Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 3)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896935311

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-237672

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 3

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XII Seiten, Seiten 1102-1670

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part VI. The judiciary

Collection:: Economics Books

THE JUDICIARY [PART VI of the public, where a merciful consideration is prayed for and is refused. I entertain grave doubts whether any change at present from the system which has hitherto prevailed will be bene- ficial to the Colony. In a community so small as ours, the distinctions between classes are very slight. The persons entrusted with authority and the relatives and friends of prisoners move closely together. The means of political pressure are easily accessible. A larger share by the minister in the exercise of the prerogative of pardon would not, in my judgement, be more satisfactory to the public. But if a change is to take place, and the cases of prisoners are to be decided on the advice of ministers, I can see no sufficient reason for making a distinction between this class of business and the ordinary business of Government. The minister ought to inquire into and examine each case, and each case ought to be decided on his advice. The refusal of the Governor to accept his advice in any case of this kind ought to have the same significance and effect as a similar refusal in any other case. In no other way can the minister be fairly responsible to Parliament for what is done. Either ‘ the responsibility of deciding upon such applications * must still “rest with the Governor’, as Lord Granville expresses it, or it must rest with the minister in the only way in which it would be just to hold him responsible. (Signed) Henry PARKES. Colonial Secretary’s Office, Sydney, May 30, 1874. (Extract.) Government House, Sydney, June 29, 1874. In a public dispatch by this mail I have forwarded to your Lordship a parliamentary paper, showing the decision which has been come to in Executive Council as to the mode of exercising the prerogative of pardon in cases which are not provided for by the royal instructions, but I think it right, at the same time, to state fully in this confidential dispatch all the circumstances which have occurred here, and which have led to the conclusion which has at length been arrived at on this subject. When I assumed the Government of New South Wales, in June 1872, my attention was almost immediately attracted to this question by finding a number of petitions for mitiga- tion of sentences submitted for my decision, without any opinion or advice endorsed on them by the Colonial Secretary, through whose hands they reached me. I was the more surprised at this because I was aware that such a course

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