[clx. 218]

1821. May 3 d

First Lines

Procedure.

Under an absolute Monarchy, in so far as depends upon the Monarch and such of his official servants as are not lawyers, the substantive branch of the law having, for its sole actual object or end in view, the greatest happiness, and thence the support of the interes real or supposed, of the Monarch - the adjective branch, the law of Judicial Procedure, has of course so far as depends for its end the giving execution and effectto that same main branch of rule of action. But, such is the darkness in which partly by want of appropriate intellectual aptitude and appropriate active talent, partly by that sinister design which is the reverse of moral aptitude, the field of law has every where remained enveloped, the Monarch has not, in any European Monarchy, however absolute, been able, as yet, to give full execution and effect to his will, without concession, to an amount more or less considerable, to the particular will determined of course by te particular interest, of that class of his subjects /the Lawyers/. Hence, a sort of partition treaty, though no where expressed, not the less effectually observed. Of the whole field of law in those parts in the relative perfection of which the Monarch has felt the strongest and most immediae interest, the whole frce of their minds has, by these his workmen, been directed to the single object of giving execution and effect to their masters will: of these parts, that which regards Finance, and, in the field of penal law, that part which regards offences more immediately effecting the person and government, present the principal and most striking examples. In recompense, the parts in which /by the state /condition/ of/ the particular interest of the Monarch was least materially affected /and visibly manifested/, and which, at the same time, there would have been the greatest difficulty in protecting against their enterprises were left in their hands as a source of plunderage. Of this part, the whole field of non-penal, alias civil Law, will afford one great example.

under