1 June 1805
Evidence
Introd.
' 6. Interest connection
Not that this sinister interest could have been productive of any very serious mischief, had it not been for the sinister interest of the superintending /superior/ and all-ruling functionary, the Judge.
In multiplying useless operations, it was /became/ necessary to him to multiply hands to perform them: in multiplying useless written testimonials it was necessary to multiply the hands that were to write them: in multiplying nonsense it was necessary to multiply heads that should understand it or pretend to understand it - in multiplying /augmenting/ the mass of operations, of instruments, of nonsense, all together, it was /became/ necessary to multiply tongues to talk about it.
Each having his service to perform, each would be to have his recompense for performing /reward for rendering/ it. In this as in other lines /fields/ of labour, as the demand grew, the supply grew up along with it. Under a connection thus necessary and thus intimate, like porters crowding about a passenger at his landing, but were they ever so numerous, he could not multiply his own fees, without multiplying theirs at the same time. He could not therefore saddle the suitors with any gross quantity of burthen for his own benefit, without saddling them with a burthen of much greater weight for the benefit of these his associates and confederates. (Thus miserable /disastrous/ was the condition /situation/ of the suitor, thus fortake in mischief the germ of corruption once inoculated into the body of the law.)
Thus it is that for every particle of the matter of emolument, (that is thus [...?] into the matter) of corruption, received into his coffers, and /together/ the correspondent portion of public mischief wrought by his own hands it became necessary to load society with perhaps twenty times the mischief /quantity/ wrought by those other hands. He has found himself in the situation of a surveyor, paid by his employer, by a per centage, say five per cent, on the money expended on the building: or the house, the office, the prison, or the palace.
5 June 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch False Ends. Judges
' 6 Interest. connections
In such a state of things /confusion of interests/, what a demand created for vice in various forms and colours, in high places! [for fraud], for dissimulation, for simulating for interest for hypocrisy, for mendacity, for fraud! What industry employed in imparting /borrowing/ /imparting/ the arts of the theatre into the machinery of justice! What eagerness to do as much as possible in appearance, as little as possible in effect: to lament over the disease, while the cause of it was protected, cherished, and inflamed! On every occasion of [...?] /favorable occasion, in/ what indignation against chicane, what sympathy for the vexed[?] and pillaged /afflicted/ suitor, what zeal for substantial justice!
Such would have bene the natural course of things had the system with its principle of corruption, remained to be planted? in an enlightened a polished age. But in fact the truth is the rude ages in which it was reared gradually into maturity, no such labour was necessary: backed by irresistible power, the grossest conduct was adequate to the purpose: the grossest conduct, accompanied by the coarsest language.
Of the effects of such an arrangement, under English jurisprudence, in that golden age, that age of primitive simplicity, when Oppression and depredation went naked without being ashamed, a sample will be found in the Note below. (a)
31 May 1805
Evidence
Note
Ch. False Ends. Judge
' 6. Interest. connection
To take as the time of Henry the 6 th, one way of making business was this. To ground[?] the process of outlawry against a defendant it was necessary in those days that the plaintiff should appear in person before the court. [If in those days, having a quarrel with a man, you wished to convert him into an Outlaw the mode was plain and easy[?] On the King's Bench and in the Co /Court of Westminster Hall there were then/ as there are now under the Judges officers called Filazers and Eviginters[?]. To one of these officers /To an office of one of these descriptions/ you paid a visit, and settled with him about terms. It was then his business to contrive that there should be a suit commenced in your name, against the adversary: and that the adversary should hear nothing about the matter. An entry was thus made.]
