ALTERATIONS, AND ADDITIONS AS TO RENDER IT CONFORMABLE

TO THE STATUTES, DECISIONS AND GENERAL ORDERS,
REGULATING THE LAW AND PRACTICE, AS TO EVIDENCE,

IN THE

High Court of Chancery;

TOGETHER WITH

DIVERS FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS, BY REFERENCE TO THE
LAW AND PRACTICE, AS TO EVIDENCE,

IN THE

Courts of Common Law and Civil Law.

BY

CHRISTOPHER ALDERSON CALVERT, Esq., M.A.,

BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

LONDON:

WILLIAM BENNING & Co., LAW BOOKSELLERS,

43, FLEET STREET.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY RAYNER AND HODGES,

109, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street.

DEDICATION

OF THE FIRST EDITION.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

JOHN, EARL OF ELDON,

&c. &c. &c.

WHO, BY PERSEVERING INDUSTRY, TALENTS, AND INTEGRITY, RAISED HIMSELF TO A STATION IN WHICH,

WHETHER ADMINISTERING THE LAWS OF ENGLAND,

OR PRESIDING OVER THE PEERAGE OF GREAT BRITAIN, HE WAS EQUALLY REVERED,

THIS WORK

IS INSCRIBED

IN GRATITUDE FOR THE DIGNITY CONFERRED THROUGH HIM

ON THEIR COMMON PROFESSION,

BY THE AUTHOR.

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

THE want which has been long felt at the Chancery Bar of a work on Evidence illustrating the Practice in Equity, will be a sufficient apology for this attempt to remedy the inconvenience. The existing Treatises have been written by Barristers practising in the Courts of Common Law, and although points of Equity are sometimes incidentally discussed, yet an intimate knowledge of that subject is wanting, and thence, of necessity, the discussions are far from satisfactory. And, although the Reports in Equity abound with cases relating to the rules of evidence, yet those cases are rarely cited either to qualify, or to impugn, or to corroborate, the decisions of a Judge at Common Law. While, therefore, the lucid dissertations of Mr. Phillipps demand our praise, and the laborious compilation and philosophic views of Mr. Starkie compel our admiration, they still leave the field open for a practical treatise referring all its rules to the administration of Equity.

In examining the Cases to which his subject has led him, the Author has been often surprised at the neglect, and even the tone of disparagement, used towards the decisions of those great Judges whose slightest words he had habitually received with respect and deference. He has long felt convinced that a convenient arrangement of the opinions which they pronounced, and a plain exposition of the ability with which Lord Hardwicke, Lord Thurlow, or Lord Eldon, adapted the Rules of Law to the exigences of a Suit in Equity, would soon accustom Equity Barristers to bear in mind that they have a system of evidence of their own, and to refer to those great names, rather than look abroad for the rules of the Common Law Courts.