2
found in the Queen, or in those to whom the Queen deputes it, except so far as the Queen's delegation of this power is controlled by statute.
It is true that before the passing of this Act the power of pardoning was vested in the Governors of the several Provinces.
The Crown, however, might revoke what the Crown had delegated; and we think that the Queen in assenting to the British North America Act did revoke the authority given to the several Provincial Governors except so far as is otherwise provided by the Aot. Among the revoked powers the power of pardoning would be one; unless indeed, as we have said, it was otherwise enacted by the statute.
Now the Lieutenant-Governors of the Provinces under the new system are to be appointed not directly by the Queen, but by the Governor-General in Council, and the new Lieutenant-Governors would not take the power of pardoning, virtuti officii, unless it were so given them by the Act.
The whole constitution of the provinces was changed by the Act of Union, and the delegated powers of government necessarily ceased.
Nor throughout that part of the Act which is headed Provincial Constitutions can we find
such any
power given or retained to or for them, and it is not any part of the administration of justice in the province, which, though entrusted to the Provincial Legislatures, would not by any fair inference give the Lieutenant-Governors the power of pardoning.
The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G.,
Co.
&c.
&o.
We have, &c.
(Signed)
R. P. COLLIER,
J. D. COLERIDGE.
2014.
No 553.
(BAHAMAS)
LAW OFFICERS TO FOREIGN OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Temple, February 18, 1869. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 6th of February instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the accompanying letters from the Colonial Office, enclosing a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of the Bahamas, in which he requested instructions for his guidance in regard to the claim of Spain to exercise jurisdiction to a distance of three miles from the outlying cays off the Island of Cuba.
Mr. Hammond was pleased also to transmit to us the correspondence which has previously passed upon the subject, and also the correspondence referred to in Governor Kawson's Despatch, as having taken place in 1862-63, relative to a similar claim put forward by Her Majesty's Government in regard to jurisdiction off the coast of the Bahamas, and to request that we would take the papers into our consideration, and that we would favour your Lordship with our opinion as to the answer which should be returned to the Colonial Office.
In obedience to your Lordship's commande we have taken the papers submitted to us into our consideration, and have the honour to
?
Report
That it is difficult to answer confidently the question put to us without some defini- tion of the word "cay," and some description of the character and situation of the particular "cays to which the question refers.
"
The evidence on the subject, however, so far as it is before us, tends to the conclusion that the cays are capable of being the objects of territorial dominion, and that Spain has acquired such territorial dominion over them, in which case the Spanish jurisdiction will extend to three miles from their coasts.
The Earl of Clarendon,
&o.
&c. &c.
We have, &c. (Signed)
R. P. COLLIER.'
J. D. COLERIDGE.
TRAVERS TWISS.
o 16378.-294.
95.-5/88.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
6
Reference :-
C.O. 885
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH——NOT TO