law of British Guiana.
"The conditions referred to in the
perdon", they said "do not depend upon the nature of the crime pardoned, but upon the legality of the conditions themselves.'
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(c) Ir a case from Barbados (1853) the question referred to the Law Officers was whether the Governor of Barbados could by virtue of his commision commute sentence of death to imprisonment for a term of years. The opinion expressed by the Law Officers
was as follows :-
"... The power to grant conditional pardons has always been
held to be incidental to the general power to pardon vested in the Crown as part of its prerogative. By means of such conditional pardons, the Crown was enabled to commute the punishment of death for that of transportation, a punishment unknown to the common law, independently of any statutory enactment. We are of opinion, that the power to pardon conferred on the Governor of Barbados by his Commission,
carries with it the power to commute the sentence of death
for a minor punishment, by means of a pardon conditional upon the delinquent undergoing the substituted punishment." (a) In a case from Antigua (1832), the question was whether if a party, after accepting a conditional pardon, should in breach of the condition return to the island from which he had been banished, he might in strictness be referred back to his original sentence. The Law Officers, arter observing that there was hardly anything to be found respecting conditional pardons in the old English law books, said:
.. It has several times been decided by the English Judges, that where the condition on which a pardon was granted has been broken, the offender may be referred to his original sentence. But we feel it our duty to add that this power, in our opinion, could only be properly used for compelling a performance of the condition."
(e) In a case from Barbados (1854), the point submitted to the Law Officer, for advice was whether the commutation of a senteme of transportation for manslaughter to nine years imprisonment was lawful. The advice of the Law Officers was that it was illegal.
They said :
"The Crown has no power, except when such a power is
expressly given by Act of Farliament, to commute a sentence passed by a court of justice. Fractically, indeed, commutation of punishment has long taken place under the form of conditional pardon. For the Crown, having by the prerogative the power of pardon, may annex to a pardon such conditions as it pleases. Thus, for offences for
/which
...