date

6 Apr. 1808 Letter V Ch 3.
6 Apr. 1808

Letter V

Ch 3. [...?]

'. Another, if not the /and as it should seem/ the main object and supposed benefit of the regulations above reported, seems to have been in the learned scribes view of the matter to have been, the exonerating the time of the House of Lords of the intolerable part of the burthen which at present presses upon it. In the view /eyes/ of they the learned scribes [...?] /[...?]/ and guides such was the view taken of the efficacy of the regulations in question in ths character as to have produced a declared "persuasion, that supposing this regulation established, the number of appeals (of all sorts from all these [...?]!) could soon cease" not only to be "a grievance to the subject", but to be "a burthen to the House of Lords."

As to this matter, as to such part of the supposed[?] regulations not [...?] in the introduction of appeals from interlocutors without leave of the Judges to whom injustice is imputed, its efficacy appears in some degree indeed not improbable, but in that same degree, and for the reasons just given, undesirable. for that bonâ fide appeals, and a no considerable proportion /number and/ weight may come to be prevented by it, seems but too probable.

As to every other part of the proposed string[?] of reputation the utter inefficacy of it in this point of view as against the mischief here in question will be as clear, as its [...?] efficacy will be in[?] the other point of view /as against the other mischief/: the neat or portion of neat profit derivable from the wrong I mean the delay derivable from the groundless and malâ fide appeal being as charity[?] left in some states of the account, as it is taken away in others.
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    In /By/ the conclusion drawn /formed/ by the learned Memorialists respecting the efficacy of the above regulations in reducing the number of Appeals, I am thrown into no small perplexity, being not simply supported, but over-supported. "If these regulations" (say they) "were adopted, we are persuaded, that the number of Appeals would soon cease to be a grievance to the subject, or a burthen to the House of Lords."

    That /Whether/ in my own edition the efficiency of these regulations in my own conception appear /fail of appearing/ in a very considerable degree greater /more extensive/ than in that given /published/ as above by these learned Judges /Memorialists/, Your Lordship will judge.

    Well then: to begin with the burthen to the House of Lords, my own persuasion is that it is not in the power of these expedients of my own devising, to contribute to the value of a feather towards the lengthening of it. Why? The only class of appeals to which these expedients have any application are the malâ fide Appeals: and these Appeals in how great a degree soever they contribute to form /constitute/ the grievance to the subject, contribute nothing /little or nothing/ at all towards forming /in the formation of/ the burthen /form no part of the burthen/ to the House of Lords. The only Appeals that enter into the composition of the burthen are the Appeals that come on to be heard. But towards the diminishing the number of Appeals that come on to be heard I expect next to nothing, and sit down to account absolutely nothing, from the operation of my principle: taking the profit from the delay incident to appeals may be compleatly taken away, but this admission will not prevent a man from appealing /appeal, on the part of any man who expects to gain his cause by it. The Appeals and almost the only Appeals that will thus be prevented, are those which at present are not heard, but before the time comes for hearing either withdrawn, or for want of being prosecuted, dismissed. And these though not much inferior have hitherto been inferior in number to the others. It is this view of the matter that has suggested to me as an institution of indispensable necessity, the Court of Lords Delegates.
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    The superior object of the two in urgency as well as dignity - that which has for its theatre the House of Lords ingrossed their attention, and was all the while the only object aimed at. "If these regulations" (says the Lord President with his ten learned Co-Memorialists) "if these regulations" (speaking [of] a set of regulations the same in principle with those of which I have been endeavouring to give a view) "were adopted, we are persuaded, that the number of Appeals" (meaning Appeals to the House of Lords) "would soon cease to be a grievance to the subject, or a burthen to the House of Lords." +

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    Of the number of malâ fide Appeals the regulations in question will assuredly strike off a part: they will as certainly leave another part unexcluded. The proposition between the two parts will depend in each Session upon accidental circumstances; upon the circumstances of each individual cause: upon the amount of capital or principal at stake, the sources of profit at the command of the respective parties, the length of delay [...?] by the Appeal, and the money that must be paid, in the shape of costs, for the purchase of it.

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