¢HAP.1v] THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY 1389 
the Governor that the responsibility of deciding upon such 
applications rested with the Governor, who had undoubtedly 
a right to act upon his own independent judgement. But 
unless any Imperial interest or policy were involved, as 
might be the case in a matter of treason or slave-trading, or 
in matters in which foreigners might be concerned, the 
Governor would be bound to allow great weight to the recom- 
mendation of his Ministry. This was in effect repeated in 
a circular dispatch of November 1, 1871! and in a dispatch 
of February 17, 1873.2 replying to some criticisms of that 
circular raised by Sir Alfred Stephen, the administrator of 
the Government. In 1874 the matter was brought to a new 
issue by a minute from Sir H. Parkes in which he objected 
to partial control, and desired either none or complete 
control. The minute was forwarded to the Secretary of 
State by the Governor. The following are extracts from 
these papers :(— 
Minute for his Excellency the Governor 
I have given much consideration to the expediency of 
changing the system of treatment in the cases of petitions 
presented for the absolute or conditional pardon of convicted 
offenders, and have carefully read the correspondence on 
the subject, commencing with Lord Belmore’s dispatch of 
July 14, 1869, and closing with Lord Kimberley’s dispatch 
of February 17, 1873. 
The minute of Mr. Robertson, which gave rise to this 
correspondence, does not appear to me to deal with the real 
question which the dispatches of the Secretary of State 
present for determination in the Colony. That question, in 
any view, is the extent to which the minister is to have an 
active voice in the decision of these cases; but in my view 
1t is much more—it is whether the minister is virtually to 
decide in every case upon his own direct responsibility, 
subject of course to the refusal of the Crown to accept his 
advice, which refusal at any time should be held to be, as in 
all other cases, tantamount to dispensing with his services. 
The seventh paragraph of the minute alone touches the 
question of the minister’s relation to the Crown, and it seems 
© Parl. Pap., C. 1202, p. 8. Cf. Parkes, Fifty Years of Australian History, 
i. 329-46. 
* Ibid, p. 7. See also Hansard, cexxiii. 1065-75. 
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