1778-03-20 (static/transcriptions/1778/03/031.jpg)

1778. 2 Term. [Friday] March 20.

He, like the Witnesses yesterday, brought with him, and look’d at while he was giving his Evidence, a Paper of his own writing, which I saw he had intituled at the back “State of the Disputes” &c, This he said he had written three or four days after the assault happen’d.

Mr. Lawrence, Advocate for the Defendant, urged both yesterday and to day that those Papers should be produced and shewn to him, and openly in the Court, but Chambers said he had often seen Witnesses use a Paper which they said had been written by themselves, in giving Evidence, but never given into Court, only if it was doubted that it was not the hand writing of the Witness, he had known the Witness call’d on to write, and had seen the Judge, not the Council, look at the Paper to compare the writing with the writing then written.
I said, I thought they might in strict right, possibly be intituled on the part of the Defendant to look over these Papers. to see, whether they agreed with the Evidence each Witness gave, that I had often heard Witnesses speak from short Notes
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