date

29 April 1807 2 Lawyers judged
29 April 1807

2

Lawyers judged

Letter 1[?]

In Scotland, as elsewhere, lawyers are distinguishable into two classes: 1. the official including Judges, and the other ministers of justice /functionaries nominated in general by government/ their subordinates; and the professional Advocates, [...?] to the [...?], and so forth tending their assistance to the parties, remunerated of course as well as nominated by there respective clients.

To the interests of both those classes, the measures which I found myself under the necessity of insisting upon /advocating/ are decidedly adverse.

One goes to the taking away the uncertainty of the law: and it is in the interest of all lawyers - of the professional class in every posible state of thing - of the official class in the actual state of things, that the law shall be /continue/ and for ever remain in the state of the highest uncertainty possible.

The other goes to the reducing to its lowest limits the delay, vexation, and expence of litigation: those evils more or less distinct in idea, but in fact /practice/ inseparably connected, rising and falling together: and it is the interest of lawyers of all descriptions that these evils should all of them rise to and continue at the highest pitch possible, for the sake of the profit extracted or extractable out of the expence.

Upon the bare mention of it /statement of the case/, the existence of this sinister interest will surely appear probable enough: and in the course of this address, as well as in the papers /observations/ I have already made public, particulars tending to place it in a stronger and strongerb light, will present themselves in abundance.
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  • Title: [29 April 1807 4 Lawyers judged]
    Description: 29 April 1807

    4

    Lawyers judged

    Letter 1[?]

    A remarkable fact, the cause of which I have endeavoured to develop [...?] /already had free occasion to unfold to a considerable extent/, is - that to the opposition between of the interest of the lawyers and their own interest, the eyes of the people /public/ governing classes included seem in general to be but half open /open to no more than a part/. So far as concerns the professional class of lawyers, yes: so far as regards the official class and in particular the ruling /governing/ ranks, no though[?] the same persons who fill these official statiosn are the same who for a great part of their lives occupied the /the[?] of/ professional stations, no. The reason is that the sinister interest to the action of which the numbers of the official class stand constantly exposed, has never yet been sufficiently developed /placed in its [...?]/, and placed in that clear and strong light of which it is susceptible. Reference to J.B.'s letters to L d G.

    Even in the case of the professional lawyers, in whose instance their[?] expresses to the action of the interest /a sinister interest as above/ opposite to that described of the people in ther character of suitors is too obvious to be overlooked, even in this case how clearly soever the speculative truth may be perceived, yet /+so far as concerns the state of the law, and the measures to be resorted to for the rendering it better or keeping it from growing worse, it seems in general to have had little or no influence on practice. So far as depends upon the state of the law /law/ it is their interests that the condition of the people shall be as miserable as possible: and yet it is to them that the public are in the habit of looking for measures having for their objects /object/ the improvement of it: it is their interest that the law should be as uncertain and unknowable as possible, and the administration of justice or of what is called justice, under it, as delatory, tedious and expensive as possible: and yet it is to them that the public look for measures having for their object, the rendering it certain and wellknown, and for taking away what is superfluous and unnecessary in the burthen of delay vexation and expence pressing /that presses/ upon the administration of justice.
  • Title: [29 April 1807 6 Lawyers judged]
    Description: 29 April 1807

    6

    Lawyers judged

    Letter 1.

    Of such, to every practical purpose at least, is the confidence habitually reposed by the public in that class of their enemies /adversaries/ whose hostility is most persistent[?], and at the same time utterly irreconcilable, the wonder i still /it affords much less cause for wonder, if/ that thing should be found[?] generally disposed to place equal, or indeed if there is a difference, much superior confidence, in the other class .their adversaries/ the official class, whose is not disguised /adverse interest is much less prominent[?]/ and has taken its rise in circumstances collateral to their official situation, and not by any means essential to it.

    Beholding in this acquiescence, a confidence equally misplaced in the instance of both classes - a confidnce which supposing it to continue unshaken, could be abundantly sufficient to render altogether hopeless the acceptance of these reasons which to me appear /have presented themselves as/ indispensably necessary to the accomplishment of those /that/ grand national objects which all parties profess to have in view - the very possibility of seeing that good done /good wish accomplished/ to which my whole life has been devoted, seemed to depend upon the removal of that confidence. For in proportion to the strength of my assurance that in /by/ the accomplishment of these two good works Scotland would receive one of the greatest benefits that herself of any other nation is capable of receiving, in that same proportion has all along been, and that necessarily and inevitably the strength of my assurance, that the accomplishment of it would find among /in the great body of/ the lawyers of both classes, its most [...?] and irreconcilable adversaries and opponenents.
  • Title: [29 April 1807 7 Lawyers judged]
    Description: 29 April 1807

    7

    Lawyers judged

    Letter I

    By the official plan of reform, introduced by Lord Grenville into the House of Lords, and still remaining upon the carpet to be disposed of, two papers both of them in the point of view here in question of the utmost importance /of the utmost importance/, have been brought forward: one of them containing /conveying the sentiments[?] or at least/ the language of the majority of the Judge of the Court of Session -the supreme judicial Court in Scotland; the other those[?] of a Committee of the Faculty of Advocates the leading [...?] of the professional class of lawyers: a Committee which being chosen by a great majority if not the whole assemblage of the members of that learned body, and a few as appears adopted by them, cannot but be understood to convey a faithful idea /representation //statement/ of the setiments which it is in their wish to see accepted and understood as theirs.

    Comparing these two papers /mutually adverse papers (for such they are)/ with the plan on which they both comment, and with each other, I saw, in documents [...?] from both sources what I could not but expect to see, ample confirmation of the preocccupations above stated as entertained by me: a demonstration of their coincidence in hostility to every plan from which the interest of the subject in his character of possible litigant /suitor/ could receive any considerable benefit, of their attachment each of them to his /its/ separate and exclusive interest - and of their consequent hostility on the part of each towards the other on the several grounds on which those separate interests, received in the light in whch they happened to present themselves, appeared to clash and interfere /and clash/.