13 June 1804

Procedure (7)

Ch. Basis

Domestic

The degree of absurdity is not a matter of mere /simple/ indifference to those who profit by it. In /Here/ as in religion, the stronger the dose of absurdity swallowed, thr stronger the proof of the ascendancy gained by the quack at whose insistence it is swallowed /imposter by whose influence men have been brought to swallow it/. In divinity the more absurd /striking to common sense/ the limit, the warmer the attachment of its partizans, but more especially of the chiefs. Why? because the greater the sacrifice, the stronger the devotion to the chief through whose influence it was madee /the more convincing the proof of the strength of the influence through which it was made/: the more absurd /[...?] the more mischievous //pernicious/ the opinion or the practice which a man can bring himself in his youth to view without disapprobation, the stronger the pledge given of his acquiescence in all future time. He who submitts quietly to the grosser imposition, will not be troublesome in his resistance to the less[?]. Upon his shoulders /conscience// understanding/ - upon whatever part of a man the /a/ burthen is imposed the heavier it is [...?] bearing it without [...?] /[...?]/ the more satisfactory the security given for /assurance of/ his submitting with the same resignation to all other burthens if higher pressure. If so long as man bear this /Absurdity, fraud, oppression - whatever it be/, what is there that they will not bear? Men have borne thus much, what should hinder their bearing it to the end /as for evermore/. Let us therefore single out the most flagrant /palpable //undisguisable/ absurdities, the grosser frauds - let us rally- /flock-/ round them and defend them to the last gasp. Let is continue to exhibit /[...?] //as the essence/ as for the essentials /essential features/ of justice, the abuses that are most noxious to it. /+The [...?] the trial, the more decisions the result. The [...?] [...?] has his appropriate /peculiar/ virtue, the law student the Englishman in relation to the tribe of lawyers in his country, another [...?]. The trial of the [...?] [...?] as the [...?] he is capable of enduring without a [...?]. The trial of the British subject consists in the quantity and degree of the fraud and the absurdity and fraud he can swallow without repugnance, when administered to him by the hand of a lawyer, taking it at the same time /all the while/ for probity and wisdom./ Let us continue to maintain, that laws are salutary in proportion as they are unintelligible: that procedure is conducive to justice in proportion as it is vexatious, delatory and expensive: /+That so long as money is to be gained by a [...?] /[...?] [...?]/ an[?] offices of justice should never be tired of writing /telling/ it. that so long as money is to be gained by a [...?] lawyer for scribbling [...?] /suplusage/ an upright Judge will never cease to insist on is being scribbled.

/+Let us call falshood fiction, and make it the basis of all justice:/