Now, I come to the case of a man detained under a Parliamentary statute. We are told that Parliament being the supreme legislative body in the country and representative of the entire country it may be supposed to be not merely willing, but anxious to do justice to all classes of people. There is, therefore, no reason why its bona fides should be questioned or its powers should be curtailed by the Constitution. We have, Sir, in the United States a body known as the Congress which, in that country, is as supreme as Parliament will be in this country. Nevertheless, the Constitution of the United States limits the powers of this body in respect of the arrest of persons, searches of dwelling places, and so on. We may, therefore, without casting any reflection on Parliament and without unduly derogating from its authority, provide in our Constitution some of the safeguards, or rather something remotely resembling the safeguards provided in the United States Constitution. Even if my proposal is accepted that is, even if Parliament is required to fix a period for the detention of a person, we shall be far from having provided all those guarantees of liberty that the United States Constitution does.
