1 [...?] 1807

2

Letter II[?]

Money the obejct, the utility of competition not dear.

But howsoever clear the benefit of compeition may be as between Court and Court, Judge and Judge, where honour /so far superior/ is the subject /prize/ of it, where /so far/ money is the subject, the beneficial tendency of a competition is by no means equally clear and out of doubt.

Were the matter to be referred at once to the list[?] of mere /bare/ experience that list to which man unused to the labour of thinking, one so fond of referring every thing without further thought - the result would be very little in favour of competition, in the present instnace. Amongst the three great Common Law Courts /Westminster Hall/ a competition for money, a competition tripartite, established itself. What are the result! That they [...?] who /which/ should do the business with least delay, vesation and expence to the suitors? Ah, no, my Lord. Was this the bonus that the King's Bench offered to the Plaintiff in a civil cause, to engage him to present his demand to that Court instead of the Common Pleas to which Parliament had alloted it? did it say to him come you two, you and the defendant, face to face, and we will do right to you, as often as it can be done without further evidence, instanter[?] and on the spot? No, my Lord: that would have knocked up the trade of the shops, and left nothing worth stooping for to be got by either.

What then was the bonus offered and accepted? It was the jus urcendi[?]: the faculty of opprressing the adversary: it was the liberty of the subject that the /these Judges/ Court sold to as many as they could engage to purchase it. If you have a quarrel /one[?] a spite to/ with a man come to us, and whether he owes any thing to you or no, say he does, and come to a [...?] office, for we ourselves might not see either of you nor know any thing about the matter, we will or one of us will sign our names to a piece of parchment, that shall throw him /your adversary/ into a Jail, in which he will remain to the end of his life, or get out soever, as it may happen.