fifhery, or a decoy, may this year yield nothing, or next to nothing, yet the tenant fhall pay his rent; and if they next year produce tenfold the ufual profit, no more fhall be demanded; be-cause the produce is in its nature precarious, and this variation might be expected. If an estate in the fens of Lincolnshire, or the ifle of Ely, be overflowed with water, fo as to be incapable of occupation, the tenant, notwithstanding, is bound by his leafe; because he entered into it with a knowledge and forefight of this danger. On the other hand, if by the irruption of the sea into a country where it was never known to have come before, by the change of the course of a river, the fall of a rock, the breaking out of a volcano, the bursting of a mofs, the incurfions ́of an enemy, or by a mortal contagion amongst the cattle; if by means like these, an eftate change, or lofe its value, the lofs shall fall upon the owner; that is, the tenant fhall either be dif charged from his agreement, or be entitled to an abatement of rent. A houfe in London, by the building of a bridge, the opening of a new road or street, may become of ten times its former value; and by contrary causes, may bę as much reduced in value: here alfo, as before, the owner, not the hirer, fhall be affected

the

the alteration. The reafon upon which our determination proceeds is this, that changes fuch as these, being neither foreseen, nor provided for, by the contracting parties, form no part or condition of the contract; and therefore ought to have the fame effect as if no contract at all had been made, (for none was made with respect to them) that is, ought to fall upon the owner.

CHAP.

СНАР. Х.

CONTRACTS CONCERNING

LENDING OF MONEY.

THE

T

HERE exifts no reason in the law of na

ture, why a man should not be paid for the lending of his money, as well as of any other property into which the money might be converted.

The fcruples that have been entertained upon this head, and upon the foundation of which, the receiving of intereft or ufury (for they formerly meant the fame thing) was once prohibited in almost all Chriftian countries,* arofe from a paffage in the law of Moses, Deuteronomy xxiii. 19, 20, "Thou shalt not lend upon usury to "thy brother; ufury of money, ufury of vic"tuals, ufury of any thing, that is lent upon

* By a ftatute of JAMES the First, interest above eight pounds per cent. was prohibited, (and confequently under that rate allowed) with this fage provifion; That this ftatute fhall not be conftrued or expounded to allow the practice of ufury in point of religion or confcience.

66

ufury unto a stranger thou mayeft lend upon ufury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not "lend upon ufury."

This prohibition is now generally understood to have been intended for the Jews alone, as part of the civil or political law of that nation, and calculated to preserve amongst themselves that diftribution of property, to which many of their institutions were fubfervient; as the marriage of an heiress within her own tribe; of a widow, who was left childlefs, to her husband's brother; the year of jubilee, when alienated eftates reverted to the family of the original proprietor-regulations, which were never thought to be binding upon any but the commonwealth of Ifrael.

This interpretation is confirmed, I think, beyond all controversy, by the distinction made in the law, between a Jew and a foreigner, "unto

P

a stranger thou mayeft lend upon usury, but unto thy brother, thou mayeft not lend upon "ufury," a distinction, which could hardly have been admitted into a law, which the Divine Author intended to be of moral and of univerfal obligation.

The rate of interest has in moft countries been regulated by law. The Roman law allowed of twelve pounds per cent. which Juftinian reduced

at one stroke to four pounds. A ftatute of the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth, which was the first that tolerated the receiving of intereft in England at all, restrained it to ten pounds per cent; a ftatute of James the First to eight pounds; of Charles the Second, to fix pounds; of Queen Anne, to five pounds, on pain of forfeiture of treble value of the money lent; at which rate and penalty the matter now ftands. The policy of these regulations is, to check the power of accumulating wealth without industry; to give encouragement to trade, by enabling adventurers in it to borrow money at a moderate price; and of late years, to enable the ftate to borrow the fubject's money itself.

Compound intereft, though forbidden by the law of England, is agreeable enough to natural equity; for intereft detained after it is due, becomes, to all intents and purposes, part of the fum lent.

It is a queftion which fometimes occurs, how money borrowed in one country ought to be paid in another, where the relative value of the precious metals is not the fame. For example, fuppofe I borrow a hundred guineas in London, where each guinea is worth one and twenty fhillings, and meet my creditor in the Eaft Indies,

where