Waterbury Democrat., 1902-03-08
OATHS IN ENGLISH COURTS.

l luS tu6 IeSld1nenEF 1S uOL dDSOluIely
 necessary to the swearing of a witness
 in a court of justice. Thirteen years l ago parliament sanctioned the intro
 duction into this country of the Scotch 1 form which provides that a witness
 may be sorwn with uplfted hand. Al
 though this form of subscribing to the
 oath was introduced for the purpose of
 overcoming the susceptibilities of per
 sons who believe that many infectious diseases are spread by kissing the 1 Testaments in use ill our police courts, l it is very seldom administered. As
 matter of fact the Scotch form of oath
 is not very much in favor with judges
 and magistrates. It is viewed with l suspicion because of its non-sacred
 character, and the opportunities it af- 1 lords to persons who are not overScru-
 pulous about telling the truth to con-
 init perjury.
 It Is a matter of regret that there Is l already far too much perjury in our
 courts of law, and it frequently hap
 pens that presiding magistrates are re- 1 luctantly compelled to point out to wit l nesses the impressive nature of an
 oath. Only the other day Justice Phil l limore severely admoniShed a witness
 who was punctuating his replies to
 counsel by banging the Testament on 1 the ledge provided in the witness box. l His lordship informed the witness that l the book he was handling with little
 respect was sacred, and immediately 1 gave instructions to the usher to re-
 move it out of the reach of the man. With regard to the suggestion that
 those whose duty it is to administer. the oath might be instructed to acquaint
 the witnesses that they may be sworn
 with uplifted hand. the result of in-
 qulries among London magistrates and
 police court officials does not afford much encouragement to those respon- sible for the idea. There are very few
 exceptions to the general chorus of
 condemnation. Firstly. the proposed
 new form of oath is not so impressive
 as that of kissing the Testament and would be likely to encourage a certain
 class of witnesses to lie with greater frequency than they do at present Secondly, the mere fact of informing witnesses that they could be sworn
 with uplifted hand if they so desired
 would result in so much waste of time
 that the business of q busy police
 court would never be got through At
 Marlborough street police court it is
 not at all unusual to find a charge list
 containing sixty or seventy different items. This means that two hundred
 persons are required to be sworn before the end of the list is reached. To in-
 from each person separately that he
 could choose between two forms of
 oath would mean sitting of intermin-
 able length.
 Many magistrates clerks do not
 know that the kissing of the book has
 become mere matter of form with many persons. Others dodge the kiss ing process by putting their thumb to the lips and quite a large section of the pubic always open the book to a clean page and kiss the inside Tn almost every police court magistrates are ire quently issuing Instructions to those who are appointed to administer the oath with regard to the necessity of
 lmpressing upon witnesses the sol emnity of the occasion.
 It is recorded at one police court that an usher while administering tba oath. turned round to a constable at the back of the court and shouted
 'Confound you. Shut thedoor., AtMarI- borough street the books are changed about every nine or twelve months and it cannot be wondered at that persons have good ground for obiec- tlon against kissing the book when if 1 is known that a testament is put to the lips thirty thousand times before 1t is replaced. Persons protesting the | Roman Catholic faith are known to be | exceedingly particular on the question of being sworn. It is not uncommon Tor such witnesses to absolutely refuse | to kiss the testament because the cover | has not the cross upon it.
 The swearing of Chinaman in an | Engllsh court of law is quite an event. | Very recently fifty Chinamen put in | an appearance at Marlborough street police court and before they could be sworn fifty saucers had to be reuuisi- tloned from neighboring china shop. As each Chinaman was put into the | witness box saucer was given to | him and the following oath admins tered: You swear to speak the truth. the whole truth and nothing but the truth; and If you do not speak the truth your soul will be cracked like that saucer Each witness was then required to kneel on the floor and smash the saucer. difficulty arose When the first Chinaman came to nIedh IHe saucer. Twice did he fling It to the ground but it refused to break The magistrate, (Mr Fenwick) told the astonished Chinaman to ey- pend a little more force, and at the I third attempt the saucer flew in little pieces about the court It was decided m view of the flying crockery, not to swear the other 49. Now the usher nas laid by q stock of saucers that are xNsrtrsf {<S1 4x counter with the floor
 To carry ones own testament to court of law is becoming quite com mon practice. This plan is to be rec because it does away with , -he necessity of having to handle and kiss q book that has been used by sev- z eral thousand persons.-London Tele- graph. ,