5 July 1805

Evidence

Note

Take for example two of the most common sorts of actions species of demand.

1. Demand called Action of Ejectment: or simply /more commonly in one word/ an Ejectment:

1. Action whereby the possession of an immoveable proprietary subject /subject-/ matter of property, say a piece of ground is demanded: demand of the sort of service which the defendant or in his default the Judge would render to the plaintiff by investing him with the mass of rights implied /included/ in the case of his being said to have possession of the ground.

In an action of this sort, what says the instrument /the declaration of demand? Instead of stating upon what title the plaintiff grounds his claim - i.e. what event has taken place having in his favour the effect of an investiture event for the purpose of conferring /so as to confer/ on him the right to that service, a silly story is told made up of a parcel of falshoods and forgeries - a story which instead of stating the particular title in which the plaintiff grounds his claim, contains the same assemblage of lies and forgeries, all of the foreign to the purpose, whatever be the title: a fictitious person is spoken of as being the plaintiff: to this fictitious person the real plaintiff is represented as having granted a lease: that person has taken possession accordingly, the defendant or some other person, real or fictitious, has turned him out, and so forth. The form may be seen in the Appendicies to Blackstone's Commentaries.

Were your Attorney to refuse (a case almost too ridiculous for supposition) were he to refuse to exhibit in your name this mass of lies (for as to doing justice on any other condition than that of employing an Attorney together with a tribe of other lawyers, the /[...?] [...?] what/ law of England does not so much as profess) should any such ridiculous refusal be made, so sure would the Judges refuse to do you justice. Observe however, that of /in/ the story contained in the demand, the property here in question is - not the mendacity but the irrelevancy of it.