|
|
Front Page Titles (by Subject) SECTION II.: EQUITY SUITORS' PETITION FOR DISPATCH COURT. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, — - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3
SECTION II.: EQUITY SUITORS’ PETITION FOR DISPATCH COURT. To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, — - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 3 [1843]Edition used:The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 3.
About Liberty Fund:Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright information:The text is in the public domain.
Fair use statement:
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.
- Errata—vol. III.
- Defence of Usury; Showing the Impolicy of the Present Legal Restraints On the Terms of Pecuniary Bargains; In Letters to a Friend.
- Letter I.: Introduction.
- Letter II.: Reasons For Restraint—prevention of Usury.
- Letter III.: Reasons For Restraint—prevention of Prodigality.
- Letter IV.: Reasons For Restraint—protection of Indigence.
- Letter V.: Reasons For Restraint—protection of Simplicity.
- Letter VI.: Mischiefs of the Anti-usurious Laws.
- Letter VII.: Efficacy of Anti-usurious Laws.
- Letter VIII.: Virtual Usury Allowed.
- Letter IX.: Blackstone Considered.
- Letter X.: Grounds of the Prejudices Against Usury.
- Letter XI.: Compound Interest.
- Letter XII.: Maintenance and Champerty.
- Letter XIII.: To Dr. Smith, On Projects In Arts, &c.
- A Manual of Political Economy: Now First Edited From the Mss. of Jeremy Bentham.
- Chapter I.: Introduction. *
- Chapter II.: Analytical Survey of the Field of Political Economy.
- Chapter III.: Of Wealth.
- Chapter IV.: Of Population.
- Chapter V.: Of Finance.
- Chapter VI.: Operation of a Sinking Fund On the Production of Wealth.
- Chapter VII.: Noscenda.
- Observations On the Restrictive and Prohibitory Commercial System; Especially With a Reference to the Decree of the Spanish Cortes of July 1820.
- Preface.: Observations, &c.
- Section I.: Nature of the Prohibitory System.
- Section II.: Mischiefs of the Prohibitory System.
- Section III.: Causes of the Prohibitory System.
- A Plan For Saving All Trouble and Expense In the Transfer of Stock, and For Enabling the Proprietors to Receive Their Dividends Without Powers of Attorney, Or Attendance At the Bank of England, By the Conversion of Stock Into Note Annuities.
- Introduction.
- Chapter I.: Plan For the Creation, Emission, Payment, and Eventual Extension, of a Proposed New Species of Government Paper, Under the Name of Annuity Notes.
- Chapter II.: Form of an Annuity Note. (see Table II.)
- Chapter III.: Comparison of the Proposed, With the Existing Government Securities, &c.
- Chapter IV.: Grounds of Expectation, In Regard to the Proposed Measure.
- Chapter V.: Financial Advantages.
- Chapter VI.: Advantage By Addition to National Capital.
- Chapter VII.: Advantage By Addition to Commercial Security.
- Chapter VIII.: Particular Interests Concerned.
- Chapter IX.: Rise of Prices—how to Obviate.
- Chapter X.: Reduction of Interest—proposed Mode Compared With Mr. Pelham’s.
- Chapter XI.: Moral Advantages.
- Chapter XII.: Constitutional Advantages.
- Chapter XIII.: Recapitulation and Conclusion.
- Appendix A.: Government Ought to Have the Monopoly of Paper Money, As Well As of Metallic Money.
- Appendix B.: Paper Money—causes Why Not Circulated By Government Without Interest, As Well As By Individuals.
- General View of a Complete Code of Laws.
- Chapter I.: General Division.
- Chapter II.: Relations Between the Laws Concerning Offences, Rights, Obligations, and Services.
- Chapter III.: Relation Between the Penal and Civil Code.
- Chapter IV.: Of Method.
- Chapter V.: Plan of the Penal Code.
- Chapter VI.: Of the Division of Offences.
- Chapter VIII. Titles of the Penal Code.
- Chapter IX.: First General Title of the Civil Code, * of Things.
- Chapter X.: Second General Title of the Civil Code. of Places.
- Chapter XI.: Third General Title of the Civil Code. of Times.
- Chapter XII.: Fourth General Title of the Civil Code. of Services.
- Chapter XIII.: Fifth General Title of the Civil Code. of Obligations.
- Chapter XIV.: Sixth General Title of the Civil Code. of Rights.
