21 April 1804

Evidence

1 o Enquiry modes

The system of procedure may be divided in the first place into two sorts of courses /courses or forms/: the one simple, or say summary; the other complex.

To what is here meant by the simple course of procedure belongs every case /cause/ which, without prejudice to justice (meaning the direct justice of the case) may receive its decision in the course of a single hearing or trial - in the course of a single attendance of the parties at the seat of judicature.

To the head of what is meant by complex procedure - the complex course of procedure in all its variety of modifications belongs, every cause, it becomes necessary that more than one such hearing should take place.

Some causes are ripe for decision at the first hearing: others may require any number of hearings before compleat and definitive justice can be done. To the complex species of procedure belongs of course every cause in which it becomes necessary for the ---- testimony - evidence from the same source to be exhibited more than once: exhibited for the purpose of the definition /---/ hearing the trial, in the character of ultimate evidence, after having been exhibited in the course of preparatory examination /procedure/ in the character of preparatory evidence.