BILL OF ATTAINDER (for derivation, see ATTAINDER ) , and BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES. Bills by which attainder or pains and penalties are inflicted by legislative enact ment.
The Constitution of the United States ex pressly declares (Art. I., Sec. 9) that "no bill of attainder or es-post-facto law shall be passed." (See ATTAINDER.) In England such bills were formerly generally resorted to when, either from the peculiar na ture of the offense, or in consequence of diffi culties in the application of the ordinary laws, it was deemed necessary or expedient to inflict such punishment otherwise than through the courts of justice, as in times of public disturb ance or when the offense to be punished was not a crime under existing laws. During the reign of Henry persons of the highest rank were frequently brought to the scaffold by bills of attainder, as the Earl of Surrey, the Earl of Essex, and others, who suffered for denying the King's supremacy. During other reigns, both be fore and after that of Henry these bills were more or less in evidence and used, until in 1870, by 33 and 34 Viet. Chapter 23, attainder was practically abolished. There were greater facilities for conviction by this penal legislation than by the ordinary judicial procedure at law because while in the latter the strict rules of legal evidence must be observed, the injury under a bill of attainder. or of pains and penal ties, was entirely in the hands of Parliament, which might dispense at its pleasure with such rules and forms of law as appeared incon Nenient or unsuitable to the purpose in hand. Accordingly, in most of the cases to which we have referred, the bills were passed upon evidence which could never have been received as sufficient or even a court of law; and there are even instances where parties were attainted and punished without there being any evidence against them at all, and even without. their being beard in their defense. Under the Stuarts the extraordinary mode of proceeding in Parliament was seldom resorted to, and it has been still more seldom used since the accession of the House of Hanover. In Scotland the Jacobite move
ment after the union with England was pro ductive of several instances of parliamentary attahider, which, however, resnited in the forfeiture of the estates of Hie nttainted parties, and these atiainders wen' likewise un attended with the harsh. and in too many in stances capital penalties, which were formerly the inevitable results of treason so discovered. The last instance of bill of attainder for treason was that of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the leaders of the Trish Rebellion of 1 79S. Tn torard to hills of pain': and penalties, perhaps the two most remarkable instances are those of Bishop Werbury, in 1722, and of Queen Caroline, wife of George TV., in 1820.
The proceedings of Parliament in passing bills of attainder and of pains and penalties do not nary from those adopted in regard to other bills. But the parties affected have generally. been ad mitted to defend themselves by counsel and wit nesses before both houses. lu impeachments. the Commons are accusers and prosecutors. and the Douse of Lords alone arc judges, of the crime. In passing bill. of attainder, the Commons are judges of equal jurisdiction and with the same responsibilities as the Lords: and the accused can be condemned only by the joint assent of the Crown. the Lords, and the Commons. In pass ing bills of attainder, the bishops. contrary to the practice in capital impeachments. take part in the proceedings and vote. lit parliamentary attainders, the bill sets out, by way of pream ble, the facts and evidences on which it is founded, and concludes, by way of enactment, that the accused "is hereby convicted and at tainted of high treason, and shall suffer the pains of death, and incur all forfeitures as a person attainted of high treason." See article TREASON.