(np - Melville - was Re: The People's History & the Cold War ) equity? who ever heard of that?

[Michael Bailey]

> I was not unemployed in my profession
> by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat,
> for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto
> bullion. I will freely add, that I was not insensible to the late John
> Jacob Astor’s good opinion.	   3

he's proud of that...and Astor left the opium trade after awhile, his
shade informs my medium (using Melville as a control) that he'd rather
not be remembered so much for this as for financing the Vormance, er,
Astor Expedition and the Astoria trading post in Oregon...
having been driven into opium smuggling probably by the exigencies of
the War of 1812...

>   Some time prior to the period at which this little history begins,
> my avocations had been largely increased. The good old office, now
> extinct in the State of New-York, of a Master in Chancery, had been
> conferred upon me.
>

so he considers Chancery to be an avocation, even though it seems to
have been a fairly prestigious office...yet it does require him to
bring Bartleby aboard...


> d) Chancery -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Court_of_Chancery
> e) "It was the court with jurisdiction on cases of equity in the state
> of New York from 1777 to 1847. It served also as a court of appeal
> which reexamined cases decided by the New York State Supreme Court"
> f) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equity_%28law%29
> g) Equity is the name given to the set of legal principles, in
> jurisdictions following the English common law tradition, that
> supplement strict rules of law where their application would operate
> harshly. In civil legal systems, broad "general clauses" allow judges
> to have similar leeway in applying the code.[1]
>
> Equity is commonly said to "mitigate the rigor of common law",
> allowing courts to use their discretion and apply justice in
> accordance with natural law. In practice, modern equity is limited by
> substantive and procedural rules, and English and Australian legal
> writers tend to focus on technical aspects of equity. There are 12
> "vague ethical statements"[2][3] that guide the application of equity,
> and an additional five can be added.[2]
>
> As noted below, a historical criticism of equity as it developed was
> that it had no fixed rules of its own, with the Lord Chancellor
> occasionally judging in the main according to his own conscience. The
> rules of equity later lost much of their flexibility, and from the
> 17th century onwards equity was rapidly consolidated into a system of
> precedents much like its common-law cousin.
>
> so...hmm...one could think of Bartleby as a "spirit of equity" who was
> phased out...and the whole as a commentary on the development of
> jurisprudence...
>

actually (like so many things!) the concept of "equity" as an official
branch of the law is news to me.  seems like something that ought to
be brought to bear more often especially in robo-signed mortgage
cases, eh wot?

but those paragraphs do give a backdrop that illuminates the lawyer as
someone officially charged with extending mercy - and his actions and
offers toward Bartleby show that temperamentally - perhaps like Astor
himself - he's quite a philanthropist and gentle soul.

So he, one might say, could have been amenable to an activist
Bartleby, who certainly had the skills at first, to copy and discuss
these new cases and promote the tempering of the harsh side of the
law.

And thus, it's even more of a disappointment that Bartleby falls down
on the job!