27 Oct r 1807

L d Eldon's Bill

'.11

assembled by President

But between the printing of the two Bills, ambition had swelled in the lower /inferior/ regions, the spirit of liberality had taken possession of the upper: what you proposed for your Right Honourable principal, quoth the Lord Chancellor's learned draughtsman to the Lord President's, is a mere trifle: leave the matter to me, and see what care I take of you: every thing may be done with you, nothing at all shall ever be done without you. Thereupon he goes to work, and taking up the section as drawn by his learned co- and sub- operator re-enacts it in substance the first of the two parts which it consists of, with no other alteration than what consists in the stuffing in a quantity of surplusage, as usual from his own kitchen[?] to suit it to his own taste: Between forms and[?] of process he shifts presiding[?] and: taking out in both Chambers, he shifts in here before each of the said Divisions of the Judges respectively and before the Lords Ordinary of each respectively: then come [...?] verbis[?], and without any improvement made by superiority of station and learning, and no alteration thereof shall but by Acts of Sederunt of the whole Court: then immediately thereupon, after stuffing /interpolation/ in /of/ the favourable clause " in a quorum of nine Judges thereof, come the auspicious words copied with the most gracious fidelity, assembled by the Lord President. At the sound of these words as it were by a sudden fit of inspiration, such as genius is subject to, on he rushes giving to the Court or Quorum thus put under the power /guardianship //monarchy/ of the Lord President - the power to do everything that is to be done: "to which Court or Quorum," says he (as if by the bye) "it shall be competent to make such alterations in and regulations concerning such forms of proceeding and process, and particularly concerning the mode of conducting the Pleadings in the said Divisions or Court, and before the Ordinance, by writings or by pleadings caused on" (carried on?) " vivâ voce, as shall appear necessary or expedient ..."