22 Oct r 1807

L d Eldon's Bill

1. Legislation employed to enact /The [...?] taken in hand/, that a Judge presiding amongst other Judges shall have a voice: as if the judicial senate of /at/ Edinburgh were the House of Commons as if there were /among/ any thing in the nature of presiding that should deprive a man of his voice /render a man unfit for judicature/: as if in Westminster Hall, (for the noble and learned Lordships learned Advisor is no Scotchman) he had ever seen a Chief or other presiding Judge without a voice.

2. More legislation employed to enact that a Judge performing the function of President shall not have had voices: as if a man could any more have two voices than two heads without a positive law /agreement or regulation/ to give them to him, a man could any more have two voices than two heads.

Rewrite

3. If indeed the intention were that of /for/ two Judges, presiding at the same time or at different times respectively in two divisions which is as much as to say in two different Courts there shall be but one voice /the Judge s presiding in each division shall in case of difference of opinion, have one voice/, making half a voice apiece - for this it must be confessed, legislation, were the arrangement a desirable one would not be unnecessary. The Protector[?] rivalries, it must be confessed, with the legislator for the glory of this invention: not that the wonder[?] would be great, if considering /that considering/ there were two divisions on the carpet at once with a Judge for each, it should have struck the legislator while the first line was penning, that whether the laws of justice or the law of arithmetic were to determine, he could not give the two divisions fewer than two presiding Judges: and that when /afterwards/, upon getting into the /[...?]/ second line he found himself got into a case, in which he was determined there should be but one voice, he had accordingly one and but one voice, there shall [...?] knowing how to get out of this difficulty, and trusting as usual to the powers /Goddess/ of Jurisprudence for the untying of the knot.