Bird

—This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction upon a charge of forgery. The facts sufficient for an understanding of the matters of law here presented for consideration will be found in the former appeal of People v. Bird, 124 Cal. 33 .

Upon the trial of this cause, a witness, — Grove, the teller of the hank,—who had paid the money on the check presented by defendant, was admitted to be dead. He had testified at the preliminary examination of defendant, and upon two trials of this case. The prosecution offered, and there was admitted in evidence, the testimony of the deceased witness given upon the preliminary examination. The defendant then, in various ways and by different offers, sought to introduce in evidence the testimony of Grove given at the former trials of this case, and the evidence was excluded. Some objection is here made by respondent to the sufficiency of the form of these offers, but the objections are too technical to justify consideration in so important a matter, for it is plain that the rulings of the court went, not to the form of the objections, but to the single proposition that the testimony of the deceased witness given upon former trials was under no…