[30]
There are also a number of points strictly irrelevant
to the case on which questions may be put with
advantage. We may for example ask questions about
the past life of other witnesses or about the witness'
own character, with a view to discovering whether
they can be charged with some disgraceful conduct,
or degrading occupation, with friendship with the
prosecutor or hostility toward the accused, since
in replying to such questions they may say something which will help our cause or may be convicted
[p. 187]
of falsehood or of a desire to injure the accused.
But above all our examination must be circumspect,
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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