oHAP. Iv] THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY 1415 
VIII. And We do further authorize and empower Our 
said Governor-General, as he shall see occasion, in Our name 
and on Our behalf, when any crime or offence against the 
laws of Our Commonwealth has been committed for which 
the offender may be tried within Our said Commonwealth, 
to grant a pardon to any accomplice in such crime or offence 
who shall give such information as shall lead to the conviec- 
tion of the principal offender, or of any one of such offenders 
if more than one ; and further, to grant to any offender con- 
victed of any such crime or offence in any Court, or before 
any judge, justice, or magistrate, within Our said Common- 
wealth, a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions, 
or any respite of the execution of the sentence of any such 
offender, for such period as to Our said Governor-General 
may seem fit, and to remit any fines, penalties, or forfeitures 
which may become due and payable to Us. Provided 
always, that Our said Governor-General shall not in any case, 
except where the offence has been of a political nature, 
make it a condition of any pardon or remission of sentence 
that the offender shall be banished from or shall absent him- 
self from Our said Commonwealth. And We do hereby 
direct and enjoin that Our said Governor-General shall not 
pardon or reprieve any such offender without first receiving 
in capital cases the advice of the Executive Council for Our 
said Commonwealth, and in other cases the advice of one, 
at least, of his Ministers; and in any case in which such 
pardon or reprieve might directly affect the interests of 
Our Empire, or of any country or place beyond the jurisdiction 
of the Government of Our said Commonwealth, Our said 
Governor-General shall, before deciding as to either pardon 
or reprieve, take those interests specially into his own per- 
sonal consideration in conjunction with such advice as 
aforesaid. 
It will be seen that the only pardoning power vested in 
the Governor-General is that of pardoning offences tried 
against the laws of the Commonwealth ; the case is now 
the same in Canada, where the power to pardon is to pardon 
offences against the laws of the Dominion and does not 
extend to crimes which are punishable by the Courts of the 
Dominion as being committed under the jurisdiction of the 
Admiralty or otherwise by Imperial enactment triable therein, 
or asin the case of piracy triable therein jure gentium. There 
is, however, a considerable difference between the cases: in