Where money due on interest has been paid by sundry instalments, the mode of adjusting the amount which has the best authority, and the prevailing usage in its favor, seems to be this: Compute the interest due on the principal sum to the time when a payment, either alone or in conjunction with preceding payments, shall equal or exceed the interest due on the principal. Deduct this sum, and upon the balance cast interest as before, until a payment or payments equal the interest due; then deduct again, and so on. Abstracts of the Usury Laws of the States. Alabama. Legal interest, eight per cent. More cannot be recovered. Arkansas. Legal interest, six per cent. tract for ten per cent. More cannot be recovered. Parties may agree by written con California. Legal rate of interest, when no bargain, ten per cent. Parties may agree on any rate of interest in writing. Compound interest may be agreed for in writing. Connecticut. Six per cent legal interest. Usurious contracts void. Penalty for receiving more than six per cent. Person so receiving shall forfeit value so taken; half to the prosecutor, half to the State Treasury. Contracts to pay taxes and insurance on sums loaned in addition to the legal interest are valid. Delaware. Legal rate six per cent. Penalty for taking more,- forfeiture of the money lent; half to the prosecutor, half to the State. Florida. Legal interest, six per cent. If more than eight per cent is agreed for or taken, the whole amount of interest is forfeited. Georgia. Legal interest, seven per cent. More than legal interest cannot be recovered. Illinois. Legal interest, six per cent. Parties may agree upon ten per cent. If more is agreed on or is taken, only the principal can be recovered. Indiana. Legal interest, six per cent. It may be taken in advance. If more be promised, only the legal interest can be recovered. Kansas. Legal interest, seven per cent. Parties may stipulate for any rate not exceeding twelve per cent. Usurious payments held to be made on account of principal. Kentucky. Legal interest, six per cent. Extra interest forfeited. Louisiana. Conventional interest shall in no case exceed eight per cent under penalty of forfeiture of entire interest. Legal interest, eight per cent. Usurious interest may be recovered back, but must be sued for within twelve months. Maine. Legal interest, six per cent; but not to apply to letting cattle, or other similar contracts in practice among farmers; or to maritime contracts, as bottomry or insurance; and not to course of exchange in practice among merchants. Excessive interest not recoverable, and, if paid, may be recovered back. Massachusetts. In absence of agreement, legal interest to be six per cent. Any rate of interest or discount may be made by agreement; but, if greater than six per cent, it must be in writing. Michigan. Legal rate, seven per cent. Parties may agree upon any rate not exceeding ten per cent. If more interest is taken, contract void. Minnesota. Legal rate seven per cent. Parties may agree for more, but agreement not valid for any excess over twelve per cent. Mississippi. Legal interest, six per cent. Parties may agree for ten per cent. If more is taken or agreed for, the excess is forfeited. Missouri. Legal rate, six per cent; but parties may agree in writing for any rate not to exceed ten per cent. Parties may contract in writing for the payment of interest upon interest; but the interest shall not be compounded oftener than once a year. Nebraska. Legal interest, ten per cent. Parties may agree on any rate not exceeding fifteen per cent. On proof of illegal interest, plaintiff shall recover only principal. Nevada. Legal interest ten per cent, unless agreement for more. But parties may agree for any rate. New Jersey. Legal rate, six per cent. If more taken, contract is void. On contracts in Jersey City, in Hudson County, Essex County, and the city of Patterson, interest may be seven per cent if parties actually reside there. New Hampshire. Legal interest, six per cent. A person receiving more forfeits threefold the amount; but contracts are not invalidated by securing or taking more. If excess be paid, it may be recovered back. New York. Legal rate, seven per cent. A contract for more than legal interest is wholly void. If more than legal interest is paid, it may be recovered back within a year by payer, or within the next three years by the overseers of the poor. North Carolina. Interest, six per cent. More than legal interest cannot be recovered. Ohio. Legal interest, six per cent. More cannot be recovered. Oregon. Legal interest, ten per cent. Parties may agree for twelve per cent. Usurious excess works a forfeiture of the principal and interest. Pennsylvania. Legal interest, six per cent. South Carolina. Interest, seven per cent. be recovered. Excess cannot be recovered. More cannot be recovered. More than legal interest cannot More cannot be recovered. Tennessee. Legal interest, seven per cent. Texas. Legal interest, eight per cent. Parties may agree in writing for twelve per cent. If more than this agreed for, no interest can be recovered. Vermont. More than six per cent prohibited; and a person paying more may recover excess: but this is not to extend to the usage of farmers. Virginia. Legal rate, six per cent. All contracts for a greater rate void. Excess, if paid, may be recovered back. West Virginia. Same as Virginia; but a new code is under consideration, which will probably make a change in the law of usury. Wisconsin. Legal interest, seven per cent; but parties may agree upon a rate not exceeding twelve per cent. Parties paying greater interest may recover three times the excess. CHAPTER