Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/119

 12 S. I. FEB. 5, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

113

King's Bench, and a special order for execu- tion came down direct from the King. This was an Act of 19 Geo. II. c. 34, intended to put down gangs of smugglers, and provided that if any persons, named in the Gazette in two successive issues as offenders against the Act, did not surrender within the time limited by the Act forty days they should be deemed guilty of felony without benefit of clergy. During the first few years of its existence a number of persons were con- victed, and some executed, under this Act.

For the reason stated, their names do not appear in the list of capital convicts printed in the Old Bailey Sessions papers, as they were not sentenced in Court, and thus a measure of error has been introduced into the returns of capital convictions and executions prepared by Sir Theodore Janssen, and republished by Howard, Romilly, and other reformers of our penal system.

ERIC WATSON.

The sovereign does not sign " death warrants," nor is there, strictly speaking, any such instrument nowadays. The autho- rity for the. execution of a criminal is the sentence pronounced by the judge.

Many years ago I believe it was the practice, at any rate of the Central Criminal Court, to reserve cases in which the capital sentence had been passed for confirmation of the King in Council. A list was made out, and unless the competent judicial authority saw any reason for advising that the sentence should not be carried into effect, it received the royal sign manual. This list came to be regarded as a death warrant by the unhappy individuals whose sentences were left undisturbed, but the practice was abandoned when Queen Victoria came to the throne.

I believe it is still customary, though not a statutory obligation, for the Home Office at the proper time to notify the sheriff that there are no grounds for interfering with the sentence of the Court.

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

The King of England does not now sign " death warrants " except, under certain circumstances, in the case of a peer. At the close of Assizes in the country the execution of the sentences has always been left in the hands of the sheriffs ; but formerly, in London, the regular practice as to the execution of convicts was that the Recorder reported to the King in person their several cases, and, if he received the royal pleasure that the law must take its course, he issued his warrant to the sheriffs directing them to

do execution at a specified time and place. Since 1837, however, the practice of the Central Criminal Court as to the award of execution in criminal cases is assimilated to that of the other courts, in accordance with 7 Will. IV. and 1 Viet. c. 77.

ALAN STEWART.

The subject has already been discussed in 'N. & Q., ! 1 S. iv. 243, 317. At the latter reference a writer, who signs himself A. B.,. says very truly :

" There has not been such a thing as a death warrant in England for centuries, except in London and Middlesex (where the Recorder communicates the pleasure of the Crown to spare certain prisoners^ and leave others to their fate, in an instrument

improperly so called) "

HORACE BLEACKLEY.

"Before Parliament relieved her of the necessity,. she [Queen Victoria] had to sign the death warrant of all prisoners sentenced to suffer capital punish- ment." C. Bullock, 'Queen's Resolve 'U886),51/l.

" She [Queen Victoria] must sign her own death warrant it the two Houses unanimously send it up to her." Walter Bagehot, 'The English Constitu- tion ' (1888), 57.

A. R. BAYLEY.

THE EFFECT OF OPENING A COFFIN, (11 S. xii. 300, 363,388,448, 465; 12 S. i. 91.)

THE tombs of other monarchs have been opened, but details are not so full as in the case of Edward I.

In June, 1766, some workmen who were repairing Winchester Cathedral discovered a monument under which was the body of Canute. It was remarkably fresh, had a wreath round the head, and several other ornaments of gold and silver.

In the reign of James II. a curious dis- covery was made in connexion with the coffin of Edward the Confessor, and in February, 1687/8, there was published,

" A true and perfect narrative of the strange and unexpected finding of the Crucifix and Gold- chain of that pious Prince, St. Edward, the King and Confessor, which was found after six hundred and twenty years' interment, and presented to his most Sacred Majesty King James the Second. By Charles Taylour, Gent. London, printed by J. B., and are to be sold by Eandal Taylor, near Stationers' Hall, 1688." He says that

" on St. Barnaby's Day [June 11], 1685, between 11 and 12 at noon, he went with two friends to see the coffin of Edward the Confessor, having heard that it was broke ; fetched a ladder, looked on the coffin and found a hole as reported, put his hand into the hole, and turning the bones which he felt there, drew from under the shoulder-bones a