CONTRAYERVA CONVENTION 291 cient to support a promise founded thereon, un- less the prior consideration was something done at the request of the party making the promise. An existing moral obligation is not in general a sufficient consideration for a promise. If a debt has been barred by the statute of limita- tions, or if a debtor has been discharged from payment of his debts by an insolvent law, the original indebtedment is a sufficient considera- tion for a new promise ; but in a case where there had been merely a prior moral and not legal obligation, the weight of authority seems to be that it is an insufficient consideration. 3. The subject of the contract, or what is agreed to be done, must be lawful. A con- tract is not binding by which anything is agreed to be done which the law prohibits ; so certain contracts are by statute avoided as be- ing contrary to public policy. Instances of this class of cases are contracts of loan where the borrower agrees to pay more than a certain rate of interest, wager contracts, betting upon races, and the like. Money paid or deposited upon a wager or gaming contract can be re- covered back. Upon a usurious contract the lender cannot recover even the principal sum ; but the borrower cannot get back what he has paid, except the excess beyond legal interest. On this subject, however, statutes have made great changes. (See USURY.) 4. As to the application of the lex loci and fori to the con- struction of contracts and the determination of their legal effect, and the mode and extent of expressing the same, the subject is exceedingly complicated, and will be more appropriately discussed under the proper head. We can ad- vert here but to some few leading principles. A contract, valid at the place where it is made, is in general valid in all other places, and is to be construed according to the law of the place where made ; but if the contract is made in one country and intended to be performed in another, then the general rule is that the con- tract is to be construed and have effect accord- ing to the law of the place where it is to be ex- ecuted. As if a contract be made in England for the loan of money to be paid in the United States, interest may be taken at the rate allowed in the latter country. But if the money should be advanced and security taken in England, although the security should be a mortgage of property in the United States, then the trans- action would be governed by the law of Eng- land, and only the English rate of interest could be taken. If, however, the money was to be re- paid in this country, our courts would hold the contract as having reference to our laws. As to the remedies upon contracts, they are sub- ject to the law of the place where the action is instituted. A foreign statute of limitations can have no effect here ; but a discharge under an act of bankruptcy is recognized, though in the disposition of effects of the bankrupt in this country, claims of our own citizens are preferred. CONTRA1ERVA, the root of Dorstenia con- tray erva, a plant of the natural order urticacece and suborder morea, growing in Mexico, the Indies, and Peru. The contrayerva of the West shops is probably a product of several species of Lorstenia. It is a stimulant tonic and diaphoretic, but very seldom used in this coun- try. Its reputation as an antidote for all kinds of poisons has not been proved to be well founded. CONTRERAS, a small village of Mexico, about 10 m. S. E. of the capital, at which a battle took place between the Americans and the Mexi- cans, Aug. 20, 1847. (See CHUEUBUSCO.) CONBS. See CONE SHELLS. CONVENT. See MONASTERY. CONVENTICLE (Lat. conventiculum, a little as- semblage), a term originally applied to a cabal among a portion of the monks of a convent, formed in secret to secure the election of an abbot according to their own wishes. It came to be used as a term of reproach, and as such was applied to the assemblies of the followers of Wycliffe in England. It was afterward ap- plied to the secret meetings of the dissenters from the established church in England and Scotland. Prior to the revolution of 1688 several statutes were enacted for the suppres- sion of conventicles, and they became the ob- jects of severe persecution. The term has at- tained a general signification for a seditious or irregular assembly of any kind, but is little used in the United States. CONVENTION, in diplomacy, a treaty not defi- nite and permanent, but having some special and temporary purpose ; in politics, an assem- bly of a special and peculiar character. Ac- cording to the British constitution, no parlia- ment can be convened by any other authority than that of the sovereign, nor can a change of dynasty form the subject of its deliberations. Accordingly, in 1660, a convention was held in London to restore Charles II. to the throne, and its acts were afterward ratified by parlia- ment. At the revolution of 1688 the prince of Orange summoned the lords and commons to meet in convention. That body settled the succession upon William and Mary, and was afterward declared to be the two houses of parliament. There was a convention of the estates of Scotland in March, 1689, to settle the Scottish crown upon William and Mary, which was changed into a parliament on the 5th of June. The annual meetings of the com- missioners of the royal burghs of Scotland are also called conventions. In America the same term was applied to those bodies which at the commencement of the revolution assumed the powers previously exercised by the colonial governments, and especially to those by which the state and national constitutions were framed. In French history the sovereign as- sembly which convened after the insurrection of Aug. 10, 1792, and the imprisonment of Louis XVI., is known as the convention. This body was organized Sept. 21, 1792, and immediately abolished royalty and pro- claimed the republic. It brought the king to
