13 April 1805

Evidence

Securities

Ch. Proced. Techn. Engl. Law

''. Oppression licenced

A shape[?] for the sale of what may be called oppression-licences, licences conferring upon each purchaser the faculty of oppressing to the length of utter ruin, any one out of many millions of individuals at his choice, is kept open by the Judge under the name of a Court of Justice. Terms of purchase /Conditions of sale/, so much money; together with a lie to a certain effect: a lie from which all punishment under the name of punishment, and as far as possible all shame, not only of punishment but of shame, has effectually and to all appearance studiously, been abstracted. A system of regular oppression organized, the morals of the people corrupted, by a stream perpetually flowing into, or from /out of/ the highest grounds in the state to be carried into effect by a principle of corruption corrupting the morals of the people by the infusion of a poison applying itself to the most vital parts /of the [...?] frame/ - all for the benefit of its author - the maker and winder[?] - the man of law. Of the profit, one part flows in through various /a variety/ channels into the pocket of the Judge, by whom /whose authority/ after having been organized by him /his predecessors/ it is kept up, and on each occasion carried into practice. The remainder, under his instruction distributes itself, in a variety of proportions, among his friends and dependants - among a set of persons /[...?]/, some professional and some official - all more or less intimately connected with him by some tie or ties of interest or sympathy. But to gather in this profit, partly by his own hands partly by the hands of his /these/ connections and dependents, it is /was/ necessary that he should refuse ever to set eyes on a suitor, ever so much as to suffer a suitor to come into his presence, untill he has run the gaunteletts throughout through the whole lane[?] of these licenced depredators /plunderers. Such is his profit; such the price fixed upon it, and such the price he is content /not ashamed/ to pay for it.