nd Pacif. & Emancip. 9
Whichever nation got the start of the other in making the proposal would cover
/crown/ itself with everlasting glory /immortal honour/. The risk would be
nothing, the gain certain. This gain would be, the giving an uncontrovertible
demonstration of its own disposition to peace, and of the opposite disposition
on the other nation in case of its rejecting the proposal.
The utmost frankness should be employ’d. The nation addressing should be invited
to consider /find out/ & point out whatever farther securities it deemed
necessary and whatever farther concessions it deemed just.
The proposal should be made in the most publick manner: it should be an address
from nation to nation. This, at the same time that it conciliated the confidence
of the nation addressed would make it impracticable for the government of that
nation to neglect it or stave it off by shifts and evasions.
It would sound the heart of the nation addressed. It would discover its
intentions and proclaim them to the world.
Pacif. & Emancip. 10
The cause of humanity has still another resource Should Britain prove deaf and
impracticable, let France without conditions emancipate her colonies, break up
her marine. The advantage even upon this plan would be immense: the danger none.
The Colonies I have already shewn are a source of expence, not of revenue: of
burthen to the people; not of relief. This appears to be the case even upon the
footing of those expences which appear upon the face of them to belong to the
colonies, and are the only ones that have hitherto been set down to their
account. But in fact the whole expence of the Marine belongs also to that
account and no other. What other destination has it? what other can it have?
none. Take away the colonies, what use could it have for a single vessel more
than the few which it employs in the Mediterranean to curb the pirates.
In case of a war, where at present would England make its first and only attack
upon France? In the Colonies: What would she propose to herself from the success
in such an attack /a war/ /a case/? What but the subjugation of the /depriving
France of her/ colonies. But the Colonies /these bones of contention/ are hers
no longer. What then could England do? what could she wish to do?
There would remain the territory of France – With what view could Britain make
any attack upon it attack it in any way? Not with views of permanent
conquest. Such
Pacif. & Emancip. 11
Such madness does not belong to our age. Government /Parliament/ itself one may
venture to affirm, without paying it any very extraordinary compliment would not
wish it. It would not wish it even could it be accomplished without effort on
one part without resistance on the other. It would not even though France
herself were to sollicit it. No Parliament would grant a penny for such a
purpose. If it did, it would not be a Parliament a month. No King would join
/lend his name/ to[?] such a project. He would be dethroned as surely and as
deservedly as James the 2d. To say I will be King of France, would be to say in
other words I will be absolute in England. What was the danger from Mr Fox /the
Coalition/’s East India Bill, viewing it even with the eyes of those who saw it
in its blackest colours, compared to this?
Well then, no one would dream of conquest. What other purpose would an invasion
have? The plunder and destruction of the country. Such baseness is totally
incompatible /repugnant/ not only with /to/ the spirit of the nation but to the
spirit of the times. Malevolence will be the only motive: avarice /rapacity/
could never counsel it: long before an army could arrive any where every thing
capable of being plunder’d would be moved off. Whatever is portable would be
much sooner carried off by the owner than by any plundering army. No expedition
of plunder could ever pay itself.
Pacific. & Emancip. 12
This brings back to recollection the atchievements of the last war but one from
1755 to 1763. The struggle /contest/ betwixt prejudice and humanity in principle
produced in conduct a result truly ridiculous. Prejudice prescribed an attack
upon the enemy in his own quarters /territory/: humanity forbadd the doing him
any harm. Not only nothing was gained by these expeditions, but the mischief
done to the country invaded, was not equal to the expence of the invasion. When
a Japanese rips open his own belly, it is in the assurance that his enemy will
follow the example. But in these instances /here/ the Englishman ripped open his
own belly that the Frenchman might get a scratch. Why was this done? /absurdity
acted?/ because we were at war; and when people /nations/ are at war there
must[?] be something done or the appearance of it /or at least appear to be
done/ and there was nothing else to be done. {France was already stripped of all
its distant appendages.} or soon doomed to be so.}
Such is the extreme folly, the madness of war: on no supposition whatsoever can
it be otherwise than mischievous especially between nations circumstanced as
France & England. Though the choice of the events was absolutely at your
command you could not make it of use to you. If unsuccessful you may be
disgraced and ruined: if successful, even to the height of your wishes you are
still but so much the worse. You would still be so much the worse, though it
were to cost you nothing. For not even any Colony of your own planting still
less a conquest of your own making will so much as pay its own expence.
