Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/407

 [12 s. ii. NOV. 18, 1916. NOTES AND QUERIES.

401

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER W, 19 1C.

CONTENTS. No. 47.


 * NOTES : George IV. and the Prerogative of Mercy, 401

An English Army List of 1740. 402 Dr. Robert Uvedale, Scholar and Botanist, 404 -Bibliography of Histories of Irish Counties and Towns, 406' Some Fruits of Solitude,' 407 The Name Tnbantia William Day, Bishop of Winchester : his Wife " Swank/' 408.

QUERIES : Second Fortune Theatre" Dr." by Courtesy, 408 Monastic Choir-StallsLost Poem by Kipling- Marat : Henry Kinsrsley William Cumberland Sir Nash Grove Malet Paul Fleetwood Marten Family Officers' "Batmen," 409 The Sight of Savages Ninth Wave Ferriage, a Priest Colla da Chrioch Constable Family Bishop, Private Secretary to George III. Operas performed in the Provinces ' Sir Gammer Vaus,' 410 " Privileges of Parliament," 411.

REPLIES : Ralph Bohun : Christopher Boone, 411 Greatest Recorded Length of Service, 412 Ear Tingling : Charm to "Cut the Scandal" Edward Hayes, Dublin, and his Sitters, 413 Americanisms, 414 The Wardrobe of Sir John Wynn of Gwydyr The French and Frogs Fourteenth-Century Glass, 415 " Faugh-a-Ballagh " " Hat Trick " : " Yorker "Philip Winter, 416 Cardew Naval Records Wanted James Fenton. Recorder of Lancaster, 417 St. Newlyn East Perpetuation of Printed Errors St. Francis Xavier's Hymn Touch Wood St. Genewys, 418 Mary, Queen of Scots House and Garden Superstitions Mews or Mewys Family, 419.

NOTES ON BOOKS: 'Proceedings of Cambridge Anti quarian Society '' Outside the Barn well Gate' ' Centenary of Waterloo ' ' " Daily News " Any Year Calendar.'

GEORGE IV. AND THE PREROGATIVE OF MERCY.

THACKERAY, referring to the stories about George IV., makes in ' The Four Georges ' the following statement :

" One storjr, the most favourable to him of all, perhaps, is that as Prince Regent he was eager to hear all that could be said in behalf of prisoners condemned to death, and anxious, if possible, to remit the capital sentence."

Thackeray refers to this story as one " of some half-dozen stock stories. . . .common to all the histories." This story is certainly not common to all the histories ! When the Recorder, at the end of the Old Bailey Sessions, took his report to the Prince Regent from 1810 to 1820, and to him when King until his death in 1830, in order that he (the Recorder) might learn in what cases he was to issue his warrant for the execution of the condemned prisoners, the King had always to be present, and his conduct on such occasions is thus described in The Morning Herald of June 14, 1832 :

" We have it on the authority of one who heard the fact from a member of the Privy

Council (at present a Cabinet Minister), that lie frequently saw George the Fourth in a state of extraordinary agitation at the meeting of the Council, when the fate of a criminal was under consideration. He would contend the matter with the ministers and leave the table, and lean sometimes on the chimney-piece, advocating the cause of mercy, until overruled by his responsible advisers."

Let me refer to some instances to show how earnest and sincere George IV. was to mitigate the Draconian severity of the criminal law. The cases mentioned in Parker's ' Life of Sir Robert Peel ' prove that he was far in advance of his ministers, and show how he was overruled by his Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel, when endeavouring to get the most barbaroxis sentences mitigated. Here is a specimen of the King's kindly feeling. On May 21, 1822, he wrote as follows :

" Tuesday Evening, half-past nine. The King has received Mr. Peel's note, and he must say, after the deepest reflection, that the execu- tions of to-morrow, from their unusual numbers, \veigh most heavily^ and painfully on his mind.

" The King was in hopes that the poor youth Desmond might have been saved."

On May 22 Mr. Peel wrote to him as follows :

" It is the unanimous opinion of your Majesty's confidential servants who met at the Cabinet this day, that the law ought to be permitted to take its course on Friday next in the case of Ward and Anson, and- that the boy Desmond may have his sentence commuted to transporta- tion for life."

There are two other cases two years later also referred to in which the King en- deavoured to save the lives of two youths. On another occasion

" the King expressed great regret that there were no circumstances to induce the Chancellor and Mr. Peel to recommend mercy, a word more consoling to the King's mind than language can express." Vol. i. pp. 316, 317.

Again in 1828 the King tried to save the life of Hunton, a " Friend," who had forged acceptances to bills of exchange. He had a wife and ten children, and was recom- mended to mercy by the jury. The King wrote to Mr. Peel :

" The King is very desirous (if it can be done with any sort of propriety) to save the life of Hunton, at present under sentence of death and confined in Newgate for forgery, bv commuting his punishment into transportation for life."

The whole body of Quakers were in motion to save this man's life, and one petition alone had five thousand signatures. Mr. Peel thought that the King had been approached privately about this man. Hunton was executed (vol. ii. pp. 42, 43).