Note 141 — [pg 304]No. XXIV.

In a conversation I had at Dr. Franklin's on this subject, the doctor admitted the principle, and remarked, that a man who haz 1000l. in cash, can loan it for six per cent. profit only; but he may bild a house with it, and if the demand for houses iz sufficient, he may rent hiz house for fifteen per cent. on the value. This iz a fair state of the argument, and I challenge my antagonists to giv a good reezon for the distinction which the laws make in the two cases; or why a man should hav an unrestrained right to take any sum he can get for the use of hiz house, and yet hiz right to make profit by the loan of money, be abridged by law.