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Enormous length of each Sentence from containing the whole Preamble
as one member only occasioned by the introductory form of —
"Whereas" the Attention finding no pause is wearied out before
it gets to the end, & loses the beginning the Clause is protracted
to an immeasurable length breaks at last with it's own weight. To
remedy this if a Preamble is necessary & is to be inserted
(which should only be when the reason of enactment is not
obvious) It should precede in a separate Sentence in the
assertive not Parenthetical Style.
There are some conceptions so constituted, as not to have —
wind enough if one may so say, to go through many a Period
that occurs in the Statute Book — To change the Metaphor—
Of such length in many instances is the thread of the discourse
as to break by it's own with them weight before they can wind it off —
I speak feelingly on this Article: but I believe I am not singular:
use may have succeeded practice and the habit of in making that only difficult,
which only to some to others is impossible — I do conceive, let others judge
whether it is a vain imagination, that there are periods which
from this very circumstance, many thousands of those whom
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they concern are under an utter incapacity of apprehending: —
periods of which, if resolved into others in greater number but
of a moderate length, they might be perfect masters.
We may have by a kind of stealth, (as every transaction of those —
who are in trust for us, transpires to us for whom they are
in trust by a kind of stealth), a composition which all men
will be ready to acknowledge for a model of Style, a few because
they understand it's, & the rest because they
know the Author. I mean the opinion of the Court of King's —
Bench in the case of the King against Woodfall, deliver'd
by the L.d Ch: Justice at the Table of the House of Lords.note London Chronicle Decr 18-20. 1770 & to be met with in the Magazines of that — month
I should be glad to know whether that composition has less
of dignity, for being depurated from all Technical dross &
distributed into short and manageable sentences, nervous
Yet this is even argumentative. Where the business is to command
& not to argue concision conciseness is still more requisite & —
still more easily easy to be obtained
COMPOSIT. Stat. as Discourse
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There is nothing to hinderBut what ever modifications are thought proper to be annexed
to a proposition may be as well distributed into several
sentences where the number of them grows unwilling ieldy as —
piled up upon it in one. The Logical connection may subsist
unimpaired, tho' the Grammatical be dissolved.
A Statute 3.G.2.c.14 relative to the E. India Company has a Sentence in it which fills 3 of Ruffhead's pages: all recital but
16 lines. This is but a trifle in comparison of another 22.G.2.52
disposing of the estates of certain rebels for the benefit —
of Greenwich Hospital: no fewer than 13 of the same —
enormous pages are occupied by a single sentence.
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BR Length of Sentences.
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Identifier: | JB/070/077/001 "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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077 |
[[info_in_main_headings_field::composit. stat. as a discourse - [ ] length of sentences]] |
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001 |
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copy/fair copy sheet |
1 |
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recto |
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[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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23192 |
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