The National Register.
London, England, 1818-08-17 00:00:00

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REPORT FROM THE COMMITTAL; UN THE

USURY LAWS.

This Report having been printed, we have selected
I.':e. following, as being the opinion of a gentlemau who
appears to have well understood the subject, and from
whom the Committee derived considerable information.
Dwane) Buirretssonw Sonnets, Esq. crllei in and examined.
You have been many years conversant with real property ?
--I have, for 141/WS1(1, of fifteen years.
Very e.xtensively AU ?—Certainly.
Have you lout an opportunity of observing the effect of the
usury la•.vs'ution lauded property ?—I have.
Ilave they been beneficial or otherwise?—They have been
decidedly inimical to the Interest of the landed proprietor.
Be kind enough to inform the Committee your sentiments
upon the subject ?—Every landed proprietor will have money
when he wants it, and there are always two rates of interest ;
one the market rate, and the other the legal rate. It' the
market tate rises above the legal rate, the landed proprietor
must neeessarily resort to some shift to evade the 'Nary laws ;
this is &me muter the colour of granting life annuities. lii
all such dealings the transaction is in troth a loan ; the party
advancing the motley always fixes upon a rate per cent. at
which he is willing to lend his money, to which he adds the
costs of the insurance, The higher the terms are the mote
the transaction assmnes the shape of a Wail, because the very
exorbibency of the terms readers it an act of duty on the
part of the bort ower towards himself' to re-purchase the
annuity as soon as he possibly can : for in all these cases,
sYilliont any exception, a power to re-purchase is inserted in
the grant of the annuity ; and in speaking of such transac-
tions I have invariably observed that the parties treat them as
loans, and not as a purchase out au'l out aim annuity.
Are these annuities generally granted fur the life of the'
granioi ; and if not, for one life, or for more lives?—When
the borrower has only a life Merest the annuity is necessarily
granted for his life only, bet when the grantor has a larger in-
tel est, fat example, a long !era) of years or a tee simple,
the activity is Oren granted for three lives at the least, and
the lily of the survivor ur them ; 41111 as this diminishes the
risk of the security, a !malice sum is generally ridded as the
charge of insurance. I have known amenities granted for
three lives at ten per ceut.lllloll fee simple estates uninctim-
bared and of great minimal value in a regitter county. I have
also known annuities granted for four lives, and more would
have bees added but for the danger of equity setting aside
the transaction on account of the inadequacy of the comoder
&lion. Latterly many annuities were granted far a term of
years certain, not depending upon lives.
If there wet e no laws of restriction on the rate of interest*
could or could not better terms have been obtained ?—I Oa
decidedly of opinion that better terms could have been tab'
caned, for there-is 74 Slil:11111 Whirl, attrelies to men who lend
money spun an amities that drives all respectable men out of
tae mom ket. Some leading men did latterly embark iti such
tt ansactimis, but I nevertia instances knew a Mall Of replitir
lion iii my own profession lend money in such a manner,
although we have the best means of uscerito •ng the sateat
securities, 41151 opal:lining the best terms. I I„loatis two
Atrr
solicitors ate invariably euncerned, one for th usver and
one for the lender; and although the borrower alsvas a pave
the expense of the sect • 'es, yet a regular professional hill
is invariably made out; whereas iii the case of an atuntuty,
although it is in strictness a loan, one solicitor only is env'
ployed, and he never makes out a regular bill, but charges
what is termed a lumping sum for all his expense and trou-
ble in the transaction. Besides this a judgment is neatly en
every ease entered up against the borrower, with liberty to
issue out execution if the annuity. is a few days in arrear.—
'lbis is never done upon a regular luau.
Are you aware of any inconvenience that would result
front the repeal of these laws?—l have' latterly turned that
user frequently in my mind, and I entertain it confident opi-
nion, that the repeal of the laws would not in any manner
prejudice the landed interest; for as money can now he
obtained sipon teal security at four and a half per cent. al-
though the law authorizes, as it now stands, five per cent. to
lie taken, it dearly follows that it would still be obtained at
that rate, that is, at four and a half per cent. if' the law alloe.
ed cent. per cent. to he taken. But where sums are owing
upon personal or slight securities, I should not be stir-
prised if the parties were to claim a somewhat larger inter.
est for thus ',uttering the stun to remain on such security, as
soon as the laws are repealed. I should not have thought it
wise to repeal the laws during a moment of agitation ; but
the repeal affirm now would scarcely be felt.
If the Committee understand you rightly, they conceive
you tomcat', that if the laws were repealed, the rate of in-
terest would be adjusted to the securities?—Precisely so ;
money, like every other commodity, will find its level in the
market. At this moment I think clearly, that the repeal of
the usury laws would not raise the rate of interest ou loans
upon real securities.
Does any thing else occur to yon?—Without being able to
vouch for the accuracy of the account, I sent this morning to
the register's office in which the grants of life annuities are
eneolleal, in order to ascertain the number of annuities ets•
rolled in the last four months, and the number in the corres-
ponding four mouths of last year. It struck use, that as
money was now plentiful and the rate of interest consequently
lower bathe market, the number would Ise found to have de-

