Can a solicitor withdraw an affidavit to prevent cross-examination?

Finally, the court should not permit the withdrawal of an affidavit merely to prevent cross-examination. The solicitor’s affidavit was filed and served. One of the earliest statements of the law appears in Clarke v. Law (1855), 2 K. & J. 28, 69 E.R. 680 at 682: When a party gives notice that he intends to use at the hearing an affidavit made by him, he is both a party and a witness. If he had filed a new affidavit he could not say that he would not use it. He has propounded himself as a witness, and cannot be allowed, if not cross-examined, to use his affidavit, but if threatened with cross-examination to withdraw it: having tendered himself as a witness, he is bound to submit to cross-examination. I have no doubt upon this point…