date

22 Oct r 1807 L d Eldon's Bill
22 Oct r 1807

L d Eldon's Bill

1. Legislation employed to enact /The [...?] taken in hand/, that a Judge presiding amongst other Judges shall have a voice: as if the judicial senate of /at/ Edinburgh were the House of Commons as if there were /among/ any thing in the nature of presiding that should deprive a man of his voice /render a man unfit for judicature/: as if in Westminster Hall, (for the noble and learned Lordships learned Advisor is no Scotchman) he had ever seen a Chief or other presiding Judge without a voice.

2. More legislation employed to enact that a Judge performing the function of President shall not have had voices: as if a man could any more have two voices than two heads without a positive law /agreement or regulation/ to give them to him, a man could any more have two voices than two heads.

Rewrite

3. If indeed the intention were that of /for/ two Judges, presiding at the same time or at different times respectively in two divisions which is as much as to say in two different Courts there shall be but one voice /the Judge s presiding in each division shall in case of difference of opinion, have one voice/, making half a voice apiece - for this it must be confessed, legislation, were the arrangement a desirable one would not be unnecessary. The Protector[?] rivalries, it must be confessed, with the legislator for the glory of this invention: not that the wonder[?] would be great, if considering /that considering/ there were two divisions on the carpet at once with a Judge for each, it should have struck the legislator while the first line was penning, that whether the laws of justice or the law of arithmetic were to determine, he could not give the two divisions fewer than two presiding Judges: and that when /afterwards/, upon getting into the /[...?]/ second line he found himself got into a case, in which he was determined there should be but one voice, he had accordingly one and but one voice, there shall [...?] knowing how to get out of this difficulty, and trusting as usual to the powers /Goddess/ of Jurisprudence for the untying of the knot.
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  • Title: [22 Oct r 1807 L d Eldon's Bill]
    Description: 22 Oct r 1807

    L d Eldon's Bill

    '.8 Equality of Voice

    not necessary unless no more Judges are left [...?] that Is this to be done the same day, or must there be different days /divisions/?

    4. More legislation to enact that "in case there shall be an equality of voices, meaning in case the number of voices shall be equally divided, the cause or matter shall remain for subsequent discussion and decision; being exactly what takes place of course and perforce, where there is no enactment /no legislation is employed/.

    5. "If the number of the Judges attending is such that there can be such equality of voices. Here a plain man would say if thereupon the voices are │ │ there

    5. More legislation, and the stores of possibility ransacked to find another expression for what, without any such excursion into ontology has just been expressed already - "If the number of Judges attending is such that there can be such equality of voices" - there it is that a Judge from the other Court is to be called in. Now what matters it whether there can be a difference of opinion with an equal number of voices - a division (in the Court) with equal numbers if there is none. Number, suppose six, and suppose all agreed: or suppose on the Monday, three and three, and on the Tuesday, one goes over, making four and six. Kept to the description, (the unprecedented and improper description imported from the regions of possibility for designating /redesignating/ what had been properly designated before,) the other Court must be disturbed to take /extract/ out of it a Judge for the purpose of terminating a difference which had no existence.

    "If the number is such ... that there can be such equality." Did ever mortal use such a form of words /phrase/ /creation/ to express if the number be such as admitts of an equality or would our legislator have struck upon it if stress of mind produced by lack of difficulty had not driven him upon it?
  • Title: [25 Oct r 1807 L d Eldon's Bill]
    Description: 25 Oct r 1807

    L d Eldon's Bill

    '.8.

    Senior Judge

    (│ │) (The Judge presiding in, or in his absence the senior Judge of, the other division)

    In '.2 when the phrase "shall sit at the head of each[?] division was under /among the/ consideration, inconveniences resulting from that rhetorical flourish put instead of shall preside, - its tendency to breed confusion and perplexity was observed. In the present section may be seen a proof. Had the word presiding been there employed, whatsoever were the divisions the absence of a Judge presiding in it was a case that could not here have been to be provided for, being a case that could never[?] happen. To the permanent President absence might happen: but if as often as it happened to the permanent President to be absent a temporary President was to be present, one of the other Judges taking on him /himself/ the character of presiding Judge: the case of the absence of a presiding Judge was a case which could never have place.

    Thus stands the case if to preside in a division and to sit at the head of it /one/ are precisely the same function. Give to the clause in '.2 that construction, there can never be a case in which the presiding Judge can be absent, never be a case in which in the words of '.8. the Senior Judge of the other Division can be to be called in.

    Give now to the clause of '.2. the other construction let presiding in the Division be one function, and sitting at the head of it another, in these terms and those above the clause in '.8 acquires a meaning. By the Judge presiding in the division is to be understood the permanent President, the President in titre, to whom it may happen to be absent /whose absence is one event capable of taking place/ without difficulty . He being absent, in[?] comes the clause in '.8. acquires a meaning and receives its execution and intended effect accordingly. The Senior Judge of this Division, obeys the call, and pays his visit to the other /gives to it from the other/: By /From/ this migration of the Senior Judge no interruption is given to the business of the Court that parts with him? Why no interruption? Because
  • Title: [28 Oct r 1807 L d Eldon's Bill]
    Description: 28 Oct r 1807

    L d Eldon's Bill

    '.14

    The Presiding Judge

    (Minute without accuracy, censorial without ground, dissatisfied with every thing, competent to nothing, he frames and creates insufficiency where he found none.)

    (2) (The Presiding Judge, and the Judges of the Division)

    The skill displayed by this workman in planting obscurity and ambiguity upon the clearest ground is truly /altogether/ matchless. Here is yet a fourth point which he has contrived to render indeterminate dubious and unintelligible. When that paper which is to be presented by one knows not who, one knows not where is to be laid before somebody, who is that somebody? Solve this riddle who can. No Court, no Quorum, no Division now: but the Division itself is now divided into two unequal parts, the Presiding Judge one, and the Judges, one may /it may/ suppose the remainder of the Judges, the other: and to what purpose divided? that they may be united again as if for the purpose of raising a doubt /generating doubts/.

    Nor is this all. For who is the Presiding Judge? Is it the Lord President alone in Division the 1 st, the L d Justice Clerk alone, Vice-President, in Division the 2 d; or is it in each, on the absentation of the regularly presiding Judge whichsoever Judge by right of election presides in the division or acts at the head of it in his place. To what cause shall /can/ we ascribe this splitting and immediately consequent reunion? To the learned Draughtsman's habitual efflorescence /diversification/ /variegation/? Not for this time[?]: for immediately comes a separate /new/ Quorum, for this particular purpose only, with the Presiding Judge for one at all events in[?]

    , and then others any those as it may happen.