date

7 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut
7 Feb y 1807

Letter IV

Resolut. 6.7.8.9

Juries

1. delay

1. First as to delay. Let us observe /compare/ the quantities of it, absolute and thence proportional on a cause of the civil class[?] carried on in the way of natural procedure, and in a cause carried on in the way of technical procedure in that form, in which Jury trial in the first instance bears a part.

1. First as to delay. In some cases, whatever be the species /mode/ of procedure, quantity of delay necessary absolutely without limit /At present/ /The testimony of a/ A necessary witness is unobtainable and who shall say when it will be obtainable. But this /This however,/ is but one cause out of a number /multitude/. In the Table.

But leaving without notice, because without remedy, extraordinary cases which do not admitt of remedy, but let us turn /look/, my Lord, to the ordinary state of things.

To the cases which are of most frequent occurrence to those cases, it is, surely, that a system of practical arrangements ought be to be adopted with most care. Cases /Causes/ in comparison of which all others put together would be found (but if I err it is in your Lordship's power to know) would be found to compose a very small minority: in[?] case[?] of debts, taking the word not narrowed by technicalists, but in the extent given to it in the language of the people debt thus interpreted, cases of debt saving[?] exceptions to a small extent, within /constitute, and that [...?] the business of/ the jurisdiction of the Courts of Conscience.

Between appearance and judgment in a Court of Conscience ( as per Mr. Hutton p. │ │) duration of a cause

Minimum - minutes (per │ │) Maximum (p. │ │ ) Hours 2: - Minutes 120

Medium (p. │ │) in a day, say of 6 hours in an average

"p" of causes 130, to sure fractions say only 120 │

120 causes, in hours 6 * 6: = minutes 720: _by 120 -

makes per cause minutes............................ 5
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  • Title: [10 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut]
    Description: 10 Feb y 1807

    Letter IV

    Resolut. 6.7.8.9

    Juries

    1. Delay

    To this /Objection/ it may be objected, that when it happens to a cause to undergo adjournal, which can not be for /to/ a less distant day than the morrow, here comes instead of the 5 minutes as many as there are in the 24 hours.

    True: but per contra, neither would neglect be properly bestowed, upon a large proportion /[...?] of/ borne by undisputed to disputed causes

    Here, in the example taken as above from natural system, as administered in a Court of Conscience, the attempt to disengage /disentangle/ the number of the one from that of the other would require neither[?] too much supposition as well as calculation.

    But, (what is better, /will be found still more apposite) let us take an example directly from technical procedure, as administered under the Jury system an example afforded us by the House of Commons Committee, whose Report bears date 2 d April 1792 in the subject of imprisonment for debts.

    Baillable writs (p. 19) at that time annually

    issued in

    In Middlesex 9500; in London 3,055: 12,000

    together 12,555, say to sure fractions ............

    This it is true gives but a part of the whole number of actions commenced: but let it be taken for the whole. (Actual arrests made under these writs 5,500.)

    At this period the number of cases tried or set down for trial within the same jurisdictions was assuredly[?] for that of 2000: from the result of the best enquiries that I have hitherto been able to make I should suppose short even of 1,000: I mean at that time: for they have undergone /received/ a prodigious increase.

    but say ..................................... 2,000
  • Title: [11 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut]
    Description: 11 Feb y 1807

    Letter IV

    Resolut 6.7.8.9

    of expence in the article but a pest[?] [...?]

    III Denial of Justice.

    To Estimate the price paid for the benefits of Jury-trial in the article of denial of justice - (for jury trial considered as all along in the character of a substitute to Natural procedure,-) the only course I know of /the most appropriate course seems to be/, is to what part of the population the benefit of the Courts of Conscience for the moving of debts under 40', has been extended, and to what part it has not been extended: with the number of causes of that description annually decided in these parts of the country to which justice in that shape is not denied. assuming what is beyond doubt, that for a debt under that sum, not to speak of debts above that sum to a scarce ascertainable extent, Jury trial in the ordinary Courts affords no remedy: costs out of pocket in case of success amounting to 2,3,4,5; or two times the sum, and so on without any certain limit.

    1 N' o of Inhabitants in Birmingham [...?]

    A o 180 as per Parliamentary Elections .......... 73,670

    2 N o of causes per day in the Court of Conscience

    there[?] (Hutton p. │ │) 130, per day: i.e.

    per week, the Court sitting once a week:

    viz. on Friday: thence per year (A o 1787)

    130 x 52: say making allowance for Good Friday

    &c x 50 = 6,600

    3 Other Districts having Courts of Conscience,

    as per[?] bills of the Arts for that erection,

    42 │: N o of Inhabitants in those Districts

    taken together .............................. 2,193,299

    4 As 73,670 - the number of inhabitants in the

    Birmingham District is to 6,600 the number of

    causes (under 40') so may 2,193,299 the number

    /aggregate/ of inhabitants in the other Court

    of Conscience Districts be supposed to be the

    annual aggregate number of causes of the same

    value actually decided in all those Courts taken

    together

    6,600 x 2,193,299  73,670 = 193,429
  • Title: [11 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut]
    Description: 11 Feb y 1807

    Letter IV

    Resolut. 6.7.8.9

    Juries

    1 Delay

    Taking up my pen in despair /a fit of desperation/ as the preacher took up his book[?], I set down at once six months for the average /thus explained/ minimum length of a suit[?] at Common Law with Jury trial in the belly of it: six months thus being in round numbers the nearest to the quantity by which I should expect to find it expressed. Should I have hit the right nail on this head as he did, when by a pagan miracle the foam of the horse gushed out of it, so much the better. But my Lord feeling the argument strong enough to bear the disadvantage in all allowances and having as the French say, margin enough instead of the 6 months, I will be content with 3 months making days 182, hours 4368 months ........262,080

    But, if an undisputed cause in a Court of Conscience, the length as above stated above may be set down, and after large and unfavourable allowances at 5 months - say minutes - 5

    262,080 minutes as to 5, as 52,416 to 6 - here[?] then, for the expence of the support, the nominal[?] support given to the law by the logical conjugate of the word law viz: the word lawyers, as have in 9 causes out of every 10 in the article of delay alone, for one natural and necessary particle 52,416 factitious and unnecessary ones.

    Meantime /But/, my Lord, after the allowance thus made ex majori cantilâ[?] , and for the purpose of the argument, I protest against the being considered by Your Lordships learned Scotch Reformers or by any learned gentlemen on either side of the Tweed as being estopped[?] from expressing the ordinary length of a suit by the quantity of 6 months, or 12 months, or even 24 months, for my Lord if the least quantity of a grievance be worth notice neither are the middle nor the greatest quantities altogether undeserving of it.