8 August 1805

Evidence

Introd. Jurisprud. B

Ch. III Lawyer's Art

1. In the first place upon all these /the above/ topics, on the subject of these vices, a dead silence. What can not be defended must at any rate /all along/ be pretermitted /passed over/ /Where you can say nothing to the advantage of your cause, say nothing./ Such is the advice given by the great master of insincerity Cicero, to all the defenders of bad causes.

2. The /Their/ next resource /precaution observed/, particulars affording no room for /so little matter of/ eulogy has been to confine themselves to generals: to assume and assert and trumpet forth its excellence in the most extravagant terms, no matter how extravagant.
Similar Items
  • Title: [[...?] August 1803 Evidence]
    Description: [...?] August 1803

    Evidence

    Introd. Jurisprud.

    Ch. Lawyer's Arts

    ''. 2. 1. Common

    She has not faults of I no faults can spy:

    She is all goodness, or all blindness I.

    To keep upon terms with common sense love, even in the mouth of a poet, and one of the most panegyrical of all poets, could go so far as to admitt of this alternative: in speaking of the object of his [...?] /god or goddess of his idolatary/ no such confusion is ever made by the man of law.

    If the defects /bad properties/ of the system could in the smallest degree be [...?] /alieviated/ by all this eulogy /be praisement/ there would be so much the more to be said in excuse for it than can be said at present. But as the praise has no such design, so also it has no /so neither has it any/ such tendency: the man of law having a valuable property in all the defects with which whatever by imbecility or by artifice he has loaded his own work, the sole design and object where it has any of all this praise, is that by being screened as long as possible from view, they may be kept upon the same or if possible a worse footing as long as possible.
  • Title: [8 August 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 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.
  • Title: [5 August 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 5 August 1805

    Evidence

    Introd. Jurisprudent

    Ch. III Lawyer's Art

    ''. 2. Statutory determined

    2. It was not enough thus to magnify the mass of spurious law, the work of usurpation, but genuine law, the work of the legitimate legislator, was to be depretiated /under valued/ /slighted/ /slightly spoken of/ and representated as untrustworthy in comparison of it: to such a pitch of effrontary /audacity/ will imposture soar, when secure against contradiction and exposure.