The objection to a witness sustained, that he had been employed as lawyer in the cause.
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This day the Lords, on the verbal report of an Ordinary, agreeable to their former practice, sustained the objection made by Govan to Mr. James Burnet advocate, adduced as a witness for Young, That he was his lawyer in this cause, and had actually drawn the condesendence on which the witnesses were to be examined; and that although the fact, with respect to which he was to be examined, had happened long before his being employed as a lawyer, a circumstance on account whereof some of the Lords were for repelling the objection.
But the Court were of opinion, that if this distinction should be admitted, we might throw the objection of giving partial counsel out of our law books. And as for the judgment of the House of Peers in the case between the Earl of March and Anthony Sawyer, which vide supra Nov. 21, 1749, No. 180. p. 16757. it was a special case, and did not affect the general point.