When a man was converted into an Outlaw, the consequence was that instead of going to his creditors, his property, being forfeited went invariably to the King; in effect amongst a set of pleasures[?] of different descriptions, a list of whom, in numbers difficult to reckon up, may be seen, in a modern book of practice + /as it stands on the footing of existing establishments,/ When a man was fixed upon as wroth tearing to pieces by these vultures, the way was to enter his name upon the list of defendants, at the suit of a sham /nominal/ /fictitious/ plaintiff; it then fell to the lot of a Filazer or Exiginter (names still existing upon the judicial official list), to enter upon the Record, the personal appearance of this man of straw. The process of Outlawry thereupon opened, and the first notice that the Outlaw had of his being sued was when the executing officer broke into his house, and saved his property. This was a practice, regular practice, both in the Common Pleas, and the King's Bench. The Judges, to whom these subordinate officers were subject must have been accomplices in this fraud, or there could not have been any need to apply to Parliament for a remedy; Parliament interposed, and to do what? To declare, and that only for a time, that such practice should not go on in future.
+ Field
28 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Falls Ends
Ch. Imbecillity
After False ends & capricious ends.
Ch. Of Imbecillity, considered as a cause of arrangements at variance with the ends of justice.
On the part of a man who, having before his eyes the list of the arrangements manufactured under /set up by/ the technical system in opposition to the ends of justice, should take upon him to speak of them as having, all of them without exception, had the force of sinister interest for their efficient and immediate cause, the assertion would be nit only rash, but taken in the character of a universal proposition, unquestionably untrue. In some instances, the birth of a sinister arrangement is capable of being ascribed with little or no danger of more[?] to that sinister cause: in the character of circumstantial evidence the manifestations of the connection are too strong not to be conclusive. (a) In other instances, data are wanting. The supposed effect is visible: the supposed correspondent cause is visible: that the sinister power of the latter is adequate to the production /generation/ of the latter is also visible: since in instances without number, the same cause has been seen beyond dispute been seen to be productive of effects of the same nature. That the supposed cause had the capacity of producing the supposed effect, is out of dispute: but whether in the individual case in question that capacity was reduced into act /passed/ /advanced/ on into agency may never the less remain matter of dispute /still be questionable/ /may be matter of doubt and that doubt interminable/, and that doubt interminable.
The cases therefore in which a discerning and cautious mind will take upon itself to say of this or that decision, or diction, or process in a treatise, or official practice, will take upon itself to say /pronounce/ that it had for its immediate cause its psychological cause, the force of sinister interest, the prevalence as well as action of that force being pursued at the same time to the conscience of the individual in question, may perhaps be comparatively few.
At the same time /On the other hand/ if taking the whole mass together a man were to say, in all this there is nothing to the production of which the force of sinister interest would not have been compleatly adequate without the smallest assistance from any such motive as a regard for the happiness /well-being/, a sympathy for the afflictions of mankind, or (what includes both) a regard for the interests and ends of justice, I see nothing in the case that should render the truth of that conception at all /in the least/ improbable.
28 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch. Imbecillity
Of the two connected propositions that which asserts the adequacy /sufficiency/ of the cause in question to the production of the effect in question in all instances, and that which asserts the probability of the existence of a number of individual instances in which the effect has been produced without the immediate and sensible /perceptible/ operation of that cause, the truth (both of them taken together) will appear in the clearest light the more attentively we consider on the one hand the imbecillity of the human /public/ mind in general at the several periods in which the respective arrangements took their birth, on the other hand the influence of the volitional faculty over the intellectual in all ages, and in virtue of the inborn though not altogether incorrigible weakness /frailty/ of human nature.
