TESTES

Lat. Witnesses. Testes, trial per. A trial had before a judge without the intervention of a jury, in which the judge is left to form in his own breast his sentence upon the credit of the witnesses examined; but this mode of trial, although it was common in the civil law, was seldom resorted to in the practice of the common law, but it is now becoming common when each party waives his right to a trial by jury. Brown. .Testes ponderantur, non nnmerantur. Witnesses are weighed, not numbered. That is, in case of a conflict of evidence, the truth is to be sought by weighing the credibility of the respective witnesses, not by the mere numerical preponderance on one side or the other. Testes qul postnlat debet dare els anmptns competentes. Whosoever demands witnesses must find them in competent provision. Testibns deponentibiu in part numero, dignioribns est oredendnm. Where the witnesses who testify are in equal number, [on both sides,] the more worthy are to be believed.