JB/057/301/001

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1827 Oct. 12
Procedure Code

Preparatory Resolution
§ . No Oath

(3) (3

8
In civil cases Quakers are
exempted from oaths

That by special in all cases stiled
civil the people every person called Quakers have been exempted from
the obligation of performing the act of swearing on
the occasion of their the delivering of judicial testimony: their and
on all such occasions their testimony has been
checked their refusal to perform such act notwithstanding
no from such exemption has any inconvenience been ever
alledged to have been produced

9
If no inconvenience from this exemption in the
instance of civil cases there
would be none in the
instance of criminal cases

That as in the cases stiled civil no inconvenience has
had place, it seems certain not unreasonable that neither in the cases stiled criminal would any
inconvenience have place
for a moment in cases stiled civil
the suffering capable of being produced
by testimony has
been and is that produced
by a total loss of
propriety to preserve
themselves from which
persons have been known
to submitt to imprisonment
for life: and with the exception of
cases of capital punishment,
to no greater
suffering are men exposed
capable of being exposed
by testimony in cases
called criminal:
and
independently
if all fear of punishment the case
in which death would be
the result of testimony in
this case in which
wilfully false testimony
leading to the production
of undue punishment
is least to be apprehended.

10
Superior trustworthiness
of viva voce evidence
with cross examination over
affidavit evidence, universally
acknowledged

That the differences in respect of trustworthiness between
evidence elicited viva voce under the check of cross examination
and evidence elicited in the shape of affidavit evidence is
matter of universal acknowledgement and the almost little less than universality
of perjury in the case of affidavit evidence neither
of universal observation and experience: yet in both these
cases the act of swearing is the same so that by this observation
and inference it is established that of the act of swearing taken
by itself the good effect is next to nothing

11
For prevention of perjury
the only mode would be
the abolition of oaths

That if the prevention of perjury is the object, the
only mode by which it can be effected and that must at the
same time a sure one as the abolition of the act procedure in question, the practice of swearing
that as it is by the execution of the act of swearing that all the
pej perjury that has had place has been produced, so by the
abolition of that practice all perjury would for ever be made
to cease if perjury be set as crime, it is by legislators
subornation of perjury is the lie as crime of all
legislators by whose authority the act of swearing has been cursed
and of all such by whom it will be cursed in future.

Identifier: | JB/057/301/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 57.
Date_1	1827-10-12	Marginal Summary Numbering	8-11
Box	057	Main Headings	procedure code
Folio number	301	Info in main headings field	procedure code
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	c3 / e3
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	18631
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