All pleadings at the bar of the court, in favour of either of the parties, is expressly forbidden.

The statute says,

"Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do "evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to

decline after many, to wrest judgment. *”

It must appear exceedingly evident to all men, from the unquestionable truths which have now been stated, that that law, and that simple and rational mode of procedure which the Legislature has already ordained to be observed in all the small-debt courts in Scotland, is no other than a perfect transcript of that law and of that mode of procedure which the Almighty himself has ordained, for the purpose of regulating the conduct of mankind, in their common transactions with one another; with this difference only, that the Justices are not authorised to inflict that punishment which God. himself has ordained to be inflicted upon those who transgress this law, viz. to make those wicked who have committed manifest acts of fraud or injustice, pay double the sum, or value of the thing which they had wickedly attempted to defraud their neighbour of. This, every man must acknowledge, is a reasonable

men,

punishment. It is doing no more to the wicked man, than he had wickedly thought to have done unto his neighbour.

It is certainly a matter of the highest importance to the whole nation, that every member of our great national councils, before he give his vote either for or against the bill now depending in Parliament, for regulating the proceedings in the Court of Session in Scotland, should carefully and seriously consider if that procrastination of justice, and that enormous expence to which the inhabitants of England and Ireland, as well as Scotland, are at present subjected, before they can obtain justice, and those numerous appeals, which are now made from the judgments of the inferior courts to the House of Peers, the Supreme Court of Justice-is not entirely occasioned by the perversion of that law, and that simple and rational mode of procedure, which the Almighty has prescribed for the administration of justice, and of that simple and rational rule which they themselves have prescribed to the Justices, for regulating the ceedings of the small debt courts in Scotland.

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It is certainly a question of the very highest importance to the whole nation, and more deserving of the attention of the legislature of these

kingdoms, than any other which can possibly be submitted to their consideration, to inquire, if there is at this time, or if there has been for many centuries past, any known common law by which the judges in the different courts of justice in England, and in Ireland, as well as those in Scotland, are bound to regulate their judgments, in any question between man and man, that comes before them, respecting their common transactions with one another, Lord Kaimes in the introduction to one of his books upon the common law of Scotland, says, in pretty positive terms, there is not. His words are, in substance, as follows: It is easy for a man to say what the law ought to be, but it is impossible for any man to define, what the common law of this kingdom now is.

It is easy for these noble Lords, who compose the great jury of the nation, in the High Court of Parliament, to satisfy themselves, whether this assertion made, by Lord Kaimes is, or is not founded in truth. It is only necessary for this purpose, that he should put the following question to himself: Do I understand the law by which I am required to regulate my verdict, in any appeal cause which comes before the house? If he shall find upon due consideration, that he

cannot answer this question in the affirmative, he will be naturally induced to agree with Lord Kaimes, that there is at present no clear law, by which he is enabled to regulate his judgment,

in any of these causes which are brought before him. If this shall be found to be the situation in which these noble Lords who compose the great jury of the nation, are now placed; it cannot surely be supposed, that that inferior order of men who are now chosen to compose the or dinary juries in the inferior courts of justice in civil questions in England, can stand in a better situation than their lordships, with respect to their knowledge of the law.

It being observed, and complaints having perhaps been made, by people who conceived themselves to have been injured by it, that the judges in our ordinary courts of justice, were in the habit of imposing their own opinion upon the jury, as the law which they were bound to apply in the case before them, and of directing them to bring in a verdict conformable to that opinion. A right honourable gentleman, now dead, brought a bill into Parliament, which was carried through both Houses, and enacted into a law, declaring the jury in all civil, as well as criminal causes, to be judges of the law as well as

of the fact. But it having been unfortunately omitted in this act, to state the law by which these jury-men are there required to regulate. their verdict, and to declare that they are bound to give judgment according to equity aud a good conscience, without regarding the opinion of any other men; it was easy to foresee, that this law which was then enacted, could produce no reformation in the administration of the common law, in these courts of justice. For being told by the judge and by the lawyers, who are permitted to plead at the bar of these courts, that they are not at liberty to regulate their judgment by that internal sense of right and which the Creator has imprinted upon the minds of men, for the purpose of enabling them to regulate their conduct conformable to his will, and by which these jurymen are expressly bound by their oath, to regulate their judgment, but by that imaginary and unintelligible law, which they pretended to explain to them, and of which the jury themselves have no sort of knowledge; it is natural to suppose that they will, in general; be induced to adopt the opinion of the judge, and bring in a verdict conformable to that opinion. If we give any credit to the accounts which are daily circulated

wrong,