date

15 March 1807 + + 3 (2) 3
15 March 1807

+ + 3

(2) 3

Letter V

I. Plan

To be sure they will not,

all

of them, stop there where they ought to stop. Some of them, (such is the spirit of litigation!) will pass on to London; so long as the House of Lords is open to receive them, which to be sure it must be. Yes, as in they will get to London (for such is the perversity of mankind!) notwithstanding the excellent provision that may and would be made for them on the spot. Nor is it to be denied but that though, as to those which stop the delay and expence will be diminished, yet as to those which pass on, and so go through into[?] two Courts of Appeals instead of one, the delay and expence will be encreased.

But as to this, Your Lordships are already in possession of an old-established and well-approved remedy, viz.

Costs

: which it depends upon Parliament, or even upon the House of Lords alone, to make as strong and efficacious as they please. Make it strong enough and your litigious suitors will be frightened from coming to London:- they will stop at the Edinburgh Court of Appeal: and that is such numbers, that more delay and expence will be saved, by this stoppage, to those who are thus stopped by the Court bar, than will be produced by the bar itself in the instance of those who, after having passed through it, persevere and pass on to London as at present.

Here then is already a sufficient indemnity[?] for suitors /for the liege[?]/: and[?] but to make sure, let us give them another /two others/ into the bargain. In the Bill Chamber he made a whole superintendent jurisdiction is [...?] by the Court of Session over the causes originally brought before the local judicatures rather tedious[?] and has been the subject of [...?] in the mode pursued in the Justiciary Court in the Circuits is much /delightfully/ more expeditions[?]. In the name of the [...?...?] let us give the lieges[?] the option of the expeditions[?]. Whichever it is for their advantages they will embrace it of course: and this will be a great relief /and cheer/ to them: and a blessing thus[?] so great that there can be no doubt but that the change will be highly beneficial to them upon the whole.

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    1. The malâ fide appeals may be all of them stopped without any Chamber of Review. They owe their birth to that arrangement of Scottish law, by which Appeal is made a bar to execution: which thereby gives the Appellant, when in the wrong a profit by the delay and such a profit as is in some cases a real one. Take away this profit, this proportion of the actual appeals to the House of Lords will disappear without any intermediate Chamber of Review.

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  • Title: [PRIVATE 15 March 1807 A +]
    Description: PRIVATE

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    Of the 17 heads of which the chain of Resolution is composed, these 5 viz: Resolutions 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, have a more particular connection with each other.

    Of this part of the plan the general policy, if I apprehended it right, is this:- I mean the ostensible or exterior policy, as presented to Your Lordship by the learned Reformer: for as to the interior policy, that was, or at least may have been, quite a different affair. But Your Lordship will judge.

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