JB/091/062/001

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1 Febry 1807

But howsoever clear the benefit of competition may
be as between Court and Court, Judge and Judge, where so far
superior honour is the prize subject of it, where so far money is the subject,
the beneficial tendency of a competition is by no means
equally clear and out of doubt.

In an Where the matter to be referred at once to the test
of mere bare experience – that test to which men unused to the
labour of thinking, are so fond of referring everything without
further thought – the result would be very little in favour
of competition, in the present instance. Amongst the three great
Common Law Courts Westminster Hall a competition for money, a competition
tripartite, established itself. What was the result? That they
strive who which should do the business with least delay, vexation
and expence to the Suitors? Ah, no, my Lord. Was this
the bonus that the King's Bench offered to the plaintiff in a civil cause, to engage
him to present his demand to that Court, instead of the Common
Pleas to which the Parliament had allotted it? did it
say to him, come you two, you and the Defendant, face to
face, and we will do right to you, as often as it can be done
without further evidence, instanter and on the spot? No, my Lord,
that would have knocked up the trade of both the shops, and
left nothing worth stooping for to be got by either.

What then was the bonus offered and accepted? It was the
jus nocendi – the faculty of oppressing the adversary: Come to it was the liberty
of the subject that those Judges the Court sold to as many as they could engage
to purchase it. Come to us If you have a quarrel with owe a spite to a man
come to us, and whether he owes anything to you or no, say he does, and come to a
Clerk in our office, for we ourselves must not see either of you nor know anything
about the matter, we will give you or one of us will sign our names to a piece of parchment, that shall your adversary throw him
into a Jail, after which in which he will remain to the
end of his life, or get out sooner, as it may happen.

Identifier: | JB/091/062/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 91.
Date_1	1807-02-01	Marginal Summary Numbering	or 3 - or 4
Box	091	Main Headings	scotch reform
Folio number	062	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	29058
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