date

29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform
29 Dec r 1806

Scotch Reform

To L d Grenville

Ommissa

Representations

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.
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  • Title: [29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 29 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform

    To L d Grenville

    Omissa

    Representations

    And who are these tyros in judicature, these perpetual novices, who in the eyes of the learned founders of the system no experience can qualify for /enable to/ for pronouncing a judgment that shall be fit for being abided by?... My Lord, they are themselves, each and every one of themselves. And these are the men by whom whatsoever is done in the whole country in the name of justice was to be perpetually /at any time /received[?]/, modified, "advocated, suspended."

    In[?] how everything in jurisprudence is governed by name and usage /always [...?] fit bad usage/, and how alone Utility and Reason have ever been to /found themselves on/ this ground. Call a man a Juryman, let him [...?] have set his foot in a court before, he becomes infallible: whatsoever else may be allowed to change his opinion for him, he himself never is. Call him a Lord of Session, calling the Lord of session at the same time, a Lord Ordinary, he never knows his own mind for two days together: he is incapable of forming the /any/ opinion that is fit to g for one: and this is what men get by buying in a stock of what by courtesy and misnomer is called learning:- by compleating or doubling[?] the vigenta[?] annuum[?] lunabratanis[?]. But the shuttings[?] give plainness and clearness to these as well as to all other[...?...?].
  • Title: [29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 29 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform

    To L d Grenville

    Omissa

    1. Representations

    Among practisers yes: because unless by accident, each practiser becomes acquainted with those delays only /factitious delays alone/ by which he himself has profited, whether manufactured by himself, or on the other side. But the Master Manufacturer /Manufacturers/, by [...?] whose loss his share of the produce of the labours of all his [...?] is proved[?], can the amount of that produce, or of any portion of it, be a scent[?]? And yet it is to one of these master-men that report /common [...?]/, in confrontation of the very nature of the case, ascribes the invention of this scheme of reformation /panacea in the pharmacy of judicature/.

    Not only the non-commissioned /my brother [...?]/ imputes above referred to, but the institutional /expository/ writers to a man speak, as Your Lordship may see in the quotations I have made /passages I have quoted/ from their works, speak of this above as swollen to a magnitude beyond all bounds. Grim[?], sober, practical men with whom every thing else is as it should be, speak of this as a thing that should not be. So strong /violent/ is the stench of it, that neither the example nor the maxim of the Imperial masters /the Imperial maxim nor the Imperial example/ of ceremony can obtain patience for it were from the very nostrels that sniff up the profit from it. Yet to /upon/ the Bill formed thus unanimously against the maxim even by a set of Jurors all of them having their share /part/ in the profit of it, the Foreman has not taken /scrupled/ upon him to stamp on /his/ Ignorances.

    Let it not be said /In vain would it be said that the object is a clamp[?] on the judicial establishment, and that this is a matter of detail not worthy of a place in the outline delineated by the resolutions. Encrease of costs is proposed in one of them: substitution of Appeal to Advocation and suspension by another.
  • Title: [29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 29 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform

    To L d Grenville

    Omissa

    Representations

    Each coming with 3' in his hand, neither with any more than 3' for the supplemental shillings which I want skill to ration up are I take for granted the same on both sides, how is our Soloman to decide? Having turned the deaf side of his countenance to the [...?] of representation for a reasonable number of times, (receiving hi 3' with the et ceteras for each) comes one at least so bad that it is no longer possible not to hear it: judgment accordingly in that side. Does[?] he at that price purchase pace and quickness: shillings, yes: pace and quickness are where are they were before. Would Your Lordship believe it such is the perversity of suitors, that when the plaintiff who had got judgment in the first instance, and who then was satisfied with it, see it reversed by the importunity[/] of the Defendant, he becomes on his part as much dissatisfied as the defendant was. He now in his [...?] is served with a fit of making Representations: no room[?] is [...?] source dry than the shillings begin and go on flowing ni by an opposite one. More than, produced by the reciprocating pressure of opposite importunities, here is a perpetual double-fountain[?] of shillings, as pretty a on as is to be found in all Hooper's or Hutton's Recreations. Thus the learned Operator /[...?]/ and Reformer sees that it is good /see, and with a creative and preserving eye/. If shillings (says he) be the fruit of importunity /importunities/, play on.