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• Scotch Reform; Considered With Reference to the Plan Proposed In the Late Parliament, For the Regulation of the Courts and the Administration of Justice In Scotland: With Illustrations From English Non-reform: In the Course of Which, Divers Imperfectio
• Advertisement.
• Letters to Lord Grenville, On the Proposed Reform In the Administration of Civil Justice In Scotland.
• Letter I.
• Letter II.: Proposed Division of the Court of Session.
• Letter III.: Proposed System of Pleading.
• Letter IV.: Proposed Trial By Jury.
• Letter V.: On the Bill Called Lord Eldon’s.
• Summary View of the Plan of a Judicatory, Under the Name of the Court of Lords’ Delegates, Proposed For the Exercise of Those Judicial Functions, the Adequate Discharge of Which By the Whole House Has, For These Six Or Seven Years, Been Rendered Confe
• The Elements of the Art of Packing, As Applied to Special Juries, Particularly In Cases of Libel Law.
• Advertisement to the First Edition.
• Part I.
• Chapter I.: Occasion of This Work.
• Chapter II.: Juries—their Use As a Check to Judges.
• Chapter III.: The Check How Done Away By Influence.
• Chapter IV.: Special Juries, a Special Engine of Corruption.
• Chapter V.: Jury Unanimity Increases the Corruption.
• Chapter VI.: Purposes to Which Influence On Juries May Be Made Subservient.
• Chapter VII.: Chief Purpose, Crushing the Liberty of the Press.
• Chapter VIII.: The Exchequer Packing Office Suffices.
• Chapter IX.: Instruments For Crushing the Liberty of the Press.
• Chapter X.: Want of Adequate Obsequiousness Morally Impossible.
• Chapter XI.: Such Juries Worse Than None.
• Part II.: State of the Packing System, Anno 1808.
• Chapter I.: Introduction—two Reforming Shrievalties.
• Chapter II.: The Sheriff to the Lord Chief Baron—notices.
• Chapter III.: Lord Chief Baron to Sheriff Sir Richard Phillips—avowries and Defences.
• Chapter IV.: Observations On the Lord Chief Baron’s Defences.
• Chapter V.: Special Jury Corruption—devices By Which It Was Protected.
• Chapter VI.: Learned Advice From the Temple.
• Chapter VII.: Advice From Lincoln’s-inn.
• Chapter VIII.: Maxims Concerning Reform, Deduced From the Above Letter.
• Chapter IX.: Transactions At the Remembrancer’s.
• Part III.: State of the Packing System, Anno 1809.
• Chapter I.: Commons’ Debate, 24 Th April 1809. Packing and Cutting.
• Chapter II.: Double-fee Abuse, Plain and Embroidered.
• Part IV.—: Remedies Proposed. *
• Chapter I.: Humble Proposal For Restoring the Constitution In Regard to Juries.
• Chapter II.: State of Jury Package In Scotland.
• Chapter III.: Humble Proposal For Restoring the Authority of Parliament.
• “swear Not At All:” Containing an Exposure of the Needlessness and Mischievousness, As Well As Anti-christianity of the Ceremony of an Oath: a View of the Parliamentary Recognition of Its Needlessness, Implied In the Practice of Both Houses; a
• Advertisement.
• Editor’s Note
• Swear Not At All. Mat. V. 34.
• Section 1.: Oath. Incongruity of the Assumption, On Which Its Supposed Beneficial Efficiency Is Grounded.
• Section 2.: Mischievousness of This Instrument Considered In a General Point of View.
• Section 3.: Its Inefficiency In the Character of a Security Against Deceptious Incorrectness and Incompleteness In Evidence.
• Section 4.: Recognition of Its Inutility By Lords and Commons.
• Section 5.: Mischiefs —1. Contributing to the Mendacity-licence Granted By Judges.
• Section 6.: Mischief 2— Weakening In Various Ways the Efficiency of the Laws.
