Excerpt from A Treatise on the Law of Usury: To Which Is Added, the Statutes of the Several States Relating to Interest Now in Force; Together With a Digest of All the Decisions, and an Index to the Reported Adjudications From the Stature of Henry VIII. To the Present Time

Mr. Kelly, of London, in 1836 published a work on naury; but the design of that gentleman appeared to be rather an essay on the policy of the law, than an attempt to illustrate and explain it; as he added nothing to the works of his predecessors. It might thereforebe expect ed that nothing should besaid in reply to the continued attempts of essayist: to show the inutility of stamtes against usury. But this volume emanates from no poli tician. The best argument in favor Of usury laws is perhaps the gigantic ed'otta of usurens to repeal them. The more numerous class of borrowers do not feel their inconvenience; and the experience of the last half century, to say nothing of antiquity, conclusively shows, that how ever they may be varied by temporary excitement, they can never be permanently repealed. It will be seen that there is nestate in the union; with perhaps the exception of the Plymouth colony of Massachusetts, that has not attempted to do' without them, and signally failed. Seine do indeed question their moral tendency, and to such, no argument will he so effective as the payment by them selves of-emerhitaut interest. It was this that brought the legislators of Alabama to their better judgment in 1819. It was this that introduced Poindexter's code in Mississippi in 1822, and. Aroused the interior of New York in 1837. And it will be this that will cause to be re-en noted severer penalties after any future abolition of the laws against usury. But there is still another class of men, who, however much they 'may believe in the neces city of such laws, feel unwilling to plead the statute afterhaving promised to pay the extra interest. Are they not under a'pr'ior engagement to vindicate the law? DO they feel as much repugnance in a beggarly resort to the, bankrupt or insolvent acts to be discharged from legal creditors after having wasted their substance in the pay ment of illegal demands. 7 The position cannot be too broadly laid down, that he who successively pays usury must eventually fail. And the pretended honesty of those moralists who would refuse to plead usury because they have promised to pay it, is a fit conduit for thefiunau thorized transfer of honest men's property to the payment of other men's illegal claims. There can be no more money to loan at one rate of interest than another. Capi tal is always avaricious, and those who possess It, can be compelled to employ it, if others without it would but let them alone. Like the capitalists Of Europe, they will lend at legal interest, in preference to consuming their substance In idle expenditure.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.