Witness: “Quite!”
Junior: “You have no doubt about it?”
Witness: “Well, I haven’t much doubt, because I asked my wife.”
Sir Henry (pouncing on his prey): “You asked your wife in order to be sure in your own mind?”
Witness: “Quite so, my lord.”
Sir Henry: “Then you had some doubt before?”
Witness: “Well, I may have had, my lord.”
It is part of the advocate’s rôle to make the jury believe in his infallibility, and every question he asks that gives the witness an opportunity to score off him and belittle him in their eyes is an error of judgment. Serjeant Buzfuz, who conducted his case with fine judgment, was guilty of a grave error in his examination of Sam Weller. Brow-beating is always a dangerous policy; it antagonises the jury and leads to reprisals. There is an old story of the counsel in an assault case who asked the witness at what distance from the parties he was at the time of the assault. Not content with the reply of “A few feet,” but pressing for greater accuracy, he was answered by the witness: “Just four feet five and a half inches.”
“How do you come to be so very exact, fellow?” asked counsel sternly.
“Because I expected some fool or other would ask me, so I measured it.”