3 March 1804

Evidence

Securities

Ch. Procedure Technical

Falshood encouraged by

Law Agents for want

of confrontation

Thus it is, that in the established and regular course of procedure there are four sorts of hands in whom /through which/ the circulation of falshood is in a manner secured, and that falshood in the instance of three out of the four the lawyers [...?], and in the instance of the fourth the suitor, frequently altogether dispunishable: in the three instances secure /not only sure/ of not being punished in any shape, but secure of being rewarded in a very substantial shape, and therefore secure of being practised.

In the case of the suitor, the security against ultimate punishment does not apply to all cases: and where it does not apply, either the falshood must in the instance of this individual have been unaccompanied with mendacity, or the mendacity though real must have had of erroneous judgement for its cause, which case however is by no means an infrequent one.

But a case there is in which mendacity acts with its eyes open: because the punishment though in the general picture held out by the law is presented as comprending[?], is seen not to be so in reality. This is where a claim known by the plaintiff to be false, is pursued in confidence of the known or presumed inability of the adverse party, whether by want of legal evidence, or want of money, to defend himself against it.