of two men to commit a murder, is not a good reason for the permission of the crime, when the very essence of murder is that it was done premeditatedly.

Society does not choose to grant an immunity to men who cast a fearful gloom upon her destiny, and have nothing to offer in palliation of their crimes, except impudent defiance of all law and audacious contempt for the rights of peaceable communities.

Usury is done by the consent of both parties. But is that a reason why men should commit a great wrong on society, obstructing the business, labor and commerce of the country by gambling in the currency? The consent of the parties only aggravates the crime of voluntarily disregarding the majesty of the law.

We will now examine the question- Who are the parties consenting? Are they the same as the parties really interested in the illegal transaction? They are not. The country is the first and a paramount party in all transactions affecting her own honor. The first great duty, and obligation, and debt due from every citizen is to the State, and without a proper regard to this obligation, there can be no law, no country, no society, no order, no security. Has the State given her consent to any of the crimes to which we have alluded? Has she not prohibited them by positive law? And can any man be said to give his consent to a transaction which, as a law-abiding citizen, he has bound himself not to do? The country has not consented to the crime of usury, and the laws of all civilized nations prohibit it. Every man's creditor, and his creditor and family, are bona fide parties to every transaction which in any wise may affect his property and its products until their debts are liquidated. But do the creditors of men, as parties to the transactions of usury, give their consent to the payment of usury to others, while the principal part of their honest debts remains unpaid? Surely such consent not, to anything connected with the crime of usury. But the Almighty just, wise, and good Creator, has made other parties to nearly every transaction of this kind. By His wise providence, it is the imperious duty of all men to support their parents in old age, to maintain their children in helpless infancy, to protect and defend, to educate and enlighten them, to justly share their

earnings and their interests with their wives; and all of these parties have an indefeasible interest in the moral character and good name of the child, the father, the husband; therefore, the crimes of usury, duelling, gambling, adultery, are held by the general consent of these intensely interested parties, as detestable crimes. Who, then, are the parties in usurious contracts? They are the State, the creditors and the families of the victims of usury. But these parties never give their consent, and consequently, the argument of consent between the parties in usury falls to the ground. Even if they did give their consent, that fact would be of no force, since no law can exonerate criminals from guilt, simply because they consented to commit crime.

CONSIDERATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE BORROWERS –

MEN WHO ARE FORCED TO PAY USURY.

The great body of borrowers are already debtors; men who are the victims of a general calamity, a financial crisis which is brought about by financial gambling, and at the will of the brokers, bankers, capitalists; other men who always have the law of the country ma le to their order; or who, if the laws are not in conformity with their purposes, through the power of money, bid defiance to all law, as they have in their very business stifled all conviction of the right of other men and retributive justice. Once the victim of such a crisis, honest poor men, who scorn to assign their property or make a fraudulent conveyance, borrow money to pay their honest debts. But in their refusal to borrow money, and in their determination to do right, they fall victims to men who despise right, and who under the cover of law, commit every outrage upon the rights of property and human nature.

But if the creditor be dishonest, then comes premature assignments, delays in the payment of debts, and general failures that are felt through the avenues of business and trade; or fraudulent conveyances, or surreptitious business transactions that demoralize society at its foundation.

If there were no other reasons for the enactment of the usury laws than the protection of men who become victims of this necessity, that would of itself be sufficient to carry out the great

first purpose of government in the protection of the weak from the aggressions of the strong. Such borrowers are involuntary.

The second class of borrowers-business men, upon whose success the employment and subsistence of the poorer classes are dependent. A system of heavy interest, or usury, either drives them out of business and crushes out the laborers employed by them, or if they continue in business, paying usury, they are overwhelmed in a hopeless bankruptcy sooner or later: the sooner the better.

The third class of borrowers are speculators or sub-brokers, who take special contracts of hunting up men in distress, and do a more base, heartless, grinding business in a lower way than their principals. Still, Mr. Say and Rev. Dr. Wayland speak of "supply and demand as regulating the whole matter, and that injustice is done to no one." But what are the facts?

