049-168.xml

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.

049-165.xml

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?

JB_097_146_001.xml

Title: [21 Aug t 1806. On the same principle]

Description: 21 Aug t 1806.

On the same principle it, (of an implied original contract to

submit to the rules of the community, whereof we are members) that

a forfeiture imposed by the by-laws & private

ordinances of a corporation etc. ..... immediately create a debt

in the eye of the law. III 159.

General implication & intendment of the courts of judicature,

that every man hath engaged to perform what his duty or justice

requires. III 161

If I employ a person to transact any business for me .... the law

implies that I undertook, or assumed to pay him so much as his

labour deserved. And if I neglect to make him amends, he has

a remedy for this injury by bringing his action on the case upon

this implied

assumpsit, wherein he is at liberty to

suggest that I promised to pay him so much as he reasonably

deserved. III 616.

If A has the jus proprietatis, and B. by some

unlawful means has gained possession of lands .... dies seised of

the lands, then B.'s heir ... hath not only a bare possession, but also an apparent jus

possession or right of possession.

For the law presumes, that the possession, which is transmitted from

the ancestor to the heir, is a rightful possession, until the

contrary be shown: & therefore the mere entry of A is not

allowed to evict the heir of B; but A is driven to his action

at law to remove the possession of the hier, though his

entry alone would have dispossessed the ancester. III 177

Victim defended in Ejectment [A Writ of ejectment is] founded on the

same principle as the antient writs of assize being

calculated to try the mere possessory title to an estate;

& hath succeeded to those real actions, as being infinitely

more convenient for attaining the end of justice; because the form

of the proceeding being entirely fictitious; it is wholly in the

power of the court to direct the application of that fiction, so as

to prevent fraud & chicane, and eviscerate the very truth of

the title. III 205

Taking or detaining a man's goods are respectively trespasses; for

which an action of trespass vi et armis, or on

the case in trover & conversion is given by the law. III 208.

Depriving one of a mere matter of pleasure as of a fine prospect, by

building a wall, or the like; this as it abridges nothing

really convenient or necessary, is no injury to the sufferer,

& is therefore not an actionable nuisance. III 217

De minimus non curat lex. III 228

In the case of distress for fealty or suit of court, no distress

can be unreasonable, immoderate, or too large: for this is the only

remedy to which the party aggrieved is

intitled, & therefore it ought to be such as is

sufficiently compulsory; &, be it of what value it

will, there is no harm done, especially as it cannot be sold or made

away with, but must be restored immediately on satisfaction made.

III 231.

For a freehold rent, reserved on a lease for life, etc, no action

of debt lay by the common law, during the

continuance of the freehold out of which it issued: for the law

would not suffer a real injury to be remedied

by an action that was merely personal. [ ] III 232.

The prerogative of the crown extends not to do any injury; for,

being created for the benefit of the people, it cannot be exerted to

their prejudice. III 255

This intricacy of our legal process will be found, when

attentively considered, to be one of those troublesome, but not

dangerous, evils, which have their root in the frame of our

constitution, & which therefore can never be cured without

hazarding every thing that is dear to us. III 267