1821. May 5.

First Lines

Divisions.

Of the manner in which this wretched substitute to real and genuine law is framed /formed/, take this description. In the course of a suit in which application is made of the rule of action thus composed, the judge, on each occasion, pretends to find ready made, and by competent authority en[...?] with the force of law, and at the same time universally known to be so in existence, and so in force, a proposition of a general aspect adapted to the purpose of affording sufficient authority and warrant for the particular decision or order which, on that individual occasion, he accordingly pronounces and delivers.

Partly from the consideration of the general propsitions fo framed, as above, by this or that judge or set of judges, partly from the consideration of the individual instruments or documents expressive of such individual decision or order as above, or framed in consequence of and in alledged conformity thereto, partly from the consideration of such arguments /discourses/ as have been, or are supposed to have been, suffered whether by the judge or by /the/ advocates on /one or/ both sides on that same occasion, a set /class/ of men /lawyers/ have, under the general names of general treatises or reports of particular cases, concurred in the composition of an immense and continually encreasing chaos - the whole of it written, and a vast portion of it printed and published, constituting an ever encreasing body of that which, having law for its subject, may, in so far with propriety be termed being not only written but printed be termed with propriety written though in actual usage it forms a part of the whole of the matter which passes under the denomination of unwritten law.