date

18 March 1807 2 By the supposition
18 March 1807

2

By the supposition, whether the man be or be not conscious of the blame worthiness of his conduct, blameworthy it is: his conduct being thus blameworthy, if so it be[?] /the case be/ that he is not conscious of its being so, then instead of dolus[?] or malâ fide and /or/ dolus[?], the words culpa[/] or timeritas[?] be employed: which words in the way of what the Logerians[?] call conjugation, nor thrown into a variety of forms, such as the structure of the sentence of what they constitute the characteristic terms happening to require.

In point of reason and utility the demand for the use of the words culpa and temeritas, on the one hand is to [...?] a hair's breadth (Your Lordship sees) coextensive with that of the words dolus and malâ fide. Yet even from [...?] lawyers though inventors of this most cardinal distinction it has not received all this /in practice all that/ distinction to which it is so justly intitled; and from English lawyers much less. Among a variety of bad consequences, are, a [...?] it[?] which may serve for illustration is - that in a multitude of instances, homicide[?] and false testimony for example instead of the proper medium punishment in excess or impunity[?] is adminstered. In the case of homicide, where the act the result of which has taken this fatal course appears to have been accompanied /tinctured/ with honesty, the general tendency is to confound[?] him with murderers, and so destroy him: in the case of fake testimony, when, had he set that watch upon his word which he ought to set, and by the horror of [...?] punishment might be made to set, the uncorrectness would have been avoided, yet because a compleat consciousness of its deviation is not looked upon as certain, nor accordingly his [...?] as coming under the denomination of useful and corrupt perjury, he goes free.
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    Description: [...?] March 1807

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    In the use of those eopithets a sort of division /class [...?]/ is implied, which if my humble conception of the matter should happen to be right will turn out to be ilusory, and productive of practical error upon a vert extensive scale. I will first submitt to Yuor Lordship the classification which presents /has presented/ itself to be one or the one for use, and from that should it really appear fit[?], any other, the one here in question included, will appear /be seen/ not to be so.

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  • Title: [18 March 1807 3 To apply the]
    Description: 18 March 1807

    3

    To apply the distinction to the case in hand - that of appeals /appeal/.

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  • Title: [18 March 1807 7 Is it then]
    Description: 18 March 1807

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    Is it then The word frivolous being thus employed in /to form //to express/ the character of an attribute, to the word /of instead/ appeal the grounds and reason of the appeal be considered as designated /the object/ in the character of the correspondent subject, compared with /the expression when/ the same /above/ standard, will appear equally incompetent /ill qualified/ to lead to useful practice.

    These grounds and reasons may be ever so frivolous ever so insifficient in point of reason to warrant the conclusion built upon them /drawn from them/, and on the part of the suitor on whose behalf they are employed yet be unaccompanied

    with malâ fide. It may even happen that they are not so much as accompanied with temerity. For be they ever so frivolous what may happen is that they are the fruit of the majority of th suitors lawyers, and forasmuch as it not endurable where law is concerned that non-lawyers in general should hold themselves wise than the laws that is than the lawyers by whom a pretence of being declared they were made, or at least without imputation of rashness may a suitor be allowed to regard the wisdom of his own lawyer /of thre lawyer of his choice/ as superior to his own. On the other hand true it is, that the more frivolous the grounds, produced in appeal of an Appeal or any other legal application, appear in the eyes of him to whom it belongs to judge of them, the stronger will be his reason for regarding the application as accompanied /tinctured/ either with temerity or even with malâ fides.