682
The Green Bag,
over-worked official, a member of the cabi net, with heavy parliamentary duties and with no time to give personal attention to a twentieth of these petitions. He is also a lawyer and, he must of necessity refer all these applications to subordinates. It is, therefore, not remarkable that it is only in the very worst cases that he decides to over rule the judge and the jury who tried a pris oner and set him free. It will be remem bered that in Mrs. Mavbrick's case the appli cation for her release was continued for years—almost to the very last day of her
term. It is impossible to believe that if it had been possible for any one of the Horn« Secretaries who received her petitions or pe titions on her behalf, to have ordered a new trial, such a course would not have been tak en. But it was only possible to order her re lease or in other words to grant her a par don. Beck did not want a pardon for a crime which he had not committed. He simply wanted a chance to prove his innocence, and in the whole system of English jurisdiction there was no machinery open to him or to the public for such a trial. STUFF GOWN.
