ERSONS wishing to obtain transcripts of records in New Madrid county, can pro cure them without delay by addressing the undersigned. And to avoid the inconvenience of remitting small sums, the records will be directed to George Pegrim & Co.. St. Louis, who will deliver the same upon the payment of the fees. WM. MOSELEY, Recorder of New Madrid Co., Mo. March, 1851. Boots & Shoes. 1 Jewelry, Watchmakery & ENGRAVING. P. STUBENRAUCH & SONS, Would call the attention of the public and the trade generally to their extensive stock of Jewelry, Watches and Clocks. They also are well enabled by long practice and experience to perform all kinds of engraving, in stone as well as metal, in the best style, such as seals or Notary Publics, for Insurance Companies, for Railroad Cos., and all other Companies. All orders promptly executed and on the most liberal terms. Commission Merchants. B. MERRILL, Refer to M. Tarver, Esq., St. Louis, Mo. NGELRODT & BARTH, Commission and A Forwarding Merchants; No. 126 North Second Street, between VineStreet and Washington Avenue, St. Louis, Mo. RUSSELL & BENNETT, Wholesale Grocers and Commission Merchants, North-West corner of Olive and Second streets, opposite the Monroe House, St. Louis, Mo. F flowers. LORA GARDEN.-This establishment contains a collection of Plants and Flowers not excelled, perhaps, by any in the United States. Of ROSES alone there are 230 varieties and the proprietor has devoted ten years to storing his HOT-HOUSES, 420 feet long, with specimens of rare and beautiful plants, and flowers from almost every part of the globe The garden is pleasantly situated on South Seventh street and affords a delightful retreat from the noice and dust of the city. A commodious SALOON has been fitted up and will be supplied with Confectionary, Ice Creams, and other refreshments suitable to the season and the place. Spiritons liquors are excluded from the premises. Bouquets of the richesflowers and most tasteful combination furnisht ed throughout every season of the year. March 1853. G. GOEBEL. MR. P. A. PIGNERO begs to inform the publie and the Ladies more particularly, that he has taken the store, corner of Fine & Fourth streets, under Planters' House, to which he will remove hic establishment for False Hair, of every varie y, and for matums, Combs, &c. &c. Mr. Pignero has recently received from the East a large and select lot of Wigs, Fues, and False flair, manufactured in every style and to suit every taste. He begs for an examination of his stock. Frivate rooms for ladies and gentlemen, entirely seperate, and fitted up, where consultation on diseases of the hair can be had free of harge. JOHN LOUGHBOROUGH, Attorney and Counsellor at Law, office No. 56 Pine street, near Third, (adjoining that of the Clerk of the Supreme Court. At an early period in the history of the Western Journal, we published our views touchiug a variety of subjects relating to the public economy of the State of Missouri. Several of the leading measures which we then discussed and advocated, have since been adopted by the General Assembly; and we are happy in the belief that when matured their fruits will fully vindicate the wisdom and patriotism which controlled the councils of the State upon those occasions. Others, however, have been regarded by the Legislature with less favor; and though some of them have been several times rejected, yet so strong is our conviction of their soundness and utility that we feel compelled by a sense of social duty to urge them again upon the consideration of the people. Of all the measures which we have advocated, none have met with more violent and decided opposition than the proposition to repeal the law limiting the rate of interest. At this we were surprised and disappointed; for when it is remembered that the laws against usury, and also those limiting the rate of interest, are mostly the offspring of ignorance, tyrany and superstition originating in a social condition differing in almost all respects from that of the people of this country at the present day; and, that those laws have been gradually yielding to the light and progressive intelligence of modern civilization, it must be regarded as a curious fact that in the year 1847 the State of Missouri, making a retrograde movement, should reduce the rate of interest from ten to six per cent. per annum. Missouri was a new State possessing an incalculable amount of natural wealth which had long remained undeveloped for the want of money. Remote from the great commercia! emporiums, her exchanges were effected at great cost to both producers and consumers she needed money to open her mines, to build up and establish manufactures, to commence and carry on a system of public improvements, to facilitate the operations of commerce, to invite immigration, and give encouragement to industry in all its branches. This state of things being perceived and the scarcity of money deplored, it was natural that a remedy should have been sought by the people; but who except a Missouri legislator could have imagined that that remedy was to be found in an act of the General Assembly reducing the rate of interest? Is it reasonable to conclude that the General Assembly of Missouri was composed of men so totally ignorant of the obvious principles of public economy as not to perceive that by reducing the price of money they would drive it from the market, and that the scarcity occasioned by the act would augment the necessities of the community and enable the grinding money dealer to exact ruinous prices of the needy borrower as a premium for evading the law? Surely such obvious consequences must have occurred to the mind of any individual possessing sufficient intelligence to have authorized his admission into the councils of the State. But whether the interest law of 1847 resulted from ignorance of the principles of public economy, or whether the ancient prejudices against usury and usurers were insiduously brought to bear upon the subject to promote the ends of individuals, it may be confidently affirmed that with accidental