1818 Dec. 25

Dialogue

41

22

Reformist continued. These are your three plague sores. {what do you think of them?}

{is the appellation misapplied} {the appellation does it want any thing of being an

apt one? In the case of election procedure indeed, so long as the business rests

there, the appellation /expression/ may be somewhat of the strongest. But, where the

procedure is of the judicial kind – of that kind which has been made by and ruined[?]

by fee-fed learned and honourable gentlemen in conjunction with noble and learned

law-lords for the sake of the profit extracted out of the expence and pocketed in the

shape of fees or offices sold or given to their children which that justice which is

thus denied to all but the few is there sold to those few at an excruciating price –

in this case, if you can find any reason for stating /calling/ the expression too

strong an one I should be glad to hear it.

Anti-Reformist. {For peace sake, a truce to personalities} Nay, nay, my friend now

you are at your personalities – Judicial Establishment, Scotch Reform and so forth.

Consider – let me beg of you – I am breeding up my second son to the bar, and hope to

see him a Chief Justice at least before I die /T’other day my wife brought me my

second son whom I intend to breed to the bar, and to baptize him by the name of

Colin[?] Littlebore[?], or Hellin-barrow[?] Endless I am not determined which, and

whom like Lord Bathurst I hope to see Chancellor before I die/. And who would accept

any of those offices, if they were prevented from selling any of those offices, or if

the fees of /in/ any of them were lessened, or if there were any bounds to the

encrease of them. Come come; we are got no further in these collateral evils than the

sensible ones; let us have your /the/ insensible ones.