1418 THE JUDICIARY [PART VI 
One difference, however, is to be noted : after the passing 
of the Aliens Act by the Imperial Parliament the Govern- 
ment of the Cape asked that it might be allowed to banish 
from its shores certain classes of offenders, as the Cape was 
the happy hunting-ground of adventurers from every part 
of the world, and it was advantageous to be able to get rid 
of them, and one way would be by granting conditional 
pardons. It was felt by the Imperial Government that in 
view of its own new policy the old prohibitions against exiling 
persons would not be possible to be maintained in their 
integrity, and accordingly the letters patent of the Cape and 
subsequently of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, 
but not of Natal, which made no request for change, were 
modified so as to read in the proviso as to establishment 
the words ‘if the offender be a natural-born British subject, 
or a British subject by naturalization in any part of our 
Dominions’, thus allowing the banishment of aliens, and such 
banishment has gone on cheerfully ever since with increasing 
inconvenience to the Imperial Government, as the route 
home for these banishees from the continent is via England, 
where they are tempted to sojourn for a season. 
The reason for vesting this personal discretion in the 
Governor in South Africa is due of course to high considera- 
tions of native policy, which would be of paramount impor- 
tance in the case of a murder trial, whether of a native for 
murdering a white, or a white for murdering a native. There 
may well be cases in which either the pardon or the execution 
of a native or of a white man would be equally fatal to the 
peace of South Africa, and as an Imperial interest it is well 
to secure impartiality by the entrusting of the power to 
the Governor-General. Hence in the case of the Union 
the instructions, which as in the case of Canada and the 
Commonwealth embody the matter in other cases put in 
the letters patent. run as follows :— 
IX. And We do further authorize and empower the 
Governor-General, as he shall see occasion, in Our name and 
on Our behalf, when any crime or offence against the laws 
of the Union has been committed for which the offender may