CERTAINTY. MODEL of a RECORD at the ASSIZES.
Be it remembered That at Warwick Assizes on Friday 12th March 1762
holden before S ir Mich. Forster
Knight one of the Judge's of the King's Bench and S r Edw. Clive one of the Justices of the Court of Common
Pleas
by his Majesty to be Judges of Assize for the Lent Circuit
The said S ir Michael Forster sitting on the
Criminal side on the Midland Circuit
for the Lent
It was presented by the Grand Jury that Peter Hunt late of the Parish
of Lighthorne in the County of Warwick did &c Whereupon the Sherrif
& Or being in custody by virtue of a warrant granted by
J. P. Esq. Justice
of the Peace
was commanded to
cause the said Peter Hunt to be taken [to answer to the charge ]
Afterwards
P6
There is a vote in the Journals of the H: of Commons Oct. 4 th 18 Car: 2 "That a Committee be appointed to
confer with such "of the Lords the Judges & other Persons of the Long
Robe, "who have already taken pains & made progress in perusing "of
the Statute-Laws, & to consider of repealing such former "Statute-Laws
as they shall find necessary to be repealed, "& of expedients of
reducing all Statute Laws of one nature "under such a Method and Head as may
conduce to the "more ready understanding & better execution of such
Laws"
Published in 1763. Hawkins on the Highways 45.
If foreign evidence be required in support of a proposition thus evident of
itself, the reader may see the same thing asserted by an eminent &
active Magistrate, with that air of decision a
peremptoriness which hard learned experience had well intitled
him to assume the observation is here indeed applied more particularly to
the Laws relative to the subject of the Highways, with respect to
which he had a few years afterwards the satisfaction to see these his
wishes gratified: but the reason of it is universal: it may be seen farther
in the same ingenious Tract that the Author's complaints any more than the
Justice of them are not confined to this single subject +.
It is an assertion made with a confidence that Laws made hard learned
by a Gentleman experience had inspired who had greater occasion
than perhaps any other in the Kingdom to feel the Truth of it "that every
attempt to amend the Laws in quesion by additional or explanatory
Acts, will produce great confusion among those whose Duty it is to execute
them: & that nothing can remedy the evils ....
CONTOS. Consolid.
Vote for - Advocatos for Hawkins.
They make the King of France strain hard to say that he will have things in
such a way as he is going to tell them but when it's once said,
there is an end of it.
With our Legislators the general pangs come on afresh — every
minute.
Thus is the formulary usually met with the Legislative
Instruments of France.
"Louis by the Grace of God to all present & to come greeting
"& [then follows sometimes a preamb ulatory recital] We
"give to understand, that we for these causes and others as "thereunto
moving, of our own proper motion full power and "royal authority have said
established & ordered so say "establish & order by these
presents signed with our hand "we will & it so pleaseth
us". Ordonnance de Louis 14 pour les matieres criminelles
d' l'ar 1670 Paris This is when
it is an Edict when it is a Declaration it is "Declare" instead of
"establish" There seems to be about as much real natural
distinction between Declaration and an Edict, as there is between an
original —
1760 24
.p.176 clause in our Acts of Parliament and a Proviso.
A General non obstante is nugatory, as being implied in
the very circumstance of enactment: a non obstante
clause to a particular Statute certain creating a general rule
to which in the Statute in question it is meant to create an exception
may be proper to be required, as a testimony that the Statute referred to
had been in contemplation.
By 29 th
Ed c-5 after 19 Sections By the 19 th of which a temporary continuance
is given to the several Statutes mentioned in that and the 18 th preceding except to the 2 first which are
perpetuated. whereby continuance is is given to Statutes therein
mentioned There comes a 20 th by itself to
continue so much as was then in force of an Act entitled An Act touching
certain Polite constitutions [as they were then thought] for the
maintenance of the Navy [Immediately after this comes a 21 st in these words "Provided allways
that whereas &."] The Act then goes on & in the next
Section dispenses with the personal appearance of in penal
Suits.
