date

28 Feb y 1808 on L d Eldons Bill
28 Feb y 1808

on L d Eldons Bill

Letter V

I. Reasons necessary

1. Principles

7. Use 7 th. /Creating the law by later/ Qualifying the law for taking the stronger hold on the memory.

Unaccompanied by reason the really arbitrary dispositions of which jurisprudential law is throughout composed, and the apparently if not really arbitrary arrangements of which statute law is to yet to be comprised, are as so many grains of sand: particles which having nothing to lend them to each other, nor to keep them in the place in which for the moment they have been lodged, slip out of it like those of sand from the upper part of an hourglass.

In reason there is that binding quality, that by a single particle of it cohesion will sometimes be given to dispositions of detail in multitude, forming the whole into a compact body which fixes /fixing//attaching/ itself in the memory and takes a lasting hold.

Religion and reason - both are assistant to retention Religion was in former days /times/ applied for /to/ this purpose to the small parcels of law which the circumstances of the times admitted of. Religion is a cement too costly to be applied to the legal productions of modern times: but, like mush or olio of roses, reason when of the right sort, and properly prepared, goes a good way: and if the proposed Board of Commissioners of legislation could be prevailed upon or prevail upon themselves to infuse into their good productions a slight admixture of it, it would be found conducive to the purpose here in question, as well as to so many other good purposes.
Similar Items
  • Title: [TRAS 15 Tuesday Jan: 26 I have now]
    Description: TRAS 15

    Tuesday Jan: 26 I have now before me Bergmans Commentated

    Chemica e tertio novorum Societalis Reg. Leicul. Ups. actirum

    tomo exerpla. Upsalise

    Joh. Edman. Reg. Acad. Typograph 1777. 4to It consists of

    two papers: one exhibiting a chemical analysis of the contents and

    productions of Volcanos: the other a chem. analysis of the

    several sorts of pretious stones. In the first, p. 65 is an

    account of the Puzzolana, & which is nearly the same thing,

    the Dutch Tras. It gives the theory of the mortar and with those

    substances most clearly & perfectly. I have therefore extracted what

    relates to these subjects, which is as follows.

    16

    In two specimens 100 parts of Puzzolana

    I | II Silicious

    (that is chrystalline) earth 55 | 60 Argillaceous 20 |

    29 Calcarious 5 | 6

    Calx of iron 20 | 15

    100| 100

    This substance as every body knows

    mixt up with quick lime slacked in water presently grows into a

    stone: which most useful property is much illustrated by the account

    above given of its composition.

    17

    The firmness of mortar depends in a general view upon the lime water, with

    which the whole

    . This attracts the aerial acid

    from the atmosphere: which

    saturation, the particles which were

    separated this is rather obscure) [

    haurto sparticula soluta

    ] grow on as it were to the others and glew them

    together, whereas before they were connected only by a kind of

    accompanied with a very weak degree of cohesion. This combination is

    the sooner effected, the quicker the water evaporates.

    18

    Common mortar is made with sand a pure silicious earth: the

    particles of which being like glass, neither take up water nor

    contract

    contract any adhesion with any other particles; by which means the whole

    mass takes a long time to dry and harden.

    19

    Now then if instead of sand, the puzzolana

    be employ'd, the case is very different. The particles of

    the clay not only greedily absorb the water, but by their spongy texture

    serve admirably well to connect and fasten with the other

    ingredients. Ponder this, there is the calx of iron, and which has still

    some portion of phlogiston adhering to it. This, as

    has been found by experience, contributes greatly to the

    strength of the whole: insomuch that if to your puzzolana

    you add fresh quicklime (by which the water is not only

    most greedily absorbed, but by means of the heat produced by the mixture

    presently drawn off in vapour) the whole mass, if your workmen are

    lazy, will harden as they are working it, and become unfit for

    use.

