his credit should suffer by the bill going back protested,
accepts it, and pays it for him. This is called accepting it for the
honour of the drawer; and he writes so upon the bill when he accepts it,
which entitles him to re-draw the same with interest upon the drawer in
Lisbon or Bourdeaux, as above.

This is, indeed, a case peculiar to foreign commerce, and is not often
practised in home trade, and among shopkeepers, though sometimes I have
known it practised here too: but I name it on two accounts, first--to
legitimate the word honourable, which I had used, and which has its due
propriety in matters of trade, though not in the same acceptation as it
generally receives in common affairs; and, secondly, to let the
tradesman see how deeply the honour, that is, the credit of trade, is
concerned in the punctual payment of bills of exchange, and the like of
promissory notes; for in point of credit there is no difference, though
in matter of form there is.

There are a great many variations in the drawing bills from foreign
countries, according as the customs and usages of merchants direct, and
according as the coins and rates of exchange differ, and according as
the same terms are differently understood in several places; as the word
_usance_, and _two usance,_ which is a term for the number of days given
for payment, after the date of the bill; and though this is a thing
particularly relating to merchants, and to foreign commerce, yet as the
nature of bills of exchange is pretty general, and that sometimes an
inland tradesman, especially in seaport towns, may be obliged to take
foreign accepted bills in payment for their goods; or if they have money
to spare (as sometimes it is an inland tradesman's good luck to have),
may be asked to discount such bills--I say, on this account, and that
they may know the value of a foreign bill when they see it, and how far
it has to run, before it has to be demanded, I think it not foreign to
the case before me, to give them the following account:--

1. As to the times of payment of foreign bills of exchange, and the
terms of art ordinarily used by merchants in drawing, and expressed in
the said bills: the times of payment are, as above, either--

(1.) At sight; which is to be understood, not the day it is presented,
but three days (called days of grace) after the bill is accepted: (2.)
usance: (3.) two usance.[47]

Usance between London and all the towns in the States Generals'
d