20 Jan y 1808

Scotch Reform

Letter V

Ch 5. Malâ fide Appeals

how prevented

Rate of commercial profit, suppose it, for argument sake, in every instance 12 per cent, and no more. On this supposition, a defendant, busy in trade ought /should/ in every instance be made to pay at the rate of 12 per cent (viz per annum[?]) for so long as he has been found to have kept money that was /of the/ M r plaintiff in his hands.

Supposing this for argument sake to be too much for the plaintiff to receave, he being for instance not in trade, and his loss no more than 5 per cent, still rather than be [...?] less in the pocket of the Defendant, it ought to be otherwise disposed of: if too much to be given to the plaintiff in compensation for his [...?], it might at any rate go in compensation for the expence of the Judiciat establishment into the public purse.

If the plaintiff being [...?] in trade the receipt of the 12 per cent which, as before, the defendant ought to be made to pay is as more than a boon compensation for his /the plaintiff/ loss. the 12 per cent payable /to be found/ as when by the defendant so far from being too much is not enough: for without any pecuniary loss or expence to himself he has inflicted upon his adversary the /all/ vexation attached to the suit: and if the adversary have /has/ been the object of his enmity, so much vexation on the[?] one side of the suit, so much profit to the irascible appetite on the other.