date

12 May 1807 Scotch Reform Letter
12 May 1807

Scotch Reform

Letter VI

Letter VI

IV. Sheriffs Courts

Speaking of the provincial Courts in Scotland (Lett.2), I spoke of it as a matter of peculiar[?] felicity to Scotland, peculiar[?], at least in contradistinction to England at least, to remain thus in possession of the necessary means for [...?] to every man his daily bread by the means /hand/ of daily justice.

Here too /another point in which/ /this/ I have the satisfaction of finding /beholding/ my poor /weak/ opinion with its - I will /can/ not say weak

reasons - I can only say weakly presented - reasons - supported by the authority of these 11 out of the 15 members of the highest Court of Scottish judicature "the jurisdiction (say they, (art. 21) "the jurisdiction and office of the Sheriffs Depute in Scotland, which undoubtedly" (continue they) "is one of the most valuable and beautiful parts of our system of administrative justice."

Here is an [...?], my Lord, and a just one: and /but/ for what purpose is it brought forward? To this purpose and this only; viz: to make for the purpose of the moment the Sheriffs Court a bar to the introduction of the Jury box: for the allegation is "that this proposal" (the proposal (art. 20) to extend Jury trial to cases [...?] originally in the inferior Courts in Scotland) "would also to a great degree render useless the jurisdiction in office of the Sheriff's Depute", and so on as above.

Were Jury-trial extended as above "very many of such cases would in consequence (could) under and in virtue of the proposed law /Act of Parliament/ be brought to the Court of Session: a result which say they "there is much reason to apprehend." for in accession of business to their own seat of pure and disinterested and upright judicature for the [...?] [...?] is new because matters of apprehension to them newly [...?] advocates /enlisted defenders/ of [...?] and acceptable justice.
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  • Title: [12 May 1807 Scotch Reform Letter]
    Description: 12 May 1807

    Scotch Reform

    Letter VI

    Letter VI

    IV. Sheriffs Courts

    One more instance /more/, in which the [...?] Reason finds in the [...?] of Authority an Atlas for her support.

    In England, in the Saxon times, and for some ages after /later/, in the Sheriffs the County Court, not to speak of subordinate /other Courts of still narrower /less extended/ local jurisdiction, every man sees justice, judicature at least all the year round within the reach of his own home. In Scotland so it was and to a certain degree is still: so it was, and (Ireland excepted in which the vices of English judicature have been copied with a degree of fidelity that might be expected) so it not only was but it is every where else.

    In England for several centuries /ages past/ , the metropolitan Courts have by the devices already noted [...?] out the jurisdiction of these provincial Courts /judicatures/.

    To make up for the loss, it was settled on them /among the Metropolitan Judges/ "2 d time in the ││ country, that some of them should go the rounds of the kingdom once in every 7 years, as if the justice whatever it was, that [...?] had done without for 6 years, they could not have continued to do without the [...?]. As the country increased in wealth /in population and wealth/ the matter of fees accumulated to such a degree /became at last so copious/ /[...?] [...?] large enough to be worth stooping for/that two days or thereabouts in a year in very county were found not too many for the collection of it. The first Circuit which gave to each County [...?] justice for a whole day in /every/ 7 years for a whole day or more, threw the historiographer (Glenville[?]) into an extacy at the thought /idea of such /so splendid/ a union of wisdom and beneficence /benevolence/: the idea of Councils which give /extend the chance of justice to/ two days out of the 365, kept Blackstone, and his whole school in a state of continued /uninterrupted/ extacy, ever since.

    The 363 days during which justice is denied, on this occasion are struck out of their calendar. The 2 days during which justice is sold are red-letter days: and thus it is that in their calendar all the days are red-letter days.
  • Title: [[...?] May 1807 Scotch Reform]
    Description: [...?] May 1807

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    Letter VI

    Letter VI

    Part I

    Conclusion

    Upon the whole, the following are the instances in which the obscured and non-officed non-lawyer has the honour /satisfaction/ of finding his ideas honoured by the concurrence of those highest among the official lawyers.

    1. Preference given to single seated Judicature for judicial cognizance in the first instance.

    2. practicability and superior excellence of Natural Procedure - not indeed directly confessed by the Memorialists /Memorializing Judges/

    as a body, but virtually - or indeed more than virtually, by their Right Honourable procedure, their head by whose views those of the body appear plainly enough to have been on this occasion desirable.

    3. indigestibility of Jury Trial in civil cases in Scotland, if mounted /grafted/, as proposed, in the existing branch of

    To the Technical system of procedure.

    4. Utility of the profit expunging principle as a specific against factitious delay at the instance of the suitor, and thence against malä fide Appeals.

    5. Dangerousness Ineligibility of the prohibition of Appeals against Interlocutors, as proposed.

    6. In the existing judicial establishment of Scotland, utility of that part which consists of the system of Provincial or Sheriffs Courts.

    7. Demand created for a more extended mode of superintending cognizance on the part of the House of Lords, by the consideration of the large proportion of cases that [...?] escape it altogether, and among them many in regard /relation/ to which the exercise of its superintending authority is of the most extensive and important use. The way thereby prepared for the erection of the proposed Court of Lords Delegates to stand in the place of all Chambers of Review, proposed, proposable or existing - Scotch, Irish or English.
  • Title: [9 May 1807 Scotch Reform Letter]
    Description: 9 May 1807

    Scotch Reform

    Letter VI

    Letter

    II Jury

    To one of these reasons I can not subscribe. They say /insist/ upon it/ the task of directing a jury, they insist upon it, is too much for them: it is quite strange to them. (Their Lordships by much are too diffident of themselves.) This modesty is inadmissible. For learning natural justice I have already recommended divers schools to them: discite justitiam moniti. For the direction /not directing/ learning to /how/ direct/ of a Jury, I will recommend another. In London and Middlesex together are contained alone c th[?] part of the population of England about b d of the population of Scotland. The Sheriffs of London who are also Sheriffs of Middlesex and who change every year, name for[?] their leader Sheriff an Attorney: this Attorney names his Clerk if he does not prefer his Sherblack[?]. In all Jury-trial causes the few excepted in which damages are not demandable, it rests with the defendant whether the trial shall be directed by a learned Lord or by this ││ any body /substitutes substitutes substitute/ /delegatus delegati[?]/. The task which in England is never thought too arduous for an Attorney's Clerk, in Scotland shall the very highest class of Judges shrink from it as beyond their force?/ above their competence/

    "The benefits of Trial by jury" (say the Memorializing Lordships art 18.) "can not be expected to reach from it independently of the skill by which it is conducted, and that skill can only be acquired by experience." Among the signatures to this Memorial is that of the Lord Justice Clerk, and besides these of I know not how many more of the &c members of the Justiciary Court, by whom in matter of life and death Juries are directed. Of this learned dispensation of criminal justice /Ask him, my Lord, upon his next visit to the seat of paramount judicature/ I should be curious to know /learn/, what was the length of his experience the first time he ever sat, and if having no experience he had no skill /being without experience he was also without skill/, by what oversight it happened to take upon him an office, when in his own opinion at least, he had /wanted/ not skill to execute.

    Yes, my Lord Ex-Chief-Justice you who with the master engine of iniquity the principle of nullification, on your hand struck insecurity[?] and dismay into the hearts of so many millions of Mahometans and Hindoos for their non-observance of this latin maxim, which is not observed even in the corruption in which it was hatched /amidst the corruption which gave birth to it/. Hear my Lord Chief Justice Impey[?] of the ghost of Nuncomar[?] that long[?] has left you in possession of your senses this delegatus delegati.

    /whether pecuniary causes or causes of life and death are of most importance/.