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16 Sept 1803
Evidence
Instructions
Considerations
2. Pecuniary
Considerations respecting the effect of pecuniary interest upon evidence.
1. The value at stake being given /the same/, as also sensibility o the individual to a gain or loss to that amount, as deducible from the state of his pecuniary circumstances in other respects, a mans testimony is more exposed to just suspicion in the case where he is a party to the suit, than where he is not a party; as also more where he is plaintiff, than where he is defendant.
2. For a man who is not a party to the suit - that is has no natural interest of the pecuniary kind in the success of that side in favour of which his testimony tends - can in general gain no advantage can gain no thanks from the party in whose favour if the testimony be wilfully false, and at the same time successful the falshood operates, unless the party is privy to the falshood, and in some sort a [...?] of it. /particular in the guilt./ False evidence /Perjury/ therefore in this case requires two to be concerned in it: whereas, where the party and the witness are the same person /there is no party concerned besides the witness himself/, it requires but one.
3. In a situation of a defendant, false evidence, in a cause relative to money, is not so dangerous in its tendency viz: in the way of example, on the side of the defendant, as on the side of the plaintiff. The reason is, that in the character of a defendant, as such a man is not in his own power the means of increasing his [...?] /the numbers/ at pleasure: on each occasion whether the suit to which he is a party takes place, depends, directly at least, not upon himself, but upon another person, - the plaintiff. By his false testimony /falshood/ the utmost he can hope to do is to exonerate himself from the particular /single/ obligation which another person, in the character of defendant, so long as he confines himself to that character, it is not in his power to impose any sort of obligation upon anybody by any subsequent attempts /succeeding falshoods/, whatever his success may have been in the first.
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Title: [17 Sept. 1803 Evidence Instructions]Description: 17 Sept. 1803 Evidence Instructions Considerations 2. Interest Pecuniary The case in which the testimony of a plaintiff in support of his own demand, supposing the testimony wilfully false appears to have the fairest chance, is where upon the face of it, the fact not having come under the cognizance either of the defendant, or of any body else but the plaintiff, the supposed false testimony of the plaintiff has neither the testimony of the defendant nor any other testimony to contradict it. But in this case it is provided that though by the supposition the defendant has it not in his power to give any specific testimony, whereby the force of the Plaintiff's testimony may be counteracted, yet it should be matter of obligation as well as right, on the part of the Defendant, after hearing the Plaintiff's testimony, to declare whether he himself gives credit to it - whether he decidedly believes it, decidedly disbelieves it, or remains in doubt. If he believes it, so may the Judge with still less difficulty: if he is in doubt, no doubt from such a quarter may in the conception /mind/ of the Judge afford some confirmation of the plaintiff's testimony. If the Defendant, decidedly and firmly can take upon him to say that he disbelieves it, and no confirmation comes in aid of it from any other source, personal evidence or real, direct or circumstantial, there seems little likelyhood that the Judge should suffer his decision to be governed by such scanty and suspicious evidence. To testimony thus circumstanced it will oftener happen to be disbelieved when true than to be believed /credited/ when false.
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Title: [21 Sept. 1803 Evidence Instructions]Description: 21 Sept. 1803 Evidence Instructions Considerations 1. Interest in general Situations Opposition Thus much for the case where the groups of naturally associated interests are supposed to be all in alliance and all clubbing[?] their respective influences in the character of causes of partiality, on the same side. but all families are liable to have their dissentions /become theatres//seats/of dissention: and by every instance of dissention one or more of these naturally associated and conjointly-acting interests may come to be thrown out of the groupe. The inference from relationship /connection/, natural or civil, permanent or casual, to partiality will be still more /appear still more plainly/ to be in fault when the circle of the same family includes both parties in the cause. The affections and thence the testimony of A witness may in this case be drawn towards the cause /side/ of the plaintiff by one species of interest; towards that of the defendant by another: towards the one by pecuniary interest; towards the other by sympathy and good will: or even to each by an interest of the same species, and in a degree not altogether susceptible /indeterminate/ of liquidation in either case: to each by expectations of pecuniary benefit, to a value on one side or on both altogether unsusceptible of liquidation. What /A consideration/ in all these cases is manifest even to the most superficial glance, is how inconsiderable and infallibly inefficient a cause of bias and partiality the expectation /assurance/of this or that certain but limited sum expectant upon the want of a cause - upon the determination of it in favour of this or that one of the parties say the plaintiff must frequently be, in comparison of the opposite interest created by the apprehension of forfeiting /losing/ the good will of the other party in the same cause, when upon that good will depends a train of services till then counted upon as certain, to a value some number of times greater than that of the money gained. A point sufficiently manifest in this case is that of presumption of partiality as deduced from interest, even pecuniary interest, were there no other species of interest, were a proper ground not merely fro placing a watchful eye upon the testimony of the witness but for shutting the door against it altogether, it is rather on the side of the defendant than on the side of the plaintiff that testimony so circumstanced should be forbidden to be produced.
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Title: [17 Sept. 1803 Instructions]Description: 17 Sept. 1803 Instructions Considerations 2. Interest pecuniary The force with which a sinister interest of the pecuniary kind /class/ acts upon the mind may be the same, whether it be certain or contingent, acting on both sides or only on one side, acting upon the witness singly or acting upon him as one of a body of men any how composed, a private partnership a joint stock company, a set of persons taxed in conjunction for certain purposes such as the parishioners of the same parish. In these several cases the interest in question is but the fraction of an interest: but the a fraction of one sum may be equal to the integer of another. The prospect which an only son has of succeeding to the estate of his father, the estate not being in settlement /settled upon the son/, is but a contingency: but between the force interest created by such a prospect and the force of an interest created by an estate to the same amount settled on the son, it can not reasonably be supposed that in effect there should be any material difference. In the money market interests called contingent /contingencies/ have their price as well as those which are called certainties. If by a decision in favour of the plaintiff, a witness would gain twenty pound, while by a decision in favour of the defendant he would gain ten pound, the force of the interest by which his testimony is drawn to the side of the plaintiff is equal to a force of ten pound. If upon the decision in the cause on which the testimony of a witness is to be given a joint stock company with a million for its capital in which he has a thousandth share has at stake a sum of ten thousand pound, the force of the interest by which his testimony is drawn to the side of the company is equal to a force of ten pound.
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