date

14 Apr. 1803 Evidence Object
14 Apr. 1803

Evidence

Object

usage. This omission so far as suggestion goes so far as can be done by an individual without authority will be endeavoured to be supplied in the course of the ensuing pages.

These doings[?] being promised, the business of this work, notwithstanding the extent of it /room it occupies/ will be found capable of being comprized and announced in three simple propositions /a very narrow compass/

1. A proposition to be proved is that for the mere purpose /in the mere view/ of ensuring rectitude of decision - in other words for the avoidance of the six inconveniences into which erroneous decision branches out and [...?] itself - no species of evidence whatsoever ought to be excluded. in technical language that all testimony that all evidence ought to be deemed competent using[?] without any defalcation from the probability /chances/ in favour of a right decision in any case and with a great addition to it in many cases, be deemed competent and as such admitted.

2. Another proposition is - that on the score possibly of quantity possibly of quality lots of evidence of certain descriptions may be notwithstanding and ought to be excluded. But this rather for the avoidance of the collateral inconveniences of vexation, expence and delay, than for the avoidance of the inconveniences of the first order comprized under the head of wrong decision: on the account not of the danger of their proving delusive, but of the certainty /assurance/ of their being needless and superfluous.
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  • Title: [15 Apr. 1803 Evidence 8]
    Description: 15 Apr. 1803

    Evidence

    8

    Ends

    Ends in general

    In this word properties we may observe /may be observed/ another heading term which has been employed with advantage in the character of a basis of arrangement especially in any work on which speculation has pratice for its end /the theory has a practical object in view/. A system of procedure being to be established, required the properties of which it is desirable it should be possessed: the properties, concerning which it is desirable that they should be found in it. The properties /property/ desirable in a system of procedure is that it be rendered conducive to the abovementioned objects or ends:- that it have the effect of warding off /preserving the community[?]/ - or[?] as far as the nature of things admitts - from the several abovementioned inconveniences /heads of inconvenience/. Corresponding to those ends the heads /species/ of inconvenience the avoidance of which constitutes respectievly so many distinct and subordinate objects or ends.

    Another vocabulary, in which the positive form /phases[?]/ prdominates, may be more acceptable to some conceptions.

    Ends of a sustem of Procedure, six. Properties of a good system of procedure - Properties desirable in a system of Procedure, subserviency to those respective ends.

    1. Rectitude of decision. Under this article are comprehended the six inconveniences of the first order: rectitude of decision consists in the avoidance of those several inconveniences - according to the nature of the cause - whether penal or non-penal - and according to the side of the cause contemplated - whether the plaintiffs or the defendants.

    2. Unvexatiousness - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary vexation.

    3. Cheapness - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary expence.

    4. Promptitude - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary delay.

    5. Maturity - avoidance of the inconvenience of satisfaction.

    6. Simplicity - avoidance of the inconvenience of unnecessary intricacy.
  • Title: [19 Apr 1803 Evidence Correction]
    Description: 19 Apr 1803

    Evidence

    Correction

    Plan

    Introd. Ch.3

    For the purpose of demonstrating the first proposition, and of[?] solving the two others, no small tract of speculative ground will require to be travelled over.

    Ch 1.Facts Considered as the subject matter of evidence. Ch.2/3 Species of evidence enumerated and explained.

    Ch.4.Mode of measuring and expressing, on each occasion, the degree of the persuasion produced by evidence. Ch.5.Foundation of persuasion, as produced by evidence: i:e: of the disposition in human nature, to infer the existence of one fact from that of another.

    Ch.6.Decision, where allowable without evidence - for example where the fact takes place within the view of the Judge.

    Ch.7.Causes of fallaciousness in real evidence: and herein of forgery in respect of /having for its subject/ real evidence for its subject Ch.8.Modifications of falshood of which falshood is susceptible in the case of in personal evidence: and herein of falshood in toto - in circumstance - in quantity in quality - on the subject of identity /questions of identity/.

    Ch.9.Causes of incorrectness in personal evidence - viz: where the falshood is not wilful.

    Ch.10. Causes of veracity in personal evidence. Ch.11. Causes of mendacity in personal evidence.

    Ch.12.Judicial processes for ensuring correctness and veracity. Examination vivâ voce - answers unpremeditated - cross Examination &

    Ch.13. Comparative force of different species of evidence

    Ch.14. Best Evidence - how composed.

    [In margin:] Continue the Table of Books and chapters - with brief occasional explanations.
  • Title: [[059- 131] 16 Apr. 1803 Evidence]
    Description: [059- 131]

    16 Apr. 1803

    Evidence

    Omitt in Evidence? Note to p. 10

    10 Note

    Ends

    As for the inconvenience the mischievousness of failure of justice of non-decision or wrong decision to the prejudice of the cause of the plaintiff whether penal ground or non-penal - the mischief resulting from the disfulfillment of the positive predictions of the law on either ground - it is a proposition /point/ on this occasion a proposition to be assumed - not proved. Either it is a mischief or there ought to be no such law /no such law ought to be continued in existence. Every coercive every efficient law is in the very essence of it an evil: if in any case that evil be not compensated for by a more than equivalent good, it /the law/ ought to be abolished. In the fulfilment of those predictions of the non-penal branch of the law by which proprietary and other reghts are promised in the cases specified to be conferred - of those predictions of the penal branch by which satisfaction in the case of injury is promised to be administered depends security - the sense of security - in a word the existence of security. If in any instance the law is deemed by the competent authority ill-adapted to its purpose, repugnant or unconducive to its end the remedy for the grievance /proper mode if relief against the burthen of it/ consists in the abolition of the law not in conniving at the evasion of it, and striking, or suffering it to be stricken with impotence. Be the law good or bad on no supposition whatever can the disfulfilment of the predictions delivered by it be otherwise than an evil /be placed otherwise than to the account of evil/. Good the law cannot be unless the nature of it be to pay by its superflux of goodness /utility/ for all the evil which is inseparably attached to it: attached to the execution of it upon the disobedient as well as to the observance of it by the obedient /burthen of the obligation upon by it upon [sic]/.If it be bad /the law be a bad law/, the non-execution of it will still be an evil: relatively or comparatively an evil if not absolutely an evil. It will be an evil in comparison of the abolition of the law: an operation by which will be produced more than all the good that could be produced by connivances at the violation, without any of the mischief.