These borrowers increase the rate of interest and increase the demand for money, and with that increase, the oppression of the debtor by the creditor; and just as in every other case, the hardship falls with crushing weight upon the helpless and unprotected. Indeed, the price paid by the usurer for money to commit usury with, places money for the time being out of the reach of the oppressed debtor, and makes it impossible to carry on his legitimate business, and destroys the vitality of commerce and business of every kind;-nor is there any greater fallacy than that the speculator has to pay the usury? The speculator makes the poor man pay it in his advanced prices, on what he sells, but more generally the whole have to suffer together; the loaner, the speculator and the thousands who deal with them, are all involved in a general bankruptcy. The other side of usury is just about as fairly presented by giving

THE CHARACTER OF USURY AS DEVELOPED IN HIS HABITS OF CONDUCTING HIS BUSINESS.

All his business is done in the very teeth of the law, in violation of the peace, policy and statute of the State. A good man may, in the moment of excitement, commit an act of indiscretion and violate a law, but he will always hasten to repair it.

But the usurer violates the laws of the country in every single transaction of his trade, and his office sets precisely the same example of obedience to the public law as does the saloon of the professional gambler to whose vocation it is so nearly allied; or as does the keeper of the grog-shop, who, like himself, prospers only as his customers sink to ruin.

Every transaction of the broker's shop is a falsehood, and carries a deceit upon its face. His papers assert a lie in the amount borrowed; they cover up a truth in the amount falsely wrung from his victim. When they sue in the Courts of Chancery, they institute their suits by perjury, and make the courts of justice subservient to their crime. They don't pretend to collect their debts by the ordinary method. Every debt in default is a suit in court. Every misfortune which may disable their victim from prompt payment, is followed by an execution.

What is now the condition of the country? What is it that fills every advertisement column of the newspapers? The sheriff's sales-list the executed property of victims of brokers' shops. What business chiefly engages the courts that are now busy beyond all precedent? The answer is, to collect usurious debts.

The usurer only loans to men in necessity: other men avoid him, as they dread the pestilential breath of bankruptcy; robbery and ruin. He loans to the unfortunate for the obvious reason, that other men could save themselves from his deadly grasp.

Upon the other hand, the usurer could hope for nothing but in the necessity and ignorance of the unfortunate, which are his great staple in trade. Like a sea-vulture that scents the foeted breath of the dying sailor, and follows the vessel until his body has been cast into its watery tomb, only to be devoured by the hungry monster, so the usurer instinctively learns the unhealthy condition of the community, and follows his devoted victim until the last hope of recovery has passed away, only to consume his substance and devour his property.

He is unmoved, though living by the violation of all law and trampling upon all justice. He has no sympathy with any one. He lives upon the necessities of men. He would save a drowning man if he could fix a paying price, or drive a good bargain

with the man before he sunk. Such is the usurer and such are the men upon whom he preys. And it is but an act of justice to him to say that he is sometimes a worshipper in the temple of God.

But this is only the finishing stroke of a deceit which scruples not to approach the Deity and invite him to become a particeps criminis in a hypocricy which invades the very holy of holies of heaven itself. He, too, is found giving alms in public, just as incendiaries hastening to accomplish the destruction of their victims by the knife, poison the food that there may be no escape. So this venal creature of corruption assails the altar of sacrifice, and with his filthy lucre, attempts to poison the watchmen upon the outer walls of the Temple of Truth, that he might thrust his hidden poignard to the heart of Christianity, and over its mangled remains grind the faces of the poor, until by common consent, robbery is made reputable in the Church of God.

THE JEWISH LAW ON USURY.

The Jewish law forbade all interest, usury or increase whatever, either upon money, grain, any of the necessaries of life, or any other commodity.

This great principle had its foundation in the true philosophy of all equal and just government, that every man shall produce an amount equal at least to what he consumes.

The settled maxim of Jewish law was this: "He that does not work, shall not eat." This maxim was just and right. It guaranteed to the people at large equality, and to every man justice. Every one lived upon his labor. No man lived upon his capital in his money, by taking usury of his brother.

His only hope of success in business was based upon carefully husbanding and appropriating his means to such useful purposes in agriculture and the arts, &c., as gave him due compensation for his labor and ingenuity.

The Jewish law was founded upon this great pillar of eternal justice: "Whatever ye would that men should do unto you, even do ye unto them." Such a law could not well tolerate such a system as usury, which makes labor entirely subservient, to