A

TREATISE

ON THE

LAW OF EVIDENCE.

P

BY S. MARCH PHILLIPS, Esq.

OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER AT LAW.

SECOND AMERICAN EDITION.

WITH

NOTES AND REFERENCES TO AMERICAN AUTHORITIES.

BY AN EMINENT COUNSELLOR AT LAW.

VOLUME THE SECOND.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY GOULD AND BANKS,
Law-Booksellers,

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AND BY WILLIAM GOULD AND CO.

STATE-STREET, ALBANY.

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, $$.

BE it remembered, that on the sixteenth day of May, in the fortyseventh year of the Independence of the United States of America, Gould & Banks, of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"A Treatise on the Law of Evidence. By S. March Phillips, Esq. of the Inner Temple. Barrister at Law. Second American Edition: with Notes and References to American Authorities. By an eminent Counsellor at Law. Volume the Second."

In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled " An Act, supplementary to an act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." JAMES DILL,

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ADVERTISEMENT

OF THE AMERICAN EDITOR:

THE Editor of the Second Volume of THE TREATISE ON EVIDENCE has had principally in view to collect, in his notes, the decisions of the courts of our own country, upon the subjects discussed by the author: but as those decisions have now become very numerous, it was soon perceived that inserting them all, would swell the notes to a great and disproportionate bulk. Hence he was obliged to adopt some rule of restriction; and that of confining himself, almost entirely, to the adjudications of a few courts, the most distinguished for their learning and talent, although an arbitrary course, appeared preferable to any other.

It will be seen that the editor has taken a wider range of annotation, than was absolutely required by the text; and that, in some instances, he has enlarged upon topics, which, if they are not extrinsic to, still, are not necessarily connected with, the subject of the work. His labours, however, in this respect, will not be thought superfluous, when it is considered, that by this means he has combined much useful information, which had not, as yet, found its way into treatises and compilations.