did not directly appear that Mr. Hansard was the printer to the House of Commons, yet this fact might fairly be inferred from the statement that the book was printed by the permission of the Speaker. Mr. Baron Platt intimated an opinion that the evidence was not admissible, but it became unnecessary expressly to decide the point, as the counsel for the plaintiff waived his objection, and the book was put in by consent.

§ 9. An Act, which was passed in the year 1865 to remove § SA doubts as to the validity of colonial laws,1 has simplified the mode of proving such laws, by enacting in § 6, that "the certificate of the clerk or other proper officer of a legislative body in any colony, to the effect that the document to which it is attached is a true copy of any colonial law assented to by the Governor of such colony, or of any bill reserved for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure by the said Governor, shall be primâ facie evidence that the document so certified is a true copy of such law or bill, and, as the case may be, that such law has been duly and properly passed and assented to, or that such bill has been duly and properly passed and presented to the Governor; and any proclamation purporting to be published by authority of the Governor in any newspaper in the colony to which such law or bill shall relate, and signifying Her Majesty's disallowance of any such colonial law, or Her Majesty's assent to any such reserved bill as aforesaid, shall be primâ facie evidence of such disallowance or assent."

§ 10. Other facilities in the proof of foreign and colonial docu- § 9 ments had already been afforded in 1851 by Lord Brougham's Act to amend the Law of Evidence.2 The seventh section of this statute enacts, that "all proclamations, treaties, and other acts of state of any foreign state, or of any British colony, and all judgments, decrees, orders, and other judicial proceedings of any court of justice, in any foreign state or in any British colony, and all affidavits, pleadings, and other legal documents filed or deposited in any such court, may be proved in any court of justice, or before any person having by law or by consent of parties authority to hear,

1

receive, and examine evidence, either by examined copies, or by copies authenticated as hereinafter mentioned; that is to say, if the document sought to be proved be a proclamation, treaty, or other act of state, the authenticated copy, to be admissible in evidence, must purport to be sealed with the seal of the foreign state or British colony to which the original document belongs; and if the document sought to be proved be a judgment, decree, order, or other judicial proceeding of any foreign or colonial court, or any affidavit, pleading, or other legal document filed or deposited in any such court, the authenticated copy, to be admissible in evidence, must purport either to be sealed with the seal of the foreign and colonial court to which the original document belongs, or in the event of such court having no seal, to be signed by the judge, or if there be more than one judge, by any one of the judges of the said court, and such judge shall attach to his signature a statement in writing on the said copy that the court whereof he is a judge has no seal; but if any of the aforesaid authenticated copies shall purport to be sealed or signed as hereinbefore respectively directed, the same shall respectively be admitted in evidence in every case in which the original document could have been received in evidence, without any proof of the seal where a seal is necessary, or of the signature, or of the truth of the statement attached thereto, where such signature and statement are necessary, or of the judicial character of the person appearing to have made such signature and statement."

"in

§ 11. Moreover, the statute passed in 1855 to enable British § 9A diplomatic and consular agents to administer oaths and to perform notarial acts,2 much simplifies the proof of affidavits sworn foreign parts out of her Her Majesty's dominions;" for it enacts, in § 3, that "any document purporting to have affixed, impressed, or subscribed thereon or thereto the seal and signature of any British

1 See 18 & 19 V., c. 119, § 97, as to proof of proclamations made by governors of colonies under the Passengers' Act, 1855.

2 18 & 19 V., c. 42. The provisions of this Act, somewhat enlarged, are made applicable to affidavits, &c., used in the Court of Probate, or in the Court for Divorce, or in the Irish Court for Matrimonial Causes. See § 31 of 21 & 22 V., c. 95; § 20 of 21 & 22 V., c. 108; and § 16 of 34 & 35 V., c. 49, Ir.

ambassador, envoy, minister, chargé d'affaires, secretary of embassy or of legation, consul-general, consul, vice-consul, acting consul, pro-consul, or consular agent, in testimony of any oath, affidavit, affirmation, or" notarial "act having been administered, sworn, affirmed, had, or done by or before him, shall be admitted in evidence, without proof of any such seal and signature being the seal and signature of the person whose seal and signature the same purport to be, or of the official character of such person.'

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3

§ 12. The Act, too, of 1852, for amending the practice in the old § 10 Court of Chancery, contains an important clause on this subject; for, after enacting in section twenty-two, that "all pleas, answers, disclaimers, examinations, affidavits, declarations, affirmations, and attestations of honour in causes or matters depending in the High Court of Chancery, and also acknowledgments required for the purpose of enrolling any deed in the said court, shall and may be sworn and taken in Scotland, or Ireland, or the Channel Islands, or in any colony, plantation, or place under the dominion of Her Majesty in foreign parts, before any judge, court, notary public, or person lawfully authorised to administer oaths in such country, colony, island, plantation, or place respectively, or before any of Her Majesty's consuls or vice-consuls in any foreign parts out of Her Majesty's dominions,"-it goes on to provide, that "the judges and other officers of the said Court of Chancery6 shall take judicial notice of the seal or signature, as the case may be, of any such

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§ 4 enacts, that persons swearing or affirming falsely under the Act shall be guilty of perjury, and § 5 enacts, that persons forging the seal or signature of any such diplomatic or consular agent, or knowingly tendering in evidence any document with a false seal or signature thereto, shall be guilty of felony. See post, § 1568, as to §§ 1 & 2 of the Act. 2 15 & 16 V., c. 86.

