date

10 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut
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
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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

    Here there are 5 undisputed causes for every one disputed one even supposing all /that/ all that are set down for trial are /come to be/ disputed. But of these set down for trial a very considerable proportion have really in them no matter of dispute: the real object of the defence that is of the demonstration made of defence being neither more nor less than the purchase of that delay ( say about 6 months) which Judge and C o have to sell.

    This proportion I should expect to find at least half. as 1 to 1.

    Supposing it correct, this calculation or conjecture would give for every disputed cause eleven undisputed ones: but for even numbers say the undisputed causes are to the disputed but as 10 to 1.
  • Title: [7 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut]
    Description: 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
  • Title: [3 Jan y 1807 Scotch Reform │ │ To]
    Description: 3 Jan y 1807

    Scotch Reform │ │ To L d Grenville

    Facienda

    Causes mostly short

    From the number of causes actually gone through each in a fragment of a day viz: in 1/│ │ th of a day in the Birmingham Court as may learn the quantity of time really necessary every where for the completion of a cause in suits of the description as those which are permitted to come before that one of the │ │ Courts of Conscience, or as in Scotland they are termed Small Debt Courts.

    By comparing that part of the proportion of England 2,...,... to which enjoys the benefit of those Courts is imported[?] with the remainder 6,...,... to which it is denied, we may learn, within a comparatively inconsiderable distance of the truth, the number representing the degree in which for want of those Courts of Justice is denied, and its proportion to the number representing the cases in which it is not denied but administered.

    In the number of Writs annually issued out of these Courts, meaning[?] the sort of Writs /the Writ/ from each of which a cause takes its commencement, we may see the number of instances (in which denial of justice does not take place) in which no such evil takes place as that which comes exactly /strictly/ under the description of a denial of justice.