30 June 1807

Letter V

Recapitulation

An exigency so urgent as that of the alleviation of the existing pressure upon the time of the House of Lords appears to have, in such a degree, preoccupied attention on the occasion of the plan for the establishment of the Chamber of Review as to have, in a manner, almost eclipsed and kept out of sight its more immediate effects with relation to the ends of justice: {viz. prevention of misdecision, prevention of failure of justice, prevention of superfluous and avoidable delay, expense and vexation.} But surely it can not on sufficient ground be pronounced advantageous and eligible upon the whole, unless upon the whole it appears to be subservient, or at least not inconducive, to the aggregate of these ends.

2. As to prevention of misdecision, at the best it presents no advantage on this score. So long as the constitution stands, and so long at least as no change as to the past[?] here in question is proposed, the judgment which is as much as to say the judicial will of the House of Lords must, to the extent of its appellate jurisdiction, be taken for the best as well as the ultimate standard of rectitude. But of the proposed intermediate Court of Appeal [if] the declared object is that as many causes as may be may cease to be applied to this past[?] standard: and it is only on the score of this part of the whole number of causes that any advantage is so much as expected: as to all such as come to be applied to it notwithstanding, the effect of the Intermediate stage of litigation will be admitted to be purely disadvantageous. viz. in respect of the additional stage of appeal with its additional delay, vexation and expence.