26 Oct r 1807

L d Eldon's Bill

Procedure the same[?]

1. In favour of the allowance of diversity pleads the benefit of competition.

Upon competition, upon the force /power/ of emulation[?] you depend for that superior regard for the ends of justice which you expect to find in three or even in your two Courts which by division you have made into one +. This you look for in the course taken by them respectively in relation to each individual cause separately considered. But in [...?] either Court in any individual instance would attempt to pay any higher regard than had been before paid to those sacred ends, if the system under which it acted did not admitt of the innovation. Small indeed can be the effect of any emulation[?] /competition/ in regard /conformed/ to the mode of acting under the rules, if in regard to the rules themselves each Court were put under a yoke not of its own framing, and each under the same yoke.

Supposing on both sides or on either side /or at least supposing on one side only/ a sincere regard for justice, accompanied with a clear view of the most effectual /straightest/ course to be taken for the attainment of those ends the argument seems weighty strong, and indeed so strong /weighty/ that it seems difficult to conceive how on the other side there should be any argument or arguments, capable separately or collectively to outweigh it.

The misfortune is, that the position which the argument finds it necessary to assume is a proposition standing in contradiction to all history as well as to the very nature of things /most indubitably prevalent principles of human nature/.

+ Consult what has been written on this head