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TURNP. ACT. New. Prelud.
Previous Publication.
Some of these observations may give room to think, that
in a country like this where the good of the community
is the avowed end of every thing that is done, & they
who have are specially intrusted with power to consult it, are
not the only all who persons who may have the ability, disposition Legislative
establishments regulations might not in some instances, [not]
lose nothing any thing not lose in their execution inspection by being submitted to the examination
of the public [at large, before their consummation completion.]
especially in matters
not exposed to the
ferment of
Conclusion
If any of the ensuing hints should give a check prove in any degree to the
Hydra of voluminousness which infuses new added venom
into pernicious Laws, & swallows up the benefit of
the wisest best, (un)told (if ever) I [can] gather strength
to attach it more in form, [no pains that it can I shall not deems my pains
have cost me will be] unpaid
Blandim.
They only alone can form have an adequate Idea of the
merit of doing what has been done, who are acquainted
with the extent & intricacy of the subject, & the numerous
difficulty ties that arises spring up out of from the necessary Formulation
of Legislative Procedure: or can well thoroughly understand
how unfair unjust it would be to conclude against the existence
of that merit, from observations if true,
that much many things yet remaining undone, & many that
had better have been done otherwise.
distant & dispassionate
observer
No true Copy —
why?
For example, if it be true (& it is mainly so) that
the description of Beasts of Draught varies in every Section,
of the original without being compleat in any; it is plain, that
no Section in the new draught which exhibits
it compleat, can be a true copy of that to which
it corresponds.
The same impossibility of exactness results
from the assuming an uniform plan for the
presenting of the Imprisonment as succedaneous possible renderingsuccedaneous or succedaneums
to the Forfeiture — & so of in other instances.
so neither
Then can the 1st Article of the ... [Carrier's] Section
which I have limited as to the provisions of the
act which it
to which it subjoins
an exception in its operation on the act affects
according to my conception of what was intended be a true
representation of the correspondent one and the original
which stands unlimited.
III Plan a regular admissible in a Statute
who could can not do his
duty, but he must
shew that the Legislative
has not done
in whom might every mistake
would must add to the defects of the
original tho' his no sagacity
could correct can is able to repair them
who if he mends a flaw
which they have left
open, does as bad
which they had not made
if he made one: who
in his for abbreviated
if he confines himself
the making of substitutions
to such alterations as
are unquestionably
identicals does can do nothing
who yet if he employs adopts
any that are not so,
must instead without notice & who, if
he gives notice of it
must enter into ,
which destroy the very end he is
pursuing
the only merit property, that
of conciseness which for which
he is consulted.
he can possess.
Yet surely it must be confessed, that if obedience
be the end of Legislation every Law, and understanding be necessary
to obedience, nothing that can contribute to this
latter intelligibility purpose [that is in the power of the Legislature]
is above the its dignity of the Legislature, or beyond its Duty,
that is within its power.
One would be apt to suppose imagine [& one should conclude
did were not the Force of Custom in matters of this nature [pertaining
to Government account to for every paradox thing that...
may seem extraordinary ....................................................
.............................................................................]
from observing the extreme penury of all those
assistances Mechanical (as I may term them) as well as Logical, which
[the industry of ingenious] men has apply to invented for compositions
on every all other subjects, in which the Legislature
has been accustomed to leave those whom it
engages to the study of its own that it was understood, that Command
alone & not Instruction was its province
that to such was a
distinct & subaltern
department
that it command its
dignity honour to be obscure
that it stood not with its
dignity to step aside
out of its constant course to
sense a prompting: that its
were to be Oracles: that if they wanted
explanation interpretation there were those appointed for the purpose
(who indeed can chastise an error indeed but cannot prevent
it) the Courts of Law: that if this were not enough
there was any man whom his distress distress, & bread by a Book
seller would summon
to the office: whose
name (if it
) is not seldom known nor
is any sanction when it
is known.
Suppose an Instrument, authenticated by the Stamp from the supreme
power of Legislation, composed precisely in that way method,
which he who, was [being] best qualified for the task, should and
choose assume for the purpose of introducing a reader
to the knowledge of a Law an Act [put together upon
the present model:] the appearance would indeed be novel,
but would it be improper?
Indeed where the business
Not that the same strict method is to be thought of for
every hasty addition which the exigencies of the times require
to be made to extensive & uncollected Titles, in many
instances it might be neither practicable nor useful.
But when a Digest is undertaken announced, & a solid &
permanent separate fabric is to be enacted, & that upon the ruins of a former
consistent is promised then it is that something
more towards the improvement arrangement of a Chaos is
expected, than the bare bringing of its scattered
: together: then at least it is that Order Brevity, & every
art of Indication may have place.
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