Feb y 1808

on L d Eldons Bill

Behold a simple judgment for money /,1,000/ served by a [...?] of hand for that sum, origin of debt unregarded, ,1,000: judgment for ,1,000 due from a tenant to a landlord, on the [...?] of real, after years of manufactured delay bought at different delay shops, ,1,000 or the first ,1,000 indeed[?] has been allowed: or the other ,1,000 refused as if one of the two cases were more or less capable of yielding interest than the other.

Of the proceeding in the Court of Exchequer, there are scarce any Reports, not[?] mint[?] ones.

When you have got your judgment for your money, and that judgment affirmed after the year's delay made[?] a portion[?] of doubt where there was none, would you know whether the reparation[?] thus professed to be made will be made or[?] no? Go to a lawyer, or go to an astrologer: the lawyer's opinions Attorney and Counsel together, will cost you two or three guineas: the Astrologers you may have for half a crown: the value of the opinion, the means of knowing are upon a par in both cases. The astrologer will pretend to consult the stars: the Counsel will not pretend to consult the Judges: yet of this subject the value of the Counsel's opinion have anything to distinguish it from that of any other, it must be from the table talk of those dignitaries /luminaries/ and the good fortune that has placed his case[?] on the way to catch, that the superiority must have been deserved.

Of the proceedings of the Court of Exchequer there are scarce any Reports; not[?] /no/ mint[?] ones[?]. But if the sum[?] had been uninterrupted from /continued down without/ the time of the first Edward to the present what in this case would any one be the wiser? The fact is that in this had[?] /occasion as in so many others/ the Judges are /most compleatly/ at liberty to give to a man or refuse to him his money, as they please /happen to be in [...?]/: if their fancy be to give it to have[?] the case of the side[?] of [...?] is their sufficient warrant; if to refuse it to him, the case of the money due for rent.