date

3 July 1805 Evidence Introd
3 July 1805

Evidence

Introd. Jurisprudential

Ch. 3. Sources

''. 2. Dicta

The institution of a licencer royal by whom fact or veto[?] thus important preliminary might be ascertained, would for the severity of matters be a highly durable amendment to Statute the plan of which is amply supplied by the above pair of dicta. By such an institution indeed the power of the Court of the King's Bench on matters of libel would suffer no small domination. But as virtue in that honourable court is the inseperable confusion of power, the domination would no doubt be submitted with becoming mysticism should it be [?] [?] by the wisdom of Orleanus[?].

4. "The law of nations in its full virtue is part of the law of England" "Lord Torbut Lord [?] declared this as a clear opinion." A noble field for jurisprudential power, cloathed[?] in jurisprudential service. A lawyer glides over it upon the ways of the word, laying down the law as he goes, which they Lords and Commons are jolting and thwarting one another all the time, are crawling to and fro upon the ground some times forwards sometimes backwards always at a snails pace.

5. Christianity is the law of the land. Under favour of these [...?], an Orthodox chief patron (and how is it possible /is it in the power/ in chief patron to observe this orthodox?) confutes infidelity confutes heresy, proving whatsoever is not to be proved by reasoning by the logic of imprisonment and force.
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  • Title: [7 June 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 7 June 1805

    Evidence

    Introd. Jurisprudential

    Ch. 2. Sources

    ''. 2. Dicta

    '. Second source. Judicial dicta.

    Judicial dicta was the sort of raw materials that come nearest to the nature of a law. As to particular decisions, except in the comparatively narrow case that will presently be mentioned the case in which they stand convicted with certain [...?] which by referring to them expressly or totally they certainly include, they afford of both or as matter applicable to this /the/ purpose in question, otherwise than in virtue of the dicta to which they happen to give birth.

    These dicta supposing the words of those ascertained and registered, would as far as they want[?] want nothing but the authority attached to the person of the legislator to convert them into so many real laws or portions of real law.

    For writing on publishing a printed paper, a man is prosecuted for example in the court of the King's Bench, the paper being to that purpose denominated a libel. On the trial, or on some other occasion in the course of prosecution, a dictum is any such /some such/ effect as the following is uttered by what is called the Court by the presiding Judge, and nothing said against it by any of the others - "The Court of King's Bench and the austos mores of the nation : every offence /act/ that is contrà bonos mores is punishable as such by this Court. Or very [...?] act that is an offence against good order is cognizable in this Court. Or the alledged libel being charged with being offensive to the Christian Kingdom //

    Christianity is the law of the land: or Every discourse by which the feeling of an individual may in any way be hurt, (the same being committed to writing, and printed /made public/ or otherwise published) is a libel, and not the less so, for being true. The words in these several cases being ascertained it were easy by the addition of the requisite compliment of other words to compleat them into the form of a portion [?] of real law: such as is recognised by the official legislator, would constitute so many articles of Statute law.
  • Title: [15 July 1805 Evidence Introd]
    Description: 15 July 1805

    Evidence

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    Ch. Vices

    After this /By the above/ review of the sources, the reader is in some measure prepared for a list /catalogue/ of the vices inherent in a constitution /inseparable [...?]/ of jurisprudential law.

    1. At the head of the list is uncertainty. So many sources of the system, so many elements of the uncertainty which is essential to characterise it.

    In what has been said in relation to /under the head of/ uncertainty, an exception must however /all along/ be made in favour of the three grand products of the technical system, expense vexation and delay. On the side of increase no determinate limits can with any certainty be assigned to their respective quantities. But on the opposite side of domination they have in every /each/ instance a minimum: and within the limits marked out by that minimum they are as certain as death.
  • Title: [Jan y 1807 To III. Facienda]
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    But, Sir, all this while this plan of yours about decision without a Jury in the first instance and with a Jury in the 2 d instance, is bottomed on what you call Natural Procedure, such a they go by /act under/ in the Small Debt Courts: which the Lord President is quite clear, though it may serve well enough for any thing below ,5, is not fit for a farthing above ,5, and you are for employing it for any sum, though it were ,50,000.

    Yes, my Lord, the Right Honourable Judge has indeed drawn a very distinct line, the grounds of which, as I have already had occasion to submitt to Your Lordship, remain still to be discovered; and should the discovery ever be made it is not a small premium, I will venture to say, that will obtain it /have obtained it/.

    A very distinct line his Lordship has indeed drawn as between cause and cause: and in so doing a line not much distinct between man and man.

    In the causes below ,5, he has beholden, (beholden /descried/ form that high place /elevated station/ in the Inner House which his Lordship fills.) descried as from the ball or the cross in the life of S t Pauls[?] a man might descry prisoners in the shape of men crawling up and down /backwards and forwards/ in Cheapside. the causes of that division of mankind who go by various names /who are denominated by a variety of aliases[?]/ such as the mob, alias the vulgar, alias the scum of the earth, alias the canaille, alias the people, alias poor devils, Gullice, pauvrer[?] deaths[?], who can't pay their fees /who have not wherewithal to pay fees/. These are the class /sort/ of people who don't deserve justice or at least equity, have no right to justice at least to equity, and to whom it has accordingly for centuries been a settled point, that it is "beneath the dignity of a Court of Equity to serve out that double-refined /[...?]/ and bettermost /purer/ sort of justice.