9 May 1807

Scotch Reform

Letter VI

Letter VI

III. Review Chamber

In regard to the prohibition proposed to be put upon Appeals from interlocutors, my notion was, that whatever might be /may have been/ the design, in tendency it went to undermine and annihilate the judicial authority of the House of Lords: a part of the constitution in which the preservation of it appeared to me that the people in every one of the three kingdoms in general and the kingdom of Scotland in particular had and have the strongest interest /an interest of the highest nature/.

On this head, indeed, turning to /from /in/ the proposition brought forward by the learned Memorialists, I am not fortunate enough to find any thing like a support. On the contrary I find them exactly what they would be /have been/ upon the supposition of a plot amongst the Scotch lawyers to undermine the authority of the House of Lords as above, and the Memorializing Judges parties to it: their proposition on this head being that the superordinate Court shall exercise no such controuling authority over the subordinate in any individual instance such [...?] excepted in which by their certificate it shall have been the pleasure of these their subordinates to grant them a licence for that purpose - " We are of opinion " (art - 47) that "appeals ought not to be allowed from interlocutory judgments, unless it shall be certified by the Court" so and so -: the Court /Court in which of its 15 Judges,/ comprized of the learned Memorialists themselves /are eleven/.