§ Mr. Serjeant Onslow, in rising to ask for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Usury Laws, said, that he was encouraged to do so by the recommendation of a committee of that House, which had taken the subject into full consideration. After reading the resolutions to which that committee had come, in 1818, and contending, that if the conclusions which it had then formed were correct, nothing, had since occurred to invalidate them, he took a rapid review of the usury laws of this country, from their origin down to the present time, and insisted that they were not founded upon any principle of policy, but had their rise in religious prejudices. The learned serjeant quoted the authority of several writers, and the opinions of several witnesses examined before the committee, showing the inconveniences of a rate of interest fixed by law, without reference to circumstance, and concluded by moving "That leave be given to bring in a bill to repeal the Usury laws."
§ Leave was given to bring in the bill.