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A bond was quarrelled as usurious, because it was dated in the beginning of August, and payable at Whitsunday thereafter, with a year's annual-rent then, which made it bear interest a full quarter of a year before the date of the bond, contrary to the express tenor of the 222d act 1594. Answered, If the bond had borne to have been for borrowed money, this would have been a good objection; but its onerous cause was “that where she is justly addebted and resting owing,” which presupposes a debt ab ante. Replied, The words being in the present time, in propriety of grammar, cannot be retrotracted; else this would make is and was owing all one. The Lords sustained this to purge the presumption of a crime of usury unless they would prove by the creditor's oath, that it was not resting at the Whitsunday before.
