^{page 302 note 1} Taylor: Notes from Life, p. 2.

^{page 302 note 2} The term ‘ usury,’ said to have been derived from a Hebrew expression signifying “ that which bites,” was originally applied to all profit paid for the use of money. Hume speaks of the adoption of the word ‘ interest’ as "a lucky accident in language, which has great effect on men's ideas” (Hist. Eng., Appendix No. III.); and seems to have supposed that the difference in the term reconciled men to the practice of usury; but this is not correct, as the word was in use long before usury was made legal. Interest—derived from ‘ interesse lucri cessantis,” a term of the canon law—was allowed by that law to be claimed as a compensation for the non-payment of money due, although a contract to take interest for forbearance was unlawful. The distinction is so fine that I despair of being able to describe it accurately; but it appears that the two words have always had the same relative meaning—that interest was lawful usury and usury unlawful interest. When, therefore, usury to the extent of ten per cent. per annum was legalized, profits not exceeding that rate upon loans ceased to be usury, and became interest; but when the legal rate was reduced to eight per cent. ten per cent. ceased to be interest and became usury. Professor De Morgan illustrates this, as he does every subject upon which he writes, with much curious learning. (See Companion to the Almanac for 1851; art., “ On some Points in the History of Arithmetic.”)

^{page 302 note 3} Justin. Dig., L. tit. xvi. 12.Google Scholar

^{page 303 note 1} As frequent reference will be made to monthly payments of interest, the following table may be found useful to show the proportion which, under such circumstances, the actual interest received in a year bore to the nominal annual rate:—

These results are founded on the assumption that the lender received his interest regularly at the expiration of each month, and could put it out again at a similar rate. It is not necessary there should have been any agreement for the payment of compound interest, although, if there had been, the effect to the lender would have been precisely the same, the only difference being that he would have received the extra interest from the original borrower instead of receiving it from others.

^{page 304 note 1} St. Luke xix, 23.

^{page 304 note 2} Life of Solon.

^{page 304 note 3} Grote, : Hist. Greece iii. 132.Google Scholar

^{page 304 note 4} Hist. Greece iii. 149.Google Scholar

^{page 305 note 1} Translated by Sir G. C. Lewis. Lond. 1842, p. 130.

^{page 305 note 2} Ibid., p. 125.

^{page 305 note 3} Ibid., p. 130.

^{page 305 note 4} Ibid., p. 131.

^{page 305 note 5} Hist. Greece iii, 145 Google Scholar

^{page 305 note 6} Bœckh, p. 131.Google Scholar

^{page 306 note 1} Grote, iii. 155.

^{page 306 note 2} Bœckh : pp. 141, 142.

^{page 307 note 1} Smith's Dict, of Antia.: art., “ Fenus.”

^{page 307 note 2} Life of Solon.

^{page 307 note 3} Smith's Dict.; art., “Fenus.”

^{page 307 note 4} Annal. vi. 16.Google Scholar

^{page 307 note 5} Bekker's, Tacit.: Leipsic, 1831: i. 391.Google Scholar

^{page 307 note 6} Face. & Forc, v., “ Uncia.” See also Defense de l'Esprit des Lois; art., “ Usure.”

^{page 307 note 7} Arnold's, Hist. Rome i. 284.Google Scholar

^{page 308 note 1} Esprit des Lois, liv. xxii., chap. 22.

^{page 308 note 2} The words of Tacitus, so often quoted, are clear and precise:—“ Nam primo duodecim tabulis sanctum ne quis unciario fænore amplius exerceret, cum antea ex libidine locupletium agitaretur.”—Annal. vi. 16.

^{page 308 note 3} Hist. Deo. & Fall, chap. 44. Note.

^{page 308 note 4} Trans, of Hist. Rome : London, 1842: iii. 54.Google Scholar

^{page 308 note 5} Ibid. iii. 55.

^{page 309 note 1} Trans, of Hist. Rome iii. 58.Google Scholar

^{page 309 note 2} Arnold, ii. Livy, vi. 14.

^{page 309 note 3} Livy, vii. 16.

^{page 309 note 4} Ibid. vii. 27.

^{page 309 note 5} Arnold, ii. 126.

