SCHEDULE. COLUMN 1. Name of Department or Officer. COLUMN 2. Names of Certifying Officers. The Commissioners of the Treasury. Any Commissioner, Secretary or Assistant The Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral. Secretaries of State. Secretary of the Treasury. Any of the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral, or either of the Secretarics to the said Commissioners. Any Secretary or Under Secretary of State. Committee of Privy Council for Any Member of the Committee of Privy Trade. Council for Trade, or any Secretary or Assistant Secretary of the said Committee. The Poor Law Board. Any Commissioner of the Poor Law DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE ACT, 1882. 45 VICT. c. 9. An Act to amend the Documentary Evidence Act, 1868, and other Enactments relating to the Evidence of Documents by means of Copies printed by the Government Printers. [19th June, 1882.] WHEREAS by the Documentary Evidence Act, 1868, and enactments applying that act, divers proclamations, orders, regulations, rules, and other documents may be proved by the production of copies thereof purporting to be printed by the government printer, and the government printer is thereby defined to mean and include the printer to her Majesty: And whereas divers other enactments provide that copies of acts of parliament, regulations, warrants, circulars, gazettes, and other documents shall be admissible in evidence if purporting to be printed by the government printer, or the Queen's printer, or a printer authorised by her Majesty, or otherwise under the authority of her Majesty: And whereas it is expedient to make further provision respecting the printing of the copies aforesaid: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. This act may be cited as the Documentary Evidence Act, 1882. 2. Where any enactment, whether passed before or after the passing of this act, provides that a copy of any act of parliament, proclamation, order, regulation, rule, warrant, circular, list, gazette, or document shall be conclusive evidence, or be evidence, or have any other effect, when purporting to be printed by the government printer, or the Queen's printer, or a printer authorised by her Majesty, or otherwise under her Majesty's authority, whatever may be the precise expression used, such copy shall also be conclusive evidence, or evidence, or have the said effect (as the case may be) if it purports to be printed under the superintendence or authority of her Majesty's stationery office. 3. If any person prints any copy of any act, proclamation, order, regulation, royal warrant, circular, list, gazette, or document which falsely purports to have been printed under the superintendence or authority of her Majesty's stationery office, or tenders in evidence. any copy which falsely purports to have been printed as aforesaid, knowing that the same was not so printed, he shall be guilty of felony, and shall, on conviction, be liable to penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven years, or to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. 4. The Documentary Evidence Act, 1868, as amended by this act, shall apply to proclamations, orders, and regulations issued by the Lord Lieutenant or other chief governor or governors of Ireland, either alone or acting with the advice of the Privy Council in Ireland, as fully as it applies to proclamations, orders, and regulations issued by her Majesty. In the same act, the term "the Privy Council" shall include the Privy Council in Ireland, or any committee thereof. In the same act, and in this act, the term "the Government Printer" shall include any printer to her Majesty in Ireland and any printer printing in Ireland under the superintendence or authority of her Majesty's Stationery Office. COMMON LAW PROCEDURE ACT, 1854. 17 & 18 VICT. c. 125, ss. 22-27. An Act for the further Amendment of the Process, Practice and Mode of Pleading in and enlarging the Jurisdiction of the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster, and of the Superior Courts of Common Law of the Counties Palatine of Lancaster and Durham. [12th August, 1854.] XXII. A party producing a witness shall not be allowed to impeach his credit by general evidence of bad character, but he may, in case the witness shall in the opinion of the judge prove adverse, contradict him by other evidence, or, by leave of the judge, prove that he has made at other times a statement inconsistent with his present testimony; but before such last-mentioned proof can be given, the circumstances of the supposed statement, sufficient to designate the particular occasion, must be mentioned to the witness, and he must be asked whether or not he has made such statement. XXIII. If a witness upon cross-examination as to a former statement made by him relative to the subject P. TT matter of the cause, and inconsistent with his present testimony, does not distinctly admit that he has made such statement, proof may be given that he did in fact make it; but before such proof can be given, the circumstances of the supposed statement, sufficient to designate the particular occasion, must be mentioned to the witness, and he must be asked whether or not he has made such statement. XXIV. A witness may be cross-examined as to previous statements made by him in writing, or reduced into writing, relative to the subject-matter of the cause without such writing being shown to him; but if it is intended to contradict such witness by the writing, his attention must, before such contradictory proof can be given, be called to those parts of the writing which are to be used for the purpose of so contradicting him: provided always, that it shall be competent for the judge, at any time during the trial, to require the production of the writing for his inspection, and he may thereupon make such use of it for the purposes of the trial as he shall think fit. XXV. A witness in any cause may be questioned as to whether he has been convicted of any felony or misdemeanor, and, upon being so questioned, if he either denies the fact, or refuses to answer, it shall be lawful for the opposite party to prove such conviction; and a certificate containing the substance and effect only (omitting the formal part) of the indictment and conviction for such offence, purporting to be signed by the clerk of the court, or other officer having the custody of the records of the court where the offender was convicted, or by the deputy of such clerk or officer (for which certificate a fee of five shillings and no more shall be demanded or taken), shall, upon proof of the identity of the person, be sufficient evidence of the said conviction, without proof of the signature or official character of the person appearing to have signed the same. XXVI. It shall not be necessary to prove by the attesting witness any instrument to the validity of which attestation is not requisite; and such instrument may be proved by admission or otherwise, as if there had been no attesting witness thereto. XXVII. Comparison of a disputed writing with any writing proved to the satisfaction of the judge to be genuine shall be permitted to be made by witnesses; and such writings, and the evidence of witnesses respecting the same, may be submitted to the court and jury as evidence of the genuineness, or otherwise, of the writing in dispute. AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAW OF 14 & 15 VICT. C. 99. WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the law of evidence in divers particulars: Be it therefore enacted as follows: 1. So much of section one of the act of the sixth and seventh years of her present Majesty, chapter eightyfive, as provides that the said act shall not render competent any party to any suit, action or proceeding individually named in the record, or any lessor of the plaintiff or tenant of premises sought to be recovered in ejectment, or the landlord or other person in whose right any defendant in replevin may make cognizance, or any person in whose immediate and individual behalf any action may be brought or defended, either wholly or in part," is hereby repealed. 2. On the trial of any issue joined, or of any matter or question, or on any inquiry arising in any suit, action, or other proceeding in any court of justice, or before any person having by law, or by consent of parties, authority to hear, receive and examine evidence, the parties thereto, and the persons in whose behalf any such suit, action or other proceeding may be |