JB/091/034/001

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31 July 1806
Scotch Reform

Lawyers may be useful as regulators, not as mainsprings

On this occasion my Lord it is impossible for me not
to call to mind, and calling to mind not to lament not
to view with one eye approaching to despair, a practice
which seems to have passed grown into a maxim in both Houses.

A To Subject on the carpet, a matter of law say particularly belonging to the law of Procedure. Motion
or Notice of Motion to introduce a Bill. Good, says
somebody: but has it the approbation of the gentlemen of the
Long Robe? Answer in the affirmative, the plan goes on: let silence or If silence be the result or an answer in the
negative, there ends the measure plan a negative be the result, no more is heard of it, – good or bad. Out with it
says the leading man in office: out with it says everybody else.
Ask whether a Plan for the amendment of the law has question
put whether it has the amendments approbation of the long robe? Ask whether
a Plan for the defence of London, question whether it
has the approbation of Bonaparte. Plan for the abolition
of the Slave Trade – question whether it has the approbation of Liverpool
and the West Indies.

No: my Lord, the interests of France and Britain
are not near to opposite adverse, as the interests of the law man
of law professional and official and official on the one part and the interest
of the suitors – of the whole people of Great Britain and Ireland
in their character of suitors, on the other. Of the animosity hostility
between Great Britain and France a great part not to say
the whole is the result of passion prejudice and passion of
misconception on the point of interest: in many points in
which the interests are regarded by one or other party or both as opposite,
they are not opposite, and where they are opposite, they are not
irreconciliable.

But between the Suitor on one hand the one point, and the lawyer
on the other – the official as well as the professional lawyer
are under the present fee-collecting system – the professional under
any system – the opposition of interests is not partial and
reconcilable, but total and irreconcilable. More the Records
the book, more Vile more . The opposition of interests is
not greater between the sheep and the wolf than between the suitor and the man of law.

Plan a reform in the system of procedure and expect the approbation of the man of law
if it contribute anything do anything but in or for peace and quietness towards diminishing the vexation
expence and delay from to which his profit is more proportionable? Plan a sheep-pen
first, and expect the approbation of the from the wolf for it, if it be wolf-tight.

Identifier: | JB/091/034/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 91.
Date_1	1806-07-31	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	091	Main Headings	scotch reform
Folio number	034	Info in main headings field	scotch reform
Image	001	Titles	lawyers may be useful as regulators, not as mainsprings
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	29030
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