The distinctions in the Civil Law, 23. The law acts by general, not partial rules, 25. A record of Parliament in 11 Ric. II. in favour of the Civil Law, 26. Impeachments may have different forms, but not different laws of evidence, 28. Laws of evidence ought to be invariable, 32. Defects in it removed, 33. Trials in the High Court of Parliament, and in the Court of the Lord High Steward, 36. Cases to prove the laws of evidence the same as in all other Courts, 38. The King cannot be a witness in a criminal case, 39. . When a husband or wife may be a witness against the other, 40. When witnesses convicted of felony can be admitted, 41. The reason why a man convicted of a clergyable crime cannot be admitted a witness till he has suffered the punishment, 42.. The law upon the subject, in cases of petty larceny, 44. Foreigners, according to the customs of their country, 49. A distinction has been made between Bills of Attainder and Bills of Pains and Penalties, 50. But that shewn, in the Additions to the Dissertation, to be without reason, 52. This has been satyrized by Swift, 53. The law of evidence unextendible and incompressible as adamant, 55. Limitation to prosecutions for Treason, 56. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. Evidence in Rapes, 57. 133 Stronger evidence of a crime committed at a distance, 58. Secondary evidence explained, 60. Evidence under all circumstances the same, 61. Circumstantial evidence considered, 62. In some cases, may be stronger than positive evidence, 65. Instances in which both have failed, 65. Moral probability which good men must act upon, 68. Lord Hale recommends that no one should be convicted of Murder, unless the body of the supposed deceased be found, 69. Mathematical calculation of the probability of Human Testimony, 70. The probability of testimony higher than the proportion of the number of witnesses, 72. Hume's argument against Miracles, considered, 72. Negative testimony never totally destroys affirmative testimony, 73. How affirmation must be totally destroyed, 74. Witnesses, when they are certain, say they believe, 75. The evidence of an accomplice must be corroborated, 76. Light circumstances, from their number, have weight, 78. What is philosophically true in one court must be also true in another, 80. Evidence ought to be more strict in proportion to the magnitude of the crime, ibid. Peers not to be entrusted with different evidence from their superiority of education, 81. The inconveniences of a departure from the Laws of Evidence stated, 84. An account of the Rack used formerly in England to extort confession, 86. Why confessions extorted by hope or fear ought not to be received, 86. Evidence the same in the Court of Chancery as in the Courts of Law, 88. The Roman Senate never departed from legitimate proofs, 89. Lord Cowper's commendation of the Laws of Evidence in the English Courts, 90. OBSERVATIONS upon Questions of Law, which have arisen pending the present Bill of Pains and Penalties, 93. Strange propositions by some Peers upon evidence to be received, 94. No distinction of parties by the law of England, 95. We must all see objects through the same medium, and with the same rays of light, 96. The observance of the Laws of Evidence absolutely necessary in Bills of Attainder and Bills of Pains and Penalties, ibid. That the Rules of Evidence should not be observed in a legislative proceeding, has been both a Tory and a Whig doctrine, 97. The inconveniences and danger of such a doctrine, 98. It has not been admitted in the present trial, 98. Cicero's opinion respecting them, 99. consistent with Magna Charta, ibid. The recommendation of the Tutor of Cyrus to his Royal Pupil, 100. An ex-post-facto law explained, 101. The crime of High Treason with Royal Females explained, 102. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 135 The law with respect to a Foreigner explained, 102. Crimes may be tried on an Impeachment, which cannot be tried by a Jury. The reason explained, 103. A Bill of Pains and Penalties, like the present, more favourable to the defendant than an Impeachment, 104. The differences stated, ibid. If such a Bill goes to the House of Commons, it is absolutely necessary that the Witnesses should be examined upon oath, 105. The inability of the House of Commons to examine Witnesses upon oath, a great blemish in the Constitution, 105. The reason of the defect explained, 106. The King can put an end to a Bill of Pains and Penalties, which he cannot to an Impeachment, 106. A delivery of list of witnesses in a prosecution is unknown to the Common Law, ibid. Particularly inconvenient in the case of foreign witnesses, 107. Judge Foster's opinion stated, 108. The law of calling back a witness explained, 110. A husband cannot be a witness for a wife, nor the King for any one, 112. How the list of witnesses was given in the Duke of Norfolk's Divorce Bill, 112. What is now required in a private Divorce Bill, 113. What Sir W. Blackstone has said upon Divorces, 114. When suits in the spiritual courts and actions are dispensed with, 115. Must be dispensed with in the case of the King, 116. • Recrimination in the case of the King the greatest solecism, 116. Milton has written largely in favour of Divorces, ibid. The clause for the Divorce the best part of the Bill, 117. Difference between partners for civil purposes, and persons employed in the execution of justice, 123. Menaces to intimidate a Court of Justice, a misdemea- The House of Lords the most pure Assembly in the world, The answer they ought to return to threats, ibid. Vattel's just and beautiful panegyric upon the English Persons employed in manual labour, not competent to de- cide upon justice and government, 127. LONDON: Printed by R. WATTS, Crown Court, Temple Bar. |