15 May 1805

Evidence

Introd

Ch 9. Precipitation

Be it even on the side of the Plaintiff, that the evidence thus excluded would have operated. By the supposition the plaintiff, notwithstanding the exclusion received the full benefit of his demand. one evil /mischief/ may notwithstanding lurk behind the decision, and besides the mischief of the second order above mentioned, even a mischief of the 1 st[?] order, and that to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side. At the hands of the Judge in question, by the /in virtue of/ the ultimate decision he has pronounced the plaintiff has received the full benefit of his demand. True: but, when the grounds of the decision come to be examined by a Court above, such is the consequence of the exclusion, they will be /are/ found insufficient, and the decision, the precipitate decision /decision treated with precipitation/ will of course /will or may/ whatsoever may be the ultimate termination of the cases, be set aside. If such precipitation were to pass uncensured, a dishonest judge might thus in an insidious way, produce real /undue/ prejudice, in the way either of expence and delay, or in the way of ultimate injustice to the side towards which in appearance he was showing undue favour /in appearance/.

At the end of the account, will not precipitation then be an evil? Yes, certainly: because every thing to which it may happen to be a cause of evil, may in so far be considered as being itself an evil. In the pedigree of evil: in which the filtration[?] is traced up from cause to cause it may /will therefore/ be intitled to a /its/ place. It may even happen to it as hath just been shewn, to be a cause even of delay, unnecessary delay: but on this very account its place, it may be seen is not in the same degree, the same generation, the same law[?] as that of its opposite: it ranks not in /its place is - not in/ the same law[?] /branch/ with vexation, expence, or delay, any more than with punishment, disparation[?] of right or satisfaction when undue, but as /in that of/ a cause, a contingent cause of all or any of those evils.