A TREATISE

ON THR

LAW OF EVIDENCE.

ON THE

LAW OF EVIDENCE,

AS ADMINISTERED IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND;

WITH

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE AMERICAN AND OTHER FOREIGN LAWS.

BY JOHN PITT TAYLOR, Esq.

OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

Longum iter est per præcepta,

Breve et efficax per exempla.-SENECA.

LONDON:

A. MAXWELL & SON, LAW BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS,

32, BELL YARD, LINCOLN'S INN;

AND

HODGES & SMITH, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN.

LONDON:

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

CONTINUATION OF PART II.

OF THE RULES WHICH GOVERN THE PRODUCTION OF TESTIMONY.

CHAPTER XVII.

OF THE NUMBER OF WITNESSES, AND THE NATURE AND QUANTITY
OF PROOF REQUIRED IN PARTICULAR CASES (a).

§ 692. UNDER this head it is not proposed to go into an extended

consideration of the Statutes of Treason or of Frauds, but only to

mention briefly some instances in which those acts, and some other

statutes and rules of law, have regulated particular cases, taking

them out of the operation of the general principles, by which they

would otherwise be governed. Thus, in regard to treason and

misprision of treason, though by the common law these crimes

were sufficiently proved by one credible witness (b), it has been

deemed expedient to enact, that no person shall be indicted, tried,

or attainted thereof, but upon the oaths and testimony of two

lawful witnesses, either both to the same overt act, or one to one,

and the other to another overt act of the same treason, unless the

accused shall willingly, without violence, in open court, confess

the same (c); and further, that if two or more distinct treasons of

divers heads or kinds shall be alleged in one indictment, one

witness produced to prove one of these treasons, and another

another, shall not be deemed to be two witnesses to the same

treason (d).

(a) The substance of so much of this Chapter as relates to the number of
witnesses has already appeared in the Law Rev., No. 7, pp. 123–135.

(b) Foster, Cr. L. 233; M'Nally Ev. 31; R. v. Clare, 28 How. St. Tr. 887,
924; Woodbeck v. Keller, 6 Cowen, 120.

(c) As to the confession, see ante, § 626.

The

(d) 7 Will. 3, c. 3, §§ 2, 4; extended to Ireland by 1 & 2 Geo. 4, c. 24.
acts of 1 Edw. 6, c. 12, § 22, and 5 & 6 Edw. 6, c. 11, § 12, and 1 & 2 Ph. & M.
c. 10, § 11, contain provisions of a like nature.

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