Evidence

23 July 1805

Persuasion[?]

This sort of practice is not forgery: for in a legal sense nothing that is not punishable by law as forgery is forgery. In a pathological sense however it has in a considerable degree, if not altogether the effect of forgery. If by the act of another I find /see/ myself deprived of that provision which I see was destined for me by any relation or any friend, in what degree is my suffering lessened by seeing that the author of it instead /my [...?]/ of being hanged for it as a malefactor, is honoured for it as a Judge.

Thus much as to the mischief of the second order. In a certain number of instances men have had false wills made for them by malefactors in the way of forgery. In a number of instances men have had false wills made for them as above in the way of judicature. At this moment, of these truths sources of privation and disappointment, which is it that presents the greatest probability, the most formidable /alarming/ danger? This will depend in some measure on the ratio of the two numbers above mentioned. Which then is the greatest /has been greater/? Let him give the /an/ answer who looks /regards/ upon himself as qualified to give one /it/. One /But/ the difference between delinquency with its attendant punishment, and conformity is a circumstance there is that seems to lead in no inconsiderable degree to render the injustice by forgery the least common of the two. The forgerer never acts in secret but and at the peril of his life: some such secrets must doubtless have remained undiscovered, and thereby crowned with success: but a considerable, and probably the greater number have by detection been frustrated and punished. False wills made upon the bench are made not only without danger, but with full assurance of success. The true man is cheated out of his property: and the praise of learning is among the rewards reaped by the author of the improper deceit. How vast the mass of learning, how venerable /awful/ the reputation of learning that has been built upon this ground!