11 Oct r 1807

Lords Delegates

after Ch. Advantages

Ch. L d Hale's Plan

Now then, to apply this position of his to his own plan. At the time when he was penning this treatise, and while /when/ the House of Lords were occupied in exercising and defending /supporting/ that appellate judicature, and the House of Commons in contesting and attacking it, had any Writs of Error been brought into the House of Lords from either of the two Exchequer Chambers? I speak of the Exchequer Chamber which then as now must occasionally have been sitting to determine on writs of Error brought to it out of the Kings Bench, and the other differently composed Court of the same name sitting to determine on writs of Error brought to it out of the Court of Exchequer.

I content myself with putting the question, not being competent, nor very ambitious of being competent, to say yes or no to it: either will equally serve the purpose of this argument. If no /as yet no/ such Writ of Error had been brought to the House of Lords, they would not naturally have had long to wait for one: their competence to take cognizance of it was included in their claims, and the /their/ assumption if not affirmed by Lord Hales argument against those claims.

Well then - a writ of Error is brought into one of these Exchequer Chambers for the reversal of a judgment pronounced in the King's Bench: the Judges of whom then Exchequer Chamber is now composed are the Judges of the Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer. By the Exchequer-Chamber the judgment of the King's Bench is reversed or affirmed: thereupon for reversal of the judgment of the Exchequer Chamber a Writ of Error is brought into the House of lords. Hereupon, according to the plan of the venerable Judge, "the Judge of that Court, out of which the record is removed ..." they and they " only", are "to be omitted in that commission."