date

11 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut
11 Feb y 1807

Letter IV

Resolut. 6.7.8.9

Juries

1. Delay

In technical procedure, Common Law, under Jury trial what shall we set down my Lord for the duration of a cause? Throwing out of the account maxima and media throwing out of the account all these instances of studied delay which are so natural and frequent - which are constantly upon sale, which are so profitable /which it is so advantageous/ to buy, and which find such numerous purchasers, throwing out whatever is to be bought by special pleas and incidental motions, of course and not of course, I would wish to find the minimum of delay thus attached to jury trial, taking it at an average.

The notion of an average thus clapt[?] upon that of a minimum may be apt to raise a smile. But, my Lord, the demand for an average and its compatibility with a minimum comes thus. The commencement of a sort, or at least the occasion and wish to commence it may take place any day in the year: but according to the relation borne by each day to the system of terms and vacations, vacations some fixt some variable, continuing from │ │ days to 5 months and │ │ days the length varies in a scale which it frightens me but to think of measuring. Among the effects and objects of the technical system is the creating sham successes out of nothing. We have the history of a caterpillar by a Dutchman in a thick 4 o volume: a scales[?] with the variations of which the length of a suit at Common law - a length the least on all other accounts - is susceptible, such a scale with the deportations[?] that would be necessary to elucidate it or have it doubtful might fill a volume of jurisprudence to match with that volume of entomology: with this difference, that the caterpillar being of a sort that threatens [...?] with inundation[?], his history[?] may in its finest lineaments, in one way or other have its use: whereas, if the proposed volume of jurisprudence, as of so many actual ones, the use would be worse than none.
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  • 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: [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.
  • Title: [10 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut]
    Description: 10 Feb y 1807

    Letter IV

    Resolut. 6.7.8.9

    Juries

    1 Delay

    And now my Lord, I will venture to submit to your Lordship a few points of impression as not altogether unworthy of Your Lordships notice. /I am/ Sorry I am that in most of them I have nothing better to offer than so many vague approximations. Had my power been equal to my will many and many years ago they would all of them have been reduced to certainty

    1. Delay quantities of it absolute , and thence[?] proportional as between a cause carried on in the way of natural procedure, and technical procedure in civil causes in that in that form in /of/ which Jury trial [...?] [...?] [...?]

    Ah but, says some learned Lord or Gentleman you are confounding great with small. You are supposing the greatest cause, so it be but a cause of debt, to require no more time to do justice to it than one of your minimum[?] causes, di quibus lex non curat.

    My Lord, if on the putting causes of all [...?] together thus in hotchpot, there be really any error, I will venture to set it down among the errors which to the present purpose are not worth regarding. But if this be again error upon error,

    Your