date

8 August 1805 Evidence Introd
8 August 1805

Evidence

Introd. Jurisprudent

Ch. Lawyers' Art

A system thus loaded with imperfections thus heaving /swarming/ /infested/ in fact with every vice /bad quality/ that imagination himself /itself/ could ascribe to such a subject - a system by which the most important of all works is executed /performed/ in the worst of all manners supposing hypocrisy, or prejudice and imbecility determined at any price to bepraise and trumpet it, what topics what pretences can they have framed to themselves /pitched upon/ out of which to manufacture if possible the matter of praise? Such is the question that on the part of the enquiry will naturally have presented itself to every reader /any mind/ to whom the solution of the difficulty /answer to such a question/ has not been conveyed by other sources. /channels./

The obvious interest of every man that ever spoke or wrote in the character of a lawyer being that every possible sentiment of affection and veneration that possibly could be should for ever be attached to the wish /system/ on which all his hopes are built, the more unworthy /undeserving/ of praise it is /were found to be/, the greater the quality of praise which it was now found necessary to heap upon it. The course taken /sort of language taken/ on these occasions affords /presents/ a striking picture of the subterfuges and artifices /wiles/ of lawyercraft.
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  • Title: [8 August 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 8 August 1805

    Evidence

    Introd. Jurisprudent

    Ch. III Lawyer's Art

    For an exemplification of the arts practised on this ground by lawyers /lawyercraft/, it will not be either necessary, or so much as of use , to look to any one but /any further than to/ Blackstone. He is the source to /oracle from/ /channel through/ which whosoever thinks it worth his while to think at all /trouble himself/ about law, derives /draws/ whatever notions /conceptions/ he thinks it worth his while to frame concerning the complexion and character of jurisprudential law. No other mind can present so fair a title as this parent mind to exceptence as the character of the legitimate representative of the professional part of the public mind: all other books put together have no so extensive a circulation as that one book. On everything that to common law dead and living, the works of all other authors put together do not contribute so huge a share as his to the formation of the public mind. Scarce any /Not that, unless by a miracle, any/ other lawyer ever speaks of jurisprudential law without bestowing on it the homage of his praise /admiration/: but with all his exertions in this line: but no other lawyer in the extravagance of his adoration ever came up /went beyond/ /could ever venture to outfly/ the extravagance of Blackstone. He if any one /man/, may be regarded as the representative, the genuine representative, the foreman, the chairman, the mouthpiece, the speaker of the profession. After him to bring to [...?] on this /any such/ occasion the language of any other dead author would be useless, if any living author, useless and invidious /any other author, would if he were dead be useless, if living/.

    If praise, lavished on a bad system, for the purpose of keeping out a better be matter of imputation, what other quarter could any imputation be fixed with less danger of injustice?
  • Title: [August 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: August 1805

    Evidence

    Introd. Jurisprudent

    Ch. III. Lawyer's Art

    . 5. Forged Population[?]

    Where the goodness of the jurisprudential system is the point in issue, the cause affords no witnesses but what are bribed, no jurers but what are packed. What verdict but of one sort /but to one effect/ can in a cause /on a question/ of this sort to be expected? In such a case /On such a subject/, as on every other how far are the men /how often/ is the man to be found who will be hardy enough to oppose his single opinion /surmise or suspicion/ to the whole stream of authorities, to the whole force and clamour of the public voice?
  • Title: [2 August 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 2 August 1805

    Evidence

    Introd. Jurisprudent

    Ch. II. Vices

    ''. 6. Fixation incompetancy

    By the above examplifications /illustrations/ the incompetency of jurisprudential law to the purpose of fixation, to fixation in all manner of ways will perhaps be regarded as sufficiently demonstrated /proved/ as well as explained. In the same say may its incompetency be shewn in respect of all the other subject /other subjects/ of fixation: modes of quantity of other sorts, modes of quality, degrees (which have been defined /not inaptly defined/ quantities of quality: to which may be added species of things and exceptions, limitations and conditions to regulations of all sorts, whether obligatory or de-obligatory.

    To carry the demonstration through /over/ all these tracts, would be to traverse in all directions the whole field of jurisprudence, which is as much as to say the whole field of legislation. Such labour will not be expected to be performed for this /so/ limited a purpose as that of the present Essay.

    In cases in which profit and power are concerned, averseness to doing business is by no means a certain /a universal/ accompaniment of the incapacity of doing it well. Incompetent as Jurisprudential law /the jurisprudentialist/ is to the operation of applying exceptions conditions and limitations to general rules, no backwardness on his part as to the execution of this part /these branches/ of the task of fixation has ever been observerable in his practice. The principle of irrelevant decision is in every application of it, a system of exceptions, conditions.

    Take the whole learning of heresay and limitations (all these operations are materially reducable to each other) a system of exceptions, conditions and limitations arbitrarily applied to the general rule which requires in all cases the punctual fulfillment of the engagements taken by the substantive branch of the law.