Excerpt from Treatise on the Law of Evidence, Vol. 1 This treatise, which has already passed through ten editions in England and been as often revised by its author, holds deservedly high rank as an elementary exposition of the Law of evidence; while the notes by Messrs. Cowen Hill, elaborate and comprehensive beyond any work of the kind, have given to these volumes the highest value and widest reception. The new form in which the present edition appears, demands from the editor a few words of explanation. The notes are printed in the same volume with, and (as far as practicable) immediately under the text to which they refer - a change in the mode of printing that will doubtless preve convenient, and greatly facilitate the labor bf comparing one part of the work with another. The notes, which contain frequent references from one to another, are numbered from the beginning of the first to the end of the third volume, and are printed without alteration; those added to the previous edition by Mr. Van Cott, retain the designation of stars by which they were distinguished from the others, and the citation of new authorities and statutes in this, are inclosed in parentheses. Keeping this in mind, the reader will readily place the responsibility of the successive annotations where it belongs. By a careful study of the notes, it will be seen that as a general rule, the division of either of them into separate parts cannot be made without breaking that fine chain of reasoning and discussion that runs through nearly all of them, making each a complete essay in itself. In a few cases the note embracing two subjects and appearing to be fairly divisible, has been divided, so as to bring each part under the appropriate head of the text; and here and there, where the author in his late revision has adopted into the text only part of such a note, the part so appropriated has not been reprinted in its original form. In frequent instances the original note, citing and commenting upon English authorities, has been wholly absorbed and embodied in the text, enriching that at the expense of the annotators; in these instances, of course, the note has not been reprinted, as such. Occasionally, the note, in its nature indivisible, has been only partly incorporated into the text, and has therefore, as a rule, been retained in full as written. In brief, the entire work has been reproduced with the design of preserving the notes intact, as far as practicable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.