7 March 1808

Letter V

§.6. Reasons

Ends of Justice

Denial of justice

To be consulted only

2. Denial of justice. This mischief, as already observed, coincides in the main with that of misdecision, so far as it operates to the prejudice of the plaintiff's side. The wrong which in consequence is left without redress is susceptible of all the various modifications alluded to above.

But in the case of misdecision, to this wrong, be it what it may, has been added the wrong done by whatever vexation in the shape of expence or any other shape has been imposed on any person or persons in the interval between the commencement of the suit and the termination which, from the supposed wrongful decision, it has received. In the case of simple denial of justice this aggravation of the main wrong has no place.

Denial of justice may be the work and thence the fault, either of the system, (the system of procedure) or of the Judge.

So far as it is the fault of the system, it is the result of the expence or vexation (for which see those several heads) or both together.

So far as it is the work of the Judge, the denial may be positive or negative, or say expressed or implied. If expressed, it is in effect misdecision, a wrongful decision differing from misdecision at large, no otherwise than by being pronounced at the very outset of the cause. The Judge refuses to take cognizance of the plaintiffs demand: and in the refusal thus made consists the wrong.

{When the denial is of the negative kind, it is effected by non-decision. If the duration of this negative act of non-decision has any bounds, the evil coincides with that of delay. No refusal is declared: but during the length of time consumed by the delay, cognizance is not taken of the cause. In this case the evil consists of the simple denial of justice, as above, with the evil of delay (which see further on superadded.}