8 April 1805

Evidence

Securities

Summary

Ch. Procedure Natural[?]

In these political tribunals, as in the domestic, so it has happened, procedure has had for its ends, the ends of justice. Awakened /Aroused/ out of his lethargy /trance/ by the fear of different /various/ necessities /necessity/, the legislator has exerted himself and rescued the suitor out of the hands of his natural enemies and licenced plunderers /depredators/.

In domestic judicature the system of procedure having the peace and comfort of the family for its object, and for its official cause the person[?] of the head of the family, lives the pursuit of that interest of the family for its final cause.

In that branch of political judicature, in /into/ /for/ which, forced by the urgency of the occasion, the legislator has prescribed or permitted the restoration of the natural mode, that is of /which is no more than/ the domestic mode constructed /acting only/ upon a larger scale, the system having in these instances too, few as they are, had the peace and comfort of the great /this enlarged/ family for its object, and for its efficient cause the power of the head of the family, acting in these four instances in pursuit of that object, and by its own advice /the light of its own wisdom/, has had /its/ the interest of that family for its final cause. add, and the welfare of the family, so far as concerned, for its final result.

Under the name /common denomination/ of technical procedure, let us comprehend once for all every system of procedure that has been the work of /from which the characteristic features of the natural, as above delineated are excluded: which is as much as to say every system of procedure which has been the work of lawyers./

Having for its efficient cause the power of lawyers - a vertical and [...?] power of legislation committed to them or rather abandoned to them by the negligence and imbecillity of the rightful legislator it could of course, and in virtue of the universally prevalent principles of human nature, have for its object the profit capable of being extended from suits [...?] from of the possessors of that power is its final cause.