Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/112

 n6 Cases ruled and adjudged in the typo. was oppofed, the plaintiti"s counfel alledging, that there was bwsmo default on his part, as the procrallination arofe, in fa£l, ’ from the abfenre of a material witnefs, and the late arrival of E a record from Netv-_'}'¢rfey, which was fo impcrfcélly exempli- {ied, that it could not be ofered in evidence. To tl.is it was anfwered, that there had been no jirépgmr taken out for the abfent witnefs; and that as the aélion had been depending for more than two years, there was evidently a luclw in not obtain- ing the exem(plilication {ooner. Br ·r1-nt onar :-It is certainly a great default, that an earlier application was not made for the exemplilication; and that Hart. a. Salk. 6:2. that damages, or intereil, are but an areellary to the debt, which ma be barred by ciri undlancrs. which do not touch. the debt itlelf;-`ugce to prove that mterefl is not a part 0 the debt, neither comprehended in the thing, nor in the term; that words, which pali the debt, do not give interell necellarily, that the interell depends ahzgetber on tl-: discretion qfttejudges andjururs, who will govern themfelves by all exilling circumllances; will take the legal interell for the mealure of their damages. or more, or lefs, as they think right; or will give it from the date of the contraft, or from ayear after, or deny it altogether, according as the fault or the fuferings of the one or the other party {hall dictate. Our laws are generally an adoption of yours; and I do net know that any of the {lates have changed them in this particular. But there isone rule of your and our law, which, while it proves that every title ot debt is hable to a dif- allowance of iutereil under fpeeial circumflances, is fo applicable to our cafe, that I {hall cite it as a text, and apply to it the circumllances of our cafe. It is laid down in Vin. Abr. Int:-rell C. 7a and a. Abr. Q. Eq. Sag, and elfewhere in tl1e{`e words. ‘ Where, by agenera! and national calamity, nozhing is made out of lands, which are alligned for payment of interell, it ought not to run in daring the time qfsucb calamity! This is exaélly the cale in quellion. Can a more general national calamity be conceived than that univerfal devallation, which took place in many of theii: {lates during the war Q Vilas it ever more exaélly the cafe any where, slut nothing was made out tftbe land: Ivbicb were ro pay the imt·1·e::? The produce of thofe lands, for want of the opportunity ol` exporting it li1l`e·l_v, was down to almoll nothing in real money; c. g. 'l`oL~:·.cco was lefs than a dollar the hundred weight. Imported articles of clothing or confumption, were from 4 to 8 times their ufual price. A bulhel of fait was ufually fold for roolb. of tobacco. At the fame time the{`e lands. and other property, in which the money of thc llritilh creditors was veiled, were paying high taxes ibr their own protetiiou, and the debtor, as nominal hold- er, flood ultimate inliirer of their value to the creditor; who was the real proprietor, becaule they were bought with his money. And who will eflimate the value of this inlinance, or fay what would have been the forfeit, in a contrary event of the wat E Who will fay that the rrilk of the property was not worth the interell of its price? Gyncral 63 Gully

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