The following history of the Uniform Negotiable Instrument Law is taken from Street's Foundation of Legal Liability:1

"Judge M. D. Chalmers published his Digest of the English Law of Bills, Notes and Cheques in 1878. In form it was modeled after the Indian Codes. In substance it was a statement, in succinct and orderly paragraphs, of the results of the decided cases. The general propositions were framed by the author and illustrated, so far as practicable, by reference to actual decisions. The writer, however, in order to complete the symmetry of his work did not confine himself to the binding decisions of the English courts, but, where there was no expression from that source on a particular point, consulted the decisions of foreign tribunals and the works of foreign jurists, as well as usages of merchants and bankers.

"The skill with which Judge Chalmers performed his task attracted much favorable notice, and accordingly soon afterwards the Institute of Bankers and Associated Chambers of Commerce procured his services in framing a bill. In doing this, he strove to reproduce, as exactly as possible, the existing law, whether it seemed good, bad, or indifferent in its effect. The bill was then introduced in Parliament, and was passed after certain amendments had been incorporated, on the advice of a select committee of merchants, bankers, and lawyers, to whom the bill was referred.

1 Vol. II, pages 495 - 6.

"The English Bills of Exchange Act (1882), is, therefore, substantially, a codification of existing law. It has given great satisfaction in England and in her self-governing colonies, in all of which it has been adopted. The very small number of cases involving bills and notes, which have reached the higher courts since its passage, show that the act has contributed much to the removal of doubt and controversy.

"The favor with which this piece of parliamentary legislation was received in England stimulated efforts to the same end in America, and in 1895 the American Commissioners on the Uniformity of Legislation, instructed their Committee on Commercial Law to have the American Laws of Bills and Notes put into the form of a code. The matter was referred to a subcommittee composed of Messrs. Lyman D. Brewster, Henry C. Wilcox, and Frank Bergen. These gentlemen procured Mr. J. J. Crawford of New York City to draft the law. The result of his labor was submitted to the commissioners at Saratoga in 1896. They carefully went over the bill and made a few changes, chiefly such as the draftsman had not felt at liberty, on his own authority, to make. As thus amended, the draft was approved by the conference and submitted to the legislatures of a number of the states. New York first enacted it into law, and more than twenty of the American states have since followed this example. "

The law has been adopted literally in some of the states, but in others, as in Illinois, some provisions have been materially changed. In the following articles the text of the original act is given in full, the changes in the Illinois statutes, in addition, being inserted in brackets.