3 Extended to the Isle of Man by 16 & 17 V., c. 78, § 6.

4 As to affidavits, &c., taken in the Ionian Islands, see 27 & 28 V., c. 77, §§ 13-16.

5 In Baillie v. Jackson, 3 De Gex, M. & G. 38, the Lds. Js. refused to take judicial notice of the signature of the Registrar of Deeds in St. Vincent, which was appended to the certificate of a deed as registered in the proper office of the island, it being admitted that the Registrar had no authority to administer an oath.

6 Extended to the Chancery of the County Palatine of Lancaster by 16 & 17 V., c. 78, § 7.

court, judge, notary public, person, consul, or vice-consul, attached, appended, or subscribed to any such pleas, answers, disclaimers, examinations, affidavits, affirmations, attestations of honour, declarations, acknowledgments, or other documents to be used in the said court."2 A similar clause is also inserted in the Chancery (Ireland) Act, 1867,3 the Lunacy Regulation (Ireland) Act, 1871, the Court of Admiralty Act, 1854,5 the Court of Admiralty (Ireland) Act, 1867,6 the Court of Probate Act, 1858,7 the Court for Divorce Act of the same year, the Matrimonial Causes (Ireland) Act, 1871, and the Crown Suits, &c., Act, 1865.10

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§ 13. Again, the Bankruptcy Act for Scotland, which was § 10B passed in 1856, facilitates the proof of certain Scottish judicial documents by enacting in § 174, that "all deliverances,”—which fantastical term includes all orders, warrants, judgments, decisions, interlocutors, or decrees under that Act,12" purporting to be signed by the Lord Ordinary or by any of the judges of the Court of Session, or by the sheriff [or sheriff substitute],13 as well as all extracts or copies thereof, or from the books of the Court of Session, or the Sheriff Court, purporting to be signed or certified by any clerk of court, or extracts from or copies of registers purporting to be made by the keeper thereof, or extractor, shall be judicially noticed by all courts and judges in England, Ireland, and Her Majesty's other dominions, and shall be received as primâ facie evidence, without the necessity of proving their authenticity or correctness, or the signatures appended, or the official character of

1 See ante, n. 1, p. 12.

2 These provisions are extended to affidavits made in matters in lunacy, by the Act of 16 & 17 V., c. 70, § 57, and also to “all affidavits, declarations, and affirmations, to be used before any registrar or other officer of any registry office in Great Britain or Ireland, for any purpose connected with registration of deeds or wills or other documents or things, under the authority of parliament," by 16 & 17 V., c. 78, § 6.

1o 28 & 29 V., c. 104, § 18. See also § 43 of the same Act.

19 & 20 V., c. 79.

12 § 4.

13 Id.

the persons signing, and shall be sufficient warranty for all diligence and execution by law competent."

§ 14. In America, the signature of the Chief of the Executive § 12 of the State is recognised without proof; and so, in Louisiana, are also the signatures of executive and judicial officers to all official acts.3 The English doctrine certainly does not extend this length, though it is difficult to define its exact limits. On the one hand, the signatures of the judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and of the old superior equity and common law judges, must be judicially noticed, if appended to any judicial or official document; and the legislature has attached the same credit to the signatures of the commissioners and registrars of the Old Courts, and of the judges and registrars of the New Courts, of Bankruptcy in England, and of the judges, registrars, and chief clerks of the Court of Bankruptcy and Insolvency, now called the Court of Bankruptcy, in Ireland. So, in all proceedings under the winding-up clauses of the Companies Act, 1862, judicial notice must be taken of the signatures of the officers of the Old Courts of Chancery in England or Ireland, or of the Courts of Bankruptcy in England or Ireland, or of the Court of Session in Scotland, or of the registrar of the Court of the Vice-Warden of the Stannaries, whenever such signatures are subscribed to any document made, issued, or signed under such clauses, or any official copy thereof.9 Many other signatures attached to documents, which are rendered admissible by statutes, need not be proved; 10 and it seems also that, in practice, no proof is required of the handwriting of the keeper, or of the deputy-keeper, of Whitecross Street Prison," which for all

10 8 & 9 V., c. 113, § 1, ante, § 7. A partial list of the more important of these documents will be given in Part iii. Ch. iv., on Public Documents.

11 25 & 26 V., c. 104.