- Chapter XV.: Seventh General Title of the Civil Code. of Collative and Ablative Events.
- Chapter XVI.: Eighth General Title of the Civil Code. of Contracts.
- Chapter XVII.: Ninth General Title of the Civil Code. of the Domestic and Civil States.
- Chapter XVIII.: Tenth General Title of the Civil Code. of Persons Capable of Acquiring and of Contracting.
- Chapter XIX.: Of the Particular Titles of the Civil Code.
- Chapter XX.: Of Elementary Political Powers.
- Chapter XXI.: Of Elementary Political Powers— Subject Continued.
- Chapter XXII.: Plan of the Political Code.
- Chapter XXIII.: Plan of the International Code.
- Chapter XXIV.: Plan of the Maritime Code.
- Chapter XXV.: Plan of the Military Code.
- Chapter XXVI.: Plan of the Ecclesiastical Code.
- Chapter XXVII.: Plan of Remuneratory Laws.
- Chapter XXVIII.: Of Political Economy.
- Chapter XXIX.: Plan of the Financial Code.
- Chapter XXX.: Plan of Procedure Code.
- Chapter XXXI.: Of the Integrality of the Code of Laws.
- Chapter XXXII.: Of Purity In the Composition of a Code of Laws.
- Chapter XXXIII.: Of the Style of the Laws.
- Chapter XXXIV.: Of the Interpretation, Conservation, and Improvement of a Code.
- Pannomial Fragments.
- Chapter I.: General Observations.
- Chapter II.: Consideranda.
- Chapter III.: Expositions.
- Chapter IV.: Axioms.
- Nomography; Or the Art of Inditing Laws: Now First Published From the Mss. of Jeremy Bentham.
- Chapter I.: The Subject Stated.
- Chapter II.: Relations.
- Chapter III.: Proper End In View.
- Chapter IV.: Imperfections Primary.
- Chapter V.: Explanations Relative to the Imperfections of the Second Order.
- Chapter VI.: Of Remedies. *
- Chapter VII.: Of Language.
- Chapter VIII.: Of the Perfections of Which the Legislative Style Is Susceptible.
- Chapter IX.: Of Forms of Enactment.
- Appendix. Logical Arrangements, Or Instruments of Invention and Discovery
- Equity Dispatch Court Proposal; Containing a Plan For the Speedy and Unexpensive Termination of the Suits Now Depending In Equity Courts. With the Form of a Petition, and Some Account of a Proposed Bill For That Purpose
- Section I.: Purpose Explained. Jeremy Bentham to the Honest and Afflicted Among Equity Suitors.
- Section II.: Equity Suitors’ Petition For Dispatch Court. to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, —
- Section III.: Dispatch Court Bill—some Account of It.
- Section IV.: Information Requisite From Petitioning Suitors.
- Equity Dispatch Court Bill: Being a Bill For the Institution of an Experimental Judicatory Under the Name of the Court of Dispatch, For Exemplifying In Practice the Manner In Which the Proposed Summary May Be Substituted to the So Called Regular Sy
- Editor’s Note.
- Preface.
- Preamble.
- Part I.—: Judiciary.
- Section I.: Judge Located, How.
- Section II.: Remuneration.
- Section III.: Registrar, &c.
- Section IV.: Eleemosynary Advocate.
- Section V.: Judges’, &c. Deputes.
- Section VI.: Judge’s Powers—exemptions—checks.
- Section VII.: Prehensors and Messengers.
- Section VIII.: Consignees; * Or Say, In-trust-holders.
- Section IX.: Grounds of Decision For the Dispatch Court Judge.
- Section X. ‡: Suits’ Comparative Suitableness; and Order of Cognizance.
- Section XI.: Auxiliary Judges and Accountants.
- Section XII.: Sittings, Times Of.
- Part II.—: Procedure.
- Section XIII.: Definitions. *
- Section XIV.: Examination of Solicitors.
- Section XV.: Initiatory Examination of Parties, &c.
- Section XVI.: Appropriate Intercourse, Constant and Universal, Secured.
- Section XVII.: Mutual Security For Forthcomingness of Persons and Things. ‡
- Section XVIII.: Evidence-procuring Money, How Provided.
- Section XIX.: Subsequential Evidence, How Elicited.
- Section XX.: Execution, How Performed.
- Section XXI.: Equity Court Costs, How Disposed Of.
