JB/031/120/001

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1828 Sept. 17
Blackstone

Beginning
(11) (4) Rights
II. Not exercisable but &c,
II. .

Suppose you, Cupidus & horse
living in these times. You bring
your action. Cupidus hires 12
men. He & they kiss a book &
mutter. Jury wd believe what they
muttered, but Judges save that
trouble — Cupidus has the horse
without paying for it.

Now then, you, your this horse of yours, and Cupidus suppose
you all living together in these wise times: observe the consequence
Cupidus would have taken the horse: you (unless better informed by
your learned advisers which they would but take care you should
not be) would have brought your action. Cupidus having hired
twelve men at so much a point to go through this with
him would have repaired to the Court i.e. to the fair learned
Judges of it, and having kissed a book declared he knew nothing
about the matter: they kissing to book after him and muttering
whatever was to be muttered. Prodigious even apostolical! is the virtue of the number
twelve. Hearing this whatever it was muttered by the same
number of men as themselves, how could a Jury of twelve fail to
believe it, and to declare the necessary consequences. Not that they
were under any need of giving themselves this trouble: for the
learned Judges, who though not more than a third of their number,
were several times more learned saved them from it. Well
then, that done, Cupidus would not merely have got the horse,
but got it without paying anything for it.

Whether paying cd be prosecuted
at Com Law not worth
enquiring. If yes, Cupidus wd keep
horse, & if successful thro' Judge's
power over God, wd have satisfaction
of knowing that Cupidus
wd be in state of torment to
all eternity.

Whether at that time of day, in the moment of intellect Law as it was had
made any such advance as to afford a prosecution of a P at
Criminal Common Law for perjury, is not worth opening a
book to inquire about. Suppose, yes, the what would be
and you weak angry enough to become prosecutor, and the prosecution
successful, what would have been the result. Cupidus would
have kept the horse: you would have borne your part at large
of the expenses of the two suits; and you, if so it were, that
(as learned Judges still are) were in the persuasion that every learned Judge has the same
power over the Almighty the same power as he has over the Sheriff
of the County, and felt any satisfaction at the thoughts of Cupidus,
living to all eternity in a state of unabated torment beyond
any they ever have experienced, would if Judge and Jurors so please have had that satisfaction,
enjoyed that satisfaction, instead of getting back your horse.

Identifier: | JB/031/120/001 "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	120	Info in main headings field	blackstone
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c11 / c4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	richard doane	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	9806
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