29 April 1807

6

Lawyers judged

Letter 1.

Of such, to every practical purpose at least, is the confidence habitually reposed by the public in that class of their enemies /adversaries/ whose hostility is most persistent[?], and at the same time utterly irreconcilable, the wonder i still /it affords much less cause for wonder, if/ that thing should be found[?] generally disposed to place equal, or indeed if there is a difference, much superior confidence, in the other class .their adversaries/ the official class, whose is not disguised /adverse interest is much less prominent[?]/ and has taken its rise in circumstances collateral to their official situation, and not by any means essential to it.

Beholding in this acquiescence, a confidence equally misplaced in the instance of both classes - a confidnce which supposing it to continue unshaken, could be abundantly sufficient to render altogether hopeless the acceptance of these reasons which to me appear /have presented themselves as/ indispensably necessary to the accomplishment of those /that/ grand national objects which all parties profess to have in view - the very possibility of seeing that good done /good wish accomplished/ to which my whole life has been devoted, seemed to depend upon the removal of that confidence. For in proportion to the strength of my assurance that in /by/ the accomplishment of these two good works Scotland would receive one of the greatest benefits that herself of any other nation is capable of receiving, in that same proportion has all along been, and that necessarily and inevitably the strength of my assurance, that the accomplishment of it would find among /in the great body of/ the lawyers of both classes, its most [...?] and irreconcilable adversaries and opponenents.