JB/047/084/001

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1 Decr 1804
Evidence

1 For the admission of evidence, viz of the whole of the mass of evidence
on each side which the ultimate distinction decision to be given in the cause
is to take for its ground, it is but natural naturally enough at least
though not universally in practice, that a time, a certain space
of time should be fixed in the first instance, after which no more
evidence shall be received. If the fixation be peremptory universally extensive
in the absolutely inexorable, in that case the exclusion of whatsoever exclusion evidence
may come in consequence to be excluded, has this general rule
of fixation – this perpetual negative thus put upon all extraordinary
delay for its direct cause: if the fixation be not peremptory, universally
extensive extending to all suits of all sorts, – if it be
not peremptory, but admitt of enlargement so as to let in
additional and extraordinary portions of delay in consideration of
extraordinary demands produced by the necessity of such extra
delays to prevent the exclusion of evidence – in that case
in in any individual instance any lot of evidence comes to the excluded,
the exclusion has for its cause, the refusal, whether on the
part of the legislator or on the part of the Judge, to allow
the quantum of extra delay necessary in that individual
instance to the admission of the such lot of evidence.

In this instance we see one of the examples so unhappily
abundant of the mischief which can not but come from every
attempt to effect information in the law by the powers
of judicature. The acknowledged duty of the Judge is to preserve keep
the law unchanged: the whatever confidence the people are capable of reposing
in in whatever security they conceive themselves to possess
for person property, reputation, liberty and condition in life depends
upon its being through to be so:⊞1 ⊞1 the pretence of adhering to preceding rules, when the object intention is to depart from them. By judicial authority no change therefore can ever
be made but by means of some false pretence⊞2 ⊞2 I mean not changed by the Judge; changed if at all by the legislator, and by him only by that power alone which no other never makes a change, without giving as it to the persons interested that kindly warning which is necessary to preserve them from the sensations of punishment and loss; which in
proportion as it is seen to be so, disgrace: the 1 law in the eye
of every intelligent spectator, and by the general sense of uncertainty
and insecurity which it improbates to diffuse, produces
a degree of mischief more than equivalent to the partial good which was the object of the change.

Identifier: | JB/047/084/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 47.
Date_1	1803-01-28	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	047	Main Headings	evidence
Folio number	084a "a" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 84.	Info in main headings field	evidence
Image	001	Titles	note continued
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	1800
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public		ID Number	14952
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