Opinion of the Court-Sweeney, J. into a corner, to entrap him into fatal contradictions, and other unfair advantages which were frequently taken by officers of the crown, made the system so odious in England as to give rise to the demand for its total abolition. So deeply did the iniquities of the ancient system impress themselves upon the minds of the American colonists that the states with one accord made a denial of the right to oppress accused persons a part of their fundamental law, so that this maxim, which in England was a mere rule of evidence, became clothed in this country with the impregnability of a constitutional enactment; and indelibly recognized judicially since the rendition of the famous opinion of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616, 6 Sup. Ct. 524, 29 L. Ed. 746, holding that the fourth amendment to the Federal Constitution, which provides, among other things, "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated," and which provision we find also verbatim in our own constitution, as being a complement to the fifth amendment, and holding that a compulsory production of a party's private books and papers to be used against himself or his property in a criminal or penal proceeding is within the spirit of the amendment and equivalent to a compulsory production of papers in the sense implied in that part of the fifth amendment which declares that no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. With the authorities above cited, the proposition is too well settled to need a further citation of authorities that a witness cannot only not be compelled to testify against himself in a criminal case, but that this exemption extends also to his private books and papers, a proposition which counsel for respondent concedes, but which they claim affords the petitioner no justification in the present case. Meritorious and stringent as this general rule is, there are, however, certain classes of cases which have always been treated as exceptions, because not falling within the reason of the rule. When examined, these cases will all be found to be based upon the idea that if the testimony sought can Opinion of the Court-Sweeney, J. not possibly be used as a basis for, or in aid of, a criminal prosecution against the witness, the rule ceases to apply; its object being to protect the witness and no one else, much less that it shall be made use of as a pretext for securing immunity to others. Thus, if the witness elects to waive his privilege, as he may doubtless do, since the privilege is for his protection and not for that of other parties, and discloses his criminal connections, he is not permitted to stop but must go on and make a full disclosure. (1 Greenleaf on Evidence, 451; Commonwealth v. Pratt, 126 Mass. 462; Lockett v. State, 63 Ala. 5; Low v. Mitchell, 18 Me. 372; People v. Freshour, 55 Cal. 375.) So, under modern statutes permitting accused persons to take the stand in their own behalf, they may be subjected to cross-examination upon their statements. (State v. Whitam, 72 Me. 531; Commonwealth v. Morgan, 107 Mass. 199; People v. Casey, 72 N. Y. 393; State v. Cohn, 9 Nev. 179.) For the same reason, if the prosecution for a crime concerning which the witness is interrogated is barred by the statute of limitations, he may be compelled to answer. (Manhanke v. Cleland, 76 Iowa, 401, 41 N. W. 53; Weldon v. Burch, 12 Ill. 374; Floyd v. State, 7 Tex. 215; Calhoun v. Thompson, 56 Ala. 166, 28 Am. Rep. 754.) Again, if the answer of the witness may have a tendency to disgrace him and bring him into disrepute, and the proposed evidence be material to the issue on trial, the great weight of authority is that he may be compelled to answer, although, if the answer have no effect upon the case, except so far as to impair the credibility of the witness, he may fall back upon his privilege. (1 Greenleaf on Evidence, 454, 455; Weldon v. Burch, 12 Ill. 374; Ex parte Rowe, 7 Cal. 184.) So, also, where by statute absolute immunity from prosecution is guaranteed to the witness in regard to anything he may testify concerning, he may be compelled to testify. (Brown v. Walker, 161 U. S. 591, 16 Sup. Ct. 644, 40 L. Ed. 819; Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U. S. 548, 12 Sup. Ct. 195, 35 L. Ed. 1110.) In view of the facts and proceedings in this case, we believe another well-defined line of exception can be well taken to the general rule, which we will hereafter cite. Opinion of the Court-Sweeney, J. Subsequent to the oral argument and filing of briefs in this proceeding, counsel for petitioner, with the consent of opposing counsel, filed for the consideration of this court a copy of an opinion recently rendered in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Idaho in the matter of the application of L. G. Chapman for a writ of habeas corpus. The opinion is by Gilbert, Presiding Justice of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and counsel for petitioner in calling our attention to this opinion contends that it involves "identically the same questions presented in the case now under consideration." The Chapman case has some points of resemblance to, but we think may be clearly distinguished from, the case of the petitioner Hedden. Chapman was adjudicated guilty of contempt for refusing to obey the order of the court to submit to the inspection of the United States grand jury for the District of Idaho the books and papers of the Barber Lumber Company, and was ordered confined in the jail until he should comply with the order of the court in the premises. The matter under investigation by the federal grand jury was the charge of unlawfully acquiring timber lands by the said