15 April 1808

Ch. │ │ Competition

'. 2 Legislation

'. 2. Competition, so applicable with advantage to projected laws /projects //plans// of legislation/.

A case then[?] in which the principle of competition has not been nor promises to be, productive of any advantage, is that of judication: at any rate under the technical or fee-gathering system as established in Scotland as well as in England.

A case in which it has already been productive of advantage, and under appropriate /suitable/ culture, promises to be more and productive of the same /like good/ fruit is that of legislation: competition for public esteem and favour as between one projector and another.

To prove my case, I /am/ find myself under the necessity of bringing forward divers persons of high account in the character of witnesses. Under the British constitution, no rant[?] how high soever, examples /affords [...?]/ a man from that service.

To prove efficacy of competition in the character of a stimulus, no more conclusive exemplification need be produced, than that which has been afforded in the case of the Right Honourable the Lord President and his /the [...?] learned Lord his/ [...?] learned Co-Memorialists. Before the stimulus was applied, the [...?] of justice would have been, not to say was, beholden /contemplated by those learned/ with a degree of unruffled complacency not inferior to that with which the deposition of commerce would at present be contemplated by [...?] unlearned eyes.