JB/047/094/001

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1804
Evidence

Among the many causes any one of which is sufficient to
render it impossible for a man, in the way of ex post facto law I mean
render the what is called common law incapable to fulfill of fulfilling
the ends of justice, one is the impossibility of drawing the incapacity he feels himself under
of demarcation any where. in that case, of drawing demarcation lines.

Honourable would it have been for the profession, and for the nation,
if it had been possible to cover an absurdity like this with the excuse of
negligence. But the attention of the legislature has been called to the subject
that is of a handful of lawyers in whose shares in all matters of law the faith of the legislature
is penned habitually and of course the attention of the oracles
of modern idolatory has been bestowed upon the subject, and the absurdity
is rivetted.

In Of this multitude of causes any one of which is sufficient, in
the way of ex post facto law (I mean the law of jurisprudence in English called Common
law) to render it impossible for wisdom itself to do tolerable justice, one the most common wisdom to do any thing like
compleat and constant justice is the incapacity it is under of drawing lines: I mean those lines of
demarcation by which on any ground, the quantity quantities to which a disposition of
law shall any kind is intended to extend extend are distinguished and separated from those to which
it is intended not to extend. A line for marking out The quantity of interest which shall operate
as a ground of exclusion (it being supposed that an interest shall in
any quantity be received as a ground for the exclusion of a witness)
may be mentioned as one in the innumerable multitude of those demarcation
lines. In a particular and very narrow case, so it had happened –
the doctrine of exclusion had operated in such a way as to shut out –
not precisely all witnesses whatsoever – but the flower of the flock – the class
selected on other occasions and universally recognized as the most trustworthy class of witnesses. I mean
housekeepers rated of sufficient a rank in point of opulence, to be rated to the
direct taxes imposed for the subsistence of the poor and other purposes. Occasion has
presented itself more than once of distinguishing from the rest that class of offences
(a distinct not the less important for not being to law to be found in law-books)
which striking at the body of the state together, without touching affecting any one individual
member more than the rest, finds no individual urged by interest to prosecute:
the consequence is that either the offence must be left unprosecuted for and unpunished,
or a reward must be provided, sufficient to create in the breast of this or
that

Identifier: | JB/047/094/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 47.
Date_1	1804	Marginal Summary Numbering	5-6
Box	047	Main Headings	evidence
Folio number	094	Info in main headings field	evidence
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d26 / e2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	john herbert koe	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	14962
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