JB/058/420/001

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17 May 1805
Evidence

In this state of things, an amusing enough exhibition, is
that which on an occasion of parade is every now and then made
by Judges, at the expence of that class of Lawyers whose
destiny distinction on those occasions is to serve as -goats to the rest.
On those occasions the mischiefs produced by abomination of chicane male-practice are not dissembled:
but to what cause source are they referred? never to an
instructive, always to an illusory a fallacious one: never to the system,
always ever to this or that one of the individuals having been formed who are have been formed by
it and act under it. From beginning to end The whole system so far as it has
had either object or instrument, has had for its object professional
plunder, and for its instrument the encouragement of mendacity.
You continue in their hands the means of plunder,
and you are grieved and shocked to see them used all astonishment that they should be used: you see
Sugar put into men's mouths, and you are all astonishment to
find it melt there.

Under your very eye, could the degrady of it stoop to look so low,
at your feet lie tribunals in plenty, in not one of which does exerts so much as a particle of that abuse exist,
of which that system
at the contemplation of which
you are thus shocked, and
of which that system you
have all along been employed
in the administration
of, is composed. The
self-same cause the decision of which
would, in your way of administering
what you call
justice would cost £40 a
side and much more, is
there decided for a tenth part
as many shillings: decided,
and with such a degree
of security against misdecision,
beyond comparison
greater than
any which it is in your
power to give.

Of all the abuses of which the existing system is composed
not one, (it may be asserted without rashness) owes its rise to
any Judge or Judge's now sitting or even to any Judge that any
man can remember to have seen sitting on any of the great benches. Not
if works were to be ascribed is there whose conduct has contributed
most to their actual existence, whatever abuses may be found to
exist may with more justice be ascribed to the most upright
among Judges than to the most profligate among Attornies: Towards
reducing the amount of the mischief the utmost that the Attorney could
have done would have been the forbearing to contribute his own individual
and microscopic share: whereas could any such activity
be looked for with any colour of reason be rationally expected, an effectual foundation for the removal
of the whole mountain might be laid by the exertions of a single
Judge. — In deploring with so much pathos the effects of the
system, did it ever happen to you to let drop so much as a hint
about the cause? Does the mention of it ever pass your lips Is it ever spoken of by you, but for the purpose
of leaving men us convinced of its all perfection, and blind to its defects?

Identifier: | JB/058/420/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 58.
Date_1	1805-05-17	Marginal Summary Numbering	7-8
Box	058	Main Headings	evidence
Folio number	420	Info in main headings field	evidence
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	1800
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public		ID Number	19089
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