2 April 1805

Evidence

Securities

Procedure Technical

Punishment

But costs of suit: especially is being paid by the party in the wrong, they include those of the adversary /his injured/ whom he has injured: - costs of suit - the obligation of paying them - does not this burthen operate with the effect of punishment: and does /is/ not this burthen increase with /augmented by/ any mendacious allegation with which a mala fide suitor torments his adversary?

I answer - by no means. In the first place this burthen - this punishment is not attached to the offence with any uniformity and steadiness.

In the next place, if it were ever so conformity, it would not yet have the effect of depriving mendacity of the included and necessary licence. Of every such allegation, whatever in respect of costs may be the ultimate effect, the unavoidable effect is to give rise /existence/ to /for/ the present, to the projected /preconstructed/ /predetermined/ /intended/ portion of delay, vexation and profitable expence: not forgetting that portion of the expence, which in the shape of profit, going into the profit of the man of law in all his varieties was the final cause of the establishment of the licence. But for the purpose of iniquity and oppression the present /immediate/ effect is all that is wanted: could the burthen of the suit be endured /borne/ to the last stage, the burthen of the expence might then be transferred or not transferred - but if transferred, never more than in part, from the oppressed to the oppressor: but before this can happen the intended victim is involved in ruin, in which be he plaintiff or defendant, is included the loss of the cause.