26 May 1805

Evidence

Introd.

ch. Evils causes

Stet?

Ch. Of non-demand - litigation how far an evil - its true remedy /what the true remedy/.

That failure of justice is an evil, is a truth too palpable /clear/ to be disputed. That of the causes of failure of justice non-demand is one, is another truth equally indivisible. That in so far as non-demand has failure of justice for its effect non-demand will /-----/ also be an evil, is another proposition not much exposed (it should seem) to dispute.

But litigiousness (it may be noticed on the other hand) is it not an evil quality? And by litigation is it not /the word/ a conjugate of litigiousness? Is there any thing else but the tendency to produce litigation that makes /-----/ litigiousness an evil quality /in the ----ing/.

Thus it is that indistinct ideas are perpetuated by ill-applied words: and under favour of the confusion, erroneous opinions of the most pernicious tendency gain footing among mankind.

Before the import of the word litigiousness comes to be considered, and thence the truth or propriety of the propositions in the expression of which it is included, it will be material to consider for what purpose, for the purpose of what sort of argument the evil tendency of litigiousness is brought to view. The purpose /object/ is to find a justification for all the arrangements by which vexation and expence are heaped up upon the parties indiscriminately, without any regard to the question which of them is in the right which in the wrong, or to the degree of wrong on either side: heaped upon them in stages anterior to that in which the cause is ---- for that decision by which /and yet before/ the merits and demerits of each side can be declared.