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When the words are ill arranged, the mischief is the conveying from —
them no clear Idea, or the getting not conveying a clear idea but with difficulty,
or the conveying at last a wrong one - when they are well
arranged but ill chosen, it is presenting at once a wrong one.
trammels of Official pedantry quaintness It should not be a bugbear to him: he should love it as the
strong-hold of Innocence as well as not only fear it as the scourge of guilt.
He should reverence it, not with that indiscriminate universal terror
that increasing universal suspicion.
Where it should be feared terrible, it should be so in virtue of its
spirit, which while it speaks terror to the unjust, speaks comfort to
the just: not in virtue of it's Letter which by the mysterious
& affected form which it must have be invested with to have any —
separate effect becomes alike suspected & odious to all.
"It" should be used, & not "the same": not because the first
is intrinsically preferable to the second: but merely because
the use of it happens to be the most frequent: Men —
should be encouraged to draw near and listen to her
voice: which they will not do, when it is sounds harsh and barbarous.not more to the unjust to whom she would speak terror than to the just to whom she would speak peace
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To deviate from this laborious "ignoratis Juris potius
qium scientia" how much better soever the ends of the
Statutes might be provided for by such deviation than
by adherence, would be deemed a mark of inexperience
& incapacity: And were we to conceive imagine that some —
Layman by some extraordinary felicity of composition
had given to his draught such a degree of perfection
as to have provided for those ends, to the fullest possible
extent, it would still be thought necessary that
it should pass thro' the hands of some Lawyer, not
only for the sake of ensuring it's amplitude and —
precision it's expressing in terms not liable to misconception
all that is meant & all that it ought to mean
(purposes for which the inspection it is very rare that of men the profession
can ever be prudently dispensed with) but that
he may bed iron it out after his fancy from the Wardrobe with flounces & furbelows from the Statue Wardrobe
of fashionable inutilities & put it as the Phrase
is into legal Language.
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Parallel to this is the usage we so frequently read of in
the account of uncivilized nations among whom such is
the etiquette of the Court that is a Female to be dressed —
with propriety must load her legs with rings of Metal
one above another till she scarce can waddle: attired in
the serviceable simplicity of Nature she would only
be regarded with contempt.
It must be acknowledged that in this matter it
is often the Laity, corrupted as their ears are by
who are [more] immediately in fault: who observing verbosity
to be, in practice the perpetual accompaniment to legal
precision, learn to consider it as being so in the nature
of things to blame chargeable with the increase of these abuses: a prejudice which one easily sees it is no business of men of Laws to sole proficient in that . . . . . jargon to combat.
The savoiur of the Disk; where they should sound as from
the Throne
If it be thought necessary to give some distinction from — something whereby it shall be distinguished
common Speech ordinary language, there is a way by a certain structure of
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the sentence of giving it a solemnity of elevation after the
fashion of those passages which are so often to be met
with in our translation of the Sacred writings, not bought
at the expence of simplicity & consciousness.
It is with immaterial objects as with material: a certain
degree of indistinctness and obscurity is most consonant
to the sublime.
The cautious & penetrating anxiety descending to the —
minutest explanations & limitations, stepping up with
microscopic precision every inlet to abuse, which —
forms the characteristic of the Legislation of this Country
may be thought to oppose itself indeed in some degree to the Majesty of it's,
stile, which seeks to display itself & is best exemplified
in general & unrestricted aphorisms.
COMPOSIT. Stat. Singly as a discourse. General Idea [BR][]
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Identifier: | JB/070/065/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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of laws in general |
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065 |
composit. stat. singly - as a discourse. general idea |
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[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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