date

PRIVATE 1 June 1807 Letter
PRIVATE

1 June 1807

Letter V

III. Proper Remedies

II. Insolvent knave

Immediately before this put the [...?...?]

Very different, and much greater is the profit issuing out of delay, and by factitious delay, offered by Judge and C o to the insolvent knave, to enlist and engage him in their service: in the quality of malâ fide Defendant in the first instance, and thenceforward in the character of malâ fide Appellant, through as many stages of judicature as can have been provided for his reception: for his reception, together with that of his unwilling and extenuated adversary, where hard fate binds him to the pursuit.

To the insolvent knave, in or out of trade - to an individual who conscious of his inability to liberate himself from that state, were he to pay the whole of his debts due from him, considers it therefore as being his interest not to discharge any part of it, the profit by the delay is not confined to interest, but is co-extensive over the whole extent of the principal. According to his means of securing to himself the future use of it on the one hand, and the strength of the appetites by which he is urged to make a present expenditure of it on the other, he employs in purloining or expending the property of the adversary, whatsoever time he is enabled to command: in purloining it, by secreting it, or exporting it out of the reach of justice, or exporting himself along with it: in expending it, by consuming or giving away the substance or the value of it.
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  • Title: [1 June 1807 Letter V III. Proper]
    Description: 1 June 1807

    Letter V

    III. Proper Remedies

    1. Solvent

    What remains, is - to make application of this rule to the different positions in which in respect of interest, a malâ fide suitor - and in particular a malâ fide defendant - when arrived at the stage of appeal, is liable to find himself.

    But, the interest by which at this stage a man's interest is governed, and in consequence his line of conduct may have commenced long before - may have existed antecedently to the suit, and given birth to the part he takes in it, the plan of operation on the part of the legislator must therefore commence at a stage equally early, so as to enable the legislator, by his instrument the Judge, to act upon a malâ fide defendant at the very commencement of the suit.

    Calling the malâ fide litigant by the name of knave - (and this not for wit or malice, but as among mathematicians for abbreviation) let us for the present purpose divide the genus into two species - the solvent or frugal knave, and the insolvent, commonly the dissipating knave.

    In the two characters corresponding to these two specific differences his interest is liable and apt to point different ways.

    The invitation held out by Judge and C o accommodates itself to his interest in both characters.

    Correspondant to these differences must be the course taken in dealing with him by the operations of the legislator.
  • Title: [PRIVATE 17[?] June 1807 Scotch]
    Description: PRIVATE

    17[?] June 1807

    Scotch Reform

    (1)

    1 o

    Letter V

    Letter V

    II. Litigation

    III. Plff. malâ fide

    3. Def t quare[?] deft[?] malâ fide

    One species of malâ fide defendant has been mentioned as bearing in several circumstances a resemblance to one species viz. the one here in question of the malâ fide Plaintiff: viz. in respect of the nature of the end he aims at, the nature of the means employed by him for the accomplishment of it, and the nature of the encouragement or rather the assistance he receives from Judge and C o for that purpose.

    Thus was the species of malâ fide defendant who having before the suit put himself in possession of the sum of money, the article of moveable property, the estate, or whatsoever else may happen to be the subject and object of competition, to which he is conscious of having no just right, continues to act in the station of defendant, not merely for the temporary advantage, (in the nature of interest upon capital) obtainable from delay, nor for the hope of seeing misdecision in his favour produced by accident out of the delay, but for the more substantial assurance of remaining master of the field for ever, the adversary, the injured and bonâ fide plaintiff, being become bankrupt either in purse or perseverance.

    From the malâ fide plaintiff whose encouragement and power sold to him by Judge and C o comes to him in the shape of the faculty of extortion, the species of malâ fide defendant here in question differs no otherwise than in respect of the circumstance of his being in possession of the subject matter in dispute.
  • Title: [PRIVATE 1 June 1807 Letter]
    Description: PRIVATE

    1 June 1807

    Letter V

    III. Proper Remedies

    I. Solvent knave[?]

    III. Proper Remedies against malâ fide Appeals

    What is above applies to factitious delay, employed for the encouragement of malâ fide litigation on both sides of the cause, and in all its stages - for the propagation of the breed of malâ fide litigants and especially malâ fide defendants in all their successive states.

    The stage here in question - the only stage directly in question - is that of appeal: the only state in which on the present occasion the malâ fide defendant comes directly under consideration, is that of malâ fide appellant.