This month and the succeeding, there were many robberies throughout the
country, and even in the streets and closes of Edinburgh, ‘occasioned
by the poverty of the land, and heavy burdens pressing upon the people;
the haill money of the kingdom being spent by the frequent resort of
our Scotsmen at the court of England.’--_Nic._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: APR. 20.]
One James Elder, a baker in the Canongate, Edinburgh, was tried for
usury. The witnesses deponed that they saw him receive 8 per cent.
from his debtor, and one of them deponed that he refused to accept 6
per cent. till he got 2 per cent. more. Being found guilty, his goods
were escheat, and he ordered to find security that he would be ready to
undergo any further punishment that might be inflicted upon him.--_B.
of C._
What was then, partly under religious feelings, regarded as a crime,
has since come to be held as legitimate traffic; and it is not unworthy
of remark that the Bank of England was, at the time of the preparation
of this article (November 1857), charging on bills 2 per cent. more
than that rate of interest which caused James Elder in 1664 to forfeit
his whole possessions.
[Sidenote: 1664.