16 Sept 1803

Evidence

Instructions

Considerations

Interest in general

Considerations respecting the effects of [...?] lists [...?] best or worst according to the Judge[?] /interest in general/ upon evidence.

1. There is scarce an occasion on which - scarce a species of cause /suit/ in which it may not happen to a man to be acted upon at the same time by any number of motives, as above exhibited at any number of different sorts of interest, besides these /the guardian motive/ the force of which is generally exerted /acts in general/ on the side of truth: and of those sinister interests may be acting either all of them on the same side, or some on one side some on another.

2. The efficiency of a motive depends not upon the species to which it belongs, but on the strength with which it acts /happens to act/ in each individual instance. There is scarce a species of motive which is not capable of acting with any degree of force from the lowest to the highest, or not much short of the highest.

3. A man's own testimony given in his own cause, is of all evidence the most /and most properly/ exposed to suspicion, where the tendency of it is in favour of that cause: it is of all evidence the least exposed to suspicion, when the tendency of it is in disfavour of that same cause.

4. But even in this case it can not be relied upon with perfect safety. In a penal cause /case/ a man may /be led/ by his testimony subject himself to conviction and punishment as for certain offence, in the hope of avoiding some greater evil, for example prosecution, and thence conviction and punishment as for a certain offence, in the hope of avoiding some greater evil, for example prosecution, and thence conviction and punishment for some more severely punishable offence. In a non-penal case, a man may for the advantage of others, with or without collusion, institute a cause for the very purpose of betraying it.

5. Setting aside the indirect counter evidence that may be opposed to a man's testimony by the improbability of the fact deposed /he deposes/ to, it is more easy to disbelieve him, where on the supposition of falsity /incorrectness/ on the part of his evidence such falsity can not but have been accompanied with that criminal consciousness, which converts it into mendacity, than when it may be accounted for in the supposition of simple incorrectness: for /because/ the first case can not have happened, but the mind of the witness must have been subjected to the action of some sinister interest or interests, - acting in if, sufficient force to overcome the united resistance of the whole phalanx of guardian interests.