4 Apr. 1808

Letter V

Ch.3. [...?]

8. In /By/ his first Bill (' 14) the learned scribe would have left in the hands of the Court of Sessions the power of framing the whole system of procedure, of proceding included, without reason: by which mean they would have been enabled to show obstruction without end, and in some places perhaps insuperably in the way of the Commissioners. The course I should have taken would have been to leave the system open in all its [...?] to these [...?] hands of the Commissioners: As the reason /existence/ [...?] of the Faculty of Advocates, this course has in the main been taken by the learned scribe in his [...?] Bill. Whatsoever regulations it may happen to the Court to frame, being now declared to be in effect but provisional subject to eventual alteration by Parliament after the Commissioners have made theor Report or vefore, My approbation of the change /ammount[?]/ is when being grounded on the distrust mentioned above /+see separate Chapter/, my approbation /the [...?] at the prospect of the change/ can not but be legitimate[?].

9. Leaving and Giving power to the Court for the legislating outright, without waiting for the sanction of Parliaments, it of course it never occurrs to the learned scribe to invest these Judges with any check [...?] as well as subordinate hand in legislation, as that which is given to the Commissioners. And it depend upon me, I should be for giving to the Judges the same authority, stretching our field of exactly the same extent. Of this desperation[?] the principal ground is the contemplation of the benefit of competition. Of This principle [...?] in its application to the subject now in hand, is destined to /will/ form the subject of a Chapter by itself. /+ Ch │ │ Competition its use as applied to to the authors of [...?] law, when[?] in question/.