Sec.5.  No precise time is fixed by law at which bills payable at sight or a certain number of days after sight, must be presented to the drawee for acceptance; though an unreasonable delay might discharge the drawer.  A bill payable on a certain day after date, need not be presented before the day of payment, but if presented before due, and acceptance is refused, it is dishonored; and notice must be given immediately to the drawer.  If a bill has been accepted, payment must be demanded of the acceptor, when the bill falls due; and if no place is appointed for payment, the demand must be made at his house or residence, or upon him personally.

Sec.6.  A check upon a bank, (Chap.  XXIV, Sec.3,) is another kind of negotiable paper.  It partakes more of the nature of a bill of exchange than of a promissory note.  It is not a direct promise to pay; but it is an undertaking, by the drawer, that the drawee shall accept and pay; and the drawer is answerable only when the drawee fails to pay.  A check payable to bearer passes by delivery; and the bearer may sue on it as on an inland bill of exchange.

Sec.7.  When a foreign bill of exchange is to be presented for acceptance or payment, demand is usually made by a notary public; and in case of refusal, his certificate of the presentment of the bill and of the refusal, is legal proof of the fact in any court.  This certificate is called protest, which means, for proof.  A protest may be noted on the day of the demand; though it may be drawn up in form at a future period.  Notaries are appointed in all towns and cities of commercial importance.

Sec.8.  A protest of an inland bill of exchange is not generally deemed necessary in this country; though it is the practice to have bills, drawn in one state on persons in another, protested by a notary.  No protest is legal evidence in court, except in the case of a foreign bill.  Yet it is expedient, in many cases of inland bills, to employ notaries when evidence is to be preserved, because they are easily found when wanted as witnesses.  In some states, bills drawn in one state and payable in another, are deemed foreign bills; and their protest as such is required.  Notes payable at banks are also protested for non-payment.

Sec.9. Interest is a premium paid for the use of money, or a profit per cent, received for money lent, or on an unpaid demand.  Thus a person lends $1,000 to another person, who pays for the use of it six per cent, a year, or $6 for every hundred, as interest.  The rate of interest is fixed by a law of the state.

Sec.10.  The established lawful rates of interest in the several states are as follows:  Six per cent, in all but the following:  In New-York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, seven per cent.; in Alabama and Texas eight per cent.; in Louisiana, five per cent.; bank interest six; in California, ten per cent.  But there may be taken by special agreement, in Florida and Louisiana, eight per cent.; in Mississippi, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri, Iowa, ten; in Texas and Wisconsin, twelve; in Minnesota and California, any rate.  In Illinois and Michigan, for money loaned, it may be ten.  In Mississippi, for the bona fide use of money eight per cent.