t under the first,
and was thrown under the second. As it happened the case never got
beyond the police station to which the parties were conveyed after
fierce opposition from some neighbours, who sympathised entirely with
the man. The woman herself, when her wounds were dressed, acknowledged
the justice of her punishment, and refused to charge her husband. I
was all the more willing to acquiesce in this because I found
that while I had the most distinct impression of having seen the
four-wheeler run over the woman's body, and should have been obliged
to swear accordingly, there could be no doubt that it was really
the hansom that had done so. This was not only the evidence of the
neighbours, which I suspected at the time of being a trick, but of the
cabdriver, who had stopped at the moment to abide the results of the
accident. I afterwards had the curiosity to ask an eminent police
magistrate, Sir John Bridge, whether this illusion of memory on my
part--which I can only account for by supposing that my eyes had
been fixed on the sufferer and that I had unconsciously referred her
injuries to the heavier vehicle--would have entirely discredited my
testimony in his Court. His answer was that it would not; that he was
constantly meeting with such errors, and that if he found a number of
witnesses of the same occurrence exactly agreed in every particular,
he would suspect that they had talked the matter over and agreed upon
what they were to say. This was the opinion of an experienced judge,
a skilled critic of the defects of personal observation. An Old Bailey
counsel for the defence, who is equally acquainted with the weakness
of human memory, takes advantage of the fact that it is not generally
understood by a Jury, and makes the fallacious assumption that glaring
discrepancies are irreconcilable with the good faith of the witnesses
who differ.[2]

II.--TRADITION.--HEARSAY EVIDENCE.

Next in value to personal observation, we must place the report, oral
or written, of an eye-witness. This is the best evidence we can get
if we have not witnessed an occurrence ourselves. Yet Courts of Law,
which in consideration of the defects of personal observation require
more than one witness to establish the truth, exclude hearsay evidence
altogether in certain cases, and not without reason.

In hearing a report we are in the position of observers of a series
of significant sounds, and we are subject to all the fallacies of
obser