JB/035/205/001

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30 May 1808

Be the subject in question matter of supposed inconvenience
or matter of supposed advantage, the extent of it is in each reference in respect
of importance, a point that ought never be out of sight.

In by far the greater number of the causes, so continually
exemplified and so simple will be the nature
of the case, that for the giving a right decision on it
the most ordinary degree of intellectual aptitude may suffice,
inferior even to that which in the class of from whence Jurymen are taken may be reasonably expected.
From this source the danger of misdecision is confined to
such cases as may have something particular in their
complection: whereas where improbity is the source, it
is nearly as easy for improbity power by the supposition not being wanting to produce misdecision in
the plainest, as in the most intricate case.

On the other hand comes a counter-observation,
which truth and justice forbid us to suppress.

True it is that in the great majority of the suits (individually
taken) that are instituted in Westminster Hall
(and in the Scotch Court of Session the proportion though probably
less will not be to such a degree less as to destroy the argument)
in the great majority say at least nine tenths
though the nature of the case will be so simple, that
on the score of mere inexperience on the part of the Jury,
the danger of misdecision may be taken as next to none,
yet of these, with little difference, the number will coincide
with that of the suits, on the occasion of which the
delay, vexation and expence, inseparable from Jury trial
would be so much waste: thus large being the proportion of
suits in which the defence of in one part, and the necessity
of legal complaint demand on the other has been produced had for its cause
not by any difference of opinion as to the matter of right
but by the inability or unwillingness on the defendant's part to
comply with the demand
at the time, if ever, and
the facilities which the
lawyers of all sorts are so
ready to sell him, for staving it off.

Identifier: | JB/035/205/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 35.
Date_1	1808-05-30	Marginal Summary Numbering	not numbered
Box	035	Main Headings	constitutional code; evidence; procedure code
Folio number	205	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e6
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	10798
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