date

4 April 1808 Letter V Thus
4 April 1808

Letter V

Thus far accordingly in his amended Bill, the /opinion of the/ Lord Chancellor's learned scribe has suffered itself to be enlightened and corrected by the opinion of the Faculty of Advocates. By the 2 d of their Resolutions this simultaneously having been declared to be "a part of the utmost importance" and of such importance "that it ought to be fixed" by Parliament and that /to sit[?]/ in an[?] "Act of Parliament which may be passed for the purpose of dividing the Court".

But in another point, the learned scribe, clinging to /his original engagements as closely as possible/ the Right Honourable the Lord President, and bent upon doing for the benefit of learned repose whatsoever can be done for it, takes up a handful of dust, and /which he/ endeavours to throw it into the learned eyes on the other side.

The two years and whatever greater length of arrear that under the hand of the Court of Session has accumulated, it is not for want of power to clear their hands of it that it has accumulated. This they themselves have been the frankest to declare /+ Memorial, and, 50/. It is not for want of a power of adjournments: for the existence of such power is declared by this amendment clause in this amended Bill. It is as above declared for want of will. /To the Right Honourable the Lord President and his learned [...?]/ To what greater length /bulk/ this arrear may have and consequently /accordingly/ to the Lord Chancellor's learned scribe, to what greater bulk the arrear to accumulate /length it may happen to run to/ is not matter of any greater concern than to the learned scribes Nobles and learned principal in that Bench /House/ which has no subordinate /inferior weir/ - Bench to serve as a weir to evero of its superflux[?], it is to that greater length beyond the three or four [...?] which constitute its present length it may run on in that highest seat of judicature, I had like to have sad justice.
Similar Items
  • Title: [9[?] Apr. 1808 Letter V Ch]
    Description: 9[?] Apr. 1808

    Letter V

    Ch. 3 [...?]

    2. In regard to the Court of Justice, two Bills bearing the name of the Lord President formed together the basis, as already observed of the two Bills bearing the name of the Lord Chancellor. The Lord President's learned suit was for giving every [...?] that could be given, as well as leaving every thing /[...?]/ that could be left, to the Court so worthily presided /to a Court so happily in its President/. In his first Bill the Lord Chancellor's learned scribe exhibited no other wish. +On the part of the Faculty[?] of Advocates, the disposition manifested, in regard to that great judicial body, the body with which their acquaintance was so intimate, was to give to it nothing which it was possible not to give, to leave to it nothing which it was possible not to leave. [great judicial with which their acquaintance was so intimate.] Considerations of the most forcible nature concerned impress /in impressing/ upon my soul a distrust no less [...?] /[...?] of confidence/ that that which has been since declared by the Faculty of Advocates. The grounds of that distress will occupy a separate Chapter. +Ch. these are for distrusting the Court of Justice.

    3. In perseverance[?] of this confidence the Lord Chancellors learned scribe excepted out of the authority of the Commissioners and therein out of the consideration of Parliament the consideration of the quantity of time which after the intended separation of the Court of Justice /distribution of the 15 Judges/ into two divisions should be applied by them respectively to the discharge of the duties of their office: securing[?] that quantity against [...?] giving to then at the same time such power as would have them at liberty to subject it to that diminution the eventual necessity of which had as their Memorial been aforesaid: The Faculty having declared against the [...?] projected discrimination, the Lord Chancellor's learned scribe in his amended Bill gives up the point: +securing and secure against discrimination the number of days at present given to official duty in the Inns House: [...?] can at the same time by a new proviso to reserve the power of increase /this[?] when the declared object was discrimination the/, which then Under the circumstances of [...?] [...?] [...?] deficiency of laws[?] for [...?] of business.

    from first to lase my wish has been to see the road to increase open, and consequently this point included along with the rest in the authority given to the Commissioners. The road to discrimination is, if either, the road whch would have been barred by me. The grounds of this wish are disguised to occupy another Chapter. Ch + [...?] attendance ought not to be in [...?] [...?] that same Chapter.
  • Title: [1 April 1808 Letter V Ch. 2]
    Description: 1 April 1808

    Letter V

    Ch. 2 Features approved

    '. 2. Appeals diminished

    As to the allowance of [...?] as above, to the Right Honourable the Lord President belongs the honour of the [...?]: and thus without any one to share in it [...?] except his the[?] learned Colleagues, in[?] learned Co-Memorialists, who with confidence equal to his own, perceive[?] the time of the Member of the House of Lords and compleatly[?] of its burthen by the exclusion of a class of causes which never formed a /constituted any/ part of it.

    Of the microscopical addition made to the efficacy of the principle by the Lord Chancellor's learned scribe /draughtsman/, notice will be taken in its place.
  • Title: [15 April 1808 Ch. │ │ Competition]
    Description: 15 April 1808

    Ch. │ │ Competition

    '. 2 Legislation

    An arrear of more than [...?] years already accumulated, and still the favourable object - the object honoured by one acknowledged performance, not dispatch, but its grand enemy repose: power to clear away the arrear acknowledged: will to clear it away disclaimed; determination not to clear it away, at the expence of repose, confessed.

    Vendible delay manufactured in pieces of more than two years length, and the growing means[?] of length contemplated with a degree of philosophical resignation /serenity/ not to be exceeded by that manifested by the manager of a much /still/ higher concern which contemplating the pitch of perfection to which the manufacturers of the same species of prime goods has been [...?] on up; the length of a [...?] already extended to six years, with a prospect of [...?] encrease without [...?].

    Such my Lord is /was/ in that situation the state of the human mind, before the stimulus /principle/ of competition came to be applied to it. Such the disposition in which in the Court of Session Your Lordships enterprize found eleven at least out of the fifteen Judges. The stimulus applied, now let us see /observe/ the effects of it.

    In Your Lordship's plan the [...?] /main //principal/ features appeared to be division of the Court, and introduction of jury trial; to which Your Lordship's learned advisor, in whose eyes a set of [...?] to firm [...?] seats for merit were the one thing needful, added an Intermediate Chamber of Review. The order of things, was thus threatened with reversal: the ends of justice had avowedly been preferred to the ends of judicature: the security of the people to the power and dignity of the Lord President, and to the repose of the whole bench. The Jury-trial /box, intoducible/ practicable or not, beneficial or not upon the whole, operated upon learned mind as a source of alarm: peopled with usurpers the Intermediate Court became necessary to /was to be got rid/ get rid of it at any price.