30 Jan y 1805

Evidence

Ch. Engl. Proleg.

''.1

In giving to the system the denomination of the English System, I had no other view than that of applying to that purpose a notorious and simple matter of fact. National attachment had no share in the bringing to view a matter of fact which will /may/ be seen to afford so little cause for national exultation /pride/ /self esteem/.

The plain truth is that in this part of the system of established procedure, nothing more is to be seen than a fragment /a fragment preserved rather by accident rather than degree[?] /fortune rather than by wisdom//, a pretious[?] fragment of the system of natural procedure - of domestic procedure of that mode of procedure which common sense dictated from the first still continues and never will cease to dictate /present/ as the plan proper to be pursued, and which accordingly is pursued in the bosom of every private family in that sphere of interest which Nature has set up /established/ in the district /demesne/ of every family, by the head of the family, as often as occasion calls for the exercise of the unpleasant but sometimes necessary function of sitting in judgment on the conduct of any of its members /subordinates/. If the characteristic features of it are still perceived in the Trial by Jury /procedure/ in that system in the construction of which, together with the abuses with which it is covered, the cult[?] of lawyer craft have had so large a share, it may be sure in much better prosecution in the procedure of these tribunals, within the /whose/ pursuits of which the professional man of law has been unable or has disdained to penetrate /intrude himself/.