Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/562

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(jee that for hesitating to frame an ex post facto law to defend torture, BanniBter's condact was impugned, Bris- bane replied: *'The letter was not intemled to disjjense with your services generally* but merely in drawing Bills recommended by the Council, I beg leave farther to state distinctly that it is my wish that you should continue to dis- fl charge your duties." ^ Bannister, who in a voluminous defence paid a grateful tril)ute to Brisbane for his personal courtesy, ascribed hia conihict on this occasion to ** submission to advisers who entangled him/' He at once thanked Brisbane for con- descending to correct the impression that he was superseded in Ins otlice, *'I am aware that an Attorney-General is not a Minister of State, but some subjects appear to me of extreme <lelicacy, and on this I think I should be liable to punishment if I put my hand to the Bill/' Bannister wrote thus on the 4th October. On the 6th Brisbane introduced his Bill. These events deeply dis-< turlied the public niind/^ Marsden vainly protested against any Bill of Indemnity. Although charges had been made) against himself for illegally punishing prisoners, he was prepared to meet them fairly without retrospective justifi- cation by law, Brisbane and the cabal who, in Bannister's phrase, ** entangled him," had good reason to shrink from inquiry into the case of Bayne. If Douglass should be found guilty by the Courts of Law after the Court of lucpiiry ordered by Lord Batlmrst had peremptorily declined to do its duty, the consequences might be disgraceful to Brisbane and Forbes. The Indem- nity Act was framed in spite of the Attorney-General. Meanwhile the charges against Marsden (brought before the Grand Jurj and dismissed for want of evidence) haing I been put before the Attorney-General, he, in accordance' with custom, apprised Marsden (10th Sept.) that unless the latter could show reason to the contrar^^ a writ of certitirari would be asked for to bring uj> the proceedings of cases in which on 1st July in 1822, and on the 5th of April in 1825, illegal sentences were given by Marsden. '• John Macarthor, in a letter to hia son in EngLmd. wrote : "The alfair of Marsden made a great impreaaion even on the common people ; and whut better can be expeeted lierealter T