- Section XXII.: Dispatch Court Costs, How Disposed Of.
- Section XXIII.: Eventual Retrotransference of a Suit to the Equity Court.
- Section XXIV.: Expense of the Court, How Provided For.
- Supplemental Sections:—
- Section I. Or XXV.: Bankruptcy and Insolvency.
- Section II. Or XXVI.: Henceforward Dispatch Court.
- Schedules to the Bill.
- Plan of Parliamentary Reform, In the Form of a Catechism, With Reasons For Each Article: With an Introduction, Showing the Necessity of Radical, and the Inadequacy of Moderate, Reform.
- Introduction.
- Section I.: History of the Ensuing Tract—alarming State of the Country and the Constitution.
- Section II.: Most Prominent Present Grievance, Gareisoning France.
- Section III.: Causes of the Above and All Other Mischiefs:—particular Interests Monarchical and Aristocratical, Adverse to the Universal—their Ascendency.
- Section IV.: Sole Remedy In Principle—democratic Ascendency.
- Section V.: Remedy In Detail: Radical Parliamentary Reform: Elementary Arrangements In This Edition of It—their Necessity.
- Section VI.: Differences Between This and the Original Editions of Radical Reform.
- Section VII.: Virtual Universality of Suffrage Further Considered.
- Section VIII.: Virtual Universality of Suffrage—its Undangerousness.
- Section IX.: Freedom of Suffrage Further Explained—seductive Influence—its Forms, Instruments, &c.
- Section X.: Bribery and Terrorism Compared.
- Section XI.: Purchase of Seats—in What Cases Mischievous—in What Beneficial.
- Section XII.: Secresy of Suffrage—its Importance Further Developed.
- Section XIII.: Exclusion of Placemen, &c. From the Right of Voting—mischievousness and Profligacy of the Opposite Arrangement.
- Section XIV.: Universal Constancy of Attendance—its Importance.
- Section XV.: Representatives—impermanence of Their Situation—its Importance:—objections—their Groundlessness.
- Section XVI.: Moderate Reform—its Arrangements—their Inadequacy.
- Section XVII.: Trienniality Inadequate;—annuality Necessary.
- Section XVIII.: Interests Adverse to Adequate Reform—support Given By Them to Moderate, to the Exclusion of Radical: Tories—whigs—people’s Men.
- Catechism of Parliamentary Reform; Or, Outline of a Plan of Parliamentary Reform; In the Form of Question and Answer; With Reasons to Each Article.
- Section I.: Ends to Be Aimed At On the Occasion of Parliamentary Reform.
- Section II.: Means, Conducive Towards These Ends.
- Section III.: Means—their Uses, With Reference to Their Respective Ends.
- Section IV.: Means Conducive to Aptitude In Members: I. Placemen Not to Vote, Nor to Be Seated By Election.
- Section V.: Means, &c. Continued.—ii. Placemen Seated By the King, With Speech and Motion, Without Vote.
- Section VI.: Means, &c. Continued.—iii. Elections Frequent—annual.
- Section VII.: Means, &c. Continued.—iv. Speeches Authentically and Promptly Published.
- Section VIII.: Means, &c. Continued.—v. Attendance, Punctual and General, Secured.
- Section IX.: Inconveniences Incident to Elections, and Election Judicature.
- Section X.: Election Inconveniences—means For Their Removal.
- Section XI.: Collateral Advantages, Referable to the Situations of Electors, Placemen, Lords, &c.
- A Sketch of the Various Proposals For a Constitutional Reform In the Representation of the People, Introduced Into the Parliament of Great Britain, From 1770 to 1812.
- Radical Reform Bill, With Extracts From the Reasons.
- Preliminary Explanations.
- Title of the Proposed Act.
- Preamble.
- Section 1.—: Seats and Districts.
- Section 2.—: Electors, Who.
- Section 3.—: Eligible, Who.
- Section 4.—: Election Offices.
- Section 5.: Election Apparatus.
- Section 6.—: Promulgation of Recommendations In Favour of Proposed Members.
- Section 7.—: Voters’ Titles Pre-established.
- Section 8.—: Election, How.
- Section 9.: Election Districts and Polling Districts, How Marked Out.
- Section 10.—: Vote-making Habitations, How Defined.
- Section 11.—: Members’ Continuance.
- Section 12.—: Vacancies Supplied.
