27 July 1806

Evidence Scotch Reform

Lett Lawyers Adverse

The first point for noble Lords in their own minds, [...?] which of the two opposite interests - the interest of the suitor and the interest of the man of law - shall receive the preference. I say opposite far more decidedly and irreconciliably opposite /[...?] opposite/ as matters have stood hitherto, no two sets of interests can be. It is the interest of the suitor that whatsoever is administered under the name of justice be administered with as little delay, expence and vexation in other shapes as possible. It is the interest of the man of law that the quantity of delay expence and vexation may at all /on every/ occasion be as great as possible: that is as great as the people in their character of suitors are by habit, and prejudice, and ignorance /darkness/ and misconception /misrepresentation/ be lulled into the endurance of [...?] because of the money extracted out of the pocket of the man of law: and of the part which goes into other pocket the [...?] is so unseparably connected with the lawyer's share, that when /a[?]/ the one part receives encrease in diminution the encrease or diminution of the other follows of course. Of delay: because something either in the character of cause or effect the connection between the incidents that bred /have [...?] made/ delay and the incidents that have been made to breed lawyer's profit /fees/ is inseparable. Of vexation: because though no fees /lawyers profit/ spring directly out of the vexation of the suitor, abstractedly[?] considered, any more than any enjoyment passes on immediately and in a direct line into the bosom of the butcher from the dying agonies of the lamb, inasmuch that it is not in human nature that the lawyer should be particularly sollicitous or active in the inflicting /active or sollicitous about the infliction of/ vexation on the [...?] for /chance[?]/ vexation's sake, yet as it is impossible that fees /profit/ could ever be received by the lawyer but vexation, and that rising and falling in proportion to the profit must be suffered by the suitor, the best that can happen to the suitor, is that his vexation should, in the eyes of the lawyer, by whom his fate is disposed[?] of, as an object of indifference.