^{page 310 note 1} Doctor Arnold strives hard, under the plea of public necessity, to reconcile this proceeding with the veneration for every species of engagement which he ascribes to the Romans. Not being aware of all the circumstances, we are not able to judge accurately of the necessity; but the historian wanders far from the paths of strict logic when he compares such wholesale confiscation with the modern practice of forcing a man to sell his house or his estate at a valuation fixed upon by others, in order to facilitate the construction of a canal or a railway. (See Hist. Rome ii. 120, 126.Google Scholar)

^{page 310 note 2} Livy, vii. 28.

^{page 310 note 3} Niebuhr, iii. 53.

^{page 310 note 4} Livy, x. 23.

^{page 310 note 5} Arnold, ii. 300.

^{page 310 note 6} Ibid. iii, 190.

^{page 310 note 7} Esprit des Lois, liv. xxii., chap. 22.

^{page 310 note 8} Ibid.

^{page 311 note 1} Smith's Dict.; art., “ Fenus.”

^{page 311 note 2} Esprit des Lois, liv. xxii., clap. 22.

^{page 311 note 3} Niebuhr's, Lectures: London, 1848: i. 266.Google Scholar

^{page 311 note 4} Esprit des Lois, liv. xxii., chap. 22.

^{page 311 note 5} Wealth of Nations, book i., chap. 9.

^{page 312 note 1} Esprit des Lois xxii. 22.Google Scholar

^{page 312 note 2} Ibid.

^{page 312 note 3} Gibbon's, Miscell. Works: London, 1837: p. 483.Google Scholar

^{page 312 note 4} Annul, vi. 16.

^{page 312 note 5} Smith's Diet; art., “ Fenus.”

^{page 312 note 6} Life of J. Cœsar xlii.

^{page 312 note 7} Livy, vi. 35. Arnold, ii. 34.

^{page 313 note 1} Tacitus: Anna. vi. 16.

^{page 313 note 2} Arnold, ii. 74. Livy, vii. 21.

^{page 313 note 3} Essays: Edinb.: i. 324.

^{page 313 note 4} Ibid., p. 325.

^{page 313 note 5} Macpherson: Hist. Comm. i. 201. Gibbon, chap. vi.

^{page 313 note 6} Assurance Mag., vol. ii., pp. 121, 222; vol. iii., p. 93.Google Scholar

^{page 314 note 1} In all properly adjusted scales of annuities A — ′A ∠ 1 (Milne's notation). This will be obvious, if we substitute in the formula 1av(1 + ′A) for A, which gives 1av — (′A — 1av′A). Here 1a and v are each of them less than unity; and the result, so long as it is positive, or so long as the values decrease with the increase of age, must always be less than unity. This is true also when money is assumed not to bear interest: r, in the equation = v, becoming=o, and consequently v = 1; A then representing the expectation of life. It is also true in regard to annuities certain, where 1a = 1 but v ∠ 1. If a = 1 and v = l, that is to say, if money bears no interest, and there is no chance of the termination of the annuity by death, the value of A becomes infinite.

Mr. Farren, in confirmation of an opinion similar to that of Mr. Hendrik's, cited (Treatise on Life Assurance, p. 45,) the authority of Dionysius Halicarnassus to show that the registration of deaths in the Temple of Libitinus, at Rome, afforded the means of observing the laws of mortality in that city; but Niebuhr has pointed out (vol. i., p. 467) that both this and the registration of births in the Temple of Lucina were obsolete institutions in the time of Dionysius, who only learned their previous existence from a more ancient historian, Lucius Piso. Assuming Ulpian's Table to represent the expectation of life, it may be worthy of remark that the first and last terms assigned are each of them half the complement of 70, at the given ages—that is, if the mean from 1 to 20 be taken at 10. This fact might lead to the supposition that Ulpian had some faint perception of the principle of De Moivre's celebrated hypothesis, for there appears to have been a general opinion in the ancient world that the extent of the life of man was seventy years. The scriptural text upon the subject is well known. Solon, in addressing Croesus (Herodotus, clio 31), speaks of that term as if it were the recognized limit of life; and I am informed by a friend there is a passage to the same effect in the fourteenth chapter of the Crito of Plato. It is true the Roman theology taught, as we are told by Niebuhr (vol. i., p. 447), that ten times twelve solar years were the term fixed for the life of man, beyond which the gods themselves had no power to prolong it; that the fates had narrowed the span to thrice thirty years, and that fortune abridged even this period by a variety of chances, against which the protection of the gods was implored. Ulpian, however, would have been much more likely to found his conclusions upon the theories of the philosophers of Greece than upon the traditions of Roman superstition, with respect to which he probably shared the feelings attributed to the educated classes of his countrymen in one of Gibbon's most brilliant passages (History of the Decline and Fall, chap, vi.)

