date

August 1805 Evidence Introd
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?
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    To men of law, but more particularly to the many to whom the sweets of the profession were matter of hope rather than of present enjoyment, the incident was a most delightful one: there was the topic of humanity, there was the topic of liberty to be discoursed[?] upon in one of the thousand senses: but above all there was the question of law wrapped up in that interesting obscurity and uncertainty, which [...?] and constitutes a new case.

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    ''. 9. Forged Population[?]

    Whence (it may be asked) all this effrontery? This perseverence not only in the lavishing upon so unworthy a subject effusion of panegyric that on the most deserving subject imaginable would be excessive to a degree of absurdity, but in the assention /advancement/ of matters of fact, the falsity of which is palpable to every eye that reads? I answer 1. From the professional habit of uttering truth and false hood with equal confidence.

    2. From confidence in the ignorance and prejudice of the people: even of that select and superior part /class/ of the people, to whence /which/ all those who concern themselves in any way about /take cognizance in any way of/ the state and character of the law can not be referred.

    In no other time /strain/ do they know /see/ the law, ever spoken of/but more particularly the Common Law/ than in the strain of panegyric. If here and there any thing is suspected to be amiss, it is ascribed by every body to any thing rather than to an imperfection in the constitution of what is called common law: to the perversity of human nature, to the natural difficulty and intricacy of the subject, or if to any more particular cause, to the imperfection not of the system itself, but of the individuals, meaning /understood/ of the inferior and non-governing classes?, that not under it.

    No man who is not engaged by interest as well as prejudice in keeping the secret of its infirmities /depravity/ /imperfection/, ever sees any thing more of it than the phantasmagoric view given of it by Blackstone. Of those who are not engaged by professional interest and prejudice to give /take a part/ in the imposture, there is no one that does not find it less troublesome and more pleasant to take Blackstone's word for the excellence of the system than to plunge to the bottom of it for the purpose of bringing to view its defects? What labour would it not require to get to the bottom, and how little profit in any shape would be the reward of it.