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3 June 1805
Evidence
In all these maxims and devices and maxims of lawyercraft,
there is nothing but what has been long ago observed in priestcraft:
to whatever purpose applied the arts of imposture will
ever be the same. I speak of priestcraft in general, without independently
of any particular applications: the existence of priestcraft
is recognized by some men even in priests of their own religion,
and by every man in the priests of any religion that is not his
own. Imposture in lawyers has been no less busy nor less
successful than in priests, yet priestcraft has for ages been
the object of invective: while lawyer-craft has been till now been
without a name.
When in any country, in any line walk of science or pretended
science, things are in such a state, that the function of public
instruction is become an object of monopoly in to a single hand,
the policy of that one individual is the policy of the whole class,
a single work a single book will in this case afford exemplifications of it, sufficient for the purpose may
be found, in the compass of a single book work. which In England,
in this situation state has this branch of public instruction been in the
hands of Blackstone for more almost half a century these 40 years. In the hands
of that one potter, the governing part of the public mind, has
been so much clay for all that length of time.
His is the only law-book read by lettered liberally educated men of all classes.
The labour of reading this one law book is the price at which men think
to purchase to be put of, an exemption from the obligation of looking into any
other. Other law books in countless and numbers, are written by lawyers
for the use of lawyers – No more books with None of them are looked into
by any man who has not the misfortune to be forced to it obliged to study them
who has not duress to plead for it.
Identifier: | JB/058/143/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 58.
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1805-06-03 |
3-4 |
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058 |
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143 |
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jeremy bentham |
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18812 |
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