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We would almost imagine that Swift had our
method of Statute making in view, when he
when he introduces his hero to the art writing of philosophers whose of Laputa. There is an ingenious custom in Laputa — at least there was when Capital Gulliver was on his visit to that country
brings his hero to a place where Among these injurious personages the method
of conversation is to substitute the things themselves
in the room of the vocal signs commonly
used to represent them: and each person going out about
his concerns with his budget of ideas upon his back:
If he has occasion to talk with his Butler
about a leg of mutton, he has nothing to do but
to produce another leg of Mutton wh with which
he takes care to come provided himself for the purpose.
Sun or Moon one might as well like abolishing pronouns and conjunctions copulative
Thus it is with our Statute-makers. If in
making one Statute a man has occasion to
speak of a clause of another Statute, what
does he? call it by it's title? no — for it has
no title describe it? no. for it is indescribable.
[+] [+]he sets down very coolly: he takes pen Ink and paper, & he repeats it very exactly copies it from the the beginning
to the to the end. This I mean is the way when a man piques
himself upon being exact exactness. In common uses
he has nothing left for it but to say, that speak of what
was done, whatever it was, as having been done
---page break---
by a clause in such an act: leaving those
whom it may concern to find out what
clause it is (not always the pleas easiest any
more than the pleasantest where there are
fourscore or a hundred Sections or so in it) as they can. are able.
The form of it is thus in this wise + + stands runs thus
Whereas in and by an Act (I pass by 2
or 3 lines of verbiage) entitled so & so (then
follows the Title which would fill perhaps an 8vo page)
it was enacted so and so (then comes the
whole Sense which Section equal perhaps to half-a-dozen 8vo pages)
"be it enacted" thus & thus. This perhaps
to put an a instead of a "the", or an "or"
instead of an "and".
Sometimes The sentence in which contains last but one in which I have been giving the outline The outline I have given (I mean the sentence before the last
have been giving an outline of the matter
may perhaps be thought full long enough: one may
imagine what sort of a figure a sentence [it] makes
that is some 50 or a hundred times as long the length of it.
One may imagine where a plain man's
wits are by the time he has got to the
end of it.
---page break---
Perhaps the Act cited was a Hodge-Podge
Act. There is not such another opportunity
for those a man who loves variety of reading. One
has a story about ten or a dozen different
sorts of things in the middle of another
story. There is nothing that is imaginable one can imagine
that one he may not meet with in [one of]
these agreable digressions. Ovid's Metamorphosis or Schehedarazade A Sultan
is desired by a Dervise to put dip his hand finger
into a cup of water — he does accordingly,
& falls into a trance. He travels into a
far country is reduced to poverty, turns
woodcutter for subsistence. Marries &
has 7 children — he recovers and finds
his friend the Dervise with the water
not yet run out of the cup which he had
overset.
COMPOSITION. Stat Interlacement by [BR][ ] Recital.
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Identifier: | JB/070/109/001 "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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109 |
composition stat interlacement by recital |
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001 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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23224 |
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