213 
Remarks on the Usury Laws. 
1821.] 
probably written in a London garret, 
and they are evidently the work of a 
man who never saw the country of 
which he writes. A more bungling 
forgery was never committed. 
Other accounts may be commonly 
seen, which are mere compilations. 
This eternal pouring out of one vessel 
into another, as Goldsmith calls it, is 
most unprofitable work, and in this 
instance not very easy, as there is a 
great want of materials. 
If the reader should think the cha¬ 
racter of the natives of Buenos Ayres 
harshly drawn, I cannot help it; they 
will be found at least not better than 
they are here represented. That this 
tine country may become independent 
of old Spain is ardently to be wished, 
and it will ultimately be the case ; but 
that the people will readily or conse¬ 
quently become free is very doubtful. 
Among them are many enlightened 
men; but there are also many ambi¬ 
tious, and the great mass of the people 
have no idea of liberty or justice. These 
must first become more virtuous and 
more enlightened, and we may see, by 
the examples of France and Spain, that 
to change the character of a nation is 
not the work of a day. 
It was thought unnecessary to treat 
particularly of the commerce of a place 
where so many British merchants have 
correspondents. It is well known that 
its great exports are hides and tallow, 
and its imports nearly every article of 
British manufacture. The market is 
much narrower than many suppose, 
and the temptations to foreigners to 
settle here, poor indeed. The Creoles 
look with jealousy and dislike on men 
who are more industrious and conse¬ 
quently richer than themselves. Pro¬ 
perty and life itself is insecure, both 
from the character of the people, and 
the unstable nature of the government. 
Instead of the liberal policy of receiving 
emigrants with open arms, and thus 
strengthening the country, they throw 
obstacles in their way. No protestant 
can be married to a native woman ; ho 
must first be converted. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ERHAPS there is no one point in 
the commercial laws of England 
upon which opinion is so much divided, 
as upon the advantages and the disad¬ 
vantages derived from the usury laws 
as they now stand. And as the matter 
has been, and is still further to be dis¬ 
cussed in the Commons house of Par¬ 
liament, it may not be deemed imper¬ 
tinent in me to wish to contribute a 
hint or two which may aid the enquiry. 
In submitting the following remarks 
to public notice, it is with a view to put 
an end as far as possible to the immoral 
practice of lending money by way of 
annuity. That such a traffic has ex¬ 
isted to a great extent, involving almost 
the whole aristocracy of the country, 
cannot, after the exposures which have 
taken place at Guildhall in the exami¬ 
nations under the commission of bank¬ 
ruptcy of Howard and Gibbs, be de¬ 
nied. I shall, therefore, without any 
further introduction, introduce the 
subject by offering my opinion. 
The ancients in general, reprehended 
the practice of usury in all its forms, 
and under all its limitations, as may 
be seen in the 10th chapter of the “ Po¬ 
litics of Aristotle U Book I. and in the 
first and second books of u Cicero de 
Officiis .” The Jewish law-givers en¬ 
tertained similar notions, and hence it 
came to be considered odious by Chris¬ 
tians ; and the fathers of the church, 
as Gibbon remarks, declared unani¬ 
mously against it, making it by the 
canon law, excommunication. 
The influence of these opinions main¬ 
tained its ground among the English 
divines of the sixteenth and seventeeth 
centuries, who considered the trans¬ 
actions of loans contrary to morality, 
and even so late as the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury, such opinions were held by Bri 
tisli lawyers in the House of Commons. 
M. Neckar, in his Eloge on Colbert, 
little more than half a century ago, 
thought It necessary to state that lie 
wished his opinions concerning interest 
to be considered as mere political spe¬ 
culations, and not trenching upon the 
established maxims of the religious 
orders. So that the opinions of usury 
being a crime, is not confined to any 
particular nation or religion, but have 
their foundation in moral and political 
causes. 
The commerce of the ancients being 
so widely different from that of the mo¬ 
derns, that from the little demand for 
capital in trade, money loans became 
extremely discreditable, and this low 
state of their commerce, added to the 
peculiar notions concerning usury, ac¬ 
count in some measure for the odium 
in which it was generally held in Eu¬ 
rope. But since commerce has become 
more general, the sentiments of men 
have somewhat altered. Calvin, the 
reformer, 
