1398 THE JUDICIARY [PART VI 
complaints from without the Colony ; nor could the recom- 
mendation of a Colonial Ministry in favour of such a course 
be of itself a sufficient justification of it. 
6. I am glad to understand that the New South Wales 
Government is willing to take steps for repealing the fourth 
section of 11 Vict. e. 84.1 
In 1877 an absurd dispute arose in Tasmania between the 
Government and the judges with regard to the case of a 
pardon granted by the Governor on the advice of ministers 
to Louisa Hunt? The Government’s action in advising 
this pardon was disapproved of by both Houses of Parlia- 
ment, and the judges were annoyed because they thought 
that the Ministry and the Governor assumed to act as a 
Court of Appeal from the Supreme Court. The matter was 
referred to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who in 
a dispatch of October 29, 1877, laid it down very clearly 
that in no manner was the exercise of the prerogative a 
matter of appeal from the decision of a Court. The Governor 
did not technically reverse a sentence nor pronounce it 
wrong. While not questioning either the verdict or the 
sentence, still he thought fit by virtue of the prerogative 
to extend mercy to a convict. Moreover, he disagreed with 
the suggestion of the Governor that in every case the judges 
ought to make a minute when they had passed sentence 
apparently for the use of the Governor in Council. That 
would tend to confirm the contention that the Governor 
and Council were a Court of Appeal from the sentence of the 
Court. A Governor, he added. 
must keep steadily in view that the act of pardon of a 
sentenced criminal was an act of pure clemency, and not in 
any way judicial. Except in capital cases, as to which the 
royal instructions laid down a distinct course of procedure, 
the Governor, in order to inform his mind where clemency 
ought to be extended in any case, will do well to consult 
informally those who can best assist him. Amongst these 
he will naturally in most cases have recourse in the first 
instance to the judges, and particularly to the judge who tried 
' See Act No. 17 of 1883. Victoria had a similar statute, No. 233. 
* Tasmania Legislative Council Papers, 1878, No. 36; 1878-9, Nos. 
117, 118.