Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/390

 378 FEDEBAIi REPORTER. �interest upon any bond, note, or other instrument or agree- ment, interest shall not be compounded ; nor shall the inter- est thereon be construed to bear interest unless an agreement to that effect is clearly expressed in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith." �It should not be inferred that it was intended either of these statutes should apply to contracts already made, unless such a construction be unavoidable. The legislature may enact new laws or amend old ones for the government of the people in the future, but it cannot put a construction upon laws ailready existing, and give to Such construction a retroactive effect, so as to overturn a settled interpretation given by the court. And to undertake it is to simply confound the legisla- tive with the judicial function. Cooley's Constitutional Lim- itations, 93-6; Reiser v. William Tell, 39 Pa. St. 137; People V. Bd. SupWs of New York, 16 N. Y. 431; Salters v. Tablas, 8 Paige, 338. �But suppose the first section of chapter 60 be taken as evidence of an intent on the part of the legislature to make the prohibition against reckoning interest upon interest apply to past contracts, the question arises, does the law impair the obligation of the contract, or does it merely afïect the ques- tion of the measure of damages -which is part of the remedy ? �A judgment rendered in New York, which by the law there draws 7 per cent., if sued over in Massachusetts, where the rate is 6 per cent., only 6 per cent, will be allowed as dam- ages. Barringer v. King, 5 Gray, 9. �So, if a note given in New York drawîng 7 per cent, before and after due is sued in Massachusetts, 7 per cent, will be allowed up to the time the note falls due as interest, accord- ing to the law of the place where tfae contract is made, and 6 per cent, after due as the measure of damages in Massa- chusetts. So in other states interest is recovered upon a contract after due, not as interest by force of the contract, but as damages. But, whatever the rule may be elsewhere, it has always been in Wisconsin that interest is recoverable upon a cuntratct providing for interest until due at the same ����