XVIII. BANKRUPTCY. THE Constitution of the United States authorizes Congress to establish" uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States." In 1800, a Bankrupt Law was passed, limited to five years; but it was repealed before it had been in operation three years. In 1841, another Bankrupt Law was passed, and was repealed eighteen months afterwards. In March, 1867, another Bankrupt Law was passed: it is entitled "An Act to establish a Uniform System of Bankruptcy throughout the United States." This act is in force now. It is so well adjusted, and provides so carefully that fraud shall be prevented and justice done in all cases, and seems to be so generally useful and acceptable, that I think it will probably be permanent, and, without being repealed, will be amended from time to time as new exigencies arise, and as experience shows the need of new or different provisions. It contains forty-eight sections; and I will now give an abstract of all the sections, excepting those of the greatest and most frequent practical importance, and these I give in full. SECTION 1. Makes the several District Courts of the United States Courts of Bankruptcy, with full jurisdiction over all cases which come before them, and arose within their districts. SECT. 2. The several Circuit Courts of the United States shall лave a general superintendence and jurisdiction of all cases and questions arising under this act. SECT. 3. Concerns the appointment of registers in bankruptcy, the manner of the appointment, and who they may be. SECT. 4. Describes the powers and duties of registers, and their fees. SECT. 5. Provides for the proceedings before the registers, the removal of registers by the judge of the District Court, and the filling of the vacancy. SECT. 6. That the register or the parties concerned may take the opinion of the judge of the District Court in cases or upon questions where that is desired. SECT. 7. Provides for the attendance of parties and witnesses when and where summoned, and for the punishment of perjury. SECTS. 8, 9, and 10. Relate to appeals from the District Court to the Circuit Court, and from the Circuit Court to the Supreme Court if the matter in dispute exceeds $2,000. And gives the Supreme Court power to provide rules, orders, and forms for practice under this act. SECT. 11. States how a person wishing to be made a bankrupt may proceed, and what he must not do. This section I give in full. SECT. 11. And be it further enacted, That if any person residing within the jurisdiction of the United States, owing debts provable under this act exceeding the amount of three hundred dollars, shall apply by petition, addressed to the judge of the judicial district in which such debtor has resided or carried on business for the six months next immediately preceding the time of filing such petition, or for the longest period during such six months, setting forth his place of residence, his inability to pay all his debts in full, his willingness to surrender all his estate and effects for the benefit of his creditors, and his desire to obtain the benefit of this act, and shall annex to his petition a schedule, verified by oath before the court, or before a register in bankruptcy, or before one of the commissioners of the circuit court of the United States, containing a full and true statement of all his debts, and, as far as possible, to whom due, with the place of residence of each creditor, if known to the debtor, and, if not known, the fact to be so stated, and the sum due to each creditor, also the nature of each debt or demand, whether founded on written security, obligation, contract, or otherwise, and also the true cause and consideration of such indebtedness in each case, and the place where such indebtedness accrued, and a statement of any existing mortgage, pledge, lien, judgment, or collateral or other security given for the payment of the same; and shall also annex to his petition an accurate inventory, verified in like manner, of all his estate, both real and personal, assignable under this act, describing the same, and stating where it is situated, and whether there are any, and, if so, what incumbrances thereon, the filing of such petition shall be an act of bankruptcy, and such petitioner shall be adjudged a bankrupt; Provided that all citizens of the United States, petitioning to be declared bankrupt, shall, in filing such petition, and before any proceedings thereon, take and subscribe an oath of allegiance and fidelity to the United States, which oath shall be filed and recorded with the proceedings in bankruptcy. And the judge of the district courts, or, if there be no opposing party, any register of said court, to be designated by the judge, shall forthwith, if he be satisfied that the debts due from the petitioner exceed three hundred dollars, issue a warrant, to be signed by such judge or register, directed to the marshal of said district, authorizing him forthwith, as messenger, to publish notices in such newspapers as the warrant specifies; to serve written or printed notice, by mail or personally, on all creditors upon the schedule filed with the debtor's petition, or whose names may be given to him, in addition, by the debtor, and to give such personal or other notice to any persons concerned as the warrant specifies, which notice shall state: First, That a warrant in bankruptcy has been issued against the estate of the debtor. Second, That the payment of any debts and the delivery of any property belonging to such debtor to him or for his use, and the transfer of any property by him, are forbidden by law. Third, That a meeting of the creditors of the debtor, giving the names, resi |