crap. Iv] THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY 1405 
to throw the responsibility upon ministers. Mr. Deakin 
stated that he would be perfectly prepared to accept the 
principle laid down with regard to Canada, in which the 
Governor-General was not expected to exercise any discre- 
tion except in the case where the pardon or reprieve might 
directly affect the interests of the Empire or of any country 
or place beyond the jurisdiction of the Government of the 
Dominion. 
The opinions expressed, however, were on the whole 
unfavourable to the making of any change. Mr. Service 
indeed supported on behalf of Victoria the proposal to alter 
the instructions. He alluded to the fact that the Governor 
was instructed to call upon the judge who presided at the 
trial which ended in a death-sentence to make a written 
report of the case, and was authorized to cause the judge to 
be specially summoned. To that objection had been taken 
in Victoria, namely by Higinbotham C.J., who objected to 
being summoned except by the Executive Council! Sir 
John Downer, on behalf of South Australia, considered that 
it would be very inconvenient in a small community like that 
to throw upon the ministers the responsibility of deciding 
with regard to capital sentences. Sir Robert Wisdom and 
Sir Patrick Jennings were of opinion that in New South 
Wales a change was not desirable, and Mr. Adye Douglas 
considered that no alteration should be made as far as 
Tasmania was concerned. Sir Samuel Griffith thought 
that the principle of treating differently the case of the pre- 
rogative of mercy and other executive actions was an anomaly, 
and he also criticized the instruction to the Governor then 
contained in the instructions, to place on record his reasons 
if he decided a case in opposition to the judgement of the 
majority of the Executive Council, on the ground that the 
Governor should treat the Council collectively and not as 
individual members. But he considered that the anomaly 
should be retained for the present, because the nature of 
the cases of life and death which occasionally arose was such 
that it was eminently advisable for the Colonies to have the 
! In the Morgan case in 1884. 
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