• Section 7.: Mischief 3— Bewildering and Enslaving the Consciences of Jurymen.
• Section 8.: Mischief 4— Giving Aid and Force to the Enterprises of Malefactors.
• Section 9.: Mischief 5— Furnishing Pretence For Misrule By Abuse of Prerogative.
• Section 10.: Misrule, How to Perpetuate—coronation Oaths Amended.
• Section 11.: Mischief 6— Corrupting the National Morals and Understanding—oxford University Oaths.
• Section 12.: Mischief 6 Continued. —ii. Cambridge Oaths.
• Section 13.: Practice of Receiving Judicial Oaths, Its Repugnancy to the Precepts of Jesus.
• Section 14.: Succedanea—true Securities Substitutible to This False One.
• Section 15.: Cause and Origin of the Practice In Regard to Oaths.
• Appendix.
• Truth Versus Ashhurst; Or, Law As It Is, Contrasted With What It Is Said to Be.
• The King Against Edmonds and Others: Set Down For Trial, At Warwick, On the 29 Th of March 1820.
• The King Against Sir Charles Wolseley, Baronet, and Joseph Harrison, Schoolmaster, Set Down For Trial, At Chester, On the 4 Th of April 1820.
• Official Aptitude Maximized; Expense Minimized: As Shown In the Several Papers Comprised In This Volume.
• Paper I.—
• Paper II.—: Introductory View, &c.
• Paper III.—: Extract From the Proposed Constitutional Code; Entitled, Official Aptitude Maximized—expense Minimized. By Jeremy Bentham, Esq. Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn.
• Paper IV.—: Supplement to the Above Extract.
• Paper V.—: Defence of Economy Against the Right Honourable Edmund Burke.
• Paper VI.—: Defence of Economy Against the Right Honourable George Rose.
• Paper VII.: Observations On Mr. Secretary Peel’s House of Commons Speech, 21 St March 1825, Introducing His Police Magistrates’ Salary Raising Bill, ( Date of Order For Printing, 24 Th March 1825.)
• Paper VIII.: Indications Respecting Lord Eldon, Including History of the Pending Judges’-salary-raising Measure.
• Paper IX.—: On the Militia.
• Paper X.: On Public Account Keeping.
• Paper XI.: Constitutional Code—table of Contents As Shown By Titles of Chapter and Sections.
• Commentary On Mr. Humphreys’ Real Property Code, By Jeremy Bentham. From the Westminster Review, No. XII., For October 1826.
• *∗* the Following Note Was Prefixed to the Article By the Editor of the Westminster Review: —
• Commentary On Humphreys’ Real Property Code.
• I.: Deed of Sale.
• II.: Deed of Mortgage. 1
• III.: Marriage Settlement Deed.
• Outline of a Plan of a General Register of Real Property: Contained In a Communication to the Commissioners Appointed Under Letters Patent, of Date the 6 Th June 1828, to Inquire Into the Law of England Respecting Real Property, and First Printed I
• Justice and Codification Petitions: Being Forms Proposed For Signature By All Persons Whose Desire It Is to See Justice No Longer Sold, Delayed, Or Denied: and to Obtain a Possibility of That Knowledge of the Law, In Proportion to the Want of Which T
• Justice and Codification Petitions.
• Advertisement.
• Preliminary Explanations Necessary to Be First Read.
• Petition For Justice.
• Abridged Petition For Justice.
• More Abridged Petition For Justice.
• Supplement, Which May Be Added Or Not to Any One of the Three Or Any Other Proposed Petition.
• Petition For Codification.
• Lord Brougham Displayed: Including I. Boa Constrictor, Alias Helluo Curiarum; II. Observations On the Bankruptcy Court Bill, Now Ripened Into an Act; III. Extracts From Proposed Constitutional Code.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Contained in the present publication are three papers:—

