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

see that for hesitating to frame an ex post facto law to defend torture, Bannister's conduct was impugned. Brisbane replied: "The letter was not intended to dispense with your services generally, but merely in drawing Bills recommended by the Council. I beg leave further to state distinctly that it is my wish that you should continue to discharge your duties."

Bannister, who in a voluminous defence paid a grateful tribute to Brisbane for his personal courtesy, ascribed his conduct on this occasion to "submission to advisers who entangled him." He at once thanked Brisbane for condescending to correct the impression that he was superseded in his office. "I am aware that an Attorney-General is not a Minister of State, but some subjects appear to me of extreme delicacy, 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 5th Brisbane introduced his Bill. These events deeply disturbed the public mind.^[1] 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 justification 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 Inquiry ordered by Lord Bathurst had peremptorily declined to do its duty, the consequences might be disgraceful to Brisbane and Forbes. The Indemnity Act was framed in spite of the Attorney-General.

Meanwhile the charges against Marsden (brought before the Grand Jury and dismissed for want of evidence) having been put before the Attorney-General, he, in accordance with custom, apprised Marsden (10th Sept.) that unless the latter could show reason to the contrary, a writ of certiorari would be asked for to bring up 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.