2 July 1804

Procedure and Evidence

Note continued

Ends

Ch.│ │ Vexation

'.1. Note

By Viewing /To see who views/ the matter in a geneeral point of view, no other conclusion can therefore be formed /present itself/ in the character of a general one than that in this one of the two classes of causes, the vexation produced by a rightful /decision/ will so far as the individual /[...?]/ parties alone are concerned /considered/ be less than that produced by a wrongful decision /decision on the wrong side/.

Adding /Putting together/ the two classes of causes together and supposing the number of each to be equal taking into account at the same time the superior magnitude of the interest at stake in a penal cause in comparison of what it is in a penal one it would be apt to appear that if a man were obliged to say by which of the two opposite modes of decision the greatest quantity of vexation were produced, the answer /probability/ should be by a decision in favour of the right side: but whatsoever might be the[?] answer in relation to the two classes of causes taken together - in the case of the penal class not a shadow of doubt could be entertained: and that the disparity would be clearer and clearer /greater and greater/, the severer the punishment or what on the occasion must be taken to be the same thing /proportion/ the greater - the more mischievous the offence. Had the mode of punishment, the species of death, been in the two cases the same, no doubt for example could have been entertained, but that the load of mental suffering sustained by /that pressed upon/ the innocent Calas who suffered /was executed/ at Toulouse for the [...?] murder of his beloved son, was inferior to the mental suffering endured by /suffering of/ Mary Bloundy[?] who was executed at Oxford for the murder of her fond and indulgent father.

/(and supposing idiosyncratical sensibility the same/

/A o 1760?/

/A o 1754?/