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PERSPICUITY. Ben.f of Clergy.
NOMENCLATURE
To consider resolve the manoeuvres of the Legislation our Lawyers on this head; one should be almost to
suppose them to have approved conceived, that the perfection of the Laws consisted in their obscurity.
& to have pleased themselves regaled themselves with the thoughts that nobody should know what they were
doing. One4 is5 led6 under1 this2 Idea3 to admire the successful Industry they have exertd
and how they have envelopped [every where] their path in clouds.
When after a sleep of many Centuries they open'd their eyes to the injustice & absurdity
of this privilege, exemption & resolved to abolish it, they made as if they render'd it universal
I mistake, they did not at first resolve to abolish it altogether: but in female wrong reign,
persons of th the tender Sex, the only one persons to which it should ever have been granted if at all, was
the only one marked out to be excluded. In the next, by another & final extension,
the abolition was compleated. At present; now that it subsists no longer, by a strong design a we continue
to take it away every day. + + One cannot help thinking here of the Fox we are told by some naturalists who walks backwards, that his course may seem, the contrary to what it is, to his Hunters. This Animal is in this instance, the Emblem of the Legislature.
We reap the fruits of all this care, & tho' we have punishments, & enough, &
severe enough, & names further yet is there not that
man in ten thousand who knows what they mean.
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Stand in a Street for an Hour, & ask every man you meet, what is Felony? Not one
shall you find who can give an answer. [+] Perhaps some will tell you it is Transportation; & that is commonly the the conception they have of it if when they have any. It is however no such thing. Felony may be without Transportation, & Transportation may be without Felony. What is Felony without benefit of Clergy?
"It is Law — Gibberish for hanging". And What else? — why what else should it there be [they will
answer you, is not that enough?"
All this while If there is a part of the whole System of Legislation susceptible of simplicity, perspicuity it is this.
this
It is a cruel thing, absurdity that this part of the Law than which nothing might as well as
ought to be more plain, should continue to the last a riddle: a true Sphynx's riddle
which a man, may pay, with for not solving, with his life.
COMPOSIT. Stat. singly — as a discourse. [BR][ ][ ] Choice of Words. FICTION. Benefit of Clergy.
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Identifier: | JB/070/066/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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070 |
of laws in general |
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066 |
perspicuity benf. of clergy nomenclature composit. stat. singly - as a discourse - choice of words - fiction benefit of clergy |
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<…> |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::j honig & zoonen [lion with vryheyt motif]]] |
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