AVG 17

THE CASE OF MR. ARBUTHNOT?:

I. Mr. Arinahnott is 'teemed by the Americans of havin,
incited the Indians to acts of savage warfare against
them.

The ittmoit, we have reason to believe, that could he proved
against Mr.Arbuthitott wits. that lie conenrred with his Indian
neighbours in the propriety of protecting their property by
tree of aims when lawlessly invaded. The safety of his owls
commercial store was involved in the issue, and he could not
reasonably do less. If one or mote American marandera
have been *hot and scalped in their attempts to carry off the
cattle of their Indian neighbours, what pretext can the corn.
(rotten of the cattle stealers have for complaining of the style
in which an act of robbery has been very properly punished?
No rational motive can be assigned %tit). Mr. Arbutlinott
should have incited the Indians to wanton hostilities against
the Americans. As it private trailer, his interest was to cal.
iiviste peace with all aron•id I ;as a British subject ba
could have no object in provokiaz hostilities which he most
have been certain the British Goverament would never
sanction or abet.

2. Mr. Arbuthnott is farther accessed of having furnished the
Indians with the" munitions of war."
The'' munitions of war" with which Mr.Arbntlinott furnished
the Indians, were ao other than the ordinary articles of traffic
between Europeans and Indians. The Indians gain their
principal mc Ails of subsistenre from hunting ; it is en occu-
pation which they cannot carry on with adequate success
without an ample sup •ly of powder and shot ; and Mr. Ar.
butlinott did no snore than aid them with pat t of that supply,
in return for the skins and furs which they brought to him.
It was a mete iransactien of trade, of which the Americana
themselves in all their bite' course with the [lichens are set-
ting a constant esainple, anti without which no traie with this
Indians can possibly be ~arried on.
3. Mi. Arbuthnott was accused of being a spy upon the
Americans—or rather, according to a qualified verioa of the
°Weiser. which has been recently promulgated, with basin..
gis en intelligence to the Indians of the movements of the
American forces.

The intelli..senee which Nfr. Arhallmott gave the Indians
was simply this :--he told them of the Oficial communication
he had received from the renegado egret Ratably, that the
Americans had resolved upon their utter extermination, and
were upon the way to put this barbarous edict iii!o execution.
What was there in this which was against any one of the laws of
nations? If it wax indeed an act of espiostvre deserving of
death, Illainbly,who sent the tidings from the iCisserican camp,
wag the guilty men, and not Ntr.Arbutknott, who wily told
what was utficially communicated to him without moving a
step from his own established settlement. But who can for
a moment maintain that it is a crime to warn an innocent
people of a design to massacre, and cut them otf from the free
of the earth ?

