date

Jan y 1807 9? 1 Letter II[
Jan y 1807

9? 1

Letter II[?]

In this as in other cases, in office, as in trade the effect of /beneficial effect of the principle of/ competition has two branches: in the first place you have the effect of the competition upon the character and conduct of the competitors: in the next place you have the benefit of the choice, the facility of choosing /taking/ the best.

Upon each individual in the character of a competitor, the matter of reward being the principle and especial cause of the competition, you get the beneficial effects which depend upon the employment of that pleasant matter, in contradistinction to the better matter of punishment: exhilarated and strengthened /invigorated/ by hopes, each competitor whether he supasses or as his rivals surpasses himself becomes in the race a stronger and swifter man than he would have been otherwise.
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    Had the effect /efficacy/ of the principle of competition in the character of a security for good judicature been so great as seems to have been supposed /as from general theory one might be led to expect/, the multitude of these Representations /applications/, of which were a /any/ single one would be regarded as an abuse in English judicature, might at any rate /at the least/ have been kept down within moderate bounds.

    And so possibly it might: but in the fee-gathering principle - a principle which Adam Smith after the discovery made of the trusting[?] hecktoring[?] and bantering principle as a distinct principle from the [...?] of money forget to add to it - in the fee-gathering principle, my Lord, the noble principle of competition found unhappily a rival /competitor/ too powerful for it to withstand. With /Along/ each and every of these Representation the agent of /learned representative of/ the representing party, presents to the learned Lord Clerk, that is to the learned Master himself, a fee of 3 d: not to mention fees attached to other instruments without numbers, each having its fee /each with its fee attached/, and attached to the Instruments of Representation, as so many casual or necessary appendages. /A o 1798/ All in one view these learned persons [...?] /insisted/ upon it by the mouth /pen/ of the power of all these fees put together, whatever may be their number to constitute a " benefit". Taking this for a criticism pronounced, and by Judges of undoubted competence, on a point of language, on the present occasion I confine myself to the begging of your Lordship's attention to the efficacy of money, even when the receipt of it is no benefit, in the character of a multiplier, to that of the principle of competition in the character of a reducer[?], of the number of these so much worse than witless instruments, in the purity[?] of Scotch law anguage denominated Representations.
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     To come after Rationalization Ends of Justice Distrust Causes

    '.7. Competition - desirable as between Session and Commissioners.

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    Where as between shop and shop, every penny of profit gained by one is a penny lost to the other neither linked to the other, as in the English delay and oppression - shops by the ties of a secret partnership, neither severed[?] in the possession of a large portion of custom by the necessities and distress of customers, each without intending it, serves the customers interest as well as its own each sends out its wares as good and as cheap as it can afford to make them.

    In the present instance its salutary /beneficial/ influence has already been certified /attested/ by experience. /+2 The abuses of the system are the patrimony of the profession./ Never, as I have already had occasion to shew - never[?] did any set of men, /not even among lawyers/ stand clearer of all suspicion of giving up an /one/ atom of abuse that could by possibility be retained. Well, my Lord: a little while, and I shall have /the occasion will present itself for shewing/ bring to Your Lordship's view one instance in which alterations /amendments/ of real utility, of some variety, and to no inconsiderable extent /good, real good/, have actually come out of this /so unpromising a/ Nazareth.

    /Under Your Lordships stewardship/ The race was begun by Your Lordships learned adviser: the few and short steps taken by his reluctant feet in the career of reform put /were sufficient/ the old stagers upon their mettle: left to themselves they never had stirred, never would have stirred, an inch. Bot to be left behind, the Commissioners, /the as yet unborn competitors/ will find it necessary to make a farther start: and which soever be the emblem, an auction, a foot or horse race, or a game of leap-frog the force and benefit of this principle will stand confessed.

    /+ 3 but the state of things expressed by the homily proverb, beginning with needs must, was realized./

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