ON THE RATIONALE OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE; ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS CASES. BY WILLIAM WILLS, ATTORNEY-AT-LAW. "It is not likely that so many beams of light should issue from the LONDON: LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. PREFACE. THE most important doctrines of Circumstantial Evidence have been so ably treated of in the learned works of Mr. Bentham and Mr. Sergeant Starkie, that an apology may be thought necessary for this publication. It will however be perceived, that the design of the following Essay is different in some important particulars from that of either of the above-mentioned authors; and that an attempt has been made to illustrate the subject by the application of many instructive cases, some of which have been compiled from original documents, and others from publications not easily accessible. It has not always been practicable to support the statement of cases by reference to books of recognised authority, or of an equal degree of credit; but discrimination has uniformly been exercised in the adoption of such statements; and they have generally been verified by comparison with contemporaneous and independent accounts. A like discretion has been exercised in the rejection of some generally received cases of circumstantial evidence, the authenticity of which does not appear to be sufficiently established. It is to be regretted that, with the exception of the State Trials, there is no authoritative collection of English cases of controverted fact, for which nevertheless there are extant abundant materials. Isolated and anomalous as such cases may appear to be, they, like every other part of the great system of jurisprudence, are reducible to consistent and immutable principles of reason and natural justice. There has existed hitherto little inducement to any such compilation, since, (however pertinent and instructive such cases might be,) by an unreasonable rule of legal procedure they were shut out from practical application. It is probable that, as the consequence of recent legislative changes, cases of circumstantial evidence will hereafter be treated with an amplitude of argu ment and illustration, both as to fact and principle, which will give them an increased value, and offer inducements to the satisfactory record of such cases for the purposes both of practical use and liberal curiosity. In the course of my experience and reading, my attention has frequently been drawn to the consideration of the leading principles of circumstantial evidence. The matter which presented itself upon this favourite subject of study, and the thoughts which it suggested, it was my practice to preserve; and thus, and thus, without any view to publication, materials gradually and insensibly accumulated, which at length I have endeavoured to methodize and arrange in the present volume. Notwithstanding the originality of some of those materials, and the novelty of their arrangement and combination, it is probable that few of the generalizations and reflections advanced in this Essay can be considered as strictly original. The labour of composing these pages has nevertheless been an agreeable and useful employment in the brief intervals of leisure from other pursuits; and though I am not insensible to |