136 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II
been loath to pay. But it is in respect of the criminal
liability of a Governor that the position is most anomalous.
Under the Imperial Act 11 & 12 Will. III. ¢. 12, it is pro-
vided that if any Governor oppresses any of His Majesty’s
subjects beyond the seas, or is guilty of any other crime
or offence contrary to English law or to the local law, he
can be tried by the Court of King’s Bench in England or
before Commissioners in any county assigned by the com-
mission. This law was extended by 42 Geo. III. c. 85 to all
persons employed civilly or in a military capacity abroad,
guilty of any offence in their employment. The only place
of trial there allowed is the King’s Bench in England, and
the Act has been held not to apply to felonies! as the pro-
cedure therein laid down, by information, is that appropriate
only to misdemeanours, a decision which certainly deprived
the Act of most of its value. These statutes were both
discussed in the famous case of The Queen v. Eyre,? when it
was sought to bring Governor Eyre to justice in England for
his exploits in Jamaica. The Queen’s Bench were asked
to issue a mandamus to a metropolitan magistrate to hear
the evidence which was alleged against Eyre, with a view
to his being committed to stand his trial. The Court decided
that the case was one in which an indictment could legally
be offered in England, and that the magisterial proceedings
directed by the Act, 11 & 12 Vict. c. 42, were appropriate, but
Eyre escaped conviction, the Grand Jury, despite an eloquent
charge by Cockburn C. J., ignoring the indictment presented
against him, a decision due rather to party feeling than cool
judgement.? Proceedings under the second Act were also
taken in the case of General Picton, who was charged with
allowing the torture of Luisa Calderon in the island of
Trinidad, but the case was adjourned, and General Picton’s
death at Waterloo prevented the giving of a decision which
would have been against him, but would. it is said, have
ended only in a small sentence.
More important, perhaps, than these musty relics of
* Rex v. Shawe, 5 M. & S. 403. *3Q. B. 487.
* On his conduct, cf. Forsyth, op. cit., pp. 551 seq. ¢ 30 St. Tr. 225.
