date

5 June 1804 Evidence Ch. Basis
5 June 1804

Evidence

Ch. Basis

[...?] f. Rejection Causes

History

Thus stands the matter or the facting[?] of general recurring probability grounded in the known constitution of human nature. Apply /[...?]/ to experience, descend to particulars, you will find the truth of this statement become /attested/ witness to by every page of legal history. An honest lawyer has given (without tarnish /disgrace/) what he calls the history of a suit at law: it is the history not of this /a siongle/ or that suit but of all suits - in a word of the whole system of procedure so far as the two great courts in Westminster called Common Law Courts are concerned: their birth, parentage and education - life, character, and behaviour: of the [stages?] means by which, with fals[e]hood for the master engine, injustice in all its shapes was moulded into practice. To show the progress of iniquity /injustice/ in all its stages and all its details would be laborious to require a landscape if that whole work[?] with large additions and explanations, the art of so being as critics[?] could not be found, the pleadings - the discussions between suitor and suitor were permitted to be carried on vivâ voce. Before /Till/ the service of a friend speaking for his friend had been converted into a trade, a suitor was at once compelled and permitted to speak for himself, a dishonest man was not deprived[?] from examination, nor an honest man condemned without being heard. In the art of writing great[?] [...?] [...?], the practice /exercise/ of it not being too rare to be made [...?] to be [...?] on as necessary nor too common not to [...?] are extortions /[...?]/high payments/ price[?] the [...?] was that against the suitor then advocate: the pleader to under write for his hand put a bridle upon his tongue /padlock upon his legs/, and the [...?] of an hour was open out into months and years.
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    Judges, judicial Clerk officers, r[...?] [...?] officers called Sheriffs Advocates and Attornies of different descriptions and determinations: all consulted by habitual intercourse, all brought together by professional sympathy and bound together by mutual interest - all joined hands, made common cause and occupied themselves on plundering the suitors. The suitor being that one of course and all personal responsibility along with him, no lie too independent for the Attorney, or Advocate to utter - no[?] so too ulterior for the Judge to accept, and take for the warrants of his practice. At first useless writings were manufactured /false importance commonly by Judges committed to papers/ that the suitor might be /for/ charged: is security and with it [...?] encreased. The gibberish /jargon/ was not so much as written, but the suitor was charged for it at the same justice. Money was thus regularly obtained as false premises under the eye and to the profit, /found and [...?]/with/reduced to a system/ and with the approbation, and more that the approbation of the Judges. As to the suitor whose [...?], ignorance through [...?] - or if honesty had been known through honesty, should have omitted /or mismatched by truth/[...?]/ any established lie. In a case like these Judges were inexcusable: the miserable suitor lost his cause.
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