date

29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform
29 Dec r 1806

Scotch Reform

To L d Grenville

Omissa

1. Representations

2. Outer Houses

If inconsistency were a rarity, if in the technical system take it from top to bottom, there were any thing else "the inconsistencies that in these Outer Houses stare you in the face in every part of the structure of these Outer Houses, there is something that would be really amusing. Two classes of causes /Those │ │ Causes divided into │ │ classes/.

In which the Lord Ordinary must not think of meddling with. Another which nobody must meddle with, like[?] they have passed through his house.
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  • Title: [29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 29 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform

    To L d Grenville

    Omissa

    2. Outer Houses

    In the constitution of the Court of Session, between Inner and outer House, matters are so contrived, that the inconveniences attendant on two degrees of jurisdiction (I mean always with relation to the suitors, for to the Judges ir is the reverse) shall be reaped as clear as possible from the advantages. To a superficial view /In a superficial point of view/, such as that in which it is presented by the correct denomination - the Court of Session - it presents /it passes for/ itself as but one Court: So it is one Court and not two it is to any good purpose: two Courts it is to every bad purpose.

    The faculty of appeal, of revision by a second Court is it or is it not conducive to the ends of justice? Take it either way /In either case //[...?] eiher way/ the unhappy combination between union and division /confusion of unity and diversity/ is repugnant /a repugnancy/ to those ends. To the purpose of delay, vexation and expence and of course to the purpose of lawyers profit out of the expence there are two Courts: to the purpose of severity gainst misdecision there are butt one.

    When by representations and interlocutions with their etceteras the parties have been squeezed, like they can be squeezed no longer, there it is that instead of passing /giving/ judgment on the cause, his Lordship makes if he pleases, Scotico-jargonici, great [...?] of it, viz. to the "whole Lords." What is great [...?] in plain English? Neither more nor less than denial of justice. And to what end this denial of justice? - that the parties whether they will or no, may be were drawn through another Court. Were he himself to give judgment (so clear is the matter of right in the routine[?] the great majority of cases) either he must express himself to shame and infamy by a judgment notoriously unjust, or the partnership must love[?] the profit upon whatever more can be made of the cause.
  • 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: [29 Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 29 Dec r 1806

    Scotch Reform

    To L d Grenville

    Omissa

    2. Outer Houses

    And who is this person in whom diffidence /modesty/, a quality so amiable when added to the other attractions of female beauty takes this method /opportunity/ of displaying itself? An old [...?], who immediately after the confession made oh his incapacity /impotence/ to judge of it, goes into another room, and there where he takes the lead on pulling /tossing/ it about and disposing of it somehow or other in a company of 14 other [...?], all like him /himself/ taking there turns for modesty. By himself /In the [...?] of his own choice/, taking his own time for it, he is unable to form his judgment on it: to qualify himself it is necessary for him to take it with him into a crowd, there to thwarted and jostled and hastled[?] while he is studying it, a crowd composed of men not one of whom knows any thing near so much of it as he does.