Bill, and Chief Justice Boulton was summarily dismissed. "Boulton,"
says Mr Justice Prowse, "had undoubted ability, but he was the worst
possible selection for both the Council and the Bench. His views, both
of law and legislation, were most illiberal; as a technical lawyer he
was mostly right and sublimely independent, but his harsh sentences,
his indecent party spirit, and his personal manners caused him to be
hated as no one else was ever hated in this colony."[38]

In 1838 occurred the Kielly affair, which has added a leading case to
English constitutional law. Dr. Kielly assaulted, or was said to have
assaulted, Mr John Kent, who was a member of the Assembly. Mr Kent
brought the matter before the Assembly as a breach of privilege. The
House refused to hear witnesses on Kielly's behalf, treated the charge
as proved, and demanded that he should apologize at the bar of the
House. Kielly refused, adding that Kent was a liar and a coward. Then
followed an interlude of comic opera. Kielly was committed, whereupon
Mr Justice Lilly granted a writ of _habeas corpus_. This was not to be
borne by the imperious Assembly, and the Speaker promptly issued his
warrant for the re-arrest of Kielly, the arrest of the High Sheriff,
and of Judge Lilly. Nothing like it had been seen since the heyday of
the Wilkes litigation in England, when the House of Commons committed
the Sheriff of Middlesex to prison for carrying out the orders of the
Court of King's Bench.

In the unruffled atmosphere of the Privy Council the legal question
found its decision.[39] It was laid down that the Crown, by its
prerogative, can create a Legislative Assembly in a settled colony,
with the government of its inhabitants: but that it is highly doubtful
whether the Crown could, if it wished, bestow upon such an Assembly an
authority, such as that of committing for contempt, not incidental to