date

15 Apr. 1803 Evidence 8
15 Apr. 1803

Evidence

8

Ends

Ends in general

In this word properties we may observe /may be observed/ another heading term which has been employed with advantage in the character of a basis of arrangement especially in any work on which speculation has pratice for its end /the theory has a practical object in view/. A system of procedure being to be established, required the properties of which it is desirable it should be possessed: the properties, concerning which it is desirable that they should be found in it. The properties /property/ desirable in a system of procedure is that it be rendered conducive to the abovementioned objects or ends:- that it have the effect of warding off /preserving the community[?]/ - or[?] as far as the nature of things admitts - from the several abovementioned inconveniences /heads of inconvenience/. Corresponding to those ends the heads /species/ of inconvenience the avoidance of which constitutes respectievly so many distinct and subordinate objects or ends.

Another vocabulary, in which the positive form /phases[?]/ prdominates, may be more acceptable to some conceptions.

Ends of a sustem of Procedure, six. Properties of a good system of procedure - Properties desirable in a system of Procedure, subserviency to those respective ends.

1. Rectitude of decision. Under this article are comprehended the six inconveniences of the first order: rectitude of decision consists in the avoidance of those several inconveniences - according to the nature of the cause - whether penal or non-penal - and according to the side of the cause contemplated - whether the plaintiffs or the defendants.

2. Unvexatiousness - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary vexation.

3. Cheapness - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary expence.

4. Promptitude - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary delay.

5. Maturity - avoidance of the inconvenience of satisfaction.

6. Simplicity - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary intricacy.
Similar Items
  • Title: [13 Apr. 1803 Procedure {or Evidence]
    Description: 13 Apr. 1803

    Procedure {or Evidence?}

    Evils [...?]

    Ends

    Engl. Law

     In a practical view (see below)

    But of this principal which in the catalogue of collateral objects has received more than it due share of attention - or rather if the sacrifices made to it at the expence of the real main objects have been - in many instances disproportionate, needless, useless and inconsiderate, the same imputation can not be extended /charge will not be found extendible /applicable// to the case of the other collateral objects - expence, vexation and delay.

    While, on the pretence /under the notion/ of providing for the security of the innocent, the guilty are let out without number, vexation is heaped upon suitors of all descriptions without mercy - expence without account - and delay - needless and useless - and unnecessary delay is manufactured by rule and compass, as if litigation - the bane of comfort - were the proper and principal business of life.H

    At this point, for the present, we take a pause. To carry on /deduce/ yet further the genealogy of law-born evil /mischief/ - to delineate it in its various shapes - to pursue it into its various recesses and lurking holes to trace out its ulterior and more distant causes, with their respective remedies, is a task, the place of which belongs to /which will find its place in/ the topic of Procedure.

    H References to Evidence Self-conviction &c - Nullities -

    Uses of this arrangement.

    1. A standard to try the goodness of a system of procedure by,

    2 - in one country as well as another.

    3. A model of perfection /A [...?] for improvement to aim at/

    4 It exhausts the subject /There are no other inconveniences/

    5. It exhibits /and/ the ne plus ultra of improvement /beyond which it can not go/

    /These inconveniences reduced to the minimum[?], perfection is attained/

    Practical instruction -

    To extirpate each lower branch of the inconvenience, not on its own account merely but on that of the higher that grow out of it: Intricacy[?] for precipitation & delay; those for vexation and expence; those for wrong decision in all its shapes.

    Each inconvenience furnishes a test for the whole system, and for each step. No test more simple, intelligible, familiar, conformable at once to the principle of utility, and to popular sentiment.
  • Title: [14 Apr. 1803 Evidence Object]
    Description: 14 Apr. 1803

    Evidence

    Object

    usage. This omission so far as suggestion goes so far as can be done by an individual without authority will be endeavoured to be supplied in the course of the ensuing pages.

    These doings[?] being promised, the business of this work, notwithstanding the extent of it /room it occupies/ will be found capable of being comprized and announced in three simple propositions /a very narrow compass/

    1. A proposition to be proved is that for the mere purpose /in the mere view/ of ensuring rectitude of decision - in other words for the avoidance of the six inconveniences into which erroneous decision branches out and [...?] itself - no species of evidence whatsoever ought to be excluded. in technical language that all testimony that all evidence ought to be deemed competent using[?] without any defalcation from the probability /chances/ in favour of a right decision in any case and with a great addition to it in many cases, be deemed competent and as such admitted.

    2. Another proposition is - that on the score possibly of quantity possibly of quality lots of evidence of certain descriptions may be notwithstanding and ought to be excluded. But this rather for the avoidance of the collateral inconveniences of vexation, expence and delay, than for the avoidance of the inconveniences of the first order comprized under the head of wrong decision: on the account not of the danger of their proving delusive, but of the certainty /assurance/ of their being needless and superfluous.
  • Title: [12 April 1803[?] Evidence Ends]
    Description: 12 April 1803[?]

    Evidence

    Ends.

    Ch.

    ' Precipitation

    From the view thus taken of the several classes of lights or grounds of decision, which it may be the effect of an act of precipitation to exclude, as will soon be manifest enough, it is evident how far this head of inconvenience is from being in respect of its effects, what at first glance it might be thought to be, the exact counterpart and opposite of unnecessary delay. By unnecessary delay, the three negative inconveniences of the first order - non-application of punishment where due, non-application of satisfaction where due and non-collation of rights where due are produced to a certainty, and continued while it lasts: but in virtue of the operation of the same cause a chance more or less considerable of the ultimate and perpetual existence of these same inconveniences is moreover produced according to the nature of the case, penal or non-penal. Is produced: and not only of those negative inconveniences of which the plaintiff in the cause is the victim but of their respectively opposite positive ones - application of punishment where not due - application of satisfaction where not due (and thence of the burthen attached to the obligation of administering it) and collation of rights where not due (thence imposition of the mass of burthensome obligations by the imposition of which those rights are conferred.) The burthen of which falls upon the defendant.

    To precipitation of the other hand, stands attached, it is true, a chance more or less considerable of the existence of all those several /six/ inconveniences of the first order in the several cases to which they apply, and to the prejudice of the cause of the plaintiff or that of the defendant, as it may happen. A chance, yes: but it has not in any case any one of those inconveniences for its certain consequence.

    A Judge gives at the very first moment, at the very first word spoken or exhibited to him, the very same decision which he would have given, had he given the fairest and fullest hearing to both parties: at the end of all such steps as either party thought fit to take.

    The case is everywhere a conceivable one, and being the most simple one, is conceivable indeed, well more