exceptions the money lender who evades the law is the only individual in the community benefitted by its enactment. This assertion is abundantly verified by the financial operations of our people since the passage of the present law regulating interest on money. The average rate of interest paid on money borrowed upon bond and mortgage is now at least fifty per cent. higher than it was in the year 1846; and it is a fact well known to all men acquainted with business in St. Louis, at that time, that the interest on loans upon real estate securities advanced materially immediately after the passage of the act. The effects produced in Missouri by the adoption of this policy is in accordance with the history of the usury laws of every other country of which we have any knowledge, except perhaps that of the Jewish nation. But it is to be observed that there was a principle of political economy involved in the Jewish law calculated to produce consequences directly the reverse of one of the principal effects of the Missouri statute. The Jews were allowed to bargain for and exact any rate of interest from a stranger; by this provision in their law a system of "free trade" in the precious metals was established between them and other nations; which was eminently calculated to bring money into their country. Under the operations of the Jewish institutions the interest realized from the loan of their capital was so much taken from the wealth of other nations and added to their own. But it is far otherwise in our case; for while the Missouri law is calculated to prevent money from coming into the State, the exorbitant rate of interest realized by the capitalist is taken from the hard earnings of our own people, who if they borrow at all are compelled to pay the usurer his own price for violating or evading the laws of the State. In all Mahomedan countries the coran forbids the taking of any interest for the use of money. But we learn from good authority that the market rate of interest in those countries is from ten to twenty times higher than in Europe.* By the old Roman law of the twelve tables, the rate of interest allowed as legitimate was the usura centesima, which was strictly one per cent. a month; and has been supposed by some to have amounted to twelve, by others to ten per cent. in the year. We are informed that "the Roman laws against excessive usury were frequently renewed, and constantly evaded. The same principle, sanctioned by mistaken religious opinions, pervaded the laws of all countries in which the civil jurisprudence prevailed.+ In England, anterior to the reign of Henry VIII., all loans of money upon interest were regarded as usurious and criminal. In 1546 the first law was passed to legalize the taking of interest, which was then fixed at the rate of ten per cent per annum; but the prejudices against usury remained so strong that the law was repealed in the following reign. In 1571, during the reign of Elisabeth, an act was passed violently condemning all usury; but permitting ten per cent. interest to be paid. In noticing the passing of this act, Hume remarks that "by a lucky accident in language, which has great effect on men's ideas, the invida • Cyclopaedia Britanica, vol. 12, title Interest. Brande's Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature and Art. ous word usury, which formerly meant the taking of any interest for money, came now to express, only the taking of exorbitant and illegal interést." In 1624, interest was reduced to eight per cent.; in 1672, in the reign of Charles II., it was reduced to six per cent., and finally to five per cent., in 1713. But the many plans devised to evade the law afford strong evidence that the rate of interest allowed by the last statute was far below the maximum market value. One of the methods resorted to in England for the purpose of evading the statute was the sale of annuities which in time became a serious evil; and in the year 1818, a committee was appointed by the House of Commons to investigate and make report upon the usury laws then existing. According to a custom of parliament, the adoption of which we respectfully recommend to the legislature of Missouri, individuals whose position and pursuits qualified them to enlighten the committee in respect to the subject before it were examined, and their statements and opinions embodied in its report to the House. Mr. Sugden, an eminent lawyer, stated before the committee that "When the market rate of interest rose above the legal rate the landed proprietor was compelled to resort to some shift to evade the usury laws. For this purpose, he informed the committee he had known annuities granted for three lives, at ten per cent. upon fee-simple estates unincumbered, and of great annual value in a register county. He had also known annuities granted for four lives, and more would have been added, but for the danger of equity setting aside the transaction on account of the inadequacy of the consideration. Latterly many annuities were granted for a term of years certain, not depending upon lives. On being asked whether, if there were no laws limiting the rate of interest, better terms could or could not have been obtained, Mr. Sugden answered, I am decidedly of opinion that better terms could have been obtained, for there is a stigma which attaches to men who lend money upon annuities that d all respectable men out of market. Nothing, Mr. Sugden added, short of a repeal of the usury laws can put a stop to the abuses which attend grants of annuities: they strongly encourage a spirit of gambling; for as the repayment of the money lent cannot be enforced, and the annuity is granted upon a contingency, the borrower too frequently neglects to provide for the payment of the loan, and trusts to chance for the determination of the annuity." "The laws against usury, says Mr. Holland, partner of the house of Baring, Brothers and Company, and one of the best informed merchants of tho country, drive men in distress, or in want of money, to much more disastrous modes of raising it than they |