19 April 1805

Evidence

Securities

Ch. Procedure Natural

''. Recapitulation

In some instances /sorts of cases/ it may be proper to abstain from referring a Defendant man so much as to be called upon to appear in the character of a Defendant, until the Plff has presented /undergone/ the test of his sincerity: in these cases the first hearing /stage/ will be an ex parte hearing /hearing/. This accordingly in the course in English law no prosecutions for small penalties before one or more Justices out of Sessions.

In other instances /sorts of cases/, at the instance of a Plff, and without his having been subjected to the previous test of sincerity, the first hearing may be a reciprocal one: both parties finding themselves at the same times and in the first stage of the cause, (unless the summons directed to the Def and simply appointing the term be regarded as the first stage in the presence of the Judge. this accordingly is the arrangement /course/ adopted /pursued/, in suits for small debts in the English Courts of Conscience.

In /Under/ this sort of arrangement a man is not in the character of defendant absolutely exempted from all vexation, resulting from /producible by/ mala fide on the part of the Plff, in the first instance: but the /such/ vexation it can not, previously to the application of the check, have proceeded beyond that first stage: and then no source[?] is the Defendant struck upon by the vexation, than there the Plff - the author of it is - to answer and make satisfaction for it.