Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/227

 189 EMANCIPATION. When preparing the Governor's Commission and Instruc- 1787 tions (the two documents from which Phillip derived his very The power extensive powers), a novel point of law presented itself to the authorities. For many years it had been the custom to empower the Governors or proprietors of Colonial possessions in America and elsewhere to exercise the royal prerogative of pardon in regard to ofFences committed within the limits of their own territories* Phillip, however, had asked for more than this power. When submitting a number of suggestions to the Secretary of State for the guidance of the officials in drawing up his Instructions, he requested that he should be empowered to emancipate deserving convicts; that is to say, that he should have authority to pardon convicts for ofFences committed in Great Britain, for offences •V 1.1 ,.. «,, committed This was, from the pecuhar circumstances of the settle- *^^^* ment, a very necessary power ; but it was one which could not be delegated to Phillip by the Crown without statutory authority,* the prerogative of pardoning '' any kyndes of -^nununi- felonnyes •. • comytted in any parties of this JJ^Sgative. realme*' being vested in the Crown alone, by 27 Henry VIII, c. 24. For this reason we find that Phillip's Commission contained a clause which conveyed no greater powers than did the Commissions of Governors of free settlements. The clause in question was evidently intended to apply only to sentences passed by Colonial tribunals. It ran as follows : — " And wee do hereby give and grant unto you full power and authority where you shall see cause or shall judge any offender or
 * Chita's Prerogatives of the Crown, pp. 88«108.