ad exceeded the limits of his authority, he
begged to say that he did not feel himself at liberty to answer. It
is quite clear, indeed, that no noble lord could have answered this
question satisfactorily; for if Lord Durham had been guilty in passing
an act of attainder, the same guilt must have attached to Sir John
Colborne; and if the one had been pronounced innocent, the other must
have shared in his innocence. This question, which was one of the
greatest importance, however, was allowed to pass over; and in the
course of the evening Lord Melbourne moved the insertion of his
explanatory clause, which, after reciting the proviso, proceeded to
declare, that it should not extend to prevent the governor and council
from passing such laws as might be necessary for the safety of the
province, or from providing for the punishment or detention of persons
engaged in conspiracies against the government. By the results of this
clause, in fact, and the discussions which followed, Lord Brougham's
bill was stripped of its declaratory character, and reduced to a mere
act of indemnity to the parties concerned in the transportation and
detention of the Bermuda prisoners. In this mutilated condition Lord
Brougham moved the third reading of the bill, which he did with evident
reluctance, inasmuch as he rightly considered that its chief value lay
in its declaratory character. "As I have been accidentally mixed up with
this business," said his lordship, "I have no hesitation in moving the
third reading of the bill, as it now stands, although quite sensible
that I am making that motion on the part of her majesty's government."
On this occasion the lord-chief-justice Denman spoke on the question for
the first time. His objections to the ordinance were directed to a gross
violation of the constitution. As to the indemnity, he was entirely
opposed to it; the passing of such bills was one of the most
unjustifiable practices of parliament. Publie functionaries might
be justified by their good intentions in overstepping the law; but
parliament had no right to say to the parties who had suffered by such
excess of authority, "You can have no redress against those persons who
have wronged you, because it is our pleasure to indemnify them." "If
indeed," he continued, "parliament are of opinion that individuals,
actuated by a good and upright intention, and only zealous for
the public service, have broken the laws, let them indemnify those
individual