Accusare.L

To lay to one's charge; to accuse, q. v. Acousare nemo se debet. No one is obliged to accuse himself. Nemo tenetur seipsum accusare. No one is bound to accuse himself. Nemo tenetur seipsum prodere. No one is bound to betray or expose himself. It is the privilege of a witness not to answer a question where there is real, not imaginary, danger that the answer may criminate himself. The rule is intended to preserve the witness from temptation to commit pei-jury. A husband cannot testify against his wife, or vice versa.* But a bankrupt must answer fully as to the disposition of his property. ' And a member of a public corporation may be compelled to testify against the corporation." The rule has lieen relaxed, and a difference made between private crime? or those arising out of commerce or the private relations of society, and public crimes or those relating strictly to the general welfare of the state.' See Cbiminate; Stultify; Turpitude. I Thellusson u Woodford, 4 Ves. 837-343; 11 id. 112-60. «4 Kent, 284; WIU. B. P. 306. 14 Kent, 3J6, 871; Pray v. Hegeman, 93 N. T. 514-15 (1883); Scott «. West, 63 Wis. 574-83 (1885), cases. 4 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 380, 340. » 3 Pars. Coutr. 519. • 1 Greenl. Ev. § 331. See 1 Bl. Com. 413; 4 id. 396; 107 Mass. 181; 10 N. Y. 10, 33.