The effect of this bill of attainder was, therefore, to suspend the statute of 7 Will. III. c. 3, before it had been two years in operation, in order to destroy an indi vidual. This exertion of legislative power did not take place without a strong opposition, and has been frequently repro bated in subsequent times. Bishop Bur net, one of its most strenuous supporters, allowed that "this extreme way of ceeding was to be put in practice but seldom, and upon great occasions." (How ell's State Trials, vol. xii.) The legislature, acting in conformity with this opinion, have seldom, since the accession of the House of Hanover, had recourse either to bills of attainder or bills of pains and penalties. Bishop At terbury, however, was deprived of all his offices and emoluments, declared in capable of holding any for the future, and banished for ever, by a bill of pains and penalties, which received the assent of George I. on the 27th of May, 1723. He was charged with carrying on a traitor ous correspondence in order to raise an insurrection in the kingdom and procure foreign power to invade it. It was by a bill of pains and penalties that proceed ings were taken against Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV., in 1820. During
the Irish Rebellion, in 1798, Lord Ed ward Fitzgerald was arrested on a charge of high treason, and dying in prison, before he could be brought to trial, of the wounds which he had received in resisting his apprehension, he was attainted by act of parliament. But when the violence of party-spirit had subsided, the old prin ciple of the constitution, that every man shall be considered innocent of a crime until his guilt has been legally proved, prevailed, and a few years ago the at tainder was reversed.
The proceedings in parliament, in passing bills of attainder and of pains and penalties, do not vary from those adopted in regard to other bills. They may be introduced into either house. The parties who are subjected to these proceedings are admitted to defend them selves by counsel and witnesses. Bills for reversing attainders are "first signed by the king, and are presented by a lord to the House of Peers, by command of the crown, after which they pass through the ordinary stages in both houses, and receive the royal assent in the usual form." (May's Parliament.)