6 July 1807

12

Letter V

II. Litigation promoted

If for example the legislator orders you to give double costs viz. double that part of the adversary's disbursements which you are in the habit of ordering to be reimbursed and which perhaps may not amount to much more than the costs he has been out of pocket, strike off 25 per cent of what you ought to give, giving instead of £100 but £75 where the allowed single costs would have been £50: if treble costs, instead of the £150 give less than double costs, for example £87:10 '.

If any body asks you why you thus break the law, talk of humanity: and remember once for all, that humanity is a limited fund, of which the wrongdoer, your partner for whom your are trustee, is entitled to the whole benefit, and that the party injured has no claim upon it.

[Remember on this as on all other occasions, that] the more openly and the more frequently you disobey the law, the better: it brings the law into contempt, and accustomes the people to look to the proper authority, that is to your undeclared and undiscoverable will, and not to the declared will of the legislature, as the arbiter of their fate.

Let your ears be ever open to receive complaints, and your hands ready to apply relief: for example, upon receipt of £10 grudge not to take off an over charge of £5.

As to certainty and proximity, proceed, as above in the cases of satisfaction and punishment.