ART. 351 COMPETENCY OF WITNESSES. 963

61. Copy of books, proceedings, etc., of comptroller. 62. Copy of entries of Inspector of to- bacco. 63. Copy of books and papers in cus- tody of keeper of records of court of chancery. 64. Copy of record in custody of clerk of court; short copies.

65. Copies of records from office of state tax commissioner. 66. Copy of judicial proceedings not re- quired to be recorded. 67. Where transcript of record might be offered in evidence it shall be sufficient to produce original pa- pers.

Competency of Witnesses.

1904, art. 35, sec. 1. 1888, art. 35, sec. 1. 1860, art. 37, sec. 1. 1864, ch. 109, sec. 1.
1. No person offered as a witness shall hereafter b,e excluded, by
reason of incapacity from crime or interest, from giving evidence, either
in person or by deposition, according to the practice of the courts, in
the trial of any issue joined or hereafter to be joined, or of any matter
or question, or on any inquiry arising in any suit, action or proceeding,
civil or criminal, in any court, or before any judge, jury, justice of
the peace or other person having, by law or by consent of parties,
authority to hear, receive and examine evidence; but every person so
offered may and shall be admitted to give evidence, notwithstanding;
that such person may or shall have an interest in the matter in question,
or, in the event of the trial of any issue, matter, question or inquiry,
or of the suit, action or proceeding in which he is offered as a witness,
and notwithstanding that such person offered as a witness may have
been previously convicted of any crime or offense; but no person who
has been convicted of the crime of perjury shall be admitted to testify
in any case or proceeding whatever; and the parties litigant and all
persons in whose behalf any suit, action or other proceeding may be
brought or defended, themselves, and their wives and husbands shall
be competent and compellable to give evidence in the same manner as
other witnesses, except as hereinafter excepted.

Parties; husbands and wives; interest.

The portion of this section making parties and their wives and husbands
"competent and compellable to give evidence," applies to civil cases only;
this is true notwithstanding the repeal by the act of 1876, ch. 357, of the
third section of the act of 1864, ch. 109 (see section 4). Object of the
evidence act. Turpin v. State, 55 Md. 475. And see Davis v. State, 38 Md.
65 (dissenting opinion); Grand United Order, etc., v. Merklin, 65 Md. 584;
Classen v. Classen, 57 Md. 511.

The portion of this section making parties litigant competent witnesses,
applied. Flickinger v. Wagner, 46 Md. 600. And see Crane v. Barbdoll, 59
Md. 337; Le Brun v. Le Brun, 55 Md. 503; Banrum v. Barnum, 42 Md. 323;
Semmes v. Worthington, 38 Md. 324.

A party who takes an interest under a will is a legal and competent wit-
ness to prove It, and the devise or bequest to him is valid. Leitch v. Leitch,
114 Md. 336; Hammett v. Shanks, 41 Md. 219; Harris v. Pue, 39 Md. 549;
Estep v. Morris, 38 Md. 426.

By the evidence act of 1864, the disqualification of witnesses arising from
interest, was to a great extent, but not wholly, removed—gee section 3.
Bowman v. Little, 101 Md. 319 (supplemental opinion); Wright v. Gilbert, 51
Md. 155; Semmes v. Worthington, 38 Md. 324.