In an action for malicious prosecution the plaintiff alleged that the defendant had maliciously and without reasonable and probable cause prosecuted him upon a charge that he, the plaintiff, had on the 13th November 1899 threatened to kill the defendant. The case set up by the plaintiff was that on the 13th November 1899 he had not threatened to kill the defendant, but had merely threatened to expose him, and that the defendant then prosecuted him from fear of and in order to prevent exposure. To support this case the plaintiff gave evidence of commercial transactions between himself and the defendant, who was the agent for the Ballarat Banking Company, which occurred in 1896, which evidence the plaintiff alleged showed that defendant had then defrauded the plaintiff, and was therefore afraid of his conduct being exposed to the Ballarat Banking Company. This evidence was objected to but admitted.