There are several exceptions to the rule against hearsay. The main exception to the hearsay rule consists of declaration, oral or written, made by persons since deceased. This exclusion existed long before the rule itself. An example of such an evidence occurs as far back as 1202 (plac. Ab. 104, Col. 2). One of the earliest instances of its admission, after the establishment of the rule, is found in R. v. Pembroke, (1678) 6 How. St. Tr. 1333-4. Down to the commencement of the preceding century deathbed declarations were admissible in almost all cases, civil as well as criminal. The principle of this exception is founded on the awful situation of the dying person, which is considered to be as powerful over his conscience as the obligation of an oath, and partly on a supposed absence of interest in a person on the verge of the next world. But before such declaration can be admitted, it must be proved, beyond any shadow of doubt, that the deponent is dead, that the exclusion of ....