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21
mere ground of vicinity take upon him to give such relief,
would, (except so far forth as, in the present instance in
particular, he may stand justified by the recent Act of
Parliament) act unconstitutionally & against law.
In vain would it be urged, that, though the persons commissioned
for that purpose happened to be persons standing
already invested with the character of Judges, they did
not act as such, they did not act in their judicial character,
nor according to judicial forms; and that therefore their
particular decision in this particular instance can not, as
in other instances where decisions are given by the 12
Judges, form a precedent capable of entering into the
composition of general law.— Such distinction would be
a mere subtlety: It was not by their private names, but
by their names of office that these Magistrates were appointed:
they were appointed because they were the 12 Judges,
and chosen for a purpose deemed competent to the cognisance
of the 12 Judges. If they did not sit & confer in public,
it was because in many cases it is not the custom for the
12 Judges to sit & confer in public. If they did not
hear particular evidence, as evidence is heard in trials, it
was because it is not in any case the custom for the 12
Judges so to hear evidence, and because the matter of
fact, as much as could be in the least useful for the
purpose of guiding their decision, was in its own nature
too notorious to stand in need of particular evidence.
View was the only evidence that could teach any thing; &
Identifier: | JB/118/118/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 118.
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118 |
panopticon |
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118 |
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001 |
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copy/fair copy sheet |
4 |
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recto |
d21 / d22 / d23 / d24 |
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see note to letter 988, vol. 5 |
39172 |
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