The Moneylending Committee of the House of Commons has, it
is said, resolved to recommend a most trenchant reform. It is nothing less than a proposal that whenever a moneylending transaction comes before a Court, the Judge shall have power to review all the circumstances, to reopen any account, to fix any rate of interest he deems proper, and to compel the moneylender to refund any money obtained from his victim through promissory notes or other documents capable of being transferred to innocent holders, in excess of what the Judge deems reasonable. Moreover, the borrower is to have power to ask a Court for relief from any unreasonable contract, and on repayment of the amount advanced, with reasonable interest, the Court shall declare the agreement void. We greatly doubt whether a Bill of this severity will ever pass the House of Lords. It will, in the first place, require restrictive clauses to protect banks and pawnbrokers, and it goes much too far in the way of impairing the obligation of a contract. There may be a just contract, to pay cent. per cent. Moneylending is a trade often pursued by scoundrels, but it is no more immoral in itself than house-letting. nor is there any moral obligation binding a lender to ask low interest if the security is indifferent. The abuses revealed before the Committee were very gross, but they ought to be remedied by extensions of the law against frauds, not by tempting borrowers to cheat hard creditors because they find it inconvenient to pay.
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