Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/325

 IN BB rOWLBB. 311 �mode of giving legal authority to a statute, record, or other written instrument, or a certified copy thereof, ao as to ren- der it legally admissible in evidence." There does not appear to be any necessary or inherent meaningin the word "authen- ticated," as used in the section -which requires the authentica- tion to be in writing. The connection in -which the word "authenticated" is used, in this or any other statute, may require the authentication to be in writing, and it may, in one place, mean only a written authentication, while in another place it may admit of an authentication not in writing. �The words "properly and legally authenticated, so as to entitle them to be reeeived as evidence," etc., are properly to be construed as if the expression were "so properly and legally authenticated as to entitle them," etc. ; that is, "so properly and legally authenticated that they would be entitled to be, " etc. This authentication, in regard to original papers, may be made by oral proof given here. A witness may swear here to the verity and identity of the original ; and, also, from his knowledge and experience, that they would be reeeived in the tribunals of the foreign country as evidence of the criminality of the person in respect to the ofifence charged against him as committed there, if the inquiry as to such criminality were being had in such foreign tribunals. This wiU be sufficient, under the statute, when originals are offered. When copies are offered they must be authenticated according to the law of the foreign country. The provision that "the certificate of the principal diplomatie or consular officer of the United States, resident in such foreign country, shall be proof that any such deposition, warrant, or other paper, or copy thereof, is authen- ticated in the manner required by this section," provides for a mode of proof in regard to both originals and copies, and in regard to both of the authentications mentioned in the sec- tion. Such certificate, if in proper form, is absolute proof, whatever may be the tenor of the certificates of foreign offi- ciais to the same documents. �Practically, there may, ordinarily, be no adequate attaina- ble means, other than such certificate, of proving that the authentication of the copies is according to the law of the for- ����