Lanterna Rally

Author: William Wills

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-12

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 9781331251750

Excerpt from An Essay on the Principles of Circumstantial Evidence: Illustrated by Numerous Cases The most important doctrines of Circumstantial Evidence have been so ably treated in the learned works of Mr. Bentham and Mr. Starkie, that an apology may be thought necessary for this publication. It will however be perceived, that the design of the following Essay is different in some important particulars from that of either of the above-mentioned authors; and that an attempt has been made to illustrate the subject by the application of many instructive cases, some of which have been compiled from original documents, and others from publications not easily accessible. It has not always been practicable to support the statement of cases by reference to books of recognised authority, or of an equal degree of credit; but discrimination has uniformly been exercised in the adoption of such statements; and they have generally been verified by comparison with contemporaneous and independent accounts. A like discretion has been used in the rejection of some generally received cases of circumstantial evidence, the authenticity of which does not appear to be sufficiently established. It is to be regretted that, with the exception of the State Trials, there is no authoritative collection of English cases of controverted fact, for which nevertheless there are extant abundant materials. Isolated and anomalous as such cases may appear to be, they, like every other part of the great system of jurisprudence, are reducible to consistent and immutable principles of reason and natural justice. There has existed hitherto little inducement to any such compilation, since, (however pertinent and instructive such cases might be, ) by an unreasonable rule of legal procedure they were shut out from practical application. 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.