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Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797

"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 11 (of 12)"



No. II.
Questions referred by the Lords to the Judges, in the Impeachment
of Warren Hastings, Esquire, and the Answers of the
Judges.--Extracted from the Lords' Journals and Minutes.

_First._
_Question._--Whether, when a witness produced and examined in a criminal
proceeding by a prosecutor disclaims all knowledge of any matter so
interrogated, it be competent for such prosecutor to pursue such
examination, by proposing a question containing the particulars of an
answer supposed to have been made by such witness before a committee of
the House of Commons, or in any other place, and by demanding of him
whether the particulars so suggested were not the answer he had so made?
1788, February 29.--Pa. 418.
* * * * *
_Answer._--The Lord Chief-Baron of the Court of Exchequer delivered the
unanimous opinion of the Judges upon the question of law put to them on
Friday, the 29th of February last, as follows:--"That, when a witness
produced and examined in a criminal proceeding by a prosecutor disclaims
all knowledge of any matter so interrogated, it is not competent for
such prosecutor to pursue such examination, by proposing a question
containing the particulars of an answer supposed to have been made by
such witness before a committee of the House of Commons, or in any other
place, and by demanding of him whether the particulars so suggested were
not the answer he had so made.


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