293 



PAEDON. 



PAEENT AND CHILD. 



294 





divides the choir from the nave ; shuts off a mortuary chapel; or 

 surrounds a tomb, is termed a parclose. 



PARDON. According to the laws of most countries, a power of 

 pardoning, or remitting the penal consequences of a conviction for 

 crimes before the judicial tribunals, is vested in the chief magistrate of 

 the state. The utility of such a power has been doubted by judicial 

 writers, upon the ground that it supposes an imperfect system of 

 criminal law, and that every instance of its exercise is the proclama- 

 tion of an error either in the law itself or in the administration of 

 justice. ( Beccaria, chap. 46.) There is no doubt that the nearer a 

 penal system approaches to perfection, the fewer will be the. occasions 

 for resorting to extrajudicial remissions of the execution of the law : 

 but considering the numerous causes of erroneous decision, arising not 

 only from the imperfection of laws themselves, but from the infinite 

 sources of error in the instruments and means by which they are 

 administered, it seems to be desirable that some power should exist 

 which may by timely interference prevent the occurrence of irremedi- 

 able wrong in cases where the error cannot be corrected by any appel- 

 late tribunal. At the same time it is evident that such a power should 

 be circumscribed and defined, as far as its nature will admit, and 

 exercised with the utmost caution. By the law of England