date

30 June 1807 Letter V Recapitulation
30 June 1807

Letter V

Recapitulation

2. As to failure of justice, no way it is supposed will be suggested in which it is possible for the proposed additional stage of Appeal to contribute any thing to the prevention of this mischief. But whatsoever makes any addition to the mass of expence, delays and vexation in respect of such part of it as falls on the plaintiff's side contributes pro tanto to the promotion of that mischief. And in respect of all such causes as are not stopped by the Intermediate Court of Appeal, the aggregate mass of expence &c receives a necessary encrease. In respect of such causes as are stopped by it, it seems probable enough that the aggregate mass may receive a diminution. But whether the expence &. thus saved will be equal to the expence &c thus produced seems at best extremely dubious.
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  • Title: [30 June 1807 Letter V Recapitulation]
    Description: 30 June 1807

    Letter V

    Recapitulation

    4. Whatever be the number of Appeals as will not be stopped by the proposed Chamber of Review, but will come up to the House notwithstanding, upon all this number the additional quantity of delay, expence and vexation thus produced will constitute a certain mischief to be set against whatever benefit if any may come to be produced, or the score of such parts to which it may happen to be stopped.

    5. The expence in additional Salaries, with the attendant encrease of ministerial patronage and influence, constitute such a head of objection, such as, though of itself not sufficient to outweigh a clear and manifest benefit, referable to the ends of justice, presents an indisputable title to be put into the scale of disadvantage; and supposing the other advantages and disadvantages in equilibrio[?], would surely suffice to turn the scale.
  • Title: [30 June 1807 Letter V Recapitulation]
    Description: 30 June 1807

    Letter V

    Recapitulation

    3. As to such malâ fide causes in which the malâ fides is on the Plaintiff's side: and of which the mischief of which presents itself sometimes in the shape of extortion, sometimes in the shape of simple opposition.

    In regard to suits of this description it has been shewn that these owe their birth almost exclusively to the inordinate mass of factitious expence with its attendant vexation. For the prevention of this one of the three branches of undesirable litigation the nature of things admitts of but one remedy, and that is the removal of this factitious part of the mass of vexation and expence.

    In these instances the plan of the malâ fide plaintiff may frequently, probably most frequently, be carried into effect without the suits going the length of appeal: it will seldom happen that a proposed victim who in the character of defendant is capable of carrying on the cause beyond the assaye of appeal will not naturally be taken for the subject of such an experiment. i.e. to such a length as, by obtaining judgment in his (the defendant's) favour, to oblige the malâ fide plaintiff either to present an appeal without merits, or to abandon his enterprize.

    So far as this branch of litigation is concerned, the tendency of the Chamber of Review is purely mischievous. In general the Plff's wicked purpose will be accomplished without going the length of appeal. But where it is not, the effect of the Chamber of Review is to open to him another stage of appeal, in addition to whatever he had before.
  • Title: [30 June 1807 Letter V Recapitulation]
    Description: 30 June 1807

    Letter V

    Recapitulation

    An exigency so urgent as that of the alleviation of the existing pressure upon the time of the House of Lords appears to have, in such a degree, preoccupied attention on the occasion of the plan for the establishment of the Chamber of Review as to have, in a manner, almost eclipsed and kept out of sight its more immediate effects with relation to the ends of justice: {viz. prevention of misdecision, prevention of failure of justice, prevention of superfluous and avoidable delay, expense and vexation.} But surely it can not on sufficient ground be pronounced advantageous and eligible upon the whole, unless upon the whole it appears to be subservient, or at least not inconducive, to the aggregate of these ends.

    2. As to prevention of misdecision, at the best it presents no advantage on this score. So long as the constitution stands, and so long at least as no change as to the past[?] here in question is proposed, the judgment which is as much as to say the judicial will of the House of Lords must, to the extent of its appellate jurisdiction, be taken for the best as well as the ultimate standard of rectitude. But of the proposed intermediate Court of Appeal [if] the declared object is that as many causes as may be may cease to be applied to this past[?] standard: and it is only on the score of this part of the whole number of causes that any advantage is so much as expected: as to all such as come to be applied to it notwithstanding, the effect of the Intermediate stage of litigation will be admitted to be purely disadvantageous. viz. in respect of the additional stage of appeal with its additional delay, vexation and expence.