9 May 1805

Evidence

Introd

Ch Sinister End

homologation

Non. promulgation

In days of yore /In the early ages of society, Fraud practiced /worked at/ her arts stark naked /without a cover/, naked as our first parents, and like them /our first parents/ too not ashamed. In the pretended virtuous age of Roman history, the man of law beholding in the invisibility of the rule of action the source of unbounded power and profit to himself, locked it up /kept it locked/ without [...?]. In the legal form /validity/ binding form/ of contracts he saw one of those necessary bonds without which political surety could not be kept together:the validity of all contracts he contrived to render dependent, (such was the cullibility of the barbarians he had to deal with) on their conformity to /the connection of those engagements with/ different scraps[?] of nonsense, the tenor of which being a [...?] in his custody was preserved or varied at his pleasure.

In England once upon a time suppose the Speaker, suppose instead of sending a Statute to the press for publication, keeps it under lock and key in his own house, selling a sight of it for the best price that can be got, and putting words into it, or striking[?] words out of it, as he and his customers can agree. In depth of policy as well as honesty the practice thus fabled for the purpose of illustration would be the exact counterpart of the practice of the man of law in the best /brightest/ days of Roman jurisprudence.

In Rome a sad mishap beset the profession: In an evil[?] a thief got in, and stole the book of forms: all hands, the few hands that could write, were set to work at copying them: it was as if, pursuing the fable a pirate had broken into the Speakers house, carried off the Parliament Rule /sacred parchment/ and committed the contents of it to the press.

The distress suffered /damage sustained/ by the profession is easier imagined than described /calculated/: but the mischief was not of long continuance. The stolen forms were /nonsense was/ cried[?] down: fresh nonsense was manufactured in the room of it. the distress was like that of an Admiral whose signal book has been captured: the remedy was the same.