- ' Oaruthe'r's & Nicholson's Dig., p. 406, edit. 1836. « Dig. Gen. Stat. Tex., p. 242, edit. 1859.
VEEMONT. — VIEGINIA. 87
bear interest at eight per cent., provided 'they are given upon contracts in which no more than eight per ' cent, was stipulated. Interest previous to this statute was five per cent.^
The first statute against usury in Vermont, appears to have been passed in 1796, and fixed the rate of in- terest at six per cent. Forfeit of all over that rate, and twenty-five per cent, in addition, one moiety to the prosecutor, and the other to the State.
In 1822, a new statute was passed, and since embodied in the revised statutes, now in force in that State,^ whereby legal interest is fixed at six per cent., and any excess paid over that rate may be recovered back with in- terest ; but the letting of cattle and like usages among farmers, marine contracts, and bottomry bonds are excepted.