date

25 March 1808 Letter V Ends
25 March 1808

Letter V

Ends of Justice

What then shall we say? These more and more deeply seated evils, shall these too as well as the more prominent ones to which they give existence and support, be understood each of them to /intitled to/ place upon the list of the ends of justice, the good which corresponds to it and to which it stands opposed?

If so, then would the abolition of that /the immense factitious/ mass of factious (complication) delay, vexation and expence be intitled to a place among the ends /upon the list/ of justice not only on its own account /by a direct title/ but moreover inasmuch as by the production of non-demand, desistment from demand, non-defence, and desistment from defence and frequently even of misdecision, it produces, for the accommodation of /wrongdoers/ the opulent wrongdoer and his protector and partner in iniquity the fee-fed Judge, the ruin of the innocent and injured on both sides of the cause.

If so, then would the rendering it possible for men to be acquainted with /have knowledge of/ those rules of action which every year they are strengthened by some, and ruined by hundreds and by thousands for not conforming to in a word the converting /conversion/ of jurisprudential law into statutory, and giving to that statutory law a form rendering it accessible to and comprehensible by the minds /understanding/ to which it is addressed -

If so, then would the annihilation of the matter of corruption flowing in the shape of fees, into the pocket of the Judge a[?] in possession or in reversion[?] - directly, or through this and that carefully covered underground channel - possess an undisputed place among the ends of justice!
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  • Title: [19 March 1808 Letter V §.6]
    Description: 19 March 1808

    Letter V

    §.6. Reasons

    Ends of Justice

    Injustice v. defend t Causes

    IV. Desistment

    IV. Desistment from defence.

    This is no more than non-defence supervening at any point of time posterior to the operation by which Defence is understood to be commenced: subsequent to what in the language of learned and reverend mendacity and extortion is stiled as above, appearance. Where the effect of is in like manner to produce injustice to the prejudice of the defendant's side, the causes of it are to be found upon the list already brought to view.
  • Title: [23 March 1808 Letter V Ends]
    Description: 23 March 1808

    Letter V

    Ends of Justice

    Proceeding upon this plan, I observed at the first step five distinguishable incidents in the character of immediate causes of failure of justice, as above delineated /determined/ and consequently of the three more particular evils which that general denomination may be /has been/ seen to comprehend: viz. Misdecision (on the part of the Judge to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side. 2. Non-decision [...?] in the same quarter. 3. Non-demand, on the plaintiff's side, that is on the part of him who should have been plaintiff, and who would have been but for some defect /evil/ somewhere, the effect of which is thus to deter him of his right: 4. Desistment, viz. from demand, the effect of which when taking place as it must be understood to do, before decision pronounced, in the sense as that of non-demand, in respect of the depriving the party of the benefit in question, and for want of the failure of justice to his prejudice takes /has taken/ place: 5. Non-justiciability on the part of the defendant: the condition he is being such, as to enable him to elude the power of justice.

    /Carrying the eye of scrutiny/ Applying the scrutiny in like manner to the discovery of the causes of that mass of injustice the pressure of which is confined as above to the defendant's side, I found in the first instance /at the first step/, misdecision, as before, and then non-defence, and lastly desistment from defence as a cause of evil matching with non-demand on the plaintiff's side: on this last side non-decision, and non-justiciability of the party on the opposite, not finding any thing to match them on the defendant's side.
  • Title: [18 March 1808 Letter V §.6]
    Description: 18 March 1808

    Letter V

    §.6. Reasons

    Ends of Justice

    4. Desistment Causes

    IV. Causes of Desistment, (viz. after demand), in the cases in which it operates as a cause of Failure of Justice.

    With a few exceptions, which upon looking over the causes of Non-Demand will be obvious, the causes of Desistment will be found to be the same: the difference, whatever it is, being the result of the difference in respect of relative time.

    Factitious causes, negative or positive, of Desistment, and thence of Failure of Justice.

    In the case where, for the more effectual prevention of the wrong, punishment either in lieu of satisfaction (there being no party specially wronged) or in addition to satisfaction, has been deemed necessary, omission of such arrangements as may be necessary to prevent the plaintiff from putting an end to the suit and so giving a virtual pardon to the defendant without the concurrence of the Judge.

    Technical procedure affords to individuals means in abundance, and those sure and safe ones, for frustrating in this way the designs of the legislator: manufacturing nullities, keeping back the evidence, &c: the parties need but to take their choice.

    Frequently the same offence or wrong is made punishable by any one of several degrees of punishment, attached to it by so many different statutes or rules of jurisprudential law. By one article of law, the offence being capital, the accusation is grounded on another, under which it is less penal; and then, by whatsoever motive the choice of this unfair degree of punishment may have [been] determined, it receives the praise of humanity, and, amongst other persons, from the Judge. The commendation is frequently just; but can seldom be so, unless the reproach of inhumanity and inconsiderateness be to an equal degree merited by the legislator.