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the Pope, but that the sums so raised should be delivered tomerchants in England, to be remitted to the Pope by way ofexchange—however, it appears that, in general, bills of ex-change were then considered illegal, unless the king’s licencehad been previously obtained. By an ordinance passed atBarcelona in 1394, bills of exchange were directed to beaccepted within twenty-four hours after they were presented.In 1404 bills were drawn in duplicate and protested on non-acceptance. Inland bills of exchange were not common inEngland before the reign of Charles II . Promissory notescame into use in the reign of William and Mary .

BILLS OF MORTALITY. It is said that a registry ofbirths, marriages, and deaths, was first ordered to be insertedin the parish books in 1530 by that great, but unfortunateperson , Thomas Cromwell , earl of Essex, while he was vicar- general to Hen . VIII.: and that this practice was continuedin the reigns of Edward VI. and Eliz. It was afterwardsdiscontinued in London , but resumed in 1603, after the greatplague of that year, and has ever since been continued weeklyby the company of parish clerks—though others date the re-commencement from December, 1592. The London bills ofmortality embrace ninety-seven parishes within the walls ofthe city—seventeen parishes without the walls—twenty-fourout-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey—and ten in the city andliberties of Westminster : in all one hundred and forty-eightparishes. The bills of mortality in London , on the presentplan, were first published in 1728. The first bills containingthe ages of the dead were those for the town of Breslau , inSilesia, from which calculations on the probable duration ofhuman life were made, and published by Dr. Halley, and thusby establishing data for the foundation of life-assurance com-panies, first gave rise to that method of securing a provisionfor children after death.

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