date

1 Feb y 1807 12? 13? Letter
1 Feb y 1807

12? 13?

Letter II

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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  • Title: [15 April 1808 Ch. │ │ Competition]
    Description: 15 April 1808

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    '. 2. Competition, so applicable with advantage to projected laws /projects //plans// of legislation/.

    A case then[?] in which the principle of competition has not been nor promises to be, productive of any advantage, is that of judication: at any rate under the technical or fee-gathering system as established in Scotland as well as in England.

    A case in which it has already been productive of advantage, and under appropriate /suitable/ culture, promises to be more and productive of the same /like good/ fruit is that of legislation: competition for public esteem and favour as between one projector and another.

    To prove my case, I /am/ find myself under the necessity of bringing forward divers persons of high account in the character of witnesses. Under the British constitution, no rant[?] how high soever, examples /affords [...?]/ a man from that service.

    To prove efficacy of competition in the character of a stimulus, no more conclusive exemplification need be produced, than that which has been afforded in the case of the Right Honourable the Lord President and his /the [...?] learned Lord his/ [...?] learned Co-Memorialists. Before the stimulus was applied, the [...?] of justice would have been, not to say was, beholden /contemplated by those learned/ with a degree of unruffled complacency not inferior to that with which the deposition of commerce would at present be contemplated by [...?] unlearned eyes.
  • Title: [29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 29 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform

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    Abuse 1. Representations boundless /in an infinite series/: After judgment pronounced in the Outer House by the Lord Ordinary, applications /representations/ praying for /insisting on/ a removal or alteration of the judgment entertained by the same individual in an endless succession, under the name of Representations.

    In the Appendix, should Your Lordship's patience [...?] so far, in a section appropriated to this very subject in a chapter inserted for the purpose of giving a few samples /in which a few samples are given/ of the corruptions /corruption/ planted in the system of judicature /truck[/] of judicature/ by the fee-gathering system, thus, as being among /presenting itself as one of/ the most facted[?] served to close the list. To the observation therein made /contained/ a closer survey directed to the judicature /judicial system/ of Scotland in particular has suggested a few additional remarks.

    In regard to the number received /listened to/ of these successive representations /[...?]/, any of which would of itself have been sufficient to constitute a reasonable abuse, I could at that time only speak in general terms. Now in the work of one of my

    Co-annotators, I observe two stated as the number which had fallen within his own observation: but that /were it[?]/ number he found an addition made by the reports of others. Not being comprized /launched/ in the authoritative collection of decisions published by the faculty of Advocates, [...?] anecdotes of this sort transpose[?] only by accident. In one and the same cause, among practisers[?] /Advocates/ it may have witnessed [...?] such representations, and B never have heard of any such thing.
  • Title: [1 Feb y 1807 11? 12? Letter]
    Description: 1 Feb y 1807

    11? 12?

    Letter II

    Now then, my Lord, with your Lordships leave let us see the effect of the principle of competition as applied in such perfection -applied to all these the chambers - its effect I mean, as contrasted /compared/with that of the rival principle of /aw of/ money, money in the shape of fees.

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