date

11 April 1805 Evidence Securities
11 April 1805

Evidence

Securities

Ch. Procedure Technical

'.3 Objects ulterior

5. Prosecutions are suits: suits constituted by a demand made of satisfaction or punishment, or both on the occasion of an /some/ offence. The greater the number of offences committed within a given time the greater the numbers of offences liable to be prosecuted out of which prosecutions may arise. Fifth object of the technical system: to render the number of offences, (crimes of all sorts included) as great as possible.

That the man of law his own interest in the multiplication /frequency/ of offences in general, and of those more odious offences which are distinguished by the name of crimes in particular, is manifest: for suits occasioned by offences, suits for the prosecution of crimes, are suits.

Note

His interest in this respect his interest is not uniform and absolute. His interest is derived from, and proportioned not to the quantity of mischief produced by the commission of them, but to the quantity of profit extractable from the prosecution of them. In a general way o speaking, it is true to say that it is his interest that as many crimes as possible be committed, because the greater the aggregate number of these that are committed, the greater will naturally be the number of those that are prosecuted. But in the commission of those of mala fide be of which it is certain that they neither will be prosecuted, nor be productive of others that will be prosecuted, he has no interest. So likewise, there be any crimes or other offences, from the prosecution of which no profit is extractable by him, weather from the defendants side of the case, nor yet from that of the prosecutor, in the multiplication of crimes and other offences of the description he has no interest.

A man of law /lawyers/ is a man. From this character he derives a general interest, opposite to the special interest on this ground which belongs to him in the character of a man of law. As a man his interest requires that the number of crimes committed be as small, as a man of law that it be as great as possible.

From crimes /In the commission of offences/ which are not prosecuted, crimes /of offences/ the prosecution of which affords him /if such there be/ no profit, he has no /not in the character of a man of law any/ interest: in these cases, in so far as they can be distinguished from the rest, the interest that belongs to him in the character of a man, being unballanced, will be seen to turn /dominate/ the scale.

In the commission of offences which afford him a half-profit, profit on the prosecution of those not being extractable but from one side, in his character of man of law he will have as it were but a half-interest.
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  • Title: [11 April 1805 Evidence Note]
    Description: 11 April 1805

    Evidence

    Note

    Securities

    Ch. Procedure Technical

    ''. Objects ulterior

    The aggregate number of offences committed and prosecuted being given, his interest requires, that the number of offences committed by the rich, or prosecuted by the rich, or both, be as great as possible: and a converse, that the number of offences committed by the poor /indigent/, or prosecuted by the indigent or both, be as small as possible.

    From various causes /Whatever be the cause, and there are various ones/ the majority of offences in number and value: (i.e. degree of mischievousness) that is the majority of crimes together will be such in which the poorer classes have more concern /are more concerned/ than the richer. concerned in the character of prosecutors, and in a still larger proportion in the character of delinquents: [...?] 1. The poorer classes are the most populous. 2. Offences produced of indigence are far more numerous than offences of all other descriptions put together; and offences produced by indigence are naturally /most apt to be/ the offences of the poorer classes.

    Note?

    Between, profit, reputation and power, and consequently between the interests respectively created /generated/ by those objects of universal /general/ desire, the connection is intimate and almost inseparable: so that /and/ where a mans interest in quality of /the character of/ a man might have outweighed his interest in point of profit in the character of a lawyer, it may happen that his interest in point of reputation in the character of a lawyer, being so superadded may /shall/ have the scale on the other side

    Note?

    In different countries under different systems, this conflict of interests will be found productive /may be observed to have been productive/ of different effects. In some, in the character of a lawyer the interest of a mans reputation has been better served by the punishment of crimes prosecuted, and thence decreasing /diminishing/ the number of crimes committed than by giving impunity to crimes; in others, it has been better served by giving impunity to crimes, and thence by encreasing the number of crimes than by diminishing it.
  • Title: [April 1805 Evidence Securities]
    Description: April 1805

    Evidence

    Securities

    Ch. Procedure Technical

    ''.3. Objects ulterior

    The quantity of lawyers profit extractable out of the aggregate of suits is encreasible in /may be encreased in either of/ two ways - by encreasing the number of suits in which the services of the man of law in his several forms must /require/ to be purchased, or by encreasing the number of instances in which it requires to be purchased on the occasion of each suit. In both ways it receives a proportionate encrease from the non-notoriety /unnotoriety/ /unscrutableness/ - the uncertainty - of the law. The greater the number of suits in existence, the greater the demand for his assistance /exertions/: the greater the number of suits in contemplation, his disposition of the law in relation to them presenting itself as indeterminate the greater the demand for his advice.
  • Title: [10 July 1804 Procedure & Evidence]
    Description: 10 July 1804

    Procedure & Evidence

    Note

    Evils causes

    Intricacy

    The causes /suits/ by far the most common of any are as follows

    1. In the superior criminal class /department of procedure/ - theft - with or without the circumstances of aggravation which it ----- it ---- robbery housebreaking or burglary. Among crimes punished by the English law with the -- mode if ---- called felony, unclergyable or clergyable, the number of individual crimes of the above description committed in a year is at least 7 /20 or 10/ times as great as that of all other felonious crimes put together.

    2. In the inferior criminal or penal class /department/ - assault - (or injurious words spoken or written the number of individual offences of this description taking into account those prosecuted for in what is called the civil mode as well as those prosecuted for in what is called the criminal mode would probably found superior to all other offences under the ---- of felony prosecutable for one or other of those modes.

    3. In the non-penal class /department/ debt for goods sold or for money lent on a bill or note of hand and delivered by a shop-keeper to a consumer, the number of these suits commenced could perhaps be found 30, 40 or 80 times as great as that of all other non-penal causes put together But in each of /every one/ of these species of causes the case is most commonly at the utmost or very near the utmost point /pitch/ of simplicity.

    1. In the case of theft there is frequently no more than a single witness the owner of the good alleged to be stolen, or suppose another or two to be added the complexity thereby added to the case is, in respect of the additional quantity of time thereby required by the operation of which the evidence is the subject matter, too inconsiderable to be worth taking into the account /noting for this purpose/.

    2. In the case of assaults and verbal injuries the same observations apply without any difference worth insisting on.

    3. In the case of goods sold and delivered to a consumer upon credit, if at the shop, there will be the master shop-keeper if his testimony be admitted or at any rate his journey-man: if delivered elsewhere, the porter with or without the corresponding evidence derived from the evidence of the Book-keeper confirmed and ----ed by the ---- of his books