date

20[?] March 1808 Letter V Power
20[?] March 1808

Letter V

Power to Session

Rotation

Dispatch of business? Oh yes: no doubt but what /that/ in this one of the ends of justice an object may be seen in which the times of sitting, and the /thence/ rotation in which it may happen to the Judges to succeed one[?] matter in these single-seated judicatories may be made to exercise a very material influence.

In the establishment of the London Police[?] Offices dispatch of business - avoidance of superfluous delay was in truth, and not merely in pretence, an object aimed at. For the purpose of judicature exercised in those judicatories a single Judge was sufficient in some cases, two Judges at a time necessary in others. Of all the days in the year not one happened to present itself to the [...?] of that [...?] /law/ as a day on which avoidance of failure of justice had less [...?] to place itself among the ends of justice /failure of justice could be more conducive to the fulfilment of the ordinances of the legislator/ than on another. Provision was accordingly made that, on every day of the year[?] (those excepted on which the sight of justice is supposed to be offensive to Religion /eyes of Religion are considered as being to [...?] to endure//bear/ the sight of justice/) the requisite /necessary/ [...?] of two Judges should on one part of the day ( the [...?] or rather the ante-[...?] part) be forthcoming and sitting for the purposes /service/ of justice at those seats of judicature. For securing an attendance the[?] [...?], three Judges were thought perhaps necessary and at any rate sufficient: supposing no greater number than this requisite [...?] ever to attend (and in practice it is scarce ever that the whole number of three does attend) here then would be for each such Judge eight months of duty, and /[...?] switching[?]/ four months of holy day /vacation/ time for relaxation: being exactly four months more than it is ever possible for any man /member/ of the really and truly and not merely jargonically learned profession, the medical profession, to command.
Similar Items
  • Title: [[...?] March 1808 Letter V]
    Description: [...?] March 1808

    Letter V

    '. 9* Powers[?] to Session. Sittings in Rotation.

    '. 5. "And that such duties in the [...?] House and Bill Chamber shall be performed by the Ordinary Judge on such Rotation either of Years, Sessions, Months, Weeks or other Rotation as shall seem most expedient for the dispatch of business and avoiding of expence."

    In speaking of this [...?] ends of justice I have already had occasion to bring /point/ to view the care that seems to have been taken to prevent them from taking so wide a range and occupying in the full of legislation a larger division than it was [...?] convenient to interest [...?] with. On a clear [...?] /nearer[?] inspection/, the little /small [...?] of/ authority and influence with which an appearance they were convicted seems /at first sight they appeared/ reduced to nothing, or what is next to it.

    Avoidance of expence? how was that object capable of being affected, one way or the other /on a good way or a bad one/, by any rotation that could be established in regard to the time of sitting in these single seated judicatures? no otherwise, as far as I can see, than[?] is as far as encrease of expence is liable to have[?] encrease of delay for its cause encrease of delay: a connection which, though /howsoever/ real is not among the objects which I should have expected to have seen attracting the notice of the learned author any such plan as that which [...?] before me /of the present Bill/.

    +See Talk of Delay.
  • Title: [28 March 1808 Letter V Power]
    Description: 28 March 1808

    Letter V

    Power to Session

    Rotation

    In London, six hundred pounds a year is found sufficient to [...?] in so far as depends on official attendance throughout the year, an uninterrupted course of judicature

    /administration of justice/, in a /system/ two-seated judicature, three judges being allotted to each judicatory, with an allowance of four months of repose to eight of duty /labour/ to each Judge. At Edinburgh the same quantity of remuneration would, unless money has less value at the northern metropolis than in the Southern be sufficient to secure[?], so far as depends upon continuity of attendance, the same compleat fulfilment to this one[?] at least one of the ends of justice. Six hundred a year is actually allotted and with no inconsiderable addition, the prospects of which in other accounts I mean not to dispatch.

    This continuity of attendance, if it be thus purchasable where[?] the sum of it has in a place called a Police Office as in an Outer[?] House[?] or a Bill Chambers in the Court of Session would be purchasable without any [...?] difficulty that I am able to discover, although the sum of it were to be in a different room, such as a room called an Inner House in the same edifice.

    But it did not accord with but the pleasure of the Right Honourable person who presides over the 15 learned Judges in question to give any such degree of fulfilment to this end of justice: in himself, in his own particular person, he himself was in possession of six months of perpetual /altogether undisturbed/ repose in two portions one of four months, the other of two months, [...?] two /contiguous[?]/ days out of every seven, and it was his determination not to give up so much as a single hour of this periodical repose to the [...?] which they might to the justice[?] and to the people of Scotland in the character of official [...?...?] suffering[?] ends[?] injustice.

    +Memorial. art. 50
  • Title: [13 Apr 1808 Ch. 4 '.2. dispatch]
    Description: 13 Apr 1808

    Ch. 4

    '.2. dispatch of business

    Repose being the object, the objection against diminution[?] of repose, did not extend /apply//applied not to encrease of it. A favourable occasion /An occasion favourable/ to the danger [...?] presented itself: and that occasion was not neglected /did not pass unimproved/ and the opportunity did not pass unimproved. chance of encrease, presented itself: whatsoever might come of it, the opportunity was not to be neglected.

    Supposing the Court divided into two judicatories, and supposing it ordained that the two should never sit on the same day, by so simple an improvement here was the quantity of repose doubled: setting aside Justitiary business and Ordinary's business, both paid for by extra profit, /half at the least of the total/ half the length of attend[?] at least was thus struck off at one stroke: the length reduced from six months to three months: the quantity /length/ of repose encreased from six months to nine months. In the case of the President at any rate, the Lord President himself a host, the addition to repose was neat.

    Such accordingly was the plan exhibited by the two successive Bills distinguished by the name of the Lord President.