12 June 1805

Evidence

Introd

Ch. Procedure Natural

'. [...?] Object n to [...?]

''. Objections to simultaneous personal appearance, in [...?], [...?] Judice[?].

In government, no arrangement that has not its inconveniences - none therefore that is not exposed to objections, which /that/, conclusive or inconclusive may be, are at least as far as they extend, well-grounded ones.

To the arrangement here in question, the following objection will be found the most plausible, as well as the most obvious. As far as they go, they have their weight: but might well be seen to be weight is but as a feather[?], when compared with the /those/ weights on the opposite scale.

1. What a vexation what a hardship! to an honest man, to be forced into a Court of Justice, kept there for any length of time, at the call of any dishonest man, and over and over again at the call of any number of dishonest men!

Answer 1. Be this as it may, this is no more than what in the character of a witness every man is exposed[?] to, ever has been, and ever will and must be. Which is the greatest hardship to a man? to suffer this /to bestow this labour/ about his own business, or to bestow the same labour about what is not his business?

2. Besides the vexation of months or years, to the two parties, by the simultaneous attendance of those two persons for a small part of a single day, the attendance of any number of persons in the character of witnesses may be saved - and this will be the case much oftener than otherwise. +

3. In any country labouring under the oppression /burthen/ of the technical system of procedure Where on the occasion of a suit at law, the subject of the vexation attached to personal attendance on the instance of either party, is started, the quantity /quantum/ of vexation that will be apt to present itself to the mind will naturally be the amount of that which the professional assistants of that party are obliged /undergo/ to bestow at present /and for which they are paid accordingly/. But the fact /truth/ is, that in all ordinary cases, the necessity for such attendance is, as to all but a trifling /comparatively inconsiderable/ portion of it, factitious; is created by the substitution of the technical system to the natural, and under the natural would have no existence: is created by the non-attendance of the parties, and therefore would not be created by /exist in case of/ their attendance.

+ In[?]