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priety, be termed a bad motive? Were it not for "this predominance, think, Sir, what would become "of the whole species in a month's time. Bad motive? No, Sir; there is no such thing as a bad motive. "This-so delusive in the current language-this may, perhaps, appear to you a mystery. But the present is not a time, or place, for clearing it up: in a small tract of mine, intituled, Table of the Springs of Action, you may see it cleared up, whenever you please :-Dear Sir-why, if I were to 'impute bad motives to anybody-to anybody that "ever lived-to Scroggs for example, or JefferiesSir, I might be put in jail for it, and perhaps in "irons. No, Sir, nobody shall ever catch me imputing to anybody a bad motive.

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"Sir, I will do no injustice.

Insufficient as it

"is, I will not say that the only mode which all this

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learning would endure-the mode which they "dwelt on so much as to insist on the rejection' of "the only sufficient one-I mean the particularising "mode-was, in its nature, to every purpose useless. "One purpose there is, with reference to which it is "in some degree useful,--useful as being to this

same purpose more conducive than the sweeping "mode:-I mean the clearing the text of the statute"book of the dead bodies of the statutes undertaken "to be killed. But this which, besides being a minor "one, is completely foreign to the only purpose ever " mentioned, was it ever in the view of those preeminently learned persons, or either of them? "Sure I cannot be, but my belief is in the negative.

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"One reason is-that, whereas, for want of all divi"sions into numbered parts, it depends, in the in

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stance of each statute professed to be repealed, 66 upon chance-Editors, -in the first place, whether any such disburthenment shall be attempted,-in the next place, whether that which, if anything, is done to that end shall be correctly done, it follows "not that, in regard to the statutes in question, now "that they are as you observe described and repealed

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nominatim,' the text of the statute-book will ever "be disburthened of them after all. Now, Sir, under "these circumstances, on the occasion in question, "on the part of the pre-eminently learned persons in "question, did any such desire or view exist, as that "of procuring to the public, in relation to so much

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as this one short statute, this collateral and minor "benefit? Of any such wish I must confess myself "unable to descry any the least symptom. Why? "Because if there had been any such wish, nothing "could have been easier than for one of them, with"out giving any trouble to the other, at the expence "of a few words interchanged with the Speaker of "the House of Commons, to procure a regulation, by

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which, giving authority to the numbered divisions "inserted by all editors, this principle of simplifica"tion might, in the only authentic and sufficient "manner possible, be applied to all statutes whatsoever, existing as well as future.

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"Another reason is-that, during the conjunct, "and alas! how tediously protracted reign of these "two prodigiously learned persons,--in compensa

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"tion for the multitude of good measures which they "have either killed outright, or in the manner of "this of yours, wounded,--my memory will not serve me for recollecting (much as the law needs amendment) so much as any one measure for the "amendment of the law introduced or served by "either of them-no, not one; unless that be reck"oned an amendment, by which in the true Draco style, a bounty is given upon murder, by setting attempt and perpetration at the same price.

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"Described, you say, and repealed nominatim. Forgive me another remark-it is not for want of respect where so much is due-it is not for the "sake of cavil, it is for the sake of public instruction, that I make it. Described, yes; repealed nomi"natim, no. Repealing a statute, or portion of "stotute, nominatim, is repealing it by name. Sir,

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no portion of a statute ever has a name. If it had "but a number, a name it would thereby have, and "that a sufficient one. In the legislation of every civilised country but thiş-Sir, I say it with full assurance-portions of statutes are authoritatively 'distinguished-names of this sort are employed. In "this proud country alone, not. And why not? Sir, "I have given the reason so often, and with so little

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fruit, I am quite tired of giving it.

Nothing in this 66 way is ever done, but under the direction of those "whose interest it is that it should be as badly done

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as possible. Uncognoscibility being the end, indistinctness, voluminousness, confusion, uncertainty, are so many means. Designate a clause

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by a number, you designate it at the expence of a "few figures; and, errors of the press excepted, "without possibility of mistake. Designate it by "description,' it is sure to be verbose: it is not sure "to be either clear or adequate; nor, be it ever so clear and adequate, to escape being miscon"ceived.

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"And now, Sir, in so far as concerns statute-law, you see, perhaps, a little more distinctly than before, the effect—and,—if it had any object other "than that of displaying power, creating dependence, "and exciting unmerited gratitude,-the object or objects of all this 'goodness.'

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"So much for statute-law. Now, Sir, as to com"mon-law. If that tranquillity, in which you seem "to have so comfortably wrapt yourself, had security "for its accompaniment, no one could be further "than I should be from seeking to disturb it. Alas, "would that were really the case! This comfort of yours, what is the basis on which it rests? On a definition of the word blasphemy. On a definition?-very good, if from competent authority,"so good, that no other can compare with it. But, "this same definition by which you seem thus tranquillized,-who have you to own it? One person you are sure of, yourself: another person you moreover regard yourself sure of, viz. the Archbishop. I could give you another, if so insigni"ficant an one could be of any use to you. But"make the most of it, of what is this the definition? "Of what the law is?-Alas! no: only of what the

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"law, as we say, ought to be. But, Sir, what is it "that this supposed security of yours depends upon? "On what the law ought to be? No, Sir: but on "what it is the law, meaning now the common law. "And what, Sir, is common law? Sir, I will tell you "what it is. It is on this, as on all other occasions, "the expression of the will and pleasure of one or "more of a set of men, whose interest is, on this "ground, in a state of diametrical opposition to the "universal interest; who, on every occasion, to that "same will and pleasure,-without any other con "troul than that nominal one which, not being real, "is so much worse than none,-give the effect of "law: that effect which,

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without the aid of those persons, -that body in

" which the plenitude of power is supposed to reside, "never finds itself able to give.

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"On this very occasion, whose would the will and pleasure be? Whose but that of these same preeminently learned persons, whose wisdom, or "whose sincerity, refused to suffer you to grasp so "much as the shadow of a security, unless to the adequate relief you had prepared for yourselves, you would yourselves be the instruments of substituting an inadequate one? Now, Sir, forgive "the liberty I take in asking you,-have you any assurance-any tolerably-grounded assurance"that this definition of yours-even suppose it not

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only approved, but signed by the Archbishop, "would be adopted by common law?—would, in " addition to law as it ought to be, be made law as it

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