COMPOS. Stat. Singly quâ Statute. Enactment
Formulary of French BR
Non- obsturies — Enacting
X Proviso
This is intitled an Act for the continuance & perfecting of
divers Statutes. None of the other Sections have any other —
affect than that of simply perpetuating or continuing, & in
that which may be thought to do somewhat towards, "perfecting" there
is no mention in particular made of any Statutes. There is
2a. as to this Fact! a Rule in the H: of Commons that no original clause of a
Bill can be inserted in a partial committee: there is another rule that a
Proviso may: as the distinction between an original clause & a
Proviso has not been nor can — well be settled, hence it is that
as by the former of these— Rules nothing so by the latter any
thing may be inserted there.
There was a certain Jew who had a tender affection for—
Westphalia Hams: under the name of Hams he abhorred them as a true Jew
ought: but he called them Stock-fish, & with the said Stockfish did
he fill his Belly.
Hence it is that so many a clause is seen [ elbowing] in the
this form shape of an adversary appendage
forced into a connection with a associate to which it is an utter
stranger.
This in the Turnpike Act 7 G.3.40 by §43. Mortgages of
Tolls are to be accountable, yet but for all this [by
§44.] when a toll-gatherer dies, another may be appointed in his
room.
If both these Rules were to be abolished together, things would be just as
they are now that both subsist: with this difference that one source of
continual absurdity would be stopped. What is a Proviso? a clause that
begins with Provided, make then a Clause to begin with provided, &
it is a proviso: now an clause may be made to begin with "provided"
& therefore any clause may be inserted.
NOTORIETY. N. YEAR BOOKS Want of.
(1 In the case entitled the King against Wheatly + + Hib 1760 - 2 d Burrow 1125
N.Y.B. Mischiefs from the want of. Example.
The Def t: being a Brewer had been Indicted
for a Cheat in selling a less quantity of the
commodity in which he dealt "as & for" a greater.
The man being convicted, & the prosecution
run on to the last stage a motion is made
in to Arrest of Judgment & no fewer than 4
cases precisely in point came out, where it
had been decided that the species of delinquency
in question no Indictment was to be maintained.
Now it is certain as far as any thing with
Law is certain, that if all, or one may venture
to say, any of these cases had been deposited
in a publication wherever those whom it concerned
might know where to meet with them;
the vexation of this Suit would not have
happen'd: no man than it would of any of
those other Suits if the event of those preceding them
(1 had been promulgated in like manner.
Thus had 4 had 4 sets of Prosecutors one after another
(that are known of) been harrassing themselves
& so many Defendants about the gaining of this
one point, after which the Law without their knowledge
had pronounced it to be unattainable.
Thus it is in short that the property, the
liberty, the personal security & even the life of
the subject is suffer'd committed on so many occasions
to this hour to be the sport of fortune: for I know
not what else it is, if it be not Fortune, that is to determine,
whether there be an Advocate who is
in possession of such a case, or who has a friend
or a friend's friend who is, & whether the Advocate
in question or the friend or the friend's
friend suspects he has it recollects his having it, & whether that one
of them who suspects he has it, succeeds in
finding it, & whether in short such Advocate
from admidst the variety of competitors, happens
to be employ'd. pickt out.
The world is left in a flame, that Lawyers may
roast their Eggs.
NOTORIETY. N.Y. Books Nonpublication D1
Private notes insufficient
N.Y.B. Obj. 2. May be Seen in Ms
(2) The only argument that affords the shadow of
an excuse for this excuse, is founded on
the supposition of that being done, which
is not only extremely difficult, but physically
impossible — It may be said, (for
I have heard it said) that the industry of
each particular person may stand in stead
supply the want answer the purpose of the general provision. This would be
regilentibus non dermientibus subvenient leges true - if in the 1 st place, men could take
notes in Westminster Hall, while at the University,
while at School, & before they
were born If a man could learn the art at either of the aforesaid Universities so to exalt his powers by Truth as to establish a in Unity in his own person. 2 dly If the same man could
be in the 3 courts at once — 3 dly If
ten men could dispose themselves in
the space that will receive but one — It is
known that no one court in Westminster Hall
will hold the 10 th part of those who under the
confined description of advisers only have occasion to
be apprized of its determinations. . . .
