date

Feb y 1808 II. No Inner House Causes
Feb y 1808

II. No Inner House Causes

Oblige the Judge of the immediate single-seated judicatory to decide /abolish at the same time the distinction between/ prohibit at the same turn[?] the Judge of the appellate, the many seated judicatory from taking cognizance of causes in the first instance[?], every thing is therefor placed upon a footing at once rational, simple and [...?] to judicial practice are the judicatories of England and of other nations.

Immediate judicatory, single-seated, as in the case of the judicatories [...?] in rank[?], the Sheriffs Courts - appellate and in other respects superordinate judicatory, a many seated judicatory.

That to [...?] i.e. /and thereby/ to the avoidance of the evils of superfluous delay vexation and expence, in the great mass /bulk/ of causes the superiority of single seated judicatories will it is supposed be out of dispute.

Difficulty in the nation[?] of the cause, coupled with the vice of indecision on the intellectual part of the character of the Judge present one exception: for in a many sided judicatory the slowness of one Judge even though he be the presiding Judge, may find a remedy /be remedied to a considerable degree/ in the superior quickness of his colleagues: as in a team a lazy or weak horse is dragged by the others /by/, and his rate of [...?] made to keep him with theirs. But further to this mischief there are other remedies.

In the great bulk of causes /suits/ never[?] is composed of those in which the fault has in the defendant's side, and the cause if it has reluctance or incapability ultimate [...?] to comply with the demands of justice. In these instances, there being no point really in dispute, no demand is made upon the evidence, none but upon the power of the Judge. And in this predicament stand none out of law, or perhaps nineteen out of twenty, of the whole number of suits.
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    Description: 19 Feb y 1808

    II. No Inner House Causes

    Setting aside the case of preternatural slowness as above, if there be a situation in which the multitude of counsellors is in the law of judicature a cause of safety, it is that of an appellate or otherwise superordinate judicatory. It is in that case /situation/ that the disadvantage of /attendant in/ many seated judicature are at their minimum, the advantages at their maximum.

    In this case /situation/ (setting aside the encouragement given to malâ fide appeals, of which in another place) every suit which in the whole of its texture affords not matter of doubt or difficulty is disposed of below without ever presenting itself to the cognizance of the Court above: so likewise in a cause that has its difficulties every point but the particular point out of which the difficulties arise. The immediate /the single-seated/ judicatory is a score[?] by which all the causes and points of a course and ordinary texture, are kept back, none but those which have something /a certain degree/ of refinement and subtlety in their nature passing through to the appellate judicatory.
  • Title: [14 Feb y 1808 1. No Reporting]
    Description: 14 Feb y 1808

    1. No Reporting

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    In that Court which though spoken of as but one Court, encloses divers judicatories, he occupies a situation on his side of the judicatory a single-seated one and a many-seated one with no fewer than fifteen seats in it. Single seated judicatories that of he Lord Ordinary sitting in the Outer House; that of [...?] on the Bill Chamber to which may be added the seldom occupied judicatory of the Lord Ordinary or rather[?] and [...?].

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    Description: 14 Feb y 1808

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    Those regulations established, another simplification which if consistency were regarded would be a necessary consequence of those former ones would be the shutting up of that appellate /intermediate/ judicatory which at present intercepts causes in their way from the [...?] Courts of every description to the Inner House of the Court of Session: in a word the shutting up that manufactory of useless factitious delay vexation and expence - the Bill-Chamber.

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