The Habeas Corpus Bill of 1758 was a failed bill that would have extended habeas corpus if passed. The Habeas Corpus Act 1679 confirmed the common law tradition that subjects had a right to a writ of habeas corpus. However judges ruled that those impressed were exempt from the right to habeas corpus. The Chief Justice Lord Mansfield was in favour of this exemption but the Attorney-General Charles Pratt was not. Pratt, a "uniform Whig", prepared a bill for expanding habeas corpus, the object of which, according to William Holdsworth, "was to extend the Act of 1679 so as to give the benefit of the writ of Habeas Corpus ad subjiciendum, as improved by that Act, to persons who were imprisoned otherwise than on a criminal charge".