NOTORIETY N.Y. Non-publication D2
(2) determination as to the situation of the great bulk of mankind, who
at their peril must be actors, what their
situation is, I leave to every one [ ]
from these observations to conjecture, & from
his own experience to declare. assert pronounce.
There is no occasion for employing any one
person about the matter: for if two or
three hundred employ themselves in the same business with equal
diligence and capacity, there will
be no need of him.
(3) Were the Law all digested, and all published,
a less degree of study than is
necessary to qualify a man for the
desk, would qualify him for the Bar,
Nay would qualify him as far as study
can qualify a man, for the Senate; and
that not as those who come as Cincinnatus
from the Plough, or as
the : but as those who come there after from a
long course of discipline at the Bar.
LIV.
1
George R
Kings Warrant Jeremy Bentham Esq r £2000 to enable him to make the necessary preparations for the custody of the Convicts to be confined in proposed Penitentiary Houses £6,,13,,6 Our Will and Pleasure is that by virtue of Our
General Letters of Privy Seal bearing date the 5 th day of November
1760, you do issue and pay or cause to be issued and paid out of
any Our Treasure or Revenue in the Receipt of the Exchequer applicable
to the Uses of Our Civil Government unto Jeremy Bentham
Esq r or to his Assigns the Sum of Two Thousand Pounds by way
of Imprest and upon Account to enable him to make such
preparations as may be necessary for the custody and care of
the Convicts proposed to be confined in the Penitentiary Houses
intended to be erected at Battersea Rise or on such other Piece
or Pieces of Ground as may be appropriated for that purpose
And for so doing this shall be your Warrant Given at Our
Court at Saint James's this Eleventh day of June 1794 In
the Thirty fourth Year of Our Reign
To By his Majesty's Command
The Commissioners of Our Treasury,/
W Pitt
R Hopkins
J. Smyth
Jeremy Bentham Esq r £2000 to enable him to make the necessary preparations for
the Custody of the Convicts to be confined in the proposed Penitentiary Houses.
2
Warrant. Jeremy Bentham Esq r £2000 to enable him to make the necessary preparations for the Custody of the Convicts to be confined in proposed Penitentiary Houses./ Ordr Jn Dm Ent. After Our hearty Commendations ; By Virtue of His
Majesty's General Letters of Privy Seal bearing date 5 Nov.
1760 and in pursuance of a Warrant under his Royal Sign
Manual dated the 11 Day of June 1794 These are to pray
and require You to draw an Order for paying unto Jeremy
Bentham Esq r or to his Assigns the Sum of Two thousand
Pounds by way of Imprest and upon Account to enable him
to make such preparations as may be necessary for the custody
and care of the Convicts proposed to be confined in the Penitentiary
Houses intended to be erected at Battersea Rise or on
such other piece or pieces of Ground as may be appropriated
for that purpose And let the said Order be satisfield out of any
money in the Receipt of the Exchequer applicable to the
Uses of His Majesty's Civil Government For which this
shall be your Warrant. Whitehall —
Treasury Chambers 17. day of June 1794
To
The Auditor of the Receipt Mornington
of His Majesty's Exchequer. R d. Hopkins
J. Smyth
Jeremy Bentham Esq r £2000 to enable him to make the
necessary preparations for the Custody of the Convicts to be confined in proposed Penitentiary Houses
4
Case relative to the Tothill Fields Bill.
seemed to prevail at one time (though at present all such
emotions seem very happily to have subsided) among some of
the leading people in the Parishes; who complained of the
body as disposed to exaction, and as manifesting something
supercilious in their Carriage, towards the Persons intrusted with
the management of the parochial concerns but no specific
grounds for any such charge present themselves. The Dean and
Chapter represent themselves as averse to litigation; and the truth
of this representation seems to be confirmed by appearances.
Many instances occur, of either indulgence, or inattention to their
rights: no instances of a contrary tendency have as yet reached
the writer of this Paper. In a Map of Tothill Fields in the
Possession of the Dean and Chapter; and dated no more
than about 30 or 40 years ago, 67 Acres or some such matter
is given as the quantity of the Land: and note not above
50 Acres, or some such matter, are to be found: the
difference must have crumbled away in encroachments.
