The transaction which is usurious is necessarily an illegal agreement. If the illegal agreement has been consummated and the parties are in pari delicto, no recovery of the usurious interest paid would be permitted at common law. But most courts have held that the statute being for the protection of the borrower, he is not in pari delicto with the lender. The same result follows where a penalty is imposed upon the lender. Other statutes give the right to recover the illegal interest paid, and such is the case with the national bank act. In some states the loan is declared void,1 in others the interest is forfeited,2 in others the excess of interest over the legal rate is forfeited.3 The subject is one which cannot properly be considered as belonging to a treatise of this nature.4