ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE 219 



a property or a life, is rightly looked on as conclusive 

 for all reasonable purposes. The laws of such evidence 

 have been threshed over for generations past ; and it is 

 well known what kind of proofs may be relied upon, and 

 what are dubious. If we then compare this class of 

 evidence with that which we accept in studying the past 

 history of man, we shall see more clearly what kinds of 

 proof are admissible, and how far it is reasonable to 

 depend upon our results. 



In examining legal evidence we see that it all falls 

 under one of four heads (i) witnesses, (2) material 

 objects, (3) exhaustion, and (4) probabilities. These 

 four kinds of evidence are of very different values ; any 

 one of them may be stronger than the others in a given 

 case, and each kind has its own special weakness. 



1. Witnesses provide the most clear and connected 

 proof, and the least liable to misunderstanding ; but yet 

 a proof which is entirely dependent on veracity, on in- 

 telligence, on absence of prejudice, and on clear memory, 

 and is hence the least dependable kind of evidence in 

 some cases. 



2. Material facts, which may be very conclusive ; 

 such as A's footprint in B's garden, or A's chisel left in 

 B's house, at a burglary. If the fact is certain, the con- 

 clusion is proved ; but the danger lies in misunder- 

 standing the fact. 



3. Exhaustion, which may prove A guilty because 

 no one else could have done the deed ; as when A and 

 B are seen in a railway carriage at one station, and at 

 the next stoppage B is found murdered and A leaves the 

 carriage. There may be not a trace of other evidence, 

 but this is enough. 



4. Probability, as when A is last seen with B, and B 

 proceeds to deal with the property of murdered A. This 



