15 June 1805

Evidence

Introd

Ch. Procedure Technical

''.9. Exceptions Pauper Lists

''.9 Further limitations - not extended to the higher criminal causes

The man of law is moreover a man. If in the first mentioned character his interests are in hostility with the interest of the community, in the other they are included in it.

If In his professional character his interest is that offences by /on the occasion of/ which whether in the way of prosecution or defence there is any thing /is/ to be got should be as abundant /abound as much/ as possible. In his human character it is his interest that they should be as rare as possible, and therefore, that in order that they may be rendered so, they should be punished. In regard to offences from which profit may by due management be extracted there is a sort of conflict between the two antagonizing interests: and the chance which the professional interest has of prosecuting will in the instance of each species of offence and each individual article of that species be in a sort of compound ratio, compound of the short[?] ratio of the quantum of money /professional profit/ /[...?]/ extractable from the prosecution and defence of the offence, and of the inverse ratio of the mischievousness of it. This conflict of interest has in every country ended in a sort of compromise by the terms of which the guiding[?] features of the technical system have relaxed and in a greater or less degree afforded admission or rather left liberty of action /jurisdiction open/ to the natural one /system/.

If there be any class of offence, from whence at the same time that the dangers to the man is particularly great, the chance of profit to the lawyer is particularly small, on occasion of the mode of procedure in relation to these offences, he will naturally be disposed to be less rigid in his adherence to the technical system, strenuous[?] in the pursuit of the grand object of serving up the degree of delay to its maximum; inasmuch[?] that were it clear that from the class of offence no profit at all were ever to be extracted, the idea of making artificial delay would /might/ in these cases come to be abandoned by him altogether: and in a word the more anxious he were to give safety to the man and the less hopeful of being able to give profit to the lawyer, the more ready /better satisfied/ he would be for the sake of [...?] his seriously to afford or thence admission to these principles of the natural system by which all factitious delays as well as expences are of course excluded.