16 LEGAL INSTRUCTOR. 



AFFIDAVITS AND DEPOSITIONS. 



A deposition is the written testimony of a witness 

 under oath. An affidavit is simply an oath in writing 

 subscribed by the party making the same, and sworn or 

 affirmed to before some proper person. 



The following is the usual form : 



County of S , ss. 



J. S., of said city and county, grocer, being duly sworn, 

 doth depose and say, that on the twentieth day of April, 

 instant, deponent was walking near the hour of 12 

 o'clock, noon — deponent saw the driver of Smith's omni- 

 bus. No. — , strike and beat with his whip, one J. S. per- 

 sonally known to deponent. 



J. S. 

 Sworn to before me, this 21st day of April, 1850. 



LEWIS CLARK, 



Justice of the Peace. 



An affidavit should set forth nothing but facts, be- 

 cause, in strictness of law, matters of inference or argu- 

 ment are not allowed. 



However, matters of hearsay or information, and 

 which the deponent believes to be true, but cannot assert 

 positively of his own knowledge, may be set forth as 

 follows : 



" And deponent further saith that he has been in- 

 formed, and verily believes to be true, ifec. (fcc. 



Another mode of affidavit is as follows : 



On the 25th day of June, in the year one thousand 

 eight hundred and forty, [then go on and make state- 



