9 Sept 1804

Evidence

Circumstantial

Ch.

On the present occasion, all that can be done is to select such cases of circumstantial evidence as appear to be most exhaustive[?] /comprehensive/, cases in which either on one hand of the description of the principal facts, or on the other that of the correspondent evidentiary facts or of both shall be of the most extensive nature, shall exceed in their extent that of any other equal number of cases which the field of judicial evidence would be found to furnish. Taken all together the collection /assemblage/ of cases here brought to view will I am inclined to think be found not to have left behind /unnoticed/ many of the cases the contemplation of which will appear to belong directly and properly to the business /[...?]/ of judicature. Not a science[?], not an art, not an occupation, profit-seeking or pleasurable - the pursuit of which may not furnish facts that either in the character of principal facts or in the character of evidentiary facts may require to be brought to view for the purpose of judicature - for the information of the Judge. But a treatise on the subject of judicial evidence /evidence-meaning/, can not undertake to include[?], even with that limited view /to that limited purpose/, a display /an explanation/ of all the objects that present themselves in those several compartments in the field of human action. It can not contain within itself details belonging to the provinces of medicine, of chemistry, of mechanicks[?], of agriculture, of mining, of fishing, of manufacture of shipbuilding, of navigation, of domestic economy: although there is /be/ not one of those subjects of human action and one of those objects of human exertion that does not actually furnish facts that come to be proved or disproved, and facts that serve for the proof or disproof of other facts, in a court of judicature /for the purpose of judicial decision in a court of law/.