13 July 1804

Procedure & Evidence

Introd.

Ch 8. Collateral Incidental 3. Delay

'.1. Sources

I The operations having respect to the question of law may be thus enumerated -

1. Where the article of law in question is an article of statutory law, and no more articles than one are considered as bearing upon it /the subject/ reference to the terms of that one article - and discussions between party and party relative to the import of it.

2. Where divers articles of statutory law are considered as bearing upon the subject, and the question turns upon the disposition /sense/ to be inferred /extracted/ from a comparison of them altogether, reference to such articles respectively, and discussions relative to the import as before

3. When the article of law in question is a supposed article of jurisprudential law, reference to the several sorts of authorities considered as sources of argument in that sort of law: viz: /such as/ decisions on[?] contested cases, memorials of judicial practice in uncontested cases or on points uncontested - general inferences drawn from such particular decisions in treatises ancient or modern - and so on. reference to these several authorities, as cited on both sides - and discussions relative to the degree of weight to be respectively ascribed to them, and the opposite inferences capable of being drawn from them

4. Where one or more articles of statutory law are considered as bearing upon the point, and these articles, one or more of them already given occasion to /been the subject of/ decisions grounded on them, in virtue of which decisions a correspondent portion of jurisprudential law is also considered as bearing upon the same point, hence comes a fourth sort of operation sort of composite operation /set of operation/ compounded of the first and third, or of the second and third of the those beforementioned operations.