date

24 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform To L d
24 Dec r 1806

Scotch Reform To L d Grenville 12(10

Resolut. 10

Avocate suspension

Were the occasion for application to any of the effects abovementioned matter of frequent occurrence, the delay, vexation and expence would be proportionably great.

But among a number of arrangements all equally necessary for carrying /working/ on the machinery of justice /judicature/ many may be found of such a nature, that the occasion for actually carrying them into practice may be matter of vert unfrequent occurrence: yet are they not on that account the less necessary, nor do they make in the source of the laws any less conspicuous figure, than those arrangements which are the most constantly and abundantly called forth into practice.

The Sheriff delinquent, the Coroner in league with him, what would become of the Courts of Westminster Hall without a pair of apporatory[?] Elizors? Yet the occasion for the actual[?] appointment of these occasional and ephemeral substitutes to the more paramount and regularly officiating Ministers of Justice does not present itself once perhaps in a twelvemonth: take away that power, a day would scarce have elapsed but proofs of the necessity of it would have started up in abundance.
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  • Title: [24 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform To L d]
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    A regulation enacted and presented[?] /given to the public as binding/, and thereupon in practice complied with or infringed, as suits the purpose of the perons or the time: a game called in plain English, playing fast and loose. Here then is one of these double Translations of which in the character of one of the engines[?] of the technical system I have already had occasion to speak. engines under that ingenious system, so convenient to the authors; so admirably adjusted to the ends of judicature.

    Your Lordship may perhaps remember /recollect/ the time when the species[?] of duplicity was in the case of the Earl Indiscompany[?], made matter of importation: but technical judicature being a suit into which the eye of Parliament, especially at so great a distance, can so seldom endure to pry, that this and worse here continued for ages in the state of every days practice.
  • Title: [24[?] Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform To]
    Description: 24[?] Dec r 1806

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    Here there is a regulation established by an Act of Siderent[?] established already in 1787: now in 1806 comes a proposition for establishing the same thing over again by Act of Parliament.

    Here is /stands/ a [...?] fragment with reflections, and not much less so with doubts.

    The regulation has it been acted upon? then why in a system of reform introduce and re-enact the regulation, and this alone, to the exclusion of so many hundreds of others that also have been acted upon these few times alone out of the contents of a vast folio volume.

    Has it been consigned to neglect? - Then what security will the proposed re-enactment afford of itself against the regulations sharing the same fate a second time as it did the first.

    Is it that their Lordships were in the habit of making regulations, and [...?], without repeating them, or saying in point a syllable about them, making them in practice as waste paper? Yes, my Lord, they are. Practice swarms[?] with instances: to collect them all would be too heavy /severe/ a task: but to prove it to your Lordship that what is here said is not without ground, a few references in the margin are subjoined: and even were these all, the points they include /embrace/ are such as can not but present themselves as swarms[?] in every days practice.
  • Title: [30 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 30 Dec r 1806

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    3. Pleadings

    But in Scotland /Scotch procedure/, the use of forms has not extended to defences: not in regard to demands even[?] of the most simple class /description: and here at any rate the new /newly/ -projected or at least unnamed system of pleading would find itself at a loss /fault/.

    But when defences /instruments of defence/ are [...?] by forms - [...?] forms - I must not have[?] say uncircumducible[?] as evidence and if my [...?] of them be correct Scotch pleadings, apparently where they get into print, boil out and expatiate /spread themselves/ over the field of evidence. French Memoires used to do so: they contained the whole story that is on each side the whole story on that side, including according to the c;ass of the cause the already collected, or expected, or pretended to be expected evidence: all always under the benefit of the mendacity-licence: and in the Scotch cases and pleadings may be seen the legitimate offspring /natural children/ of the French Memoires.

    In English procedure, on the Common Law side, every thing capable of coming under the demonstration of evidence, is [...?] effectually excluded by the forms in use. In most cases /The cases of most frequent occurrence/ the defence is happily considered into that very concise form of expression called the General Issue. 1. Non assumpsit /he (better I) in [...?] made no such promises/: I [...?] entered into no such engagement. 2. Not debit. I owe nothing. 3. non est factum. I extracted no such instrument. 4. [...?] ad [...?]. He paid at the day: (capable without any impropriety of being included under he owed nothing). 5. non [...?] - he is not guilty.