EXAMINING A WITNESS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2986, 20 January 1881, Page 4

EXAMINING A WITNESS.

A contemporary gives a good illustration of two methods of examining a witness, and by two eminent counsels, Francis Jeffrey and Henry Cockburn. The examination turned upon the sanity or insanity of one of the parties concerned, and Jeffrey and Cockburn were acting together in the case. Jeffrey began. 'Is the defendant, in your opinion, perfectly sane ?' he said to one of the witnesses, a plain, stupidlooking countryman. The witness gazed in bewilderment at the question, but gave no answer. Jeffrey repeated it, altering the words, 'Do you think the defendant capable of managing his own affairs ?' Still in vain. ' I ask you, 1 said Jeffrey, 'do you consider that man perfectly rational ?' No answer yet; he glowered with amazement and scratched his head. ' Let me tackle him,' said Cockburn. Then, assuming his own broadest Scotch tones, and turning to the obdurate witness, he began,' Hae ye your mull [snuff-box] wi' ye ?' ' Ouay,' said the awkward fellow, stretching out his snuff-horn to Cookburn. ' Noo hoo lang hae ye kent John Sampson ?' said the witty advocate, saluting the mull and taking a pinch. ' Ever since he was that height,' was the ready reply, the witness indicating with his hand the alleged height. ' And dae ye think noo, atween you and me,' said Cockburn in his most insinuating Scottish brogue, 'that there's onything infill the creature?' 'I would not lippen [trust] him with a bull calf,' was the instant rejoinder. The end was gained amid the convulsions of the Court; and Jeffrey said to Cockburn that he had fairly extracted the essence out of the witness.