- Section 13.—: Security For the House Against Disturbance By Members. †
- Section 14.—: Indisposition of Speakers Obviated.
- Appendix, Including General Explanations.
- Radicalism Not Dangerous. Extracted From the Mss. of Jeremy Bentham. *
- Part I.—: Introduction.
- Section I.: Radical Reform Bill Recapitulated.
- Section II.: Persuasion of the Dangerousness of Radicalism—cause of It, and of the Vituperative Expression Given to It.
- Section III.: Terms of the Accusation,—speeches From the Throne, 16 Th July and 21 St November 1819.
- Section IV.: The Accusation In General Terms—counter-averment.
- Section V.: Plan of This Defence.
- Part II.—: Deference From the General Nature of the Case.
- Section I.: Conditions Necessary to a Man’s Embarking In Such a Design.
- Section VII.: Concurrence In Any Other Extensive Plan of Spoliation Impossible.
- Section VIII.: Concurrence of Any Constituted Authorities Impossible.
- Section IX.: Accomplishment Impossible—design Impossible.
- Section X.: The Talked-of Spunge No Proof of the Design.
- Part III.—: Defence From Experience In the Case of the United States.
- Part IV.: Defence From Particular Experience In the Case of Ireland: Years 1777 Or 1778, to 1783.
- Section I.: Analogy Between This and the Previous Case.
- Section II.: Democratic Ascendency, How Produced.
- Section III.: Fruit of Democratic Ascendency a Golden Age.
- Section IV.: Coincidence of Its Characters With Those of Radicalism.
- Section VI.: Extinction of Democratic Ascendency and Reform—restoration of Monarchico-aristocratical Ascendency, and Its Consequences.
- Conclusion.
SECTION II.
EQUITY SUITORS’ PETITION FOR DISPATCH COURT.
To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty,—
The Petition of the Undersigned Persons, all of them Suitors in one or other of your Majesty’s Equity Courts;
Humbly Showeth,
1. That, in common with the rest of your Majesty’s English subjects, but in a more especial degree, we feel ourselves sorely aggrieved by the delay, expense, and vexation, by which obstruction is opposed to applications for justice in the superior courts in general, and above all, in the courts called Equity Courts.
2. That this obstruction is the result, not of the natural state of things, nor yet of any misconduct, with which the functionaries of justice, in these our times, are especially chargeable, but of that mode of remuneration for judicial service, which the rude state of society in the early ages, perhaps, necessitated.
3. That this grievance, though at all times so constant in existence and operation, in judicial practice,—has at all times stood prohibited by an express law, and that, the law styled by pre-eminence Magna Charta,—the very law which stands first in the statute-book, and has at all times been regarded and spoken of as the corner-stone of that constitution, by which the government of your Majesty’s kingdom has, at all times, been so highly distinguished, to its advantage, from all other monarchies.
4. That by the said statute, it is declared in express words as follows: Nulli differemus, nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus justitiam—we will not delay, we will not sell, we will not deny, justice to any one.
5. That in direct contravention of an ordinance and promise thus clear and express,—justice in your Majesty’s Equity Courts, has, at all times, by artificial devices, been delayed to all, without exception; sold to the comparatively few, who have been able to pay the extortious price, at all times put upon it (to which unhappy number belong we, whose names are hereunto subscribed;) and utterly denied to all who have been unable to come up to that price; to which last class belong the vast majority of your Majesty’s English subjects, not to speak of others.
6. That, for some generations, in and by your Majesty’s courts of justice, two essentially different forms, modes, or courses, of judicial procedure have been carried on, and acted under: the one called the regular, the other the summary: the regular mode having been, almost the whole of it, the work of a set of judges, who, all the time, have acknowledged and declared themselves incompetent to make law; the summary, the work of the only legislature of these your Majesty’s realms—the King, Lords, and Commons, in Parliament assembled.
7. That this course of procedure—the only one which has its foundation in acknowledged law—not only in the nature of it, shuts an effectual door against all factitious delay, expense, and vexation, but is, in a superior degree, not to say exclusively, calculated to ensure rectitude of decision: and is, accordingly, not a mere makeshift, but the only course really adapted to the purpose of giving execution and effect to that main part of the body of the law to which it is intended to give execution and effect—in a word, to the attainment of the ends of justice.
