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Show ' KISSING THt BOOK- Jurymen and Wltneaaa SUU Iwore la tbm Old FuhloB a JSaglMd. Ignorance of the provisions of Mr. Bradlaugh's oaths act. of 18S8 is, I suppose, sup-pose, responsible for the fact that hitherto jurymen anil witnesses hava never, or hardly aver, exercised the power they possess of demanding to be sworn in the Scotch fashion, with right hand held aloft, instead of by "kissing' the book," says London Truth. However, How-ever, now that attention has been called to the matter in the press, the dirty and dangerous oaculatory method of administering the oath appears likely like-ly to be superseded by the more seemly and Scotch practice. A juryman was sworn in the latter way at Liverpool assizes recently, and at Fulton police court a doctor objected, "on sanitary grounds," to kiss the Testament which was handed to him. If court officials were instructed to a&k each witness or juryman in which way he would be sworn the nasty custom of "kissing the book" would soon be a thing of thepaat. |