Paper the first, Proposed Petition for Justice, at full length.

Paper the second, Proposed Petition for Justice in an abridged form.

Paper the third, Proposed Petition for Codification.

I. Petition for Justice at full length. Parts of it these:—

Part I. Case made:—Grounds of the hereby proposed application to the House of Commons: inaptitude, to wit, of the existing system of judicial procedure, with reference to its alleged and supposed ends, as also of the judicial establishment occupied in the application of it: proofs, the several heads and instances of abuse and imperfection, which are accordingly brought and held up to view.

Part II. Prayer consequent:—Remedy proposed, for the disorder composed of those same abuses and imperfections.

Prayer, its parts,—

Part 1. Outline of the proposed judicial establishment.

Part 2. Outline of the proposed system of procedure. Model, the domestic system: that, to wit, which is pursued of course by every intelligent father of a family, without any such idea as that of its constituting the matter of an art or science: sole difference the necessary enlargement and diversification, correspondent to the difference in magnitude between the two theatres.

II. Petition for Justice in an abridged form. Parts of it these.—

Part I. Abridgment of the case part of the full-length petition.

Part II. Prayer part. Matter of it the same, word for word, as that of the full-length petition: reference accordingly sufficient; repetition, needless.

Reasons for the two different forms, these:

1. In the full-length petition, number of the pages, as will be seen 207. Cumbrous would an instrument of this length be, if presented in the only form in which it would be received,—cumbrous, and that to such a degree, that its bulk might of itself be found an insurmountable obstacle to its being carried about for signature. This form is—that of a roll of parchment, composed of skins tacked on, one to another; length, whatever is necessary for receiving the signatures, in addition to the matter of the petition.

2. Compared with that of the abridged instrument, the expense of the operation of engrossing would of itself be a serious obstacle.

3.Readers in greater numbers—readers and thence signers, may of course be expected for the shorter than for the longer instrument: to each reader the two will here present themselves for choice.

For reading, the instrument presented to a person looked to as disposed to promote the design, will be of course a printed copy of this work. In this way it is perusable by any number of persons at the same time; while, if there was no other copy than the above-mentioned roll, years might elapse before this instrument could pass through the number of hands in succession, to each of whom a single day might suffice for the persual of a copy of it.

III. Petition for Codification. Intimately connected is the subject-matter of this petition with that of the petition for justice. No otherwise than by codification can the reform here prayed for—or any effectual reform in any shape—be carried into effect. A petition, in the terms here seen, having been honoured by the approbation of Mr. O’Connell, has by that gentleman, as a letter of his informs the author of these papers, been put into the hands of the Catholic Association for the purpose of its being circulated for signatures.

Of this publication—the ultimate object being the engaging Parliament to take into consideration the subject matter of it, the immediate and instrumental object is, the engaging individuals to concur, by their signatures, in the endeavour to induce Parliament to take the desired course.

Persons looked to for signatures, who? Answer: Every person, in whose breast any such desire has place as that of seeing made, in relation to any subject-matter touched upon by it, any change not looked for by him from any other source: any change whatsoever, be the complexion of it ever so different from, or ever so opposite to, that of the change here proposed.

What? (says somebody)—co-operation expected from persons entertaining desires directly opposite? Yes, even from them. How so? Because, supposing Parliament taking the matter into consideration,—to each person, for the seeing such his own desires gratified, would thus be afforded a chance, such as he would not possess otherwise.

But if, at the hands even of persons entertaining opposite views and wishes, such co-operation may not unreasonably be expected, with how much stronger assurance may it be expected at the hands of persons whose views and wishes are more or less in accordance with what is here endeavoured at?

Now as to the ground of expectation in regard to Parliament. This is the distinctive character of the present work, presenting, as it does, in addition to the statement, and that an all-comprehensive one, of the alleged disorder, a proposed remedy. So far as regards the mere disorder, the work is an operation, an easier than which could not easily be found: at no time can any hand be incompetent to it. While, in any such task, as that of the exhibition of a remedy so much as approaching to co-extensiveness with the disorder, no ground appears for supposing any other hand at present engaged,—or, without invitation, likely in any way to engage.

This or none, such alone is the option presented to every person on whose part any disposition has place to employ his signature in applying to the disorder its sole possible remedy. To wait till a draught to this extent presented itself, to no part of which he saw anything to object, would be to wait till the end of time!

In regard to codification, included in the object of this publication, is, it will be seen, not only the presenting to view the fruit of the author’s own labours, but the engaging other candidates in the greatest number obtainable in the same, so supremely and all-comprehensively important, service.

