JB/091/302/001

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1 March 1808

By the security afforded which the suspicious character
by the suspicious scrutiny which, on the part of even the most undiscerning mind the character and position
of the witness can never fail the under such circumstances in such a case to
draw down point upon such testimony – by this security added
to that of cross-examination, the admission given
to such evidence has been preserved from having ever
been regarded as a formidable source of danger to the innocent in
the status of defendants – from ever having been regarded
as an advantageous instrument of security to individuals
at large as against the aggression of criminality malefactors in
every shape its most formidable shapes: – and this
although instances have been known in which under
the allowance of the Judge, men have suffered,
suffered capital punishment without any ground for the
infliction, other than what was composed of testimony
thus circumstanced.

If the virtue, the arbitrary preservation virtue of cross examination
be placed by this part of practice in a conspicuous
point of view, in a no less conspicuous view is placed the
inconsistency and perversity of those other parts of practice,
which expose a man men to loss to an amount altogether unlimited
by misdecision, produced by testimony to which
this security has been withholden. I speak of that numerous
class of causes distinguished in Letters by the name of Motive
Causes: causes in which evidence is admitted in no other
shape than that of affidavit evidence: testimony delivered by a
man, his own favour and in his own cause, and without the possibility
of its being subjected to the scrutiny of cross-examination either in the
vivâ voce, or in the
epistolary mode.

Identifier: | JB/091/302/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 91.
Date_1	1808-03-01	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	091	Main Headings	scotch reform
Folio number	302	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e2
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	29298
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