To Them /Ask the first [...?] to him,/, if any such there be who viewing those essences[?] of imbecillity or opponent imbecillity, by which in the example of Blackstone for example, arrangements pregnant with the most flagrant /barefaced/ as well as mischievous injustice, appear to have bene justified, should be disposed to [...?] it in the class of impossible facts /impossibilities/ that nonsense so palpable should be able to pass itself for sense upon a mind so far from destitute of intellectual power, and that therefore Blackstone throughout the whole system of his who supposed apologies and defences were firing[?] alike against the laws of reason and the dictates of his own conscience, to any such person, if any such there be I would recommend it to bestow a glance of observation on the state of the human mind, even in the present day of comparative light /illumination/, within the vast precincts of German literature. Let them view the immense crowd of lettered men in that extensive region of civilized Europe, vying with each other in the admiration and imitation of the nonsense of a crack brained but indisputably honest elaborate manufacturer of nonsense by whom experience under the dyslogostic name of impression was rejected as an unsafe guide, and imagination, as the superior and only true one. Let him think of this creator ad libstrum of ideal worlds within the human microcosm - all honest all honorable men, pure, as much as it is in the nature of men's mind to be, of every particle of sinister interest, having nothing to gain from /by/ nonsense, but the homage of those who, in the character of whatsoever instruction can be made to swallow it.
28 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch. Imbecillity
Among the /those who/ admirers of greyhounds of the Italian race, distinguished from other greyhounds by their smallness, it has been a practice, for the purpose of enhancing that quality which in that instance in the seat of ideal virtue /[...?]/, to don the animal with a narcotic, which by weakening its vital power, and impairing the health of the animal, stunts its growth.
If by any prudent cultivator of the faculties of the human mind /from/, any sinister effect were wished to be produced on the mind of a papel[?] committed to his charge, a more effectual /efficacious/ drug could not be found for him in the whole library pharmacopoeia[?], than a don of the technical jurisprudential system, according to the Roman or English, but more especially according to the English formula: (a bilus[?] made up by the hand of a Coke, a Gilbert or a Blackstone) always understood that it be accompanied with that recommendation /precept/ /instruction/ which, unless something be applied to brush it off adheres to it of course - a recommendation to find it - not like the bush on which St. John fed doubtless in a vision, sweet in the mouth, bitter in the belly but from the lip of the alimentary canal to the bottom, [...?], [...?] and corroborative /instructive/.
He may then read himself at once out of all desire and all capacity and all desire of distinguishing right from wrong, for any other purpose than that of the superior respect due to the latter /that one of those which is/ as being the better customer. He may then learn to swallow and writing[?] as [...?] lies as men do torches, without chewing - to clasp /embrace/ mendacity to /in/ his bosom: /[...?] to [/..?] and [...?] within the to regard truth and utility most [...?] of all [...?] with abhorrence, and join with pious fervour in the prayer for their extirpation from the world.
To look for probity in barbarism, for liberty in tyranny, for wisdom in inexperience.
To look to the grossest absurdity for the most persuasive reason.
The Goddess of lying, marked out for homage under the name of Fiction: --- let him ask himself whether Immorality supported by /an utterance with/ Folly, ever received a more prostrate or securer homage.
29 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch. Imbecillity
Lay aside the idea of fraud and imposture, in the name of self-interest reasoning that pervades them both you will find that sort and degree that is without a rival assertion[?]: the weakness of babies and sucklings, without all /or the weakness the innocence of childhood without any of the innocence./ Look to evils to work in other branches of science in the same age, no such garbage is to be found. In mechanical in chemical science men make mistakes, but never such mistakes, the organ of reasoning /ratiocination/ may be used with more or less dexterity, but no where is it /the organ/ in itself found in a debilitated or corrupted state. Though [...?] was [...?] A chemist may arrogate to himself the glory of a discovery, which belongs to another by a prior title. But by what chemist was mendacity, when detested in other matter, were regarded with any other eye than that of [...?] and abhorrence /otherwise than with abhorrence/? What chemist was ever imprudent enough or foolish enough to say /to declare/, and that in the face of day that he could not make discoveries, if he were not permitted to tell lies?
Yes: so long as the technical system is permitted to afflict and crush[?] /trample upon/ an otherwise enlightened people so long as they continue to view with patience the most degrading of all chasms, those which instance /bind/ /cramp/ the will through the evidence[?] of the understanding, the mind of the lawyer will be composed of the dregs of all other minds. /remain no better than the dregs of other minds./
Religion excepted, jurisprudence is the only science - pretended science, in which the use of reason is /was/ /continues to be/ openly discountenanced, in which the adherence to unkind barbarism has been commanded /[...?]/ as a duty: in which the privilege of thinking for one's self has been made the object of monopoly for the benefit of dead men /in the hands of those that are no more/.