Nor to this purpose is the same sanction of authority altogether wanting. By implication at any rate, codification has in its favour the declared opinion, and recommendation of the Real Property Commissioners: witness the questions circulated by them. Sufficiently manifest at any rate is the recommendation, while, in pursuance of their labours, something should be done. But by Parliament, whatever it be, either by codification or not at all, will it have been done: and whatever be the length to which this indispensable operation has been carried—why it should stop there or anywhere short of completion, is a question to which it rests with any declared opponent of codification to find, if it be in his power, anything like a rational answer: by his refusal to answer it, or his silence, in relation to it, judgment of inconsistency against him will be signed.

These things considered, requisite assurances are not wanting, that as soon as the press of more urgent business admits, the matter of both petitions will, by appropriate motions, be brought to the view of the Honourable House.

Instructions as to the mode of proceeding for obtaining signatures.

Provide a skin of parchment, tack to it, one after another, others in sufficient number to contain the matter of the petition, with the addition of signatures in such number as you expect to obtain for it. A thing desirable is, that all persons who join in the petition may be distinguished, each one from any other: for this purpose, let each subscriber add to his name at length an indication of the place of his abode. If it be where there is not a town, the name of the county and the parish will be the proper mode of designation: if in a town, the name of the town, with that of the street or other mode of address, employed in sending a letter by the post. To save bulk and expense,—divide the roll into parallel columns, each of them wide enough to receive a signature of an average length, in which case, when it exceeds that length, two lines will always be necessary, though commonly sufficient. To each signature prefix a number expressive of the order in which it stands.

As to the instrument thus employed—in general, if not exclusively—it will be the abridged petition: the full-length petition being much too large, and the transcription of it too expensive, for general use. To any person disposed to use his endeavours to obtain signatures for the longer petition, should it present itself as being too long, an easy operation it will be to strike out of it such parts as, it seems to him, can best be spared. Where any abridged petition is the one employed—in this case, a copy of the petition at length, as printed, should be left with the person applied to, that he may peruse it, if so inclined, before the roll is put into his hands for signature.

Of the opposition which every such coadjutor has reason to expect, it is material that he should be sufficiently aware. From all persons to whom any change in the existing system would be an object of regret, such is the reception which should of course be looked for and provided against: and in this number are included of course all those by whom, to any amount, in any shape, in any way, direct or indirect, profit is derived, or thought by them to be derived, from any abuse or imperfection, to which, by the proposed draught, a remedy is endeavoured to be applied: more particularly all attornies or solicitors, as of late years they have been called, and persons especially connected with them by any tie of interest or relationship, not to speak of judges, other persons belonging to the judicial establishment, and barristers.

Nor as to the whole class, and its several ramifications, let it ever be out of mind, that, on their own principles, by their own showing, being incontestably interested, they are, one and all, in relation to this matter, not to speak of so many other matters, to use their own language, so many incompetent, incredible, and altogether inadmissible witnesses.

Of this publication one natural effect is the producing addresses, in one way or other, to the author, from correspondents, to the number of whom no certain limits can be predicted, and which, if precautions were not taken, might be such as to be oppressive. For, so it is, that whatever probability there may be of the presentation of petitions, or though it were no more than a single petition, in the course of the present session, the like probability may continue during an indefinite length of ulterior time: but for the arrangement thus requested, this publication might therefore have for one of its effects the imposing upon the author a charge to an indefinite amount, and not terminating but with his life.

On this account it is requested that no communication be addressed to the author but through the medium of the bookseller: nor to the bookseller, but either post paid, or accompanied with an order for a copy of the work.

Lastly, as to the usefulness of this production, and the endurance of which it is susceptible. To those whom the design may be fortunate enough to number amongst its well-wishers, and the production among its approvers, a consideration that cannot fail to be more or less agreeable is,—that, whatsoever may be its capacity for attracting signatures, the same may remain to it during an indefinite length of time: and that so long as the remembrance of this publication lasts, no one to whom the existing self-styled instrument of security is a source and instrument—of depredation, of oppression, in a word, of injury in any shape, can be in want of a ready vehicle for the communication of his complaints.