date

21Dec r 1806 Scotch Reform │ │ To
21Dec r 1806

Scotch Reform │ │ To L d Grenville

Facienda

II Inspector Gen l 5 Appointment

In the natural course of things and in virtue of the general constitution of human nature the Officer with this function and this name would not only himself be an Inspector, but in virtue of the principle of emulation he would be a cause of inspection /the spirit of that inspection would be/ in other men. Those in /among/ whom the heedless authors and unconcerned spectators if not the anxious protectors and concealers of the abuses and imperfections of the law would otherwise continue to be found, would by this means be rendered the careful observers and active discoverers. Seeing the preservation of abuse hopeless, they would feel it to be their interest to put in for whatever share it lay in their way to obtain of the reputation derivable from the correction of it.

Scotland would then have /possess/ /present/ a reasonable probability of witnessing /possessing/ in adequate abundance a sort of character of which England has scarcely witnessed so many as one in a century - a reforming Judge. By a reforming Judge, I do not mean a Judge ready to concentrate in his own person the authority of Kings, Lords and Commons - for of that sort of character there has been so such scarcity - but a Judge seeking every opportunity of ministering by constitutional means measures /adding of his own accord to the number of his duties that of being on the perpetual look out for occasions to/ to the ends of justice.

That your Lordship may see that the character thus alluded to is drawn /taken/ from nature and not from fancy /Utopia/ I will beg leave to subjoin a short extract from the life of the Lord Keeper North written by his honourable brother.
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    II Inspector Gen l 3 Appointment

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    If good law be written law, there is no country in which the benefit would not but[?] [...?] the [...?]

    Should this suggestion be fortunate enough to meet Your Lordship's approbation as promising to shed a beneficent influence /beneficial effects/ on that part of the United Kingdom the particular exigencies of which have called it forth.

    The suggestion /institute[?]/ if regarded as promising to be beneficial in Scotland /Scotch law and its law/ will probably be regarded as not much less promising when considered with reference to the law which governs the remaining and larger portion of the Empire. Several circumstances however[?] seem to concurr in pointing it out as applicable to Scotland in a preeminent degree. 1. the acknowledged inferiority of the Scotch system of procedure in comparison of /relation being had to/ the English: 2. in all[?] of the adoption of the already proposed or any other plan of reform, the demand there will be for an eye specially charged with the duty of watching over /watching/ the effects of the change: the distance of the capital seat of Scotch law from the seat of the imperial legislature /seat of inspection: [...?] and the advantage of having a fund of remuneration already in existence, obviating thereby the objection of [...?] given to the influence of the crown and the burthens of the people.
  • Title: [19 July 1810 Fallacies The]
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    The people seeing this depravity and feeling a certain

    their being still alive, set down this depravity as part and parcel

    of the B of justice wooden and many seemed

    Were the number Kings; attention bestow upon them. the actors in this farce

    3. In another way the people are

    with insincerity no retail by a mere impression

    as well as much more extensively witnessed process

    When, after conviction pronounced, the time

    comes for the convict to receive sentence, the case

    being if the number of them in which the King has

    promised that death shall be inflicted, the

    Judge declares Judge in open court declares makes known to the convict in solemn form and with all

    the externals theatricals of sincerity that such is to be his [+]?

    With eyes and hand uplifted to heaven be implores many for that sort by which no such special and of every is about to be experienced

    fate: the Judge reverend player tragedian all this which well knowing that

    in virtue of a determination taken either by the determination of his own will or

    of the will of some other person or persons against character or characters in his

    or their "high situations" such will be the manifold.

    Witnessing Beholding and knowing this depravity, and feeling at the

    same time in respect of person, reputative

    and property and condition in life a certain species and degree

    of sincerity, were that species and degree which is

    proved to them by their being where and having

    what they have, and being with

    the success kept out of all possibility

    of distinguishing in the chaos elaborately organized of the law obstacles

    from anges, set down the depravity as part and

    parcel of all that whatsoeverfelicity they enjoy in spite of

    it.
  • Title: [21 Nov r 1806 Scotch Reform │ │ Evidence]
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    1. [...?] law[?] 2. Surplusage[?] 3. Inspection[?]

    II Inspect Gen l Advantages

    '. 3 or 4. Courses taken for rendering written pleadings subservient to /Means whereby[?] for improving the subserviency of/ the utmost to the ends of judicature.

    Writing to them ever so little of it is at any rate in expence: writing by or with advice of a number of partnership is an expense yielding profit to the partnership. Original and fundamental use and profit.

    To prescribe[?] /set/ limits to this expence is always attended with difficulty, a difficulty not to be surmounted but by written forms to the extent of the applicability of such written forms. In the hands of lawyers, Written pleadings /take all other written instruments/ have a constant and irresistible tendency to fill themselves /rise into/ with surplusage.

    It was the century before the last that gave birth to the character thus described /delineated/: whether it be that nature after she had cast him broke the mould, or whatever else may have been the cause, since the days of Dudley North his fellow has no more been to be found in animated nature than a /any/ living specimen /sample/ of these of our fellow creatures /animals/ whose remand[?] the genius and industry of Caesar has recovered for our /us/ amusement from the wreck of time.