Let a man make discoveries in mathematics, the more important his discovery, the surer he may make himself of the applause, and admiration[?] of the most minimal[?] among mathematicians. Let him make discoveries in legislation the source[?] he may make himself of the affected disdain and real hatred and affected contempt /disdain/ of the dignitaries of the law.
21 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch. Sinister Ends. Imbecillity
' Self deceit.
''. Self-Deceit.
[...?...?...?...?, ...?] est [...?] ipsi tibi
The rule is /of the point[?] is grounded/ in an enlightened observation made on human nature. It extends to all sorts of noting /holds good in noting if/. Would you persuade others, persuade yourself in the first instance: as the in the most flaming enthusiast may be found the most successful missionary[?]. The influence of reason though at the long run all prevailing is always slow: that of passion is instantaneous and Persuades yourself thoroughly, every man may be made to see or rather to feel that you are persuaded: even without being persuaded, how many are those who succeed in making others believe that they are? By example, by prejudice, all men alike are capable of being influenced; by reasoning - none, but a favoured few: and of those few again scarce any, except where interest i.e. the passion of the moment is either neuter or on that same side.
Would you then persuade others? Begin in the first place upon yourself. Here at least, you may make sure of an apt scholar, and you have the most effectual means of instruction at your command. The first and main instrument, is attention: this you have /is always/ at your command most perfectly. But with this, everything is easy: every knot you make is /it is all/ plain-sailing. Imagine the absurdity, the most outrageous you could think of, if life depended upon it, name the absurdity greater if you can, than any of the thousands of absurdities of which men have succeeded in persuading themselves by this means.
The mode of managing your attention for this purpose is as simple as it is sure. To whatever considerations tend to strengthen the [...?] for persuasion, - fasten your attention, glue it, rivet it: from /to/ whatever considerations tend to weaken that same persuasion, draw off your attention drag it off without mercy. If in spite of all exertion any such troublesome consideration should come across your mind - should present itself uncalled for, turn aside from it, suffer not your attention to fix upon it for a single moment: if it haunt[?] you fly from it as you would from hobgoblin, or as an [...?] would from a source of impure desire. Take this course, and you not only need not despair of success, but it is impossible you should miss of it. Let not any false modesty diminish the strength of your assurance. In this, No man who really wished for success was too weak, too dull, too stupid to obtain it. If there be any sort of man to shun the enterprise because any sort of difficulty, its the superior sort of man, the man who is distinguished from the herd by a superior degree of strength [...?] vigor, moral or intellectual: or both in one
21 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch. Sinister Ends. Imbecillity
' Self deceit.
''. Self-Deceit.
[...?...?...?...?, ...?] est [...?] ipsi tibi
The rule is /of the point[?] is grounded/ in an enlightened observation made on human nature. It extends to all sorts of noting /holds good in noting if/. Would you persuade others, persuade yourself in the first instance: as the in the most flaming enthusiast may be found the most successful missionary[?]. The influence of reason though at the long run all prevailing is always slow: that of passion is instantaneous and Persuades yourself thoroughly, every man may be made to see or rather to feel that you are persuaded: even without being persuaded, how many are those who succeed in making others believe that they are? By example, by prejudice, all men alike are capable of being influenced; by reasoning - none, but a favoured few: and of those few again scarce any, except where interest i.e. the passion of the moment is either neuter or on that same side.
Would you then persuade others? Begin in the first place upon yourself. Here at least, you may make sure of an apt scholar, and you have the most effectual means of instruction at your command. The first and main instrument, is attention: this you have /is always/ at your command most perfectly. But with this, everything is easy: every knot you make is /it is all/ plain-sailing. Imagine the absurdity, the most outrageous you could think of, if life depended upon it, name the absurdity greater if you can, than any of the thousands of absurdities of which men have succeeded in persuading themselves by this means.
