3610. HABEAS CORPUS IN ENGLAND.—
Examine the history of England.
See how few of the cases of the suspension
of the habeas corpus law have been worthy
of that suspension. They have been either
real treason, wherein the parties might as
well have been charged at once, or sham
plots, where it was shameful they should
ever have been suspected. Yet for the few
cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus
has done real good, that operation is now
become habitual, and the minds of the nation
almost prepared to live under its constant suspension.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. ii, 446.
Ford ed., v, 46.
(P.
July. 1788)
