I say this with the greater freedom, because, being a
politician myself, none can regard it as personal.
Again, it is charged, or rather insinuated, that officers of the Bank
have loaned money at usurious rates of interest. Suppose this to be
true, are we to send a committee of this House to inquire into it?
Suppose the committee should find it true, can they redress the injured
individuals? Assuredly not. If any individual had been injured in this
way, is there not an ample remedy to be found in the laws of the land?
Does the gentleman from Coles know that there is a statute standing in
full force making it highly penal for an individual to loan money at a
higher rate of interest than twelve per cent? If he does not he is too
ignorant to be placed at the head of the committee which his resolution
purposes and if he does, his neglect to mention it shows him to be too
uncandid to merit the respect or confidence of any one.
But besides all this, if the Bank were struck from existence, could not
the owners of the capital still loan it usuriously, as well as now?
whatever the Bank, or its officers, may have done, I know that usurious
transactions were much more frequent and enormous before the commencement
of its operations than they have ever been since.
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