29 April 1804

Evidence

Forthcomingness

Ch 3. Means physical

§.4.3. Inspection

3. Inspection

3. Inspection. This in the primary signification of the word is an operation of the utmost simplicity. The performance of /faculty of performing/ it requires no special /not necessarily/ legal power. Standing in a public road a man may see what is passing in a contiguous or adjacent private field: not to speak of the inside of a garden or the outside of a house. Distinctions might be added in no small number: distinctions bearing on differences, which on certain occasions, tax-gathering for instance, would not be in much danger of being reputed /deemed//considered as/ frivolous, at least by contributors in whom the species of vexation - indisputable but frequently in so unhappy a degree inevitable vexation - were imposed.

But the case /in the cases/ to which on the ground of evidence the term is most apt to be employed, it is mainly synonymous to Search. I mean the case of sources of written evidence of whatever nature, preappointed or casual. (a)

(a) Note Pre-appointed indeed more particularly: in the case of casual scripts, such as private letters memorandums - literary compositions - the word search being most apt to be employed, by reason of the unwillingness /reluctance/ to discover, the desire of concealing on the part of the possessor - the consequent latency of the documents - circumstance which the term /word/ signifying appears to imply, and which the operation /thing signified/ serves to obviate and put an end to. In this instance /instance/ inspection would be exactly synonymous search, were it that the word inspection odes not, as the word search does, bring to the view of the mind two distinct objects, a thing contained searched for, and a receptacle in which the search for it is made.