date

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

Scotch Reform To L d Grenville + (1

Resolut. 14

Costs

 Remark[?] paragraph 3. adjust to para 31

Resolution 14. That such costs be allowed by this House in cases of Appeal as may more effectively and to the discouragment of frivolous and vexatious Appeals.

More false views, my Lord, natural consequences /results/ of the technical /fee-gathering/ system - more in[...?] and inefficient, or rather [...?] efficient expedients in consequence.

Vexatious Appeals, in effect yes: in as far as all unjust /being unjust, thus/ some are vexatious: in design, no: nor yet frivolous: it is not in any such shape that the great birth of the mischief likely to flow from Appeals is likely to cloath itself. [...?] Appeals, unjust Appeals produced by the influence /agency/ of sinister interest these are the Appeals from which the great birth of the mischief running in this channel takes its rise. Judges, under the impulse of the similar interest given to them by the fee-gathering system, have held out encouragment to malâ fide defendants /suitors/, to become Appellants, giving them, in the manner I hear submitted /[...?] submitting/ to your Lordship, a clear interest in, a neat profit on condition of, so doing: defendants, yielding to the temptation, embrace /accept/ the mistake[?], and the consequences are - in England Writs of Error for more delay, [...?] the Exchequer Chamber, and so on to the House of Lords: in Scotland, applications for Bills of [...?] and Suspension, [...?] Petitions with removals in other forms, from the Outer to the Inner House, (not to speak of occasional vibrations,) and so on Appeals from the Inner House to the House of Lords. Give us ,20 to divide among us, and more says the Custor [...?] and his reverend Colleagues - not in words, indeed but in acts and deeds which form a source so steeped[?] in fiction are [...?] more to be depended upon /somewhat more turstworthy and impressive/ - give us our ,20, we give you from a year to 12 year's interest of the Plaintiff's money - and the difference is all your own.
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  • Title: [26 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform To L d]
    Description: 26 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform To L d Grenville

    (4

    Resolut. 14

    Costs

    Thus then stands the case of costs considered in the character of a remedy against groundless Appeals. Costs properly so called, costs in the Westminster Hall sense of the word, most can operate unless by accident in that character, never even intended so to operate. Costs improperly so called, costs in the House of Lords sense, even intended to operate in that character, do operate in that charater to a certain degree, but that a very precarious and incomplete /inadequate/ and precarious degree Against delay /procrastination/ in the principle of economy, on the ground of commercial calculation, it is unable, for want of the necessary regard in propositions to afford any steady and generally adequate remedy: against delay /procrastination/, through despair, in contemplation of indecency[?], it is altogether powerless /impotent/.

    Sham - checks are encouragements /Every //A/ sham check is an encouragment/. Every check in the form of a penalty is a sham check, when the penal /loss by penalty/ since being fixed or limited, the profit from /by/ transgression is liable to extend /capable of going/ beyond the mark /outstretch it/.

    In the English Equity procedure checks of this sort are not wanting: in Scotch procedure checks of this sort are abundant, had it be said that where malâ fide suits, demands, or defences are in question, these are the only sort of checks which fee-fed Judges can with any colour of reason /in any principle of crimson sins/ be expected either to originate[?] or to approve? which in sny principle of common sense can be expected to be found endurable by fee-fed Judges.
  • Title: [Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform To]
    Description: Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform

    To L d Grenville

    Omissa

    Repesentation

    At every step, I take, my Lord, I find myself attacked by the ridicule that attackers in the attempt to prosecute and try by the rules of justice, practices[?] that never could have recognised any such authority as that of justice: I feel a plea to the jurisdiction, opposing itself to a [...?] to every step.

    This infinity in the scenes[?] of Representations and shillings, if the scene of it lay in the Inner House, the would /might/ be a more colourable /a somewhat better-coloured/ cloak for it. Escaped out of this Court the cause will have a long way to travel /journey to take/, all the way from Edinburgh to London, good Your Lordships [...?] as one more, save[?] us so long a journey if it possible. No such thing: in the Inner House only /alone/ that it remains infinite. Dissatisfied with what has been done in the Outer House, raise your voice a little and without having a step to stir for it, you might be heard in the Inner House. One series may be found[?]: but first there must be an infinite one.

    One reason perhaps may be this. Were the longer series /Had the Inner House been the scene/ of the longer series, the task of lengthening it would have required the concurrence of the " whole Lords" which the shillings would either have been to be divided /[...?]/ into 115 parcels, or mor probably gone into some one pocket into which there was no opening but into the pocket of some one of the learned foresaids. But in the Outer House, the shillings go /fall/ in [...?] plump into the pocket of one officer called the Lord Ordinary's Clerk, through which there is a [...?...?] constantly opening into that of his master.
  • Title: [26 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform To L d]
    Description: 26 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform To L d Grenville 7

    Resolut. 13

    Interlocution Unapplicable

    And do you then entertain Sir[?] /for[?], really see any reason for entertaining/, any such suspension[?] as that of a design /wish/ on the part of the framer of the claims[?] to enable the local judicature to work itself into an independency of /as against/ the authority of Parliament?

    Not I indeed in good truth, my Lord, not the smallest: nothing could be more out of nature /nor any thing like/. Viewed in the [...?] appeals are subservient /conducive/ not adverse and in the [...?] of the fee gathering system to what, I know all [...?] found it impossible to avoid seeing[?] to be the ends of judicature.

    It is only on this and that individual occasion, when particular partialities or other similar [...?] have claimed to come in and operate, it is only in this way that I see any danger of any purposed[?] framed upon the authority of Parliament.

    But it is the effect only /alone/, and not the design that is worth thinking of: and whether under the clause in question the effect I mean that of a gradual subscription[?] of the practice of the local /subordinate/ Court from under the controul of the superordinate be not a probable result, is what I beg leave to submitt to your Lordships judgment as a question /point/ not unworthy of regard.