18 Feb. 1808

on L d Eldons Bill

Note ?

Letter V

II. Eldon's & J. B.'s course

Note ( ) or omitt?

In regard to irreparable damage, the truth is - that an authority for /adequate to/ the prevention of it, though it were by a suspension put pro hâc vice view to the execution of the law even of the statute law, is an authority that I would never wish to see any judicatory, or at any rate any judicatory of so high a class, unprovided with: always understood that on their responsibility, and as a condition to their justification, the damage done /produced/ by the suspension shall not be greater than the damage that would have taken place for want of it.

Howsoever it may be in regard to regulations already established, in regard to any new ones taking any such extensive scope as that here proposed, the propriety of such a provision does not seem much exposed to dispute.

Without any public reason /Without authority from the legislature/ and without a thought directed to any other than their own private ends, Judges especially under the fee-gathering system, have ever been ready enough to take every imaginable liberty with the wish of the legislator: but when without any prejudice to those private interests, a rigid adherence to the letter, with or without any regard to the spirit of the laws has been attended with no other inconvenience than the production of some irreparable damage which the exercise of a discretion directed to the ends of justice might have prevented, then it is that judicial obedience puts on /cloaths itself/ all its rigour. and the afflicted individual finds the official ear shut against all complaints.