15 Jan y 1807

Facienda

V. Abolition of fees

I venture /thus far/ to trouble your Lordship thus far, that it may /it may be seen/ your Lordship may see it is no hastily copied /adopted/ conception no fanatical conceit that is the cause /ground/ of the importance I attach to the utter abolition of fees in every office that has any thing to do with the administration of justice.

The true and only case, but it is a very extensive one in which salary is preferable to fees, and to such a degree that receipt of fees ought not to be permitted, is - where under the spur of the interest created by the fee it is in the power of the functionary /officer/ to add to the quantity of business done /appearing to be done/ in the execution of the functions /duties/ attached to the office.

But in this case stands almost every office that has any thing to do with the administration of justice.

Exception there seems no other than what has place in /is created by/ the business of arrestation. If the officer is paid alike whether the arrest be performed or no, the business being in its own nature attended with hazard as well as uneasiness of various kinds, he will /would/ neither execute it where /were/ a plausible pretence for the non-execution of it could be found.