20 May 1804

Evidence

False Ends

Ch. 1.

Of all pursuits /courses of nature/ that ever assumed to themselves the name of science, procedure - legal procedure - may with truth be stated, as that which has been directed with least fidelity towards those objects which, regard being had to the interest of the community, ought to have been accrued[?] for its ends.

Why? Because of all pursuits it has been that in which the interest of those on whom the course to be given to it has depended have been connected by the slightest ties with the interest of the public at large - in no one track of human action have interest and duty been so manifestly and almost irreconcilably at variance.

Consider them as a set of established and confederated depredators, conducting the business of depredation not by force but by fraud. Every thing is plain and easy: consider them as a set of public trustees, labouring honestly in the discharge of their trust, every thing will be found inexplicable.