4 July 1805

Evidence

Introd. Jurisprudential

Ch

Dormant Reports

In England at any rate a well-known and still existing rule of law (as well known as it is in the nature of a rule of jurisprudential law to be) forbade the publication of those memorials: forbade, that is to say not absolutely, but conditionally viz: unless a licence shall have been obtained, a licence which is never applied for, it being universally understood that it would all be given that any such application would be to no purpose.

The number of instances in which, since a certain point of time that rule has been transgressed, given the number of books of Reports that have been published since that point of time have been made public.

In England, in the case of statute law, the number and nature of the new articles or rules of law established within a given period, depends upon three Estates: the King Lords and Commons.

In the case of jurisprudential law, the number and nature of the new articles or rules of law established within that same period, depends not at all upon any of those three estates, but altogether upon two others: viz a lawyer and a bookseller: a briefless lawyer and an adventurous bookseller. The Lords are chosen by the King, the Commons by the people: the lawyer and the bookseller are chosen by themselves.

Note (a)

(a) To contemplate the embryo spirits in their passage to bodily assistance was among the elysian[?] amusements given by Virgil to the dead father of [...?]. A corresponding amusement, in relation to each lately dormant and now wakening spirit of the laws, is enjoyed, under the auspices of the Bookseller, by the Corrector[?] of the Press[?].