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526 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliv thing itself must be restored to the owner, with an additional reward for the beneficial occupation and employment. In these lucrative contracts, to which may be added those of partnership and commissions, the civilians sometimes imagine the delivery of the object, and sometimes presume the consent of the parties. The substantial pledge has been refined into the invisible rights of a mortgage or hypotheca ; and the agreement of sale, for a certain price, imputes, from that moment, the chances of gain or loss to the account of the purchaser. It may be fairly sup- posed that every man will obey the dictates of his interest ; and, if he accepts the benefit, he is obliged to sustain the expense, of the transaction. In this boundless subject, the historian will observe the location of land and money, the rent of the one and the interest of the other, as they materially affect the prosperity of agriculture and commerce. The landlord was often obliged to advance the stock and instruments of husbandry, and to content himself with a partition of the fruits. If the feeble tenant was oppressed by accident, contagion, or hostile violence, he claimed a proportionable relief from the equity of the laws ; five years were the customary term, and no solid or costly improvements could be expected from a farmer who, at each moment, might be ejected by the sale of the estate. 167 interest of Usury, 108 the inveterate grievance of the city, had been dis- couraged by the Twelve Tables, 309 and abolished by the clamours 167 The covenants of rent are denned in the Pandects (1. xix.) and the Code (1. iv. tit. lxv.). The quinquennium, or term of five years, appears to have been a custom rather than a law ; but in France all leases of land were determined in nine years. This limitation was removed only in the year 1775 (Encyclopedie Methodique, torn, i., de la Jurisprudence, p. 668, 669) ; and I am sorry to observe that it yet prevails in the beauteous and happy country where I am permitted to reside. 168 I might implicitly acquiesce in the sense and learning of the three books of G. Noodt, de foenore et usuris (Opp. torn. i. p. 175-268). The interpretation of the asses or centesimae ustirae at twelve, the unciariae at one per cent, is maintained by the best critics and civilians : Noodt (1. ii. c. 2, p. 207), Gravina (Opp. p. 205, &c. 210), Heineccius (Antiquitat. ad Institut. 1. iii. tit. xv.), Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, 1. xxii. c. 22, torn. ii. p. 36. Defense de TEsprit des Loix, torn. iii. p. 478, &c), and above all John Frederic Gronovius (de Pecunia, Veteri, 1. iii. c. 13, p. 213-227 and his three Antexegeses, p. 455-655), the founder, or at least the;charnpion, of this probable opinion ; which is however perplexed with some difficulties. [The centesima usura which subsisted from the later republic to Justinian was 12 per cent, (one hundredth of the capital per month). It is still a question whether the foenus unciarium of the xii. Tables was the same (12 per cent.), or fa of the capital.] 169 Primo xii. tabulis sanctitum est nequis unciario foenore arnplius exerceret (Tacit. Annal. vi. 16). Pour peu (says Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xxii. c. 22) qu'on soit verse" dans l'histoire de Kome, on verra qu'une pareille loi ne devoit pas Stre l'ouvrage des decemvirs. Was Tacitus ignorant — or stupid ? But the wiser