expressed for treason or felony, the court would then have done right in remanding them.
The Attorney General having urged, before a committee of both houses, that, in Beckwith's case, and others, the Lords of the council sent a letter to the court of King's Bench to bail; it was replied, by the managers of the house of commons, that this was of no moment: "for that either the prisoner was bailable by the law, or not bailable. If bailable by the law, then he was to be bailed without any such letter;—if not bailable by the law, then plainly the judges could not have bailed him upon the letter, without breach of their oath, which is, that they are to do justice according to the law, &c."—State Trials, 7. 175.
"So that in bailing upon such offences of the highest nature, a kind of discretion, rather than a constant law, hath been exercised, when it stands wholly indifferent, in the eye of the court, whether the prisoner be guilty or not." Selden, St. Tr. 7. 230. 1.
"I deny that a man is always bailable when imprisonment is imposed upon him
