date

2 May 1807 D2 (2) 11
2 May 1807

D2

(2) 11

Letter V

VIII. Appeal list mutilated

III. Uses malâ fide properly indicated

This explanation premised, in the three English existing Chambers of Review, taken together for and during the three-years period abovementioned, in numbers and proportions, as concerning malâ fide and bonâ fide Appeals, the account stands thus: not argued, i.e. all malâ fide Appeals, 1,780: argued, i.e. most of them probably all of them possibly bonâ fide Appeals, 20: malâ to bonâ fide, exactly as 89 to 1.
Similar Items
  • Title: [PRIVATE 2 May 1807 H3 + D1]
    Description: PRIVATE

    2 May 1807

    H3 + D1

    Superseded (1)

    Letter V

    Ch.12. Appeal list mutilated

    §.4. Malâ bonâ fide

    In the above figures and proportions may be deduced illustration for divers propositions antecedentally submitted to your Lordship, as well as instruction in other shapes not altogether devoid of use or interest.

    Proportion as between the number of malâ fide Appeals and d o of bonâ fide Appeals - and this for England as well as Scotland - may not this, my Lord, be among the secrets worth knowing?

    My Lord, for England, at any rate, for the three years period abovementioned, it is no longer a secret, nor has it been for these nine years.

    The test lies in the distinction between Appeal not argued and argued. The appeal not argued, therefore in the part of the suitor himself by whom it is presented, presented without prospect of success: viz. so far as concerns the seeing the adverse decision reversed, or in his favour modified. Without prospect of success, then to what end presented? - Answer; for the sake of the profit by delay; that profit, of which so full a view has already been given in general terms, and of which a particular illustration will be submitted to Your Lordship presently.

    The short account of the matter is - Appeals not argued, malâ fide appeals: appeals argued, bonâ fide Appeals.

    The correct account would be (were the correction worth making) - Appeals not argued, all of them malâ fide Appeals to a certainty: Appeals argued the Appeals and the only ones among which bonâ fide ones in a number not ascertainable, would be to be found.
  • Title: [2 May 1807 + D3 Letter V]
    Description: 2 May 1807

    + D3

    Letter V

    VIII. Appeal List mutilated

    IV. Uses malâ fide indicated

    Turning in the first place to the Scotch causes, for 75 presented, and for 52 set down for hearing, and for 39 heard, we find 18 withdrawn and 11 dismissed for want of presentation, making together 29 of which we may be certain, without any exception, unless by some accident, that they were malâ fide Appeals: 8 reversed with one remitted, making together 9 of which we may be certain of their being bonâ fide Appeals: 30 affirmed, of each of which all that I can venture to say with certainty, is that it seems more probable that it was a bonâ fide Appeal, than a malâ fide one. Setting them all as bonâ fide ones, here then the numbers will be 39 and 29: proportion, bonâ to malâ fide, nearly as 4 to 3.

    From 75, the number presented, and from 52, the number set down for hearing, no ulterior indication respecting the proportion between the bonâ and the malâ fide Appeals seems deducible. In the Intermediate Courts the work being, in these manufactories of delay, performed upon the mechanical principle, efflux keeps pace with influx, and no irregularity is presented by the accounts. In the great Ultimate Court, in which the work is mostly done by hand (as the phrase is among mechanical men), so that human reason is necessary, that stagnation takes place, which has given your Lordship so much trouble: and hence it is that the numbers presented, and the numbers set down for hearing, differ from one another, as well as from the numbers heard. Presented, 75: set down for hearing, 52: heard, 39.
  • Title: [2 May 1807 C1 1 Letter V]
    Description: 2 May 1807

    C1 1

    Letter V

    Ch.12 Appeal list mutilated

    §.3. Supply deficient

    English Review Chamber

    III. Deficiencies in the Finance Report.

    Taking the same period of time, pursue the enquiry into the House of Lords, the proportions exhibit a very different appearance.

    How unfortunately the data fail us.

    In the Lords Accounts of 11 March 1807, the Appeals commonly called by the name of Appeals - viz. the Equity Appeals not only are inserted, but exhibit the ear-marks by which the malâ fide may be distinguished from the bonâ fide ones: but the Common Law Appeals, the Appeals called Writs of Error, are, as already observed omitted altogether and their place is not to be found.

    On the other hand in the Finance Committee's Account A o 1798, the Appeals called Appeals are not inserted: while the Appeals called Writs of Error are. But here unfortunately, so it has happened, the distinction - the circumstance by the light of which the malâ fide was so easily distinguished from honest litigants, does not extend itself to the Writs of Error presented to the House of Lords.

    As little information in this same case does it give us concerning the terminous a quo; from what Court in each instance the Appeal last issued in its way to the House of Lords. This cause may have issued directly from the Westminster Hall Court of original jurisdiction: it may have previously made its way through one of the above intermediate Chambers of Review.