date

27 Feb r 1807 (3 Letter V
27 Feb r 1807

(3

Letter V

Resolut 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

These four (11 th, 12 th, 13 th, 14 th) have not so much as for their professed object the abridgment of the aggregate mass quantity of delay absolutely considered: but only the relative quantity, viz: so much of the total quantity of time as is consumed while the causes in question continue in that highest Court: and such in that quarter and so notorious is the urgency of the pressure, that for the benefit of what defalcation may thus be made from this relative quantity, it seems understood that an addition made to the absolute quantity might be made without paying too high a price.

Even in profession these four Resolutions can not therefore be considered as aiming at the prevention of unnecessary delay and thereby ministering to that one of the ends of justice. If it be asked to which of those ends it is or to which of them it professes to be directed, prevention of misdecision is manifestly the only one that in this view can be named.

So material is this distinction, and so strictly are the aims of the learned Reformer confined to the abridgment of delay, in the relative sense of delay, that in Resolution the 14 th in which costs are proposed as an instrument for cutting short the number of frivolous and vexatious appeals, the application of the intrument such as it is is not proposed to extend beyond that portion of the aggregate mass of causes of which that supreme Court has found itself the receptacle.
Similar Items
  • Title: [27 Feb y 1807 (4 Letter V]
    Description: 27 Feb y 1807

    (4

    Letter V

    Resolut. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

    In respect of these five provisions taken together, such my Lord in few words, such I must confess is the point of view in which they have presented themselves to my eye.

    1. That as to Resolution 10 th substituting, or professing to substitute, Appeal to Advocation and Suspension, so far is it from being likely to contribute in any considerable degree to its professed end, defalcation from delay, that it leaves the mischief in by far the most extensive and formidable quarter of it exempt from all disturbance. The operation of it is confined, as if with tender sollicitude, to bonâ fide causes, having malâ fide suitors, on both sides of the cause in the undisturbed possession of whatever advantage it finds them in possession of.

    2. That as to Resolution the 14 th being the provision which concerns costs, whereas the nature of things, affords against delay a remedy striking at the root of the evil, applying the absolute quantity as effectually as to the relative, and to suits and suitors of every description, the remedy thus employed is one that goes no further than pruning the evil, leaving the greater part of it untouched, viz: that part which has for its authors the malâ fide class of suitors.

    3. That as to Resolutions the 11 th and 12 th, interposing in every case between the supreme local and the supreme imperial judicature an additional local degree under the name of a Court of Review, its tendency to reduce the relative quantity of delay exclusively aimed at is not so strong as would have been the tendency of that unemployed remedy by which whatever reduction had been effected would have been absolute as well as relative.
  • Title: [PRIVATE 27 Feb y 1807 A 1]
    Description: PRIVATE

    27 Feb y 1807

    A 1 +

    Scotch Reform (2

    Letter

    Letter V

    Resolut. 10.11.12.13.14

    Resolutions 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 form one group of connected arrangement: the five next ensuing, 10 th, 11, 12, 13, and 14 form another such group.

    Of these five Resolutions, the 10 th has for its professed object the abbreviation of the course pursued on the occasion of the removal of a cause from a lower Court to a higher: the 11 th, 12 th, 13 th and 14 th have for their principal object the ridding the House of Lords of a portion of the mass of causes at present brought into that supreme Court of appellate Judicature from Scotland, and by that means easing the suitors of that one as well as of the two other of the three kingdoms of a proportionate part of the burthen in the shape of delay with which they are at present loaded, by the insufficiency of the quantity of time capable of being applied by that branch of the sovereign body to the purpose of such its appellate judicature.
  • Title: [May 1807 Scotch Reform Letter]
    Description: May 1807

    Scotch Reform

    Letter VI

    Letter VI

    Recapitulation & Anticipation

    4. Prevention of ultimate misdecision: viz. by entertaining Appeals complaining of misdecision on the part of the subordinate judicatures.

    5. Prevention of superabundant delay: viz. by entertaining applications complaining of superabundant delay on the part of the Judge in any of the subordinate judicatures, and [...?] despatch accordingly.

    N.B. Delay in so far as it is the necessary result of the system can no otherwise be struck off or abridged - than by an appropriate change in the system itself: the delay here spoken of i.e. that which is supposed to be produced by misconduct on the part of the Judge, and which is liable to take place under any system.

    In the character of a remedy against delay, that faculty of recurrence in the authority of the superintending judicatures can never with propriety be withholden: but, in as much as administered in the form the remedy involves an exasperation of the disease the efficacy of the indirect remedy will be incompleat and work without the addition of │ │ other remedies of an indirect nature: viz. a set of periodical returns from the several Courts whereby /shewing/ the quantity of extra delay that took place /having place/ in each suit, and every stage of each suit with the causes to which it has been referred /[...?]/ by the Judge (in whose Court it respectively took place.) See Delay and Complication Tables

    Table │ │.

    6. Periodical collection of the documents necessary to represent the state of judicature in the several subordinate Courts: viz. under heads calculated to shew in each respective suit in what respect[?] and degree it has succeeded or failed in fulfilling the several ends of justice viz. rectitude of decision (promotion of misdecision) prevention of failure of justice prevention of superabundant delay, vexation and expense.