JB/031/118/001

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1828 Sept. 7
Blackstone

Whence comes Of this strange perversity, what has been
the cause? Ask Blackstone, he will inform you – Some Centuries
ago, amongst wise ancestors, that is to wise lawyers,
a custom had prevailed, of allowing a man against
whom an action had been brought for the recovery of a thing
moveable, to exempt to not only keep the thing whatever it was, but
to save himself from paying the value – to settle the matter
in a manner so convenient to himself, and so simple a
condition as that of saying that he had never had the thing
and procuring at the same any twelve other men to
say that whatever it was that he had said, though they
themselves knew nothing about the matter, they were persuaded
were all true. To be sure both what they he said and what they
said, it was necessary should be upon oath: but as to swearing
for the purpose of and forswearing accordingly, unless
in the particular case of where there being two obtainable contradictory
witnesses a man runs a risk of being made to suffer in this
world, more could there have been any difficulty about perjury,
in a state of things, in which in every Jury in which
there being a difference of opinion the result is that by the fear of death by starving, some number of the 12 from
one to another, are made compelled to perjure themselves. As to the compurgators,
(for so they were called, perjury thus committed being
called a purge) punishing them or any of them for gives for to have a good opinion of a man was out of
the question: so equally so was it in the case of the defendant
unless he had having two witnesses at his command he were at the
same time disposed to aggravate his loss, by engaging in
a prosecution in which failure would do him great evil, and
success no good: no but still here too at the best a great aggravation of the evil
for no reimbursement would he have of his costs.

Identifier: | JB/031/118/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 31.
Date_1	1828-09-07	Marginal Summary Numbering	not numbered
Box	031	Main Headings	civil code
Folio number	118	Info in main headings field	blackstone
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c9 / c2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	richard doane	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	9804
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