093-432.xml

Title: [27 Oct r 1807 L d Eldon's Bill]

Description: 27 Oct r 1807

L d Eldon's Bill

'.11

assembled by President

But between the printing of the two Bills, ambition had swelled in the lower /inferior/ regions, the spirit of liberality had taken possession of the upper: what you proposed for your Right Honourable principal, quoth the Lord Chancellor's learned draughtsman to the Lord President's, is a mere trifle: leave the matter to me, and see what care I take of you: every thing may be done with you, nothing at all shall ever be done without you. Thereupon he goes to work, and taking up the section as drawn by his learned co- and sub- operator re-enacts it in substance the first of the two parts which it consists of, with no other alteration than what consists in the stuffing in a quantity of surplusage, as usual from his own kitchen[?] to suit it to his own taste: Between forms and[?] of process he shifts presiding[?] and: taking out in both Chambers, he shifts in here before each of the said Divisions of the Judges respectively and before the Lords Ordinary of each respectively: then come [...?] verbis[?], and without any improvement made by superiority of station and learning, and no alteration thereof shall but by Acts of Sederunt of the whole Court: then immediately thereupon, after stuffing /interpolation/ in /of/ the favourable clause " in a quorum of nine Judges thereof, come the auspicious words copied with the most gracious fidelity, assembled by the Lord President. At the sound of these words as it were by a sudden fit of inspiration, such as genius is subject to, on he rushes giving to the Court or Quorum thus put under the power /guardianship //monarchy/ of the Lord President - the power to do everything that is to be done: "to which Court or Quorum," says he (as if by the bye) "it shall be competent to make such alterations in and regulations concerning such forms of proceeding and process, and particularly concerning the mode of conducting the Pleadings in the said Divisions or Court, and before the Ordinance, by writings or by pleadings caused on" (carried on?) " vivâ voce, as shall appear necessary or expedient ..."

093-449.xml

Title: [29 Oct r 1807 L d Eldon's Bill]

Description: 29 Oct r 1807

L d Eldon's Bill

'.14

The Presiding Judge

To collect what possible light may be to be thrown upon this darkness, we must resort once more to the Lord President's Bill. The draughtsman always knows what he is about: which is what the Lord Chancellor's scarce ever does.

In the Lord President's Bill we shall indeed see symptoms of fissure and re-union, but that fissure /but the operation/ without an object is in the other case. Here as elsewhere whatsoever is /be to be/ done, nothing is to be done without the Lord President. If in the business of "regulating matters relative to interim possession, execution, and costs," it be agreable to the Lord President that any thing should be done, he attends, and it is done: if it be more agreable to him that nothing should be done, he forbears to attend, and nothing can be done. If "the Chamber in which from which the cause originally came" be the Chamber which has the Lord President for its presiding Judge /President/, so far so good /it is as well/, the Lord President has it that way: if it be the other Chamber, then it is to be laid not only before that Chamber, but in the first place before the Lord President - "before the Lord President, and the Chamber from which the cause originally came: and so the Lord President has it that way.

In the Lord President's Bill the Lord Chancellor's draughtsman saw his groundwork and his instructions: but in /on/ this point as on so many others we see how he has floundered and blundered. In the hands of the Lord President's draughtsman the clause answered the Lord President's Draughtsman's purpose: in the hands of the Lord Chancellor's Draughtsman it answers no purpose at all. Instead of the Lord President and he /him/ alone, the Presiding Judge may be the Lord President or the Lord Justice Clerk, or any other Judge who by election "presides" "in the Division to which the case belongs," or "sits at the head of it."

Here then, is the ambition of the Lord President's draughtsman defeated, and to all appearance by a blunder. But this being but one of his points, and to appearance one of the least important, leaving more loss than to gain by explanations, he leaves the matter to take its course.

093-450.xml

Title: [29 Oct r 1807 L d Eldons Bill]

Description: 29 Oct r 1807

L d Eldons Bill

'.14

Judge or any three

(3) (The said Judges, or any three of them)

Behold here a special Quorum, and to what end? For the general Division Quorum the Lord President's Draughtsman's number was determinately 5: the L d Chancellor's Draughtsman's number was on that occasion blank: but here on a sudden, and here only the clouds clear up and the number is determinately to be 4: in that special Quorum one fewer than there would /will/ be in the general Quorum should the scale turn in favour of the Lord President's number, and it seems difficult to conceive /there is some difficulty in conceiving how it should do otherwise.

At any rate if this special /the general/ Quorum is /be/ different from the General one /this special one/, it can not but be less. Here /Now/ then observe the consequence. For ordinary business no less number than four or five is sufficient. But, for business of that peculiar delicacy and importance, business that consists in taking measures /arrangements/ by which if not properly /well/ taken, the designs of the superordinate judicatory may be /have been previously/ frustrated, special care is taken not to require so large a number as for the ordinary business.