... cogent particular evidence may seem to be, unless it comes within a class, which is admissible, it is excluded. The technical nature of the hearsay rule has created difficulties for the courts. If highly reliable and probative evidence falls within the scope of the exclusionary rule it is inadmissible unless a common-law or statutory exception can be found to justify its admission. In the absence of any such inclusionary exception the courts must either exclude the evidence or find a way of side-stepping the hearsay rule. This side-stepping has been effected in two ways. First, the courts have been willing to redefine evidence so that it is not caught by the exclusionary rule at all, and this has led to anomalous cases where what appears to be hearsay has been classified as something else. Secondly, where it has been thought inappropriate to redefine an item of obvious hearsay evidence as non-hearsay ...

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