Feb y 1808

II. No Inner House Causes

Oblige the Judge of the immediate single-seated judicatory to decide /abolish at the same time the distinction between/ prohibit at the same turn[?] the Judge of the appellate, the many seated judicatory from taking cognizance of causes in the first instance[?], every thing is therefor placed upon a footing at once rational, simple and [...?] to judicial practice are the judicatories of England and of other nations.

Immediate judicatory, single-seated, as in the case of the judicatories [...?] in rank[?], the Sheriffs Courts - appellate and in other respects superordinate judicatory, a many seated judicatory.

That to [...?] i.e. /and thereby/ to the avoidance of the evils of superfluous delay vexation and expence, in the great mass /bulk/ of causes the superiority of single seated judicatories will it is supposed be out of dispute.

Difficulty in the nation[?] of the cause, coupled with the vice of indecision on the intellectual part of the character of the Judge present one exception: for in a many sided judicatory the slowness of one Judge even though he be the presiding Judge, may find a remedy /be remedied to a considerable degree/ in the superior quickness of his colleagues: as in a team a lazy or weak horse is dragged by the others /by/, and his rate of [...?] made to keep him with theirs. But further to this mischief there are other remedies.

In the great bulk of causes /suits/ never[?] is composed of those in which the fault has in the defendant's side, and the cause if it has reluctance or incapability ultimate [...?] to comply with the demands of justice. In these instances, there being no point really in dispute, no demand is made upon the evidence, none but upon the power of the Judge. And in this predicament stand none out of law, or perhaps nineteen out of twenty, of the whole number of suits.