or hostile violence,
he claimed a proportionable relief from the equity of the laws: five
years were the customary term, and no solid or costly improvements could
be expected from a farmer, who, at each moment might be ejected by the
sale of the estate. [162] Usury, [163] the inveterate grievance of the
city, had been discouraged by the Twelve Tables, [164] and abolished by
the clamors of the people. It was revived by their wants and idleness,
tolerated by the discretion of the praetors, and finally determined by
the Code of Justinian. Persons of illustrious rank were confined to the
moderate profit of four per cent.; six was pronounced to be the ordinary
and legal standard of interest; eight was allowed for the convenience
of manufactures and merchants; twelve was granted to nautical insurance,
which the wiser ancients had not attempted to define; but, except in
this perilous adventure, the practice of exorbitant usury was severely
restrained. [165] The most simple interest was condemned by the clergy
of the East and West; [166] but the sense of mutual benefit, which had
triumphed over the law of the republic, has resisted with equal firmness
the decrees of the church, and even the prejudices of mankind. [167]

[Footnote 161: The nice and various subject of contracts by consent is
spread over four books (xvii.--xx.) of the Pandects, and is one of the
parts best deserving of the attention of an English student. * Note:
This is erroneously called "benefits." Gibbon enumerates various kinds
of contracts, of which some alone are properly called benefits.--W.]

[Footnote 162: The covenants of rent are defined in the Pandects (l.
xix.) and the Code, (l. iv. tit. lxv.) The quinquennium, or term of five
years, appears to have been a custom rather than a law; but in France
all leases of land were determined in nine years. This limitation was
removed only in the year 1775, (Encyclopedie Methodique, tom. i. de
la Jurisprudence, p. 668, 669;) and I am sorry to observe that it yet
prevails in the beauteous and happy country where I am permitted to
reside.]

[Footnote 163: I might implicitly acquiesce in the sense and learning
of the three books of G. Noodt, de foenore et usuris. (Opp. tom. i.
p. 175--268.) The interpretation of the asses or centesimoe usuroe
at twelve, the unciarioe at one per cent., is maintained by the best
critics and civilians: Noodt, (l. ii. c. 2, p. 207,) Gravina, (Opp. p.
205, &c., 210,) Heineccius, (Anti