14 Jan y 1807

Facienda

Outline

Jury

But, though alone this gives in favour of Jury trial, according to the /under the/ present practice (for I shall have occasion to submitt to Your Lordship a plan for clearing it of its /this/ disadvantage) the attestation, the direct attestation thus given /so unanimously/ given by these /so many/ learned person is worth so much less than nothing, there is another mode of procedure, in favour of which the attestation given by the same learned persons being indirectly given - being unintentionally given, and without their being aware of it, has a real /may be found to possess/ value - possesses a real /substantial/ claim to confidence.

I speak of the natural mode /course/ of procedure under consideration: according to which after all this candour has been manifested - and all this praise earnt and received, justice comes always to be administered, if in conclusion in a case thus dismissed, justice or any thing like it is administered.

The cause thus dismissed out of the hands of the Jury, one or other of three results can not but take place:

1. No further proceedings at all take place, no verdict, no compromise, each party setting down with his own costs.

2. A compromise takes place.

3. The cause goes off to arbitration, as above.

The first result is not at all a probable one: it can not take place without the consent of the plff: since be the cause ever so unfit for a Jury, it must go on, if no Juror /unless a Ju.[?]/ be withdrawn, and no Juror is ever withdrawn without consent on both sides. But if the plff consents to this, he consents to the losing his cause: the utmost benefit he can derive from such an arrangement is an exemption from the danger of having to pay the costs of the other side.