date

22 June 1807 Scotch Reform
22 June 1807

Scotch Reform

Letter V

II. Litigation

II. Def t

malâ fide

This under Insolvent Def t or [...?] def t?

Superseded?

Subjected in time to examination vivâ voce by and in the presence of the Judge, whatever shapes a defendant's property happened to be in - whatever hands, whatever place it happened to be in, would be brought to light of course, and the property would be forthcoming to be disposed of in execution of the law.

The corner-stone of the technical system - the grand principle, which, by excluding the parties from the presence of their Judge, serves in so many other ways for the exclusion of justice, is not on this occasion more sparing of its service. While the plaintiff, in the character of Sisyphus, is toiling with or without success to force the suit up the hill of litigation, the Defendant with that which ought to be the plaintiff's property in his hands has just so much time given him for stowing it, upon the most commodious terms, out of the reach of justice.
Similar Items
  • Title: [PRIVATE June 1807 (1)]
    Description: PRIVATE

    June 1807

    (1)

    Letter V

    II. Litigation

    II[?]. Def t. malâ fide

    The exertions of the Judge and C o technical system has succeeded in breeding a sort of mongrel or amphibious monster, a malâ fide Defendant, whom one knows not well under which of the two species to rank, the solvent or the insolvent. Solvent he is or may be to any amount, but by giving him a sort of licence for cheating, they have contrived to enable him to unite in his person the advantages of insolvency with those of Solvency.

    To him, the plaintiff, who has obtained a decision in his favour, the decision is of no use, any further than execution acording to the decision is the consequence. Execution can not be had any further than such persons and things as it regards are forthcoming, in readiness to be put, and when the time comes actually put into that state by the putting of them into which the execution of the judgment is performed.

    Suppose now among the variety of shapes of which property is susceptible, one is more pitched upon for the purpose, and a regulation established according to which, to whatsoever amount a Defendant may have been adjudged to make payment, on condition of giving to his property or whatsoever part of it he pleases into that shape, it shall stand exempted from execution, insomuch that the judgment shall, having no power over it, be defeated and set at nought. Among these shapes the more considerable in extent and number such of those to which this convenient property could be bestowed, the greater it is evident the premium afforded to dishonest men for engaging them to enter the lists of litigation, viz. on the Defendant's side.
  • Title: [22 June 1807 (8) (2) Letter]
    Description: 22 June 1807

    (8) (2)

    Letter V

    II. Litigation

    II. Def t malâ fide

    Of these phenomena there is not one that has not found observers among Judge and C o: there is not one of which they have not been astute enough and successful enough to make their profit to turn to account.
  • Title: [21 June 1807 (3) Letter V]
    Description: 21 June 1807

    (3)

    Letter V

    II. Litigation

    III. Def t. malâ fide

    2. Even when already, before suit commenced, the Defendant has lodged his property in one of these asylums provided for the security of property against justice of safe and opulent swindlers, it will seldom be in the power of the plaintiff to succeed, nor will he frequently have any adequate inducement for so much as engaging in any such intricate and complicated research as that of the different proportions in which the defendant's property is invested in the different shapes of which it is susceptible, and the probability of his having at the same time the power and the determined will to take advantage of the protection afforded by swindling-licence thus annext to these several shapes.