Cross-Exam ination.

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CROSS-EXAMINATION. COLONEL INGERSOLL, in " Some (perhaps in spite of him) the obstacles Mistakes of Moses," remarked that which lie in the way of the witness, and to truth fits into everything, and a lie fits into lead him to make a clear exhibition of the nothing in all the world — except another truth, notwithstanding his erroneous obser lie. To which one is tempted to add : How vation, the wrong bias arising from wrong full the world must be of misfits! Still, as observation, and the purpose {thus improp truth is so easy and a lie so difficult to erly begotten) of presenting one, and only manage, and as there are so few people one, aspect of the matter in hand, though clever enough to take the management of that aspect be not the true aspect. And a lie, there must be a good deal of truth in where the witness has, with malice afore circulation. Yes, if by truth we mean only thought, resolved to put forward a false view one kind of truth. But the learned have told of the facts, the work of the examiner or us of three kinds of truth and their oppo- cross-examiner (as the case may be) is sites, viz., moral truth, which is the harmony rendered difficult and delicate to the verge of despair. of thought and expression, and whose op When the subject of cross-examination is posite is a lie; logical truth, which is the harmony of successive thoughts when the discussed by laymen, it is the fashion to fix latter arises out of the former, and whose attention on the examiner, and to treat of opposite is a fallacy; and real truth, which his malign purpose of making the worse is the harmony of thought with things as appear the better cause, of his unholy design they exist, and whose opposite is an error. of making black seem white. It is more While courts of law have to do with every likely to lead to a true view if we bestow kind of truth, the witness for the most part less notice on the questioner and more on may leave logical truth to the judge or the witness. The examiner is the outcome jury, and confine his own attention chiefly of generations of witnesses, and may be said to moral truth and real truth. Though to be only another illustration of the adapt these do not require on the part of the ability of animals to the soil. Obviously, witness more than mere honesty and the if all witnesses had the intelligence and use of the senses, it need not be supposed honesty to come forward and give their that truth will be found flowing from the evidence in accordance with the oath (the witness like pure water from a fountain. truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth in this connection may rather be said truth), the work of the examiner would to lie at the bottom of the well, and to need, be easy, and the occupation of the crossfor drawing it up, the bucket of examination, examiner would be gone. Let us notice a and the rope of cross-examination. Truth few of the difficulties under which the wit is a pearl, and the oyster which contains it ness generally or, at all events, often, gives is difficult to open. And, again (even at his testimony. the risk of seeming to mix, while only He is called by one side against the other, multiplying metaphors), truth is a dia and if he is inclined to support the side which mond, but it needs cutting, polishing and invokes his help, or is determined to show setting. To abandon the figure and come the litigant who calls him that he will down to the fact, it is not so easy as it may get nothing out of him, the feeling is called seem to know and to testify the truth, and partisanship. It is either conscious or un it is still more difficult to overcome for him conscious. In both cases, its effect is the