The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-12 00:00:00

THE ROYAL PREROGATIVE OF PARDON,

We have heard so much ignorance lately, even from per-
sons who ought to be better conversant with such matters,
upon the subject of the power of the Queen to pardon any
crime, ex snero ?mitt, that we think we may perhaps do
service to some of our readers by a short statement of what,
in a legal point of view, a pardon is, and how it is granted.
In the first place, it is a complete mistake to suppose that
there is, or ever was, in the ordinary process of law, such a
thing as a death-warrant signed by the Sovereign. In the
case of the bill of attainder, the Sovereign must, of course,
consent, as she must to any other bill, before it becomes law ;
but in ordinary cases she has no official knowledge whatever
either of the trial, the condemnation, or the approaching
execution. The law upon this subject is very lucidly ex-
plained in the following extract from Blackstone's Com-
mentaries :

" Execution, in all cases, as well capital as otherwise, must
be performed by the legal officer, the Sheriff, or his deputy ;
whose warrant for so doing was anciently by precept under
the hand and seal of the Judge, as it is still practised in the
Court of the Lord High Steward, upon the execution of a
peer ; though, in the Court of the Peers in Parliament, it is
done by writ from the King. Afterwards it was established,
that in case of life, the Judge may command execution to be
done without any writ. And now the usage is, for the Judge
to sign the calender, or list of all the prisoners's names, with
their separate judgments in the margin, which is left with
the Sheriff. As, for a capital felony, it is written opposite
to the prisoner's name, " let him be hanged by the neck ;"
formerly, in the days of Latin and abbreviation, "sus. per
col." for " suspendatur per collum." And this is the only
warrant that the Sheriff has for so material an act as taking
away the life of another. It may certainly afford matter of
speculation, that in civil causes there should be such a variety
of writs of execution to recover a trifling debt, issued in the
King's name, and under the seal of the court, without which
the Sheriff cannot legally stir one step ; and yet that the
execution of a man, the most important and terrible task of
any, should depend upon a marginal note."
Thus, it is seen, that the only case where a writ from the
Sovereign, or a " death-warrant," was ever required, was
on the execution of a peer, in pursuance of a sentence of the
peers in parliament. This court is now entirely disused. It
will be remembered, that upon the recent trial of Lord Car-
digan, Lord Denman was created Lord High Steward, and
the prisoner was tried in the Court of the Lord High Steward,
and not the Court of the Peers in Parliament. The Queen
has, personally, no more power to pardon than she has
power to condemn. A pardon, to be valid, must have
certain formalities, which formalities can only be given to it
by some responsible officer. For this, we cite another
passage from Blackstone :
" 1. First, it must be under the great seal, a warrant under
the privy seal, or sign manual, though it may be a sufficient
authority to admit the party to bail, in order to plead the
King's pardon, when obtained in proper form, yet is not of
itself a complete irrevocable pardon. 2. Next it is a general
rule, that, wherever it may reasonably be presumed the King
is deceived, the pardon is void. Therefore, any suppression
of truth, or suggestion of falsehood, in a charter of pardon,
will vitiate the whole ; for the King was misinformed."
The keeper of the Great Seal is the Lord Chancellor ; the
person responsible for the affixing the privy signet to the
warrant for the pardon is the Home Secretary. Both these
officers of state, but especially the latter, are responsible to
the country if they should allow the personal and private
feelings of the Sovereign to interfere with the course of
public justice.