JB_094_274v.xml

Title: [[094-274v] 17 May 1806 *A]

Description: [094-274v]

17 May 1806

*A

Evidence

Note?

Exclusion II. Proper

Ch. Engl. Law & Vexation

'. to Judge

Note 2 (a)

(a) /Concise idea /Slight sketch/ of the/ Principal diversities respecting the mode of collecting testimony; the shapes in which it is exhibited in practice.

1. Natural ordinate mode: - the mode in use in Courts of Conscience, except in as far as cramped[?], by the terror of the technical Courts /- science[?] - and before a Justice of the Peace/ and before Arbitrators, Parties present: each testifying for himself, each, in answer to counter-interrogations put by the adversary, testifying against himself: extraneous witnesses examined on both sides by interrogations and counter-interrogations: the Judge also interposing with interrogations as he thinks proper: the Judge who decides upon the evidence the same person by and before whom it has thus been collected: - every thing delivered vivâ voce; but upon occasion capable of being consigned to writing. In case of necessity, assistants to the parties not excluded.

2. English Jury mode: - The same as above, except that unless in the instance of the defendant where the nature of the cause introduces him in the character of a prisoner, the presence of the parties is not required; their interposition in the character of parties for the purpose of interrogation and observation discontinued in the character of testifying witnesses, for and against themselves, not endured.

3. English epistolary mode: - examination, or [...?][...?][...?] - to the testimony of the Defendant only, not to that of the Plff or of any extraneous witness, in the English Courts of Equity: To Interrogatories delivered in writing, in an instrument called a Bill, on the behalf of one party, responses delivered in writing, /writing, in an instrument called an Answer,/ by the other. In point of reason and utility, this may be stated as necessary, be the subject of the suit what it may in some cases in the character of an eventual supplement, in some cases in that of a temporary, though never in that of an absolutely definitive, succedaneum, to the natural mode. In its own nature, who unless it be a lawyer, can need to be /the observation/, reminded, that no less applicable to plaintiffs than to Defendants; to extraneous witnesses than to parties?

093-001.xml

Title: [2[?] Jan y 1806 A.1.+ Facienda]

Description: 2[?] Jan y 1806

A.1.+

Facienda

Outline

To qualify it for the administration of justice on the natural system the judicial establishment is already and still in possession of an essential feature, which the English one had, but for ages has been deprived of: a system of Courts spread over the whole kingdom, each of them with a geographical field of jurisdiction generally of such moderate extent as to suit the pursuit[?] or personal appearance: viz. not so great but that the suitor whose abode is furthest distant from the seat of judicature, may by travelling early and late pay his attendance there without sleeping out of his own house: I speak of the Sheriff's Courts The existing system of Sheriff's Courts, my Lord is the system I have in view.

Here then the main difficulty - and that which in England would form an objection truly formidable, is already overcome: what may be considered as the building, and more than the shell of the building is already in existence: what remains to be done is no more than fitting up: fitting up in the modern stile /taste/, which is but the primaeval stile /taste/ restored.

For these 35 years at least my Lord have I been envying Scotland her Sheriff's Courts: looking back with regret not certainly[?] over many other accounts, but most sincerely on this[?] - at those times when in England every shire contained its Sheriff's Court, with the Sheriff and Bishop sitting in it.

In the 30 th Report of the Committee on Finance A o 1798 (App A.7) I observe a list of Sheriff's Depute 27 in number in some of the instances the senior person named as Sheriff of two Shires: this therefore I presume to be the number of Sheriff's Courts.

093-220.xml

Title: [Dec r 1806 Evidence │ │To L d Grenville]

Description: Dec r 1806

Evidence │ │To L d Grenville

Facienda

II Inspectors Functions

1. Inspector General's Functions -

1. To receive as well from the Metropolitan as from the several Provincial Courts of those several Registration Books; above spoken of: and to propose, and annually to publish a digest or Abstract of the whole.

2. To watch over /see to/ and endeavour to preserve the conformity of the (practice and) decisions of each Court with relation to the tenor of the substantive branch of the law: and to this purpose to make note of and report whatsoever may present itself to his view in the character /as amounting to/ of a departure /discrepance/.

3. To see to the conformity of the practice of each Court to the spirit and tenor of the adjective branch of the law - the law of procedure: and at the same time to the uniformity of such practice as between Court and Court, in those /even in such/ particulars in which, under the [...?] expressly given or implicitly allowed /given/ a mutual discrepancy might take place without any departure from /disconformity to/ the tenor of the law: due regard being at the same time had to the diversity that may be rendered requisite by local circumstances.

4. To note and report any thing that upon the face of the Registers or even upon representation an extra duly authenticated, may appear to have been in the conduct or discourse of any of the Judges of the several Courts or their respective subordinates.