Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. AS TO EXAMINATION-IN-CHIEF. One of the most important branches of advocacy is the examination of a witness in-chief. As a rule, a young barrister, if he be bold, and he may be bold through fear, throws himself into his work like one who plunges into the water before he can swim. There must under such circumstances be much floundering and confusion. The nervousness that is necessarily felt when he rises in Court before an experienced judge, whose eye is like a microscope for his faults, and who is not always tender in his criticism, would be a terrible drawback, even if the junior were master of his work. As a rule, however, he has very little notion as to how a witness should be examined. He feels, too, that there are around him those who are too prone to "mark what is done amiss," not from ill- nature, by any means, but from habit. His nervousness increases in proportion as his want of practical experience makes itself more and more manifest to himself. One can scarcely conceive of a situation more unenviable than this. I do not pretend that any observations about to be made will cure all this, or give him experience ; but it is hoped that some of my remarks will so far be advantageous as to enable him to avoid many errors, and to keep in the well-trodden path of experienced advocates. One fact should be remembered to start with, and it is this, the witness whom he has to examine has probably a plain straightforward story to tell, and that upon the telling it depends the belief or disbelief of the jury, and their consequent verdict. If it were to be told amid a social circle of friends it would be narrated with more or less circumlocution and considerable exactness. But all the facts would come out; and that is the first thing to ensure if the case be, as …