In this age of improvement and increasing population, a
situation which, notwithstanding the disadvantages above spoken
of, possesses the advantage of vicinity to the River as well as
to the seat of government, could not escape the observation of
that Class of Builders to whom every uncovered Spot presents
itself as a Field for speculation.
The fate of the few Buildings that were got up, out of
a considerable number that had been intended to be erected, in
the form of a Square encompassing Deans Yard (a situation
possessed of one of the above advantages, viz: vicinity to the river,
in an equal degree, and of the other in a much superior
degree) has been registered for these forty years in the ruins that
have been the melancholy result of it. The ill success of that great
project (of which more will come to be said a little farther on)
did not quench the busy spirit of the Adams's, who in 1760
or within a year or two afterwards, while the new-built Houses in
5
Case relative to the Tothill Fields Bill.
in Deans Yard were seeking in vain for Tenants, came forward
with a much greater project, according to which the whole of
Tothill Fields (excepting a small area reserved for the recreation
of the Westminster Scholars) was to have been divided into Streets,
lined with — Capital Houses. This plan, pregnant with magnificent
Ideas, and emblazoned in brilliant colours, so far engaged the
attention of the Dean and Chapter of that Day, that in the Year
1764, an advertisement appeared in several of the Public Papers,
inviting Builders and others to take the ground in Tothill Fields
upon Building Leases. The advertisement had not long been in
print, before it gave birth to a counter-advertisement from the
Vestries of the United Parishes, warning the Persons invited against
listening to the invitation. In the case of an ordinary proprietor,
the natural result of so adverse a proceeding would have been
an application to a Court of Justice for the purpose of substantiating
the right which is disputed. The value of the subject matter
were the quantum of rent, obtainable in the event of a successful adoption of
the Plan, to have been taken for the measure of that value,
could not have been regarded as being inadequate to the expence of a lawsuit,
even of the most expensive kind. But, whatever was
the cause — a doubt with regard to the existence of so extensive
a right — a doubt with regard to the eventual success of the
Plan, confirmed perhaps by the silence of the Class of Persons to
whom the advertisement was addressed — such has been the operation
of these causes, or some of them, upon a body, pacific by profession
and in practice, that, from that time to the present, no
Leases have been granted in pursuance of that advertisement,
nor have any legal steps been taken to establish the right of
making such grants. (a) note after this
That in that instance the insuperable, and one may almost
say radical, unfiteress of the Spot for the species of improvement
in question, was at least among the causes of failure,
will appear the more probable, the more fully the history of the
6
Case relative to the Tothill Fields Bill.
attempts of a similar kind, that have been made in that
vicinity, comes to be understood. If the Plan, presented by the
Adams's about the year 1760, met with so little encouragement,
it was because, at that early period (it might be said) the
Country and the Metropolis were not as yet for it. But
an attempt made as a much more recent Period at the most
favourable period known, and in a situation which, though
contiguous, presents the same advantages in a much superior degree,
has been equally unsuccessful. Parallel to the course of the
Thames, between Tothill Fields and the River, runs a tract of
Land, stretching from Grosvenor House to the Wharf called the
Thames Wharf in a line running (without any interruption
worth noticing) through a length of from 700 to 800 yards, along
the River wall, and extending in depth from about 400 to about
250 yards as far as Tothill Fields, by which it is all along bounded
on the other side. This land has for its proprietor are a single person,
(the Marquis of Salisbury) whose title is without dispute and his
rights without controul, unfettered by Settlements or Leases. The
time is not exactly known, but it was within these 6 or 8 years,
before, but not long before, the breaking out of that war
which has thrown all improvements of this kind to so melancholy
a distance, that a Projector of new Towns obtained so
much credit with the noble proprietor, as to have been let
into possession of the property, in confidence of his covering it
with Streets and Squares, upon a Plan outvying in magnificence
even that of the Adams's: but, so compleatly did the event fail
of realizing these brilliant expectations, so impracticable was it
found to procure so much as a single foundation to be laid,
that the object was no longer how to get the land covered with
buildings, but how to get it back out of the hands of the projector
or his Assignees in its naked State: nor was even this latter object attained without
a considerable sacrifice. Both plans (that of the Adams's for Tothill Fields and
that for the Marquis of Salisbury's Estate have been seen by the
writer of these pages. As