14 Feb y 1808

II. No Inner House Causes

English judicature it may be observed presents /affords/ an instance of a Court in which of two causes of exactly the same description in every point, the decision in one [...?] be object to appeal, the other not: and thence, taking it /each/ in the whole of its course, one shall have three stages to run through, the other but three.

The Court is the High Court of Chancery ion which if the course as set down to be heard by the Master of the Rolls, Appeal has from his decree to that of the Chancellor, and from the Chancellor's to the House of Lords: number of stages those whereas the same cause if not set down for hearing before the Chancellor, goes from him in case of appeal immediately to the House of Lords: number of stages here, but two, whether the ladder shall have three steps belonging to it /in it/ or but two depends in this case - not upon any Judge - but upon a party, viz. the [...?...?], if governed /directed //guided/ by his attorney as a non lawyer in his bleadiness[?] naturally will be, [...?] upon the Attorney.

But with in this diversification - wills this continuity[?] will this inconsistency - human reason, looking to the ends of justice has nothing to do /had no share //borne no part/: accident at the best, found[?] though now undiscoverable not improbably determined in this as in so many other instances, the destiny of suitors. Of the Master of the Rolls, the office his [...?] imports, was not in its origin a judicial office. His business was to keep parchments: to take care that they should not be stolen or destroyed, or the scribble they were scrawled with rendered by falsification more unintelligible or more or less adverse to justice than it was designed to be. The qualities looked for on the part of this law office were no other than a labouring man looks for and commonly finds in his dog: the business of the dog is to sit upon his Masters coat while he is at work, that no thief may run away with it: the business of the Master of the Rolls to set by and guard /preserve/ against the different class of thieves[?] /malefactors/ those pretious parchments.

/ Accident, fraud, and trust joined, according to the current but imperfect geography, in marking out the field of authority submitted to this judiciary./