ART. 37.] EVIDENCE. .
by consent of parties, authority to hear, receive and

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examine evidence ; but that every person so offered
may and shall be admitted to give evidence, notwith-
standing 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
offering as a witness, and notwithstanding that such
person offered as a witness may have been previously

No exclusion
on ground of
interest or
crime.

convicted of any crime or offence ; but no person who
has been convicted of the crime of perjury shall be
admitted to testify in any case or proceeding what-
ever, 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.

Exception

2. When an original party to a contract or a cause
of action is dead, or shown to be lunatic or insane, or
when an executor or administrator is a party to the
suit, action or other proceeding, the other party may
be called as a witness by his opponent, but shall
not be permitted to testify on his own offer or
upon the call of his co-plaintiff or co-defendant
otherwise than now by law allowed, unless a nomi-
nal party merely.

When n party
to suit made
witness by has
opponent

8. 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 compellable to give evidence
for or against himself, nor shall any person be com-
pellable to answer any question tending to criminate
himself, nor, in any criminal proceeding, shall any
husband be competent or compellable to give evi-
dence 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,

Witnesses in
criminal pro-
ceedings.

nor in any case, civil or criminal, shall any husband
be competent or compellable to disclose any com-
8

Husband and
wife.