PRIVATE

10 June 1807

Letter V

V. No Appeals

V. Parallelisms dismissed

Had it been possible that any such thing as English Reform should have been the Order of the day, or even could that which is so much pleasanter than any reform, amusement, have found here amidst so enormous a quantity of indispensable matter any tolerably proper place; - here might have been a place for divers enquiries and explanations not incurious: -

How it is that while the Edinburgh Senate House is overcast to such a degree with Interlocutors of the most variegated kinds, in Westminster Hall Interlocutory judgments at least under the name of interlocutory judgments are in specie so rare.

How it is that while to the House of Lords an Appeal from any thing but an Interlocutor is from the Edinburgh House a rarity, from Westminster Hall it is on the Equity side almost, on the Common Law side altogether, without example.

How it is that, while in the Edinburgh Senate House the mind of the Senator is if not constantly, applied with more or less attention to the Interlocutory Judgment that bears his signature, the only sort of Interlocutory judgment known to Common Law might in Westminster Hall, with the addition of a little appropriate machinery, be signed by the clerk[?] in the said Hall, situate lying[?] and being[?], with as much thought and deliberation, and with as much effect and use to any good purpose (unless it were receipt of fees) as by the learned and revered personage by whom at present, sleeping or waking, it is signed, or supposed at least to be signed.