The conversation above referred to between Solon and Crœsus, as related by Herodotus, is perhaps the earliest recorded instance of the numerical application of the science of probabilities to human affairs. Solon, after speaking of the duration of man's life as seventy years, calculates the number of days contained in the period, and points out that, as the events of each of these are different from the events of all the others, a man who survives so many must necessarily see great vicissitudes.

Mr. Hendriks has favoured me with a curious fact relating to Ulpian's Table, namely, that the Tuscan Government authorized the use of it for the valuation of life annuities by a law dated 30th December, 1814. This was immediately after the restoration of the grand ducal dynasty; and the recurrence to so venerable an authority was perhaps part of the system of reaction against the dangerous novelties that had been introduced by the French.

^{page 315 note 1} Justin. Dig. xxxv., tit. ii. 68. The whole extract is given in the Appendix to Farren On Life Assurance ; London, 1825.Google Scholar

^{page 315 note 2} Hist. Dec. & Fall, chap. xliv.

^{page 315 note 3} Assurance Mag. ii., pp. 122–136.Google Scholar

^{page 315 note 4} Hist. Dec. & Fall, chap. liv.

^{page 315 note 5} Macpherson, : Hist. Comm. i. 250.Google Scholar

^{page 315 note 6} Ibid, i., p. 318.

^{page 316 note 1} Esprit des Lois, liv. xxii., chap. 19.

^{page 316 note 2} Hist. Comm. i. 357.Google Scholar

^{page 316 note 3} Ibid. i. 379.

^{page 316 note 4} Hist. Eng., chap. xi.

^{page 316 note 5} The following are the words of the charter:—“ Si quis mutuo ceperit aliquid à Judeis, plus vel minus, et moriatur antequam debitum illud solvatur, debitum non usuret quamdiu heres fuerit infra etatem de quocumque teneat; et si debitum illud incident in manus nostras, nos non capiemus nisi catallum contentum in carta. Et si quis moriatur et debitum debeat Judeis, uxor ejus habeat dotem suam et nihil reddat de debito illo; et si liberi ipsius defuncti qui fuerint infra etatem remanserint, provideantur eis necessaria secundem tenementum quod fuerit defuncti, et de residuo solvatur debitum, salvio servitio dominorum. Simili modo fiat de debitis que debentur aliis quam Judeis.”—Magna Carta Regis Johannis (A.D. MCCXV.). Statutes of the Realm, vol. i., page 10.Google Scholar

^{page 317 note 1} Statutes of the Realm, vol. i., p. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 317 note 2} Ibid. i.

^{page 317 note 3} Ibid. i.

^{page 317 note 4} Hist of Comm. i., p. 398.Google Scholar

^{page 318 note 1} London, 1840: p. 207.

^{page 318 note 2} Ibid., p. 216.

^{page 318 note 3} Hist. of Comm. i. 249.Google Scholar

^{page 318 note 4} State of Europe during Midd. Ages ii. 400.Google Scholar

^{page 318 note 5} Ibid. i. 157.

^{page 319 note 1} Hist. Eng., chap. x.

^{page 319 note 2} Page 2. The Churchmen of those days appear to have had no scruples about pledging the sacred things to Infidels. Benedict the Jew, son of Deodate, was in 1171 fined xx. li. for taking certain sacred vestments in pawn. In 1183, Sancto the Jew of St. Edmundsbury" was fined v. marks, that he might not be punished for taking in pledge certain vessels that were appointed for the service of the altar. (Note to Chron. of Joceline, p. 106.)

^{page 319 note 3} From the conquest to the reign of Edward III., 20 shillings or the pound sterling contained 4,995 grains of fine silver. At the present time 20 shillings contain only grains.

^{page 319 note 4} Archœolog. xxviii. 225.Google Scholar

^{page 320 note 1} Chronicle, p. 2.

^{page 321 note 1} “ Venit Judeus portans literas domini regis de debito sacriste.”—Chronicle of Joc. de Brak., p. 2.

“ Judei inquam quibus sacrista pater et patronus dicebatur; de cujus protectione gaudebant, et liberum ingressum et egressum habebant, et passim ibant per monasterium, vagantes per altaria et circa feretrum dum missarum celebrarentur sollemnia; et denarii eorum in thesauro nostro sub custodia sacriste reponebantur; et, quod absurdius est, uxores eorum, cum parvis suis, in pitanceria nostra tempore werre bospitabantur.—Ibid., p, 8.

