There  is  an  acceptance  in  performance  of  the
contract  when  the  buyer  intimates  to  the  seller
that  he  has  accepted  the  goods,  or  when  he
does  any  act  in  relation  to  them  inconsistent
with  the  ownership  of  the  seller ;  but  for  the
purposes  of  the  17th  section  of  the  Statute  of
Frauds,  it  is  sufficient  if  he  does  any  act  which
recognises  a  pre-existing  contract  of  sale,  even
though  he  may  not  be  precluded  from  after-
wards rejecting  the  goods  (see  Sale).
In  relation  to  bills  of  exchange  the  term
primarily  means  the  acceptance  by  the  drawee
of  a  bill  of  exchange  duly  written  thereon  and
signed  ;  but  as  the  main  object  of  the  drawer  of
a  bill  is  to  get  it  accepted,  the  term  "accept-
ance" is  frequently  used  to  denote  the  bill
itself,  and  is  then  synonymous  with  "bill  of
exchange  "  (see  Bill  of  Exchange).
M.  D.  c.
ACCEPTILATION  (Scots  and  civil  law).
Extinction  of  a  debt  by  discharge  granted
gratuitously  or  for  trifling  payment.        A.  D.
ACCEPTOR.  The  person  on  whom  a  bill  of
exchange  is  drawn,  namely,  the  drawee,  becomes
the  acceptor  by  signifying  his  assent  to  the
document  in  writing  (see  Bill  of  Exchange).
The  validity  of  an  acceptance  sometimes  turns
on  very  intricate  points  of  law.
For  details  on  this,  see  The  Practice  of  Bank-
ing, by  John  Hutchison,  especially  vols.  i.  and  iii.
ACCESSIO.  A  term  of  Roman  law  used
to  express  the  acquisition  of  property  by  an
addition  to  former  property,  due  to  an  acci-
dental circumstance.  If,  for  instance,  a  plot
of  land  on  the  bank  of  a  river  was  increased  by
the  gradual  deposit  of  earth  on  the  bank,  the
property  in  the  new  piece  of  land  was  said  to
be  acquired  by  "accessio."  e.  s.
