Note 192-6 — Chapter IV

If the state, by annulling such promises, should incite the people to violate them, it would be a frightful step towards the demoralization of the nation: "thus rewarding men for obtaining the property of others by false promises, and then, not only refusing payment, but invoking legal penalties on those who have helped them in their need." (J. S. Mill, Principles, V, ch. 10, 2.) Besides, the Austrian usury law of 1803 punishes the borrower also as a spendthrift, and imprisons him for six months (§ 18), or else it designates where he shall make his domicile (Ortsverweisung). Modern loaning on drafts and bills of exchange, the acceptance of which is forged with the knowledge of the creditor, corresponds to what Plutarch, Quaest., Gr., 53, relates of the Cretans, who had, especially in later times, the worst possible reputation for avarice and dishonesty. (Polyb., VI, 46. Paul to Titus, I, 12.)