ither a competent nor a
disinterested judge. Yet the equity of modern times must condemn the
violent and arbitrary proceedings, which would have disgraced the cause
of justice, and would render injustice still more odious. No sooner had
the nation awakened from its golden dream, than a popular and even a
parliamentary clamour demanded their victims: but it was acknowledged
on all sides that the South Sea Directors, however guilty, could not be
touched by any known laws of the land. The speech of Lord Molesworth,
the author of the State of Denmark, may shew the temper, or rather the
intemperance, of the House of Commons. "Extraordinary crimes (exclaimed
that ardent Whig) call aloud for extraordinary remedies. The Roman
lawgivers had not foreseen the possible existence of a parricide; but
as soon as the first monster appeared, he was sewn in a sack, and cast
headlong into the river; and I shall be content to inflict the same
treatment on the authors of our present ruin." His motion was not
literally adopted; but a bill of pains and penalties was introduced, a
retroactive statute, to punish the offences, which did not exist at the
time they were committed. Such a pernicious violation of liberty and
law can be excused only by the most imperious necessity; nor could it
be defended on this occasion by the plea of impending danger or useful
example. The legislature restrained the persons of the Directors,
imposed an exorbitant security for their appearance, and marked their
characters with a previous note of ignominy: they were compelled to
deliver, upon oath, the strict value of their estates; and were disabled
from making any transfer or alienation of any part of their property.
Against a bill of pains and penalties it is the common right of every
subject to be heard by his counsel at the bar: they prayed to be
heard; their prayer was refused; and their oppressors, who required no
evidence, would listen to no defence. It had been at first proposed that
one-eighth of their respective estates should be allowed for the future
support of the Directors; but it was speciously urged, that in the
various shades of opulence and guilt such an unequal proportion would
be too light for many, and for some might possibly be too heavy. The
character and conduct of each man were separately weighed; but, instead
of the calm solemnity of a judicial inquiry, the fortune and honour of
three and thirty Englishmen were made the topic of hasty conve