quitat. ad Institut. l. iii. tit. xv.,)
Montesquieu, (Esprit des Loix, l. xxii. c. 22, tom. ii. p. 36). Defense
de l'Esprit des Loix, (tom. iii. p. 478, &c.,) and above all, John
Frederic Gronovius (de Pecunia Veteri, l. iii. c. 13, p. 213--227,)
and his three Antexegeses, (p. 455--655), the founder, or at least the
champion, of this probable opinion; which is, however, perplexed with
some difficulties.]

[Footnote 164: Primo xii. Tabulis sancitum est ne quis unciario foenore
amplius exerceret, (Tacit. Annal. vi. 16.) Pour peu (says Montesquieu,
Esprit des Loix, l. xxii. 22) qu'on soit verse dans l'histoire de Rome,
on verra qu'une pareille loi ne devoit pas etre l'ouvrage des decemvirs.
Was Tacitus ignorant--or stupid? But the wiser and more virtuous
patricians might sacrifice their avarice to their ambition, and might
attempt to check the odious practice by such interest as no lender would
accept, and such penalties as no debtor would incur. * Note: The real
nature of the foenus unciarium has been proved; it amounted in a year of
twelve months to ten per cent. See, in the Magazine for Civil Law, by M.
Hugo, vol. v. p. 180, 184, an article of M. Schrader, following up the
conjectures of Niebuhr, Hist. Rom. tom. ii. p. 431.--W. Compare a very
clear account of this question in the appendix to Mr. Travers Twiss's
Epitome of Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 257.--M.]

[Footnote 165: Justinian has not condescended to give usury a place in
his Institutes; but the necessary rules and restrictions are inserted
in the Pandects (l. xxii. tit. i. ii.) and the Code, (l. iv. tit. xxxii.
xxxiii.)]

[Footnote 166: The Fathers are unanimous, (Barbeyrac, Morale des Peres,
p. 144. &c.:) Cyprian, Lactantius, Basil, Chrysostom, (see his frivolous
arguments in Noodt, l. i. c. 7, p. 188,) Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose,
Jerom, Augustin, and a host of councils and casuists.]

[Footnote 167: Cato, Seneca, Plutarch, have loudly condemned the
practice or abuse of usury. According to the etymology of foenus, the
principal is supposed to generate the interest: a breed of barren metal,
exclaims Shakespeare--and the stage is the echo of the public voice.]

3. Nature and society impose the strict obligation of repairing an
injury; and the sufferer by private injustice acquires a personal right
and a legitimate action. If the property of another be intrusted to our
care, the requisite degree of care may rise and fall according to the
benefit which we derive from