Vol. II.] 
‘the determination, and the pleadings are 
fcarcely even: referred to'on the trial; and 
yet an error or miltake in the pleadings, 
may prove ah obftruction to the objects 
and purpofes of fubitantial juitice ; ~ be- 
fides that, they ferve greatly to enhance the’ 
“é€xpence. Now, as this is the cate, why 
thould not the parties, upon every occa-~ 
fion, be direCted to plead the general if- 
fue, and leave the inveftigation of the 
caule, as it in fact now is, eutitely to the 
court and jury which are to try it? 
“As my profefled object is civil jurif- 
“prudence, I forbear to notice the grofs ab- 
furdity, that a flav in an indiétment, an. 
error in language, fometimes accidental, 
but, Iam told, fometimes alio intentional, 
in the ‘clerk of the court, {hould com- 
pletely obftrudt and defeat the procefs of 
Juitice in'the profecution of an offender. 
TaiRDLY. From a total difregard to 
thele principles, refults not Only the wn- 
certainty, but the infolerable expence in 
obtaining juitice. I think I may fay, in 
every part of Europe, and ceitainly 
‘among ourtelves, Nulit wenttemus fuftice- 
am, 1s one ot the facred maxims of our 
Magna Charta; but furely, without any 
“Violation of language, or of deceiicy, (and 
Twifh to offend asainft neither) it may 
be faid, that wherever the expences of law 
fuits are fo enormous, that tione: but a 
very rich, or a very imprudent man, darés 
to engage in them; juitice is virtually 
bought and fold. 
It isa bate and trifling quibble of the 
-Demetrins’s of the law, that the great ex- 
pences of law fuits ferve to counteraé the 
fpirit of litigation. ‘Sach reafoning re- 
minds me of Muley Ihmael’s mode of 
preventing robberies, by extirpating the 
whole inhabitants of a country, men, wo- 
men, and children, where a- robbery was 
committed. Certainly, if the expences pf 
law-fuits are fuch as to diable a pocr 
man from fecking rédrefs, and to de- 
ter every application to the courts of juf- 
tice, except where the object is confider- 
able, the number of law-{uits, ‘upon arith- 
metical principles, muft be proportionably 
leffened. But in fuch a country, canjt be 
faid, that juftice is fairly and impartially 
adminiftered ; Let any penalties which 
the legiflature thai] dire&t, be laid upon the 
fuitor, who fhall continence a vexatious 
and malignant aétion, and let them be ¢n- 
forced at the difcretion of the court and | 
fury; butlet not the honeft piaintiff be 
_ deterred by the fhameful expence of ob- 
taining juitice, from bringing his wrongs 
“Retore the bax of his country. 
. 
a 
= 
Eads of an Effay on Civil Furifprudencer 
“danger of an honelt jury judging other- 
949 
I might indeed, turn the argument 
againf{ my oppotients, and I might fay, 
that ima country, where the expences of 
a law-{uit are fo enormous, ag when pro- 
tratted for any length of time, to beggar 
any man who is not very opulent, and 
where the taxed cofts, which are allowed, 
feldoni amount to a third part of the ac~ 
‘tual expences, the ftrorgeit inducement: is 
held forth to malicious perfons to compa 
mence a iuit upon trivolous pretexts.. 
I know raany perfons, who would ra- 
ther giveup a {mall matter of property 
_than rifk the expence and evils of a law- 
fuit, however unjaft the plea of the plain- 
tiff; and EF knew one melancholy initance 
in a filter kingdom, where, unhappily, 
there is rather more of a litigious {pirit 
than in this, in whieh an equity fuit (as 
it was called) was comnienced and carried 
on preécilely upon thefe diabolical princi- 
ples, and ended in the ruin of the unfor- 
tunate defendant and his family. 
This could not have been the cafe tig 
America, where, as Mr. Barlow ftates, 
the whoie expences ef a law-fuit amount _ 
to only ten foillizgs. : 
It is the expence of the daw whic: 
creates the great prievance of ‘out procef 
and imprifonment for debt. ‘The evil is 
not that a man, who has imprudently, 
and wickedly, perhaps, incurred a conft- 
derable debt to an induftricus tradefman, 
fuffers the lofs of liberty; but thata poor 
man, who, in the full profpect of being: 
able to pay, runs in debt to the amount. 
of a few guineas, but by the unwatrant- 
able expences of a law proce{s, which he 
is unable to avert, is involved in -cofts te 
the amount of at leaft few tines that fur’; 
is ruined and imprifoned, not by his own 
foily and injuttice, but by the folly and 
injuttice of the laws. es 
Gne chief caufe of this normous ex- 
pence, is the em ployment of advocates, or 
counlel; a body of men for which there 
could be no ufe, if the laws were only fim- 
plified and reduced to a fyftem. - Indeed, 
Tam imuch difpofed to queftion 'theit uti-- 
lity ‘in any ci cumftances. As far-as re. 
gards the examination of witnefics, ‘the 
perfon who. conduéts the fuit ought to be 
‘fully adequate, and evenfrom his prévious 
‘knowledge, more capable than a firanger. 
Avs to oratory, it never can be eflential to 
the inveitigation cf truth; and if it has 
any effect upon a trial, that effect muft be ~ 
a badone. If the truzh is fairly difplayed 
upon the face of the evidence, (and it ‘can 
come out no other way) furely there is no. 
wits 