The mode of managing your attention for this purpose is as simple as it is sure. To whatever considerations tend to strengthen the [...?] for persuasion, - fasten your attention, glue it, rivet it: from /to/ whatever considerations tend to weaken that same persuasion, draw off your attention drag it off without mercy. If in spite of all exertion any such troublesome consideration should come across your mind - should present itself uncalled for, turn aside from it, suffer not your attention to fix upon it for a single moment: if it haunt[?] you fly from it as you would from hobgoblin, or as an [...?] would from a source of impure desire. Take this course, and you not only need not despair of success, but it is impossible you should miss of it. Let not any false modesty diminish the strength of your assurance. In this, No man who really wished for success was too weak, too dull, too stupid to obtain it. If there be any sort of man to shun the enterprise because any sort of difficulty, its the superior sort of man, the man who is distinguished from the herd by a superior degree of strength [...?] vigor, moral or intellectual: or both in one
21 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch. Sinister Ends. Imbecillity
' Self-deceit
So much for generals. Come we now to particulars. Being resolved to admire the system - to be persuaded of its excellence - of the excellence of a system which runs in constant /continual/ repugnancy to every end of justice, be sure you never suffer a glance of your mind ever to point to any of those ends. Keep them all - any of them, as compleatly out of sight as possible - to bring your system in contact with them, would be to give it its death-warrant.
Yet the system is to be [...?]: this is the problem: [...?] the one theory needful. What is to be done? To be done? Why that same /divine/ thing is to be done, which every body has done, [...?] to your hands, - which reading[?] to your hands you see done every where.
It was written so long ago: written by such grave, such excellent men: men whose names end in us, give back to the ever one of those sweet sounds which it has been in the habit of connecting with ideas of duty or delight from earliest infancy: written by men, who were descended from time, who in their time were such great conquerors: who became conquerors of the world, that is of every part of it that they could conquer, or that is worth thinking about.
Correspondent to the excellence of the system, is the presumption of those, by whom its excellence, or any part of its excellence is disputed. Ignorance or improbity?; in these two, or a combination of both, you have your choice of motives. Ignorance? or how is it that any man should be otherwise than ignorant? A long life could scarce be sufficient for reading so much as the titles of the books in which all this learning is locked up. So ignorance in astrology, alchemy or witchcraft - the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the divine essence. What presumption! for an [...?] of the present degenerate times to set up the force of his single wits against that of a host of sages, every one more learned more jurisprudential than another, connected together by a chain of the length of more than eighteen centuries. Such presumption! Such intolerable presumption! Could it have been dictated by any but the worst motives, by any but the most mischievous intentions, the intentions of throwing every thing into confusion, and re-establishing the reign of chaos upon earth? These ends of justice should any such inactive logic have extended itself, which it could not have done but by force, insist upon it, assume it as a self-evident proposition that a nation way of contravening these ends, contravening them all in the [...?] in the nature of confronting [...?] thence any of those arrangements which either are comprised in that body of matchless science or has been derived from it.
21 May 1805
Evidence
Introd.
Ch. Sinister Ends. Imbecillity
' Self-deceit
M r who with so generous so disinterested a confidence, actuated by the single virtue of a desire /desire/ to see the public served with the most excellent goods at the cheapest price "recommends" /never comes to recommend/ to the same public his (table[?] acts[?] and [...?]) would you have him say any thing in /to the/ prejudice of these admirable /choice[?]/ commodities? - as unreasonable would it be to expect to find have D r Such-as-one, D r any-body let drop a word or a syllable which should betraying /capable of betraying/ a suspicion of any thing of imperfection of the Roman law: in the room[?] /plan/ of Romans put English or any other system now being or that ever was in existence - being a system for the administering or the limiting of what there [...?] anything to be got.