I  have  already  referred  to  the  days  of  grace,  making  the  4th
a  large  day,  but  the  fact  that  bills  are  generally  drawn  at  so  many
days  after  date  has  another  curious  effect.  By  months  is  meant
calendar  months,  and  as  the  months  are  of  unequal  lengths  it  happens
that  on  some  days  a  three  months'  bill,  for  example,  cannot  fall  due,
and  on  other  days  the  bills  drawn  on  two  or  three  consecutive
days  will  all  fall  due  together.  Thus  bills  drawn  at  three  mouths
on  November  28,  29,  or  30,  will  all  come  due  on  March  3 ;  and,
on  the  other  hand,  no  three  months'  bill  can  fall  due  on  June  1,  2,
or  3.     I  give  at  page  566  a  table  showing  this.
Perhaps  the  most  curious  cause  of  fluctuation  is  the  following.
Bills  are  generally  dated  on  the  day  on  which  they  purport  to  be
drawn.  It  follows  from  this,  that  very  few  bills  indeed  are  dated  on
a  Sunday.  Now  the  largest  number  of  bills  are  bills  at  three
months,  and  if  we  can  determine  on  what  day  of  the  week  a  bill
drawn  at  three  months  from  a  Sunday  would  fall  due,  we  may  ex-
pect to  find  that  that  day  will  be  a  very  small  one.  This  con^
elusion  is  borne  out  by  the  facts,  and  this  simple  cause  infiuencei
the  clearing  on  an  average  to;  the  extent  of  nearly  £1,000,000.
