LORD CAMPBELLsaid, he wished to lay on the table a Bill the object of which he would state in a very few words. Their Lordships might remember that after the case of the late Mr. O'Connell before their Lordships' House had been disposed of, his noble and learned Friend, Lord Lyndhurst (then Lord Chancellor), brought in a Bill which he (Lord Campbell) warmly supported, which had for its object the admitting of persons who might have been convicted of an offence to bail, pending proceedings upon a writ of error. That Bill had been attended with some benefit, but it was also fraught with some inconvenience, and had not, perhaps, been framed with the necessary caution. Where the Attorney General prosecuted, there was no danger of collusion; but it often happened that prosecutions were instituted by private individuals from very improper motives, and there was often the danger of collusion between the prosecutor and the defendant. Indeed, he knew of cases since the Bill to which he referred had become the law of the land, where persons who had been convicted of the most scandalous offences had escaped punishment. The object of the Bill he was about to introduce was to guard against that evil.
The noble and learned Lord then presented a Bill to make further Provision for staying Execution of Judgment for Misdemeanors upon giving Bail in Error.
§ Bill read 1a.