoken of as the "first Lond. B. of Mort." The first occasion of the weekly bills being issued to the public was in 1594. The charge for them was 45. p.a. Dr. Farr speaks of it as a part of the general measures of the able Gov. of Queen Elizabeth that "abstracts of burials, baptisms, and marriages, were directed to be compiled in each parish; and persons were appointed to view the bodies of all that died before they were suffered to be buried, and to certify of what prob. disease each individual died, in statements of which it was the duty of the minister to make a weekly return." In this way we may account for the bills being found to exist in places which are now regarded as obscure. [PAROCHIAL REGISTRATION.] The plague still continuing, weekly accounts of burials were issued to 18th Dec. 1595, when the practice was again abondoned, the plague having subsided in the course of the year. |