^{page 321 note 2} The author of the Pictorial History of England (vol. i., p. 484) cites an authority to show the Jews' presents were accepted “gladly enough.Google Scholar ” Neither Holinshed nor Stow mentions this fact, but their accounts are not inconsistent with it.

^{page 321 note 3} Preface to Chronicle, p. vi.

^{page 322 note 1} Hume: Hist. Eng., chap. x.

^{page 322 note 2} Archœlogia xxviii. 224.Google Scholar

^{page 322 note 3} Chronicle Joc. de Brak., Notes, p. 108.

^{page 323 note 1} Hist. Eng., chap. xii.

^{page 323 note 2} State of Europe during Midd. Ages ii. 400.

^{page 323 note 3} Macpherson, (Hist. Comm., vol. i., p. 338 Google Scholar) states, that in the last year of Richard I. (A.D. 1198) there occurs an instance of a landed estate being mortgaged to a Jew for the payment of 100 marks, with interest at the rate of 10 per cent, annually. This rate is so much below others recorded about the same period, that the case was probably an exception; perhaps the lender had some other source of profit, or lent his money at a low rate to secure the protection of an influential person.

^{page 323 note 4} Archœolog. xxviii. 226.Google Scholar

^{page 323 note 5} London: Whitaker, 1842; p. 106.

^{page 324 note 1} Archœologia xxvii. 225.Google Scholar

^{page 324 note 2} Statutes of the Realm i. 221.Google Scholar

^{page 324 note 3} Blackstone's Comm.: London, 1830 : ii, 93, iv. 419.Google Scholar

^{page 325 note 1} Archtœolog. xxviii. 284.Google Scholar

^{page 325 note 2} Ibid., p. 247.

^{page 325 note 3} Ibid., p. 233.

^{page 326 note 1} Archœolog. xxviii., p. 286.Google Scholar

^{page 326 note 2} Ibid., p. 280.

^{page 326 note 3} Ibid., p. 222.

^{page 326 note 4} Ibid., p. 226.

^{page 326 note 5} Ibid., p. 221. Hume says (Hist. Eng., chap, xiii.), that when Edward I. laid a tax of forty shillings upon each sack of wool exported, it was computed to he above one third of the value, which would reduce the price to less than nine marks the sack. The price might have been depreciated, at the time referred to, by the arbitrary conduct of Edward, who seized all the wool he could lay his hands upon; but Hume's statement cannot invalidate the evidence of the positive contract quoted by Mr. Bond.

^{page 327 note 1} Stow's Chron., p. 204.

^{page 327 note 2} Hume: Hist. Enq., chap. xiii Holinshed, ii. 492.

^{page 327 note 3} Statutes of the Realm i. 255.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 1} Arehœologia xxviii. 249.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 2} Ibid., p. 247.

^{page 328 note 3} Ibid., p. 260. Hallam, : Midd. Ages ii. 403.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 4} Macpherson, : Hist. Comm. i. 341.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 5} Robertson: View of State of Europe, Note xxx.

^{page 328 note 6} Hallam, : Midd. Ages ii. 400.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 1} Robertson: View of State of Europe, Note xxx.

^{page 329 note 2} Hallam, : Midd. Ages ii. 400.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 3} Hume: Hist. Eng., chap. xii.

^{page 329 note 4} Hist, of Comm. i. 427.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 5} Hallam, : Midd, Ages ii. 402.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 6} Macpherson, : Hist. Comm. ii. 223.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 7} Statutes of the Realm, vol. iii., p. 996.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 8} Ibid. i. 233.

^{page 329 note 9} Ibid. i. 296.

^{page 330 note 1} Statutes of the Realm ii. 514.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 2} Chevesaunce—Agreement.

^{page 330 note 3} Statutes of the Realm ii. 574.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 4} Vol. xiii, p. 234.

^{page 331 note 1} Statutes of the Realm iii. 996.Google Scholar

^{page 331 note 2} The following is a copy of the extract, communicated to me by Seymour Teulon, Esq.:—

^{page 332 note 1} Statutes of the Realm iv. 155.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 2} Hume, : Hist. Eng., chap. xxxv.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 3} Macpherson, : Hist. Com. ii. 120.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 4} Statutes of the Realm iv. 154.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 5} Ibid. i. 322; ii. 18.

^{page 332 note 6} Ibid. ii. 515.

^{page 332 note 7} Ibid. iv. 542.