18 April 1804

Evidence

Forthcomingness

Ch. Written

§.2 [...?] [...?]

In many cases, without the faculty of preparatory inspection and transcription, the faculty of employing the document or mass of documents in question in the capacity /character/ of sources of ultimate evidence, viz: within a fixed or narrowly limited space of time - such for instance as the compass /duration/ of a single sitting, would be of little use, or even absolutely of none. The chance of its being so will be variable ad infinitum, according to the smallness or bulkiness of the mass - the order or disorder in which the materials /elementary parts/ of it are arranged - the presence or absence of appropriate assistances having for their object the affording facility to such researches /research/ - such as Tables of Contents and Indices.

The following is a view of the purposes for which such /circumstances by which the demand for/ preparatory examination may be found necessary /created/ : the more necessary in proportion to the bulk /quantity/ and intricacy of the aggregate mass -

1. Opportunity of searching out the relevant matter (viz: that which is so with reference to the suit) and extracting it /picking it out/ from the irrelevant. Time to transcribe the passages in question, either at length, or in the way of abstract. 3. Time to put in order, the materials so extracted and observe the different bearings of the different parts of it upon the cause /matter in dispute/, upon the points to be proved, and the inferences which it maybe made to afford, /conclusion capable of being deduced from it/.