JB/051/021/002

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EVIDENCE SEARCH EVIDENCE

GUNPOWDER 12. G. 3. c.. .

What opinion Lawyers themselves entertain of the
reasonableness of these rules one may sufficiently understand, from
their contentedness readiness upon all occasions to suffer them to be violated upon
all occa in effect so they be preserved maintained in words name v. Evidence Civil s. I. to let full the rule fall, so it be done with tolerable decency, with a verbal pretence to cover it.

In a word if there were any thing in those that rules
(consider'd as universal) that a no person interested shall
be a witness) the whole Statute Book must fall to the ground is one continued
series of blunders solecisms & ... errors

The popular natural & popular notion concerning
the rules of evidence, is, that in matters of criminality whatever is done
in presence of any one whatever will come out, & will upon trial be made appear
to have been done, [so that there was but
any body by].

Now the rules tendency of these rules to prevent this effect is so strong & in such
a number of instances All those expedients which the Law sets or put for the accomplishment of its purposes must fall to the ground, & all it's provisions come to nothing. against permitting this of event
to take place; that either they must be alter'd,
or this could not happen a no stroke] could be given greater blow to the wound
interests of justice, than the making of them known
to all men.

The true rule is, where the case admitts of choosing
witnesses before hand, there not to accept of any but
are disinterested

Maximum fundamentale The General Rule is, that one evidence any one Witness speaking
to a fact which he alledge to have come within
the cognizance of his senses shall govern
the decision: any cases to the contrary
can come in but as exceptions

What belongs to the doctrine Title of Evidence viva voce, is therefore principally
composed of those exceptions.

Complicity. The objection Complicity howsoever it may go to some circumstances,
cannot go to the substance of the transaction:
for this plain reason, that the fact
must be first supposed, granted to have been done before the objection can
hold good.

Now suppose the fact being certain, (& unless this be
done, the objection is nothing) & it is no matter in
what way it is proved. The use of the evidence being no other, [nor is deserving any otherwise to be regarded than so] than to induce a reasonable persuasion of the truth of the fact testified.

And this makes the difference, (and a total
one it is) between guilt criminality arisen of the
witness arising from a participation of the
crime charged upon the accused, & where arising from
a foreign crime different one.

But it is to be observed that if the guilt of the evidence
is established any otherwise than upon the

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A Wife ought not to be heard as evidence against
her Husband — good — Because if the wedded pair are amicable, it is tantamount to interrogating the Husband himself. & because if they are inimical, it is giving too dangerous a facility of gratifying the resentment. No man could be at rest if he had a spy sleeping on the same pillow

But a Wife ought to be examinable as to matters
the truth of which would turn out to the Husband's
prejudice, where that Husband is examinable
himself.

Now there are none of these rules, but are plausible
because made upon view for the avoidance of a real inconvenience danger
Nor yet are there any of them solid, right first because they plunge introductive
of a much greater inconvenience danger than
that which they avoid.

[I say greater, in the compound ratio of the intensity of
the mischief when incurred, & of the probability for chance of it's
being incurred.]

Identifier: | JB/051/021/002"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 51.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering	not numbered
Box	051	Main Headings	evidence; procedure code
Folio number	021	Info in main headings field	procedure evidence competency
Image	002	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	2
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [lion with vryheyt motif]]]
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	16186
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