3 July 1804

Procedure & Evidence

Ends

Ch.│ │ Vexation

'.2. Persons

2. As to witnesses the principal shapes in which this burthen is liable to fall upon them may be thus indicated /enumerated/

1. Trouble and loss of time by attendance at the seat of judicature

2. Trouble and loss of time (exclusive of actual expence) by journies to and from the seat of judicature

3. Vexation by forced disclosure of secrets: i.e. facts, the disclosure of which may in any way /rspect/ be prejudicial to him: may be productive to him of any sort of suffering which if produced against law instead of /and not/ being produced by force of law would consitute in some shape or other, the matter of some offence /delinquency/. No offence against his person (or by exposing him to personal injuries through revenge Note? -) against his property (as by the disclosure of secrets of trade Note? -) against his reputation, (as by the disclosure of venereal[?] irregularities Note? -) or against his condition in life, (as by the disclosure of illegitimate parentage or concealed sex. Note?)

In all cases such as the foregoing, an option will be /may come/ to be made between evil and evil - under the head of evidence

+: a question may present itself for solution - whether to insist upon the disclosure, or to dispence with its being made:- to insist upon it, in consideration for the sake of the justice due to suitors /men[?] in the character/ - or to excuse it, in consideration for the sake of the attention

/[...?]/ due to them in the character of human creatures endowed with sensibility.

/ + In B.V.B.1 Exclusion proper./