answer, or without even the formality of proof; and sometimes, because the law, in its ordinary course of proceedings, would acquit the offender.[1] The injustice and iniquity of such acts, in general, constitute an irresistible argument against the existence of the power. In a free government it would be intolerable; and in the hands of a reigning faction, it might be, and probably would be, abused to the ruin and death of the most virtuous citizens.[2] Bills of this sort have been most usually passed in England in times of rebellion, or of gross subserviency to the crown, or of violent political excitements; periods, in which all nations are most liable (as well the free, as the enslaved) to forget their duties, and to trample upon the rights and liberties of others.[3]
- ↑ 2 Woodeson's Lect. 624.
- ↑ Dr. Paley has strongly shown his disapprobation of laws of this sort. I quote from him a short but pregnant passage. "This fundamental rule of civil jurisprudence is violated in the case of acts of attainder or confiscation, in bills of pains and penalties, and in all ex post facto laws whatever, in which parliament exercises the double office of legislature and judge. And whoever either understands the value of the rule itself, or collects the history of those instances, in which it has been invaded, will be induced, I believe, to acknowledge, that it had been wiser and safer never to have departed from it. He will confess, at least, that nothing but the most manifest and immediate peril of the commonwealth will justify a repetition of these dangerous examples. If the laws in being do not punish an offender, let him go unpunished; let the legislature, admonished of the defect of the laws, provide against the commission of future crimes of the same sort. The escape of one delinquent can never produce so much harm to the community, as may arise from the infraction of a rule, upon which the purity of public justice, and the existence of civil liberty, essentially depend."
- ↑ See 1 Tucker's Black. Comm. App. 292, 293; Rawle on Const. ch. 10, p. 119. See Cooper v. Telfair, 4 Dall. R. 14.—Mr. Woodeson, in his Law Lectures. (Lect. 41,) has devoted a whole lecture to this subject, which is full of instruction, and will reward the diligent perusal of the student. 2 Woodeson's Law Lect. 621.—During the American revolution this power was used with a most unsparing hand; and it has
