date

[...?] 1808 Scotch Reform Letter
[...?] 1808

Scotch Reform

Letter V

Letter V

Bonâ fide Appeals

In regard to /On the subject //Under the hand of/ delay vexation and expence will this be said? if not siad I suppose it must have at any rate been thought. It is not every cause wil it be said? that will be [...?] by the intermediate Court of Appeal at Edinburgh. Some after passing through that Court, will leap on to Westminster, to the House of Lords. But of the procedure before the Lords is more delatory expensive and vexatious it may be added than the procedure before the proposed Edinburgh Court of Appeal will be: and this to such a degree that the saving /burthen saved/ upon the causes added by these that leap on to Westminster.

This must naturally have been said: they must /[...?]/ naturally have even thought. But where is the ground for thinking so? Thus again comes the same demand for calculation, and the same absence of it

1 Actual average[?] delay in the House of Lords under the existing stagnation │ │ so much

2. Reputed average delay in the House of Lords supposing the superficial number of Scotch Appeals stopped at Edinburgh by the proposed Review[?] Chamber and the stagnation done away │ │ so much.

3. Expected average delay in the proposed Review Chamber upon the causes that stop[?] there - │ │ so much

4. Expected average delay in d r[?] and in the House of Lords together, upon the causes passing through to the House of Lords │ │ so much.

5. Q 7.8.[?] The like questions in [...?] to expence.
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  • Title: [26 April 1807 Scotch Reform]
    Description: 26 April 1807

    Scotch Reform

    Letter V

    Bonâ fide causes

    The proposition though true upon the face of it, and in a general point of view, is not indeed necessarily true in every case which it is possible to suppose.

    Take every such interposed[?] stage of appeal, if it interupts /prevents/ more delay than it generates, on this supposition, a fearfully[?] conceivable one - it diminishes delay upon the whole.

    But the facility which the mood experiences in the conception of a mountain of gold, does not contribute to render the existence of any so vaulable a mountain probable, much /still/ less facilitate the discovery of it. To warrant the setting sail upon a [...?] adventure to this mountain something /some consideration/ should first have been said /pointed out/ to render the existence of it probable: and this is what I do not perceive any where to have been done.

    Causes at present annually presented by Appeal from the Court of Session to the House of Lords, say │ │ 24 Average continuance of such appealed cause in the House, say months 24 Average duration of an appealed cause in the proposed Chamber of Review, say months │ │ 6. Required the addition that may be made to the whole number appealed from of appealed from to the Chamber of Review, and the correspondent / this consideration being had of/ [...?] in the number of causes appealed from to the House of Lords, having the quantity /seen of the quantities/ of delay produced by appeal neither acquainted [...?] [...?].
  • Title: [PRIVATE 5 May 1807 H2 +]
    Description: PRIVATE

    5 May 1807

    H2 +

    (1) (1)

    Letter V

    After VIII Appeal list mutilated

    VI. Uses - Proper remedy, efficacy

    {Before the topic of astrology is dismissed

    Now we are upon causes, another little comparison confrontation rapprochment our neighbours would say -} may not be without use.

    Presented from the Supreme Court within Scotland, Appeal, which it can only be to the House of Lords, stops execution: so does it, under the name of a Writ of Error, when presented from those on the same level as Westminster Hall, to any of the three Westminster Hall Chambers of Review. Presented under the name of Appeal, from the Westminster Hall Equity Court on that same level to the only Court to which in Equity procedure it can be presented from that High Court, viz. to the House of Lords, Appeal does not stop execution: that is to say, not of course; nor without such special ground alledged and supported, as is scarce ever made.

    And now, with submission, the cause of the following proportion for that same three years ending 1797, can be no great mystery. From the English Courts Appeals stopping execution, 1915: where of in Common Law causes to the 3 Intermediate Courts or Chambers of Review, 1790: in d o to the ultimate Court of Review, viz. the House of Lords, 125: English Appeals stopping execution 1915: English Appeals not stopping execution, 7: viz. in Equity Causes to the House of Lords: From Scotland in Common Law and Equity causes put together, Appeals stopping execution, 75.

    After p. 8. of this. Go on to say by the expedient produced by J.B. & the Memorialists without the Review Chamber I see little less than half the delay struck off: by the Review Chamber, without those[?], more added than struck off.
  • Title: [1 May 1807 B2 8 (2) (8)]
    Description: 1 May 1807

    B2 8

    (2) (8)

    Letter V

    VIII. Appeal list mutilated

    English Review Chambers

    II. Finance Supply

    Thus much, my Lord, as to the masses of Appeals flowing from Scotland and England respectively into the House of Lords.

    I come now to the masses of Appeal flowing out of the supreme local Courts of judicature in the two kingdoms respectively into receptacles other than the House of Lords: receptacles intermediate between these supreme local Courts and that ultimate seat of judicature. Here of such intermediate Courts of Appeal the numbers are - for Scotland, 0: for England as above 3: the King's Bench in its appellate capacity, with its 8 Judges to hear under the name of Writs of Error, appeals from the Common Pleas: the Exchequer Chamber with its 8 Judges to hear under the like name appeals from the King's Bench: a Court differently composed, under the same name of the Exchequer Chamber, also with 8 Judges, 4 of them the same, 4 of them different from those of the other Court of the same name, to hear under the same name, appeals from the Court of Exchequer.

    So much as to the manufactories of delay; now as to the produce: viz. the comparative amount of it.

    Taking the four Courts in Westminster Hall as standing all of them in their respective capacities of Courts of original jurisdiction on the same level, and with the Court of Session in Edinburgh, let us observe the number of appeals of all sorts sent out of the several respective Courts: a distinction being made, but not any exception, grounded on the nature of the Courts into which they were sent, viz. the ultimate receptacle the House of Lords, and the respective intermediate receptacles.