8. That the giving to us, your Majesty’s subjects, in all cases, the benefit of this exclusively apt course of procedure, would necessitate the revival of that all-comprehensive system of local judicatories, which had place in the days of our Saxon ancestors, and which (though traces of it still remain,) became virtually extinguished, by means of the Norman conquest: and, though ultimately, if administered as it ought to be, and might be, and substituted to the present so inadequate system of judicatories, the aggregate expense would even be reduced by it,—yet, in the first instance, a very considerable expense would be an indispensable preliminary to it.
9. That, antecedently to the disbursement of that extra expense,—an institution, which if practicable, would of course be highly desirable, is—one, by which the effects of the substitution of the summary system of procedure, when substituted to the equity mode, which is the most oppressive of all the modes of the regular system, might be rendered matter of experience: which experience obtained, either the supposed improvement will be shown to be impracticable, or a sufficient warrant will be given, for the expense necessary to the making a general application of it.
10. That we have seen a work, published under the title of Justice and Codification Petitions, by Jeremy Bentham; in which, by the name of The Dispatch Court, a description is given of a judicatory, by means of which an effectual trial might be made of the proposed summary system, with very inconsiderable expense, and without any arrangement produced in the case of any suit, other than the several individual suits, in which application will have been expressly made of it.
11. That, under the existing system, the interest of men of law being, for the most part, so unhappily, and, to no small extent, irreconcileably adverse to that of the rest of your Majesty’s subjects—the interest of men of law in general, but more especially of those among whom your Majesty would have to make choice of a judge for the proposed new court, and of those by whose advice and on whose recommendation such choice would, in ordinary course, have to be made,—we cannot, consistently with observation made of the universally-regulating principle of human action, entertain any the least hope of a successful issue to the proposed experiment, if the choice in this respect were made without some deviation from that same ordinary course.
12. That, a course, however, there is, by which—in a mode universally familiar and approved—a choice, satisfactory to us, and fully competent to the purpose, might be made without prejudice to your Majesty’s undisputed and indisputable royal prerogative—and without other sacrifice, than such of which precedents in abundance are already in existence.
13. That, accordingly, by the 9th and 10th of King William the Third, chapter the 15th, access to justice is provided, by means of judges, who, under the name of arbitrators, are chosen by the sole will of suitors, without any commission from, or cognizance of such choice taken by the sovereign of this realm: and, to the decrees of the occasional judges thus chosen, is the force of law accordingly given; though in a very inadequate manner, and to a very inadequate extent: owing to the adverse interest and irresistible power of the permanent judges of the superior courts.
14. That, in like manner, at divers times, and in divers places, originally under the name of Courts of Requests, and thereafter under the name of Courts of Conscience, courts officiating by the like summary course of procedure, have—each of them—by a statute made and enacted for the purpose, been established: and that, in the instance of none of them, in the choice or appointment of persons therein officiating as judges, has any part been given to be borne by your Majesty, or any of your Majesty’s royal predecessors.
15. That, confiding in your Majesty’s paternal goodness, and praying, as by these presents we humbly but earnestly do pray, that, in the appointment of a judge of the hereby-proposed Dispatch Court, the choice may, in the first instance, in this case, as in that of an Arbitration Court, as above, be made by suitors,—we desire not to exempt such choice from the controul of your Majesty’s paternal hand: on the contrary, it is our humble request, that, as often as made, any such choice shall be made subject to disallowance, by your Majesty’s royal negative.
16. That, accordingly, we further pray, that it may please your Majesty, to issue your Majesty’s royal proclamation,—declaring—that if, and so soon as it shall have pleased your Majesty in Parliament to institute a Court of the description above mentioned, with powers necessary and requisite for the giving execution and effect to the institution thereby established, your Majesty will be graciously pleased to appoint a place, at which we the undersigned and such other persons as may have successively added their respective signatures, may assemble, and then and there, in the way of ballot, make choice of a person to be appointed to that office; and, under and by virtue of your Majesty’s royal commission, to act under, and give execution and effect to, the powers thereof: subject, however, to your Majesty’s undisputed and indisputable royal negative, upon any person at any time so elected.
17. That, in the humble hope of such your Majesty’s gracious and compassionate compliances, we your Majesty’s afflicted subjects have hereunto subscribed our respective names, residences, and conditions in life in respect of marriage; prefixing in each instance the names of the suits in which we are suitors, as likewise the names of all the several other suitors, in such suit, and on which side thereof respectively, as far as known to us. Witness our hands—
|