    20

    The Dutch says (which signifies mortar) is very

    nearly of the same nature as the

    puzzolana except that it contains rather more heterogeneous

    matters (

    seems to mean silicious earth ) at least that

    does which is brought from Ardernack like

    somewhere in Germany near the

    for besides particles of mica and iron ore

    particles of schoerl and granate, &

    other substances may also be distinguished by the eye and in some

    measure separated by . In general too it contains rather more

    calcarious

    earth, as appears from its' effervescing more violently in acid.

    21

    With respect to silicious earth, you are to understand that

    the

    common clay,

    which is brought from Cologne ( which I believe is used for

    is commonly half or even 3/4 of it and more,

    silicious earth ( See Bergmans

    Opuscula Vol. 1. p. 289. Holmise Upsalia &

    1779.
  • Title: [PRIVATE Apr. 1807 Scotch Reform]
    Description: PRIVATE

    Apr. 1807

    Scotch Reform

    1

    Letter V

    L d G.s opinion of lawyers

    Conclusion

    L d G.s not consulting the Att y & Soll r General

    Conclusion for Letter V or VI

    Lord G.'s opinion of lawyers testified by his not consulting the Att y & the Soll r Gen l about any of his Bills, making sure of their support whether they approved of them or no. Romilly not fit for such a purpose. Grant the man[?] for L d Grenville.

    On this occasion, my Lord, it has been among my tasks, and surely not amongst the most pleasant ones, to hold up to view the fraternity of lawyers, as a tribe from whom, taken in the aggregate, no dispositions, but what were hostile to the interest of the community and to the ends of justice, under the sway of motives of the most selfish and sordid kind, could with any colour of reason be expected.

    To help prove this proposition, in so far as authority can be necessary or conducive to the proof of it, I have the satisfaction shall I say? or the regret, for there is a mixture of both emotions, to be furnished with a testimony no less respectable than Your Lordship's and that ready delivered, and without the trouble of citation on one part, personal appearance and examination on the other.

    Reading the three Bills which have successfully had the honour of being laid on the table by Your Lordship's hands, and seeing in them those features which I have been adventurous enough to hold up to view, seeing at the same time in the public prints - the only sources of information to men of my obscure and humble level: paragraphs stating the consultations and great avisandums held by Your Lordship at different times with this and that and t'other luminaries of the state and of the law, I could not but feel a curiosity to learn if possible, whether the learned and official personages, whom I had been accustomed to read of, under the appellation of the law-officers, meaning the law-officers for Great Britain were or were not of this number?
  • Title: [Feb y 1808 on L d Eldons Bill]
    Description: Feb y 1808

    on L d Eldons Bill

    Letter V

    I. Reasons necessary

    1. Principles

    In days of yore, when the Porphyrian tree was the most favourite product of the guardian of science, and adjectives in use[?] sprung up under the foot of the logician /Doctor, whether Irrefragable, Angelic or Seraphic,/ take which[?] comes under the rolling stone[?] three epithets, might have obtained a degree of attention such as can not be expected for the one present, and might have contributed to fix in the memory of the studious the uses of that whole in the materia psychologica which itself contributes so powerfully to assist relative[?] the power /grasp/ of the memory in relaxing the substance of a mass of law. /When books afforded no better amusement, and thinking not grudged/

    Let us recapitulate. Uses antecedent to enactment Uses resulting from the practice of giving an accompaniment of reason to a proposed law at a period previous to that of its being proposed for enactment - proposed in terminus Uses say anterior to enactment, Uses 1. preventive, 2. meliorative, 3. conciliative.

    Uses resulting from the late accompaniment attached to it when brought into a state fit for enactment - has say concomitant and subsequent /posterior/ to enactment. Uses 4. interpretative, 5. expositive or construction. 6. retentive[?] 7. conciliative again and thence corroborative /auxiliary/. 8. meliorative again 9. confirmation or statitive

    III Uses applicable to the whole body of laws taken together of which the law in question forms a part - uses 10. depurative, 11. systematically instructive 12. continually ameliorative or confirmative.