date

14 Feb 1807 letter IV Resolut
14 Feb 1807

letter IV

Resolut 6.7.8.9

Juries

But on the /On the/ ground of the number of persons to whom by means of the expense the of the protection[?] of the law is denied in all civil cases the nature and amount of the price paid in this article /shape/ for the services whatever they may be of the learned persons to whose eye alone (except /excepted/ that of their partners[?] the malâ fide suitors in both sides of the cause excepted) the technical system causes[?] presents itself in a still more simple point of view.

There are the great body of the people, to the amount of three fourths (not to push the inquiry any further) kept, to the extent of this system, in a state of perpetual outlawry to all civil purposes: excluded from the benefit of that comparatively inexpensive branch of technical procedure which affords Jury trial, excluded still more peremptorily from still more expensively branch called /which assumes and profanes the name of/ equity.

But of the evil /mischief/ admitting it to be an /one/ evil, consisting in the exclusion of three fourths But of /To this degree/ three fourths of the whole number of the people may thus /to this degree be excluded from the benefit/ without any evil work /inconvenience/ [...?] be excluded from the benefit of civil justice, why not the remaining fourth? how slight soever the inconvenience in the present case of the exclusion put upon the three fourths, if it were extended on to the remaining fourth the addition thus made to the inconvenience would amount to no more than a fourth more of that which exists already, and which is so light as not to be felt as any thing, by those by and for whose by whose benefit it is produced.
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  • Title: [14 Feb y 1807 Letter IV Resolut]
    Description: 14 Feb y 1807

    Letter IV

    Resolut. 6.7.8.9

    Juries

    Keeping Courts of Justice open is /being/ attended with a great deal of trouble, and therefore is a practice that ought not to go on /continue/ if it were of no use.

    If then it be asked how it is, that is, for what cause /to what end/ it is, that, while the Courts of Justice (technical civil[?] justice) are shut against three fourths of the people, they are not shut likewise against the remaining fourth /likewise/, the answer is /seems/ simple /pain/ enough. - they are shut against the three fourths, because the three fourths if let in /three, if let in/ would yield nothing at all, or nothing worth the acceptance, of learned Lords and Gentlemen: they are left open to the remaining fourth, because among the remaining fourth /in this/, a quantity of the matter of wealth is to be found, capable of being made to undergo a distinction so useful and so honourable.
  • Title: [1819 Sept. 28 Parl. Reform Bill.]
    Description: 1819 Sept. 28

    Parl. Reform Bill.

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    §.3. Eligible Who

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    Numerous are the observations suggested by so long a list of particulars: proportionably ample the space which would be requisite for the bringing them to view. In consideration of the amplitude of this space For the present at least they must therefore be omitted: and the option betwixt acceptance and rejection must be left to stand on the ground of the general principle.

    In some instances the inaptitude, being for argument sake supposed, the doubt as between admission and exclusion would turn upon the question of the number that in case of non-exclusion might gain admittance. The cases to which this objection /doubt/ more particularly applies are that of the Lawyer and that of the Clergyman.

    As to the Clergyman, by a hereby proposed cause of exclusion, the beneficed Clergyman would stand excluded: namely want of time applicable to the exercise of the legislative function. But to the case of the unbeneficed Clergyman that cause would not extend. In the United Kingdom the exclusion supposed to have been already put upon every man who in the Established Church had entered into the profession, was not long ago confirmed But the occasion shewed that it was as usual in particular interest or affection, and not in regard for the universal interest that the exclusion had its cause.

    The antipathy prevailing among the ruling few against Horne Tooke in this may be seen the cause of the division by which men in his condition were excluded not only from a seat in the House but from the profession of the Bar. This is among the cases of that retrospective and essentially unjust species of law which under the name of Common Law is so dear to lawyers and their dupes.

    The case of the Lawyer is in this case similar. In the United States, and in particular in the Congress House of Representatives, so far as regards appropriate probity the evil produced by an exuberant number of lawyers I understand from a variety of quarters is very sensible felt: a proportion not less than that of three fourths of the whole number of 181 Members belonging to /being of/ that profession. Hence a general and scarcely resistible propensity and endeavour to keep the rule of action in a state as confused, indeterminate, and uncognizable as possible But the profession of a lawyer is the profession of every man who having no other special occupation devotes his attention exclusively or more particularly to the business of government
  • Title: [1818 June 19 Parl. Reform Bill]
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    1. Judicatory the Quarter Sessions (a)

    2. Mark[?] of procedure, Indictment (b)

    3. Stamps new; Office fees; new.

    4. Not prosecutor only, but Defendant also examinable as well as prosecutor. (c)

    5. On conviction, Defendant reimburses /pays/ to prosecutor his costs: on the score

    of insufficiency[?] of pecuniary means on the one part and amplitude on the other,

    power to Court to reduce such costs such /the amount of the/ reimbursement.

    6. If by means of the offence to individual, individuals, or public pecuniary damage

    appears to have been produced, power to Jury to allow or apportion allowance in the

    name of damage of the facts of which for proof of damage inducive[?] proof is

    intended to be adduced, notice to be given viz to the bills of particulars according

    to the practice in civil actions. (d)

    7. Co Offenders divers, costs and damage apportionable among them: regard being had

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    a Quarter Sessions a less inadequate judicatory than Assizes. Quarter Sessions four

    in a year: and in respect of duration those not peremptorily limited: Assizes, no

    where more than two in a year in four /the four Northern/ Counties not more than one:

    duration every where peremptorily limited

    (b) Indictment in contradistinction to Civil Action, in fact[?] taken[?] more

    expensive than Indictment; no more why it should be

    (c) Had truth been the object so would he[?] be /Were truth the object so would he[?]

    be/ in all places as well as in all cases. In felonies, if[?] ever unchargable ever

    he is examinable antecedently to the trial though not at the trial: at the trial

    though judicial confession is excluded, supposed extrajudicial is admitted

    (d) Considerable indeed must /would/ be the several /respective amounts of these

    masses of damage, if by Motions made and opposed on the subject of them they were not

    eaten up.