9 April 1805

Evidence

Securities

Ch. Procedure Natural

''. Recapitulation

The minuter and [...?] lineaments of the system will be brought to view as we advance. At present let us take a [...?] view /simultaneous glance/ /look/ of the strong and discriminatory features upon which the difference between the /[...?]/ system, and the immeasurable size that are not natural principally terms.

1. At the very first or second stage the plaintiff in the presence of the Judge

2. stating, under the sanction of an oath, or at any rate /rather/ under the [...?] [...?] in case of mendacity, as in the case of an extraneous witness, what the facts are on which to ground his claim, and what reasons he has for looking upon them in time[?].

3. The plaintiff consequently /in course/ [...?] on these occasions, to hear questions put to him by the Judge, tending to rife[?] into the truth of the persuasion expressed by him in relation to those facts, and bound to make answer to all such question, on pain of seeing his claim disallowed, in case of silence.

4. If, at this first stage, the defendant happens likewise to be present, some obligation on the part of the Plaintiff to answer any such proper questions as may be put to him by the Defendant, in the same view[?].

The consequence is - that in a case where the claim is palpably destitute of foundation, it is in vain /it would be in vain/ for a Plaintiff unless prepared to encounter the danger of punishment for perjury to compel the defendant to undergo the expence or vexation of any further enquiry; whereas under the Natural system a man who neither has any foundation for his claim nor so much as conceives himself to have any, has it as fully in his power to cause the suit to go on and run out its utmost length, as if his claim were ever so notoriously just and undeniable. By this means /In this state of things/, all malá fide facts, that are such on the part of the plaintiff, are nipped in the bud before they have run any such length as to have produced expence or vexation to the defendant, unless where for the chance of being able to draw the suit out into further length, the Plaintiff is rash enough to encounter certain guilt, together with the [...?] of punishment as for perjury.