30 Dec r 1806

Scotch Reform

To L d Grenville

Omissa

3. Pleadings

What these /That which/ general assertions profess to do and are said to do, but do not, is - giving information capable of being of use to him[?] (the [...?]) for which use they are pretended to be designed - information enabling him to make if he happens to have a legal and true defence, sufficient preparation for that defence. That which they do, and which unquestionably has its use is - the putting an end to the choice[?] of useless /unnecessary/ altercation, which goes on alone for want of a form of General Issue deemed apposite, the succession of alternate instruments goes on to the length and [...?] - the name and character of the special pleading: snaps off the chain just as Get about your business - or any of he still coarser formularies in vulgar use for breaching of inference[?] might have done instead of it.

As for not guilty in the most comprehensive /extensive/ species of General Issue in defence - that which covers demand to a greater extent than all the others put together - applied to the action of trespass it does not except in so far as the declaration in trespass may happen to contain true and intelligible information, convey any information whatsoever: applied to Troves it is out of the power of it to convey any true and intelligible information, unless perhaps it be the designation of the individual thing claimed: applied to Ejectment it is out of the power of it to convey even that [...?] and imperfect scrap of information - even that not being conveyed by the declaration in ejectment.