date

6 Mar 1808 L d Eldons Bill
6 Mar 1808

L d Eldons Bill

Letter V

§.6. Reasons

Ends of Justice

6. Expence

6. Expence. Of a stock of litigation, vexation, is under every System an inseparable concomitant: Under the fee-gathering system so in an indefinitely variable but always large proportion, so is expence: even under the natural system, in some proportion or other, nearly so.

To every man to whom his time and labour are in any shape a source of profit, much more if of subsistence - that is in every country to all but comparatively a very few, the time consumed in attendances and other ways by litigation is, over and above the vexation in effect so much expence.

The sum being given whether being received it is disbursed, or whether the receipt of it be forgone makes in this respect no difference.

Where neither ability nor resolution to defray it are wanting, expence attached to litigation is expence (with its vexation) and nothing more. Where from the outset of the cause either are wanting, the evil changes its nature: on the plaintiff's side it is denial of justice: on the defendant's side it is misdecision to the prejudice of that side.

If at any intervening period between the commencement and the conclusion of the cause, the burthen of the expence becomes on either side intolerable and the party sinks under it, a load of expence and that a ruinous one is thus added, in the one case to denial of justice, in the other to misdecision to the prejudice of the defendant's side: that is either to extortion, or to oppression in some other of the many shapes in which oppression, that is the power of inflicting it, is to be purchased by every one who will pay the price, of the sworn ministers of justice. See misdecision to the prejudice of the defendants side.
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  • Title: [9[?] Mar 1808 L d Eldons Bill]
    Description: 9[?] Mar 1808

    L d Eldons Bill

    Letter V

    §.6. Reasons

    Ends of Justice

    7. Delay

    7. Delay. This evil, in so far as it is the work either of the Judge or of the system under which he acts, is, for so long as it lasts denial of justice. Provides chances of misdecision without number, it involves in its texture expence naturally and generally, vexation necessarily and universally. In the case of the wrongdoer, it is generally to a certain degree compensated: in the estimation of the wrongdoer by whose exertions it is purposely manufactured or purchased, it is of course compensated, and compleatly: but it is no otherwise compensated than in as far as it is productive of misdecision or undue and greater vexation on the other side. See Table of the Mischiefs of Delay, Table III.

    For twenty eight out of a multitude of other shapes in which under the fee-gathering system in both kingdoms factitious delay is manufactured, manufactured under the system devised by Judges, for their own profit, and to the use of their own brotherhood, added to that of the fraternity of wrongdoers on both sides of the cause, see Table.

    " Justice shall, under us, be denied to no man, sold to no man, delayed for no man. Thus promised the wicked King John, in the earliest and, to the path[?] outwards, the most sacred of our fundamental laws.

    Under our present most gracious and religious sovereign, and by his correspondently religious servants and advisers, what is the sort of performance given to this promise? Delayed to all, denied to most, justice (we see) is sold, and at the extorioner's price sold, to the well-plundered yet still favoured few.
  • Title: [[094-163v] 6 March 1808 on]
    Description: [094-163v]

    6 March 1808

    on L d Eldon's Bill

    Letter V

    '.5. Reasons[?]

    Ends of Justice

    2. Sect the 2 d /Second of the ends of justice/ a collateral and [...?] end of justice. Positive dsicrimination none: litigation denomination, avoidance of denial of justice avoidance of refusal that species of vexation which is committed by refusal or undue omission to take cognizance of a judicial complaint. Denial of justice is [...?] the cost correspondent and opposite to this second end of justice.

    [...?] In respect of its mischievous consequences, the cost of [...?] denial of justice coincides in the main with misdecision to the prejudice of the plaintiffs side: the plaintiff being left in respect of the service demanded by his plaint left in the same plight as of cognizance of his plaint having been taken, the rendering of the service so demanded had been refused. But forasmuch as in this case[?] no suit[?] has been so much as commenced, no such evil as that of the expence of that of the vexation at [...?] as a greater or less degree on every suit at law has been sustained: and thus far to the extent of their collateral inconveniences the evil of denial of justice is in each instance a less evil than the cost of misdecision to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side.

    3. Sect the 3 d /Third of the ends of justice/. Positive unvexationess: viz. of the operations performed in the course /in each instance/ of the judicial procedure. denominative: negation denomination, avoidance of vexation: viz. of whatever /whatsoever/ portion of it the evil so denominated, being not necessary to [...?] of division, may therefore be considered as superfluous, and what as such needed not and ought not to have been produced. Vexation[?] (viz. judicial vexation) is the evil correspondent and opposite to this end of justice /one of the ends/. This end of justice may be excluded as a collateral end of justice. Avoidance of vexation is not the direct object of any judicial [...?] complaint: of any suit at law. That object, were it the direct and sole object on view would be more effectually attained.
  • Title: [7 Aug st 1807 /7 March 1808/ Letter]
    Description: 7 Aug st 1807 /7 March 1808/

    Letter V

    §.6. Reasons

    Ends of Justice

    In what respect respecting evils, and in what they differ from one another will be shewn immediately

    Evils of the 1 st Order: the list of which gives that of the correspondent and opposite ends of justice.

    1. Misdecision; when to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side of the cause.

    2. Denial of Justice. This evil coincides in the main with that of misdecision, when to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side. The reason for making a distinct article of it will appear further on.

    3. Non-decision. This, while it lasts, has the effect [of] denial of justice. The reason for making a distinct article of it will appear further on.

    Quere[?] 4. Non-demand. viz. of judicial services done. This too has in the main the effect of misdecision to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side. The reason for making a distinct article of it will appear further on.

    5. Vexation: viz. juridical vexation: vexation to which in and by a course of judicial investigation it may happen to individuals of various descriptions to be subjected.

    6. Expence: viz. pecuniary expence: the burthen of defraying it is a particular species of vexation to which the parties to the suit are in a more particular degree exposed. The reason for making of this evil an article distinct from that of vexation will appear further on.

    7. Delay. This article at last has the same effect as misdecision when to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side, denial of justice, and non-decision. The reason for making a separate article of it will appear further on.

    8. Misdecision, when to the prejudice of the defendant's side. The effect of this may be considered as so much vexation, to which that side alone of the cause is i.e. those persons alone whose station is on that side of it are, exposed. The reason for making a separate article of it, distinct as well from misdecision to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side, as from vexation, will appear further on.