hampered by antiquated laws upon the subject of interest, and, contrary to the /ree and progressive spirit of the age, prohibit their communities from making money as profitable to its owners as any other article of their possessions, by continuing re- strictions upon its use, which other less valuable things are not liable to.
Laws settling the rate of interest at which money shall be computed in cases where the parties have not previously settled it themselves, are of manifest utility, as in cases of trusts, executorships, agencies, ' Spectator, v. i., No. 69.
and the like. But, as we have already seen, there are grave objections to the policy of usury laws making it punishable to ask and receive a higher rate of interest than the one established by law, even where the parties make their mutual contract with their eyes open, and with a full knowledge of their own reasons and motives. Why would it not be just as reasonable for the legislature to make it punishable for a man to take less than the rate named, as to forbid his taking more. Men of adult age and com- mon sense, surely know their own interest better than any legislature can tell them ; nor is it fair to impute dishonesty to a transaction voluntarily en- tered into by the parties, fully aware of all the facts of the case, which ought to guide them. Legislators are incompetent to the purpose of making contracts by law, because they cannot know the circumstances under which the parties severally contract with each other. Besides, if a man is ^'compos mentis," and neither a minor, under duress, or an habitual drunk- ard (for all which cases the courts afford ample re- lief), he must know better than the legislature whether it will be to his advantage to borrow at ten, or fifteen, or twenty per cent. ; but if he is not competent to judge of such matters, and borrow money to suit his own affairs, then surely he is not competent to trade with and sell his own goods. Yet the law prevents him from borrowing on what it