JB/091/284/001

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26 Jany 1808

Here then for the purpose of causing men to be put
to death, for this purpose all men without distinction, the most ignorant
included not excepted are supposed not only to be apprized of the existence of
the law by which the being thus dealt with is made
the consequence of the act of cutting accompanied with
the bad intentions therein described – apprized of its existence,
and to the effect in question – apprized of the meaning
of the several words by which it stands expressed of which it is composed, the words
cut and cutting among the rest. But when for the
purpose of sitting in judgment on an accusation charging
a man with having committed this forbidden act of this
description, a man of a class superior superior to the bulk of the community in point respect of
condition of life and the portion of knowledge naturally
attached to it, and on account of such presumed superiority
selected, is placed in the situation of a Judge, then
it is that because he is not not being a professionally
bred lawyer Judge, he is regarded by those who are professionally
bred judges, as a man incapable of understanding
and not fit to be trusted with pronouncing what it
is that cutting is the words cut and cutting mean. That the individual accused has
been guilty of offending against this law by which on pain
of death the act of cutting is when accompanied with the
evil intentions in question made a capital offence is what
they are indeed permitted to decide: but the act of word cutting being
one of the number of the words employed in the law, and the question
concerning the import of it being accordingly a question
of law, and professionally bred lawyers the only persons capable qualified
of understanding to decide on questions of law, and the Jurymen none of them
professionally bred lawyers thence it is that their having pronounced
the accused guilty of the act of cutting accompanied with
the evil intentions in question is not a sufficient warrant for decreeing him guilty.

Identifier: | JB/091/284/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 91.
Date_1	1808-01-26	Marginal Summary Numbering	7 continued, 8
Box	091	Main Headings	scotch reform
Folio number	284	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e19
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	29280
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