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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

umimmimiC.O. 885

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

STB,

No. 557.

(British GuianA.)

TREASURY SOLICITOR to TREASURY.

Treasury, March 24, 1869, THRIE Lordships have been pleased to refer to me, by Minute dated 3rd March 1869, a letter from the Colonial Secretary, transmitting, for the consideration of their Lordships, copy of a Despatch from the Governor of British Guiana, enclosing a petition to Her Majesty from Mr. Lawrance McDermott praying for remission of the costs for which he is liable in consequence of the dismissal by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of his appeal against a judgment of the Supreme Court of British Guiana.

I beg to-

Report

That I have read the petition and the other documents referred to me.

I assume that the letter of 23rd June 1866 from the Acting Government Secretary of British Guiana is correctly set forth in the petition.

On this assumption I read the letter as informing the petitioner in effect that his memorial to Her Majesty of the 21st April asking for an inquiry into the circumstances of his committal could not be entertained, but that he must adopt" the usual mode of pursuing an appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council."

It seems clear, as appears to have been advised by the Law Officers, that under the provisions of 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 41. and the Orders in Council made thereunder, no appeal direct to the Judicial Committee would lie from the sentence and order of commitment in this case; but it appears to me that the Secretary of State for the Colonies, if he had thought fit so to do, might have referred "the memorial addressed to the Queen to the Judicial Committee, who might have considered the same and reported thereon to Her Majesty, under the general powers reserved by the above- mentioned statute.

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There can hardly be any doubt as to what the report or recommendation of the It is sufficient, however, for the Judicial Committee would have been in such case. present purpose to admit that Mr. McDermott took the proper course in "addressing his memorial to the Queen praying for inquiry and relief in the matter of his imprisonment for contempt of court," instead of "adopting the usual mode of Mr. McDermott goes on to state pursuing an appeal to the Judicial Committee." that he petitioned the Governor of the Colony, who declined to interfere, and he then refers to other cases in which Colonial Governors had interfered to remit orders of imprisonment for contempt made by Colonial judges, which remissions had not (so far as he is aware) been questioned by those judges, and which had also been approved of by the Secretary of State for the time being.

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แ

It is not now necessary to consider whether the Governor of British Guiana had, or had not, a discretionary power to review the order of the Supreme Court; but Mr. McDermott is entitled to the benefit of the fact that he used every means which occurred to him to obtain an inquiry.

Mr. McDermott further states that, "it then appearing, after the failure of his application to the Governor and the letter of the 23rd June, that there was no "means of procuring his liberation, and that the only way of ascertaining whether "his imprisonment was legal or illegal was by an appeal to the Judicial Committee,

he instructed his solicitors in London to present the necessary petition."

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This, the petition for leave to appeal, was accordingly presented on 31st October 1866 to the Judicial Committee, and their Lordships advised Her Majesty

44

44

allow

Mr. McDermott to enter and prosecute his appeal without prejudice to the question of the competency of Her Majesty in Council to entertain an appeal from an order of a "Court of Record inflicting punishment by fine or imprisonment for a contempt of "court," which question was to be open to argument on the hearing of the appeal, and such advice was given and the usual condition imposed, which was fulfilled by Mr. McDermott, of depositing 300 with the registrar as security for costs, in case the petition should be dismissed.

• 16978-867. $5.- 5/16.