ART. 37. ] EVIDENCE. 35

3. No person who, in any criminal proceeding, is charged
with the commission of an indictable offence, or any offence
punishable on summary conviction, shall be competent or com-
pellable to give evidence for or against himself, nor shall any
person be compellable to answer any question tending to crim-
inate himself, nor, in any criminal proceeding, shall any husband
be competent or compellable to give evidence for or against his
wife, nor shall any wife be competent or compellable to give
evidence for or against her husband, except as now allowed by
law, nor in any case, civil or criminal, shall any husband be
competent or compellable to disclose any communication made
to Mm by his wife during the marriage, nor shall any wife be
compellable to disclose any communication made to her by her
husband during the marriage.

4. In all cases where a party to any suit, action or other pro-
ceeding shall be examined by any opposing party, the testimony
given on said examination may be rebutted by adverse testimony
and by proof of admission made by the party so examined.

5. Nothing in any of the preceding sections contained,
authorizing the examination of the parties litigant, and making
them competent witnesses, shall apply to any suit, action, bill
or. other proceeding instituted in consequence of adultery, or
for. the purpose of obtaining a divorce, or to any action for
breach of promise of marriage.

Sub-Sec. 1. In all cases it shall be competent for any of the
parties to the proceedings to prove by legal evidence any facts
showing the interest of any witness in the matter in controversy,
or in the event of the suit or the conviction of such witness of
any infamous crime; and, in order to prove such conviction, it
shall not be necessary to produce the whole record of proceed-
ings containing such conviction, but the certificate, under seal
of the clerk of the court wherein such proceedings were had,
stating the fact of the conviction, and for what crime, shall be
sufficient.

Sub-Sec. 2. No negro or mulatto, whether slave or free, shall
be admitted as evidence in any matter depending in any court