Forthese alleged offences, thus so easily and satisfactorily
rethted, has Mr. Arbinlinott been seized, tried, condemned,
and execntetl. The wanton sacritive of the life of a British
subject is at any time aggression enough to rouse the British
Nation to make the cause of satisfaction—we will not say of
vengeance—their own. But luokingto the grounds on which
the justification of this extraordinary act have been placed,
they are such as seem to call, iii a very particular .0 timer, on
the British Government, to interpose in the present matter.
It the Americans are to be allowed to hold that the furnish-
ing of tsinsiiitous of war to the Indians is a crime which en-
titles them to pin the individual engaged in it to death, what
is to become of the whole of our traders along the Canadian
frontiers, who are in the constant practice, because their
whole trade .prods Tlllllll it, of doing as the unfortunate Mr.
Arbothnott has done and suffered for it.
lithe Americans are to be permitted to exercise the right
of putting any Indian or Indians, %shout they may contrive to
provoke to a bloody (moral, into a neutral territory, and to
arrest, try, anal execute the subjects of that neutral territory,
for aiding or befriending the proscribed fugitives, what se-
curity have our settlers in the remote parts of Canada, that
they may not at some tnture period be visited its the same
barbarous manner that Mr. Arbuthnot! has been at his set-
tlement iu the Floridas?

It is well known, that by treaties made with the Indian
nations. stud aceordieg to old and established relations, the
British Government is in the practice of making annual pre-
sents to the Indians of blankets, clothing, arms, and ammuni-
tion, which are publicly delivered by the agents of the go.
vernment, at the ports of Drum d's Islasid, on Lake Huron,
Ambrustburg, on Lake Erie, and Forts George and York, on
Lake Ontario. If the principle now assumed by the Anteri.
calls is admitted, will it nut be quite as applicable to the
munitions of war furnished by Government, Its to those fur.
&shed by private individuals And may not public agents
of tile British Government be hung up, as Mr. Arbuthnutt
has been, for only doing:what their duty requires of them
We submit these cousidei ations as north), of very serious at-
tention. To admit the right este:lnc(' by the Americans in
respect ()lone British subject, is to admit the seine right in
respect to the whole subjects of the British empire. If
British fubject cannot be protected by his Government is
the lawful pursuit of an honest occupation in one place.
lie can have no reason to claim or expect it in another. In
Florida, in Canada—ever where—one general system of bate
and abject abandonment of the lives and properties of it.
subjects, must be the consequence.
Mr. ArMithnott was a native of Montrose, in Scotland. and
was some years resident in London as a merchant. He ap.
pears to he well known in the city.

Ahont two o'clock on Monday morning a fire broke ont at
the Duke of Vuik public•honer in Ratcliffe Highway. The
landlord and his family had gooe to Margate, leaving the
house in the care of a young matt. The times burst forth sa
the cellar, and from the quantity of spirits deposited there,
quickly becameso pow emit as to mock all efforts to vitic.
giiiAli them. In half an hour from the commencement the
piddle-house was totall, ilustroyed, and the flames commu-
nicating to the premises on each side, two more houses were
burnt to the ground. The calamity did not terminate hero.
At the bark' of the• Duke of Yolk is a narrow street, con-
slating of !Rinses bout chiefly of wood, and inhabited by
people. The 11 es having cunuuuuicatcd to thui.e houses, a
Aide •of mis.• tflisued. Their inmates, half naked,
the tiny of the destructive element,
prey to the darnel. In one group
with disiracti (((( in her looks, for a
; and in another, children I lly
..ro ; nor did rime Orr( toy scene cud
hrcb unlc skewed the inhabitants toe
'feu or twelve of the small wooden
It has not been ascertained whc,hef

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creased in the four months in this year; and the bers
ututiicla have been given to me as the result of a very hasty
yaininatiort, were 457 in the first four snood's of the year
g 147, and , oin the course of the last four mouths, being a
degrease 117 ; ta-i cannot take upon myself to say that
this is tb 4 stilt. With the leave of the Committee, 1
w. ill just a. few hings that occur to me ; I would first
draw t, tiou e Committee to the Act of the 53d of
the Ki g, lch med bx me, and which was, to a con-
siderable degree, a ru usury laws, for as it fa—
cilitated and rendered more t a of life annui-
ties, which are merely All evasion of t u a it slid to
that extent conateract their effect. If the tic& . , s are
repealed, it would be necessary to repeal bouh that Act and
the Act of the 17th of the King, which latter was repealed
. _ . . ..