Barber Lumber Company, of which Chapman was the general manager and a stockholder. After citing at length the facts presented in the case, Judge Gilbert in his opinion said: "While the proceedings began with a subpena duces tecum directing the petitioner to bring before the grand jury the books and records of the Barber Lumber Company, they finally resulted in an ultimatum from the court ordering him to produce the books and papers and submit them to the inspection of the grand jury, and giving the grand jury the authority, which was expressly denied to the petitioner, to determine what was pertinent and what was not pertinent to the subject which was under consideration. That subject had been announced in open court to be the investigation of the proceedings whereby the Barber Lumber Company had acquired title to timber lands of the United States in the State of Idaho. It was not disputed that the Barber Lumber Company was incorporated without the State of Idaho, and that the petitioner was and from the first had been the manager of its Opinion of the Court-Sweeney, J. business in the State of Idaho. It followed from this that the acquisition of title to timber lands must have been conducted on behalf of the corporation by the petitioner, and that everything that was done in that connection was done with his knowledge and under his direction. If, therefore, there was criminal violation of law in acquiring those lands, there is every reason to assume that the petitioner must necessarily have been implicated therein, and that an inspection of the books would furnish evidence against him. That was one of the grounds of his appeal to the protection afforded by the fifth amendment and his refusal to comply with the order of the court. The fifth amendment, which provides that one may not be compelled in a criminal case to be a witness against himself, is closely allied with the fourth amendment, which inhibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Said the court, in Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616-633, 6 Sup. Ct. 524, 534, 29 L. Ed. 746: 'We have been unable to perceive that the seizure of a man's private books and papers to be used in evidence against him is substantially different from compelling him to be a witness against himself. We think it is within the clear intent and meaning of those terms.' On page 631 of 116 U. S., page 533 of 6 Sup. Ct. (29 L. Ed. 746), the court added: 'And any compulsory discovery by extorting the party's oath or compelling the production of his private books and papers to convict him of crime, or to forfeit his property, is contrary to the principles of a free government.' Elsewhere in the opinion the court said: 'It is our opinion, therefore, that a compulsory production of a man's private papers to establish a criminal charge against him or to forfeit his property is within the scope of the fourth amendment to the constitution in all cases in which a search and seizure would be, because it is a material ingredient and effects the sole object and purpose of search and seizure.' But it is said that, while one may not be compelled in a criminal case to produce his own books and records if they tend to criminate him, he can claim no protection under either the fourth or the fifth amendment when, as here, he is called upon to produce, not his own books, but the books of a corporation of which he Opinion of the Court-Sweeney, J. is an officer. In support of that view, reference is made to McAlister v. Henkel, 201 U. S. 90, 26 Sup. Ct. 385, 50 L. Ed. 671, in which the court said: 'Indeed, the authorities are numerous to the effect that an officer of a corporation cannot set up the privilege of a corporation as against his testimony or the production of their books. But here the petitioner is not setting up the privilege of the corporation as against the production of its books. He is asserting his own privilege for his own benefit on the ground that the books of the corporation of which he is the custodian will tend to incriminate him.' * * * The reasons why a witness may not be required to answer a question which he claims may tend to incriminate him apply with added force to a case where he is ordered to subject to the inspection of a grand jury books and papers which contain the record of his connection with transactions which are alleged to be criminal in their nature. In the present case, it is not perceivable that there can be any question of the good faith of the petitioner in declining to subject the books to examination. Although they are in fact the books of the corporation, they are nevertheless to all intent and purpose his own books. They are records made by him or under his direction, and are in his charge and control. They refer to transactions which he has conducted. If they show the method in which the corporation acquired title to timber lands, they necessarily disclose his own acts. It is not denied that the presentation of the books and their inspection by the grand jury is desired for one purpose only. This is fully shown by the record of the proceedings before the court. It is that they be resorted to to ascertain what individual or individuals may be subject to indictment for violation of the laws of the United States in acquiring title to timber lands. I think it very clear that if the books contain the evidence thus sought, tending to prove the violation of law, there was reasonable ground for concluding that they might have tended to incriminate the petitioner, and that, therefore, his plea of privilege should have been sustained." In the case of petitioner Hedden it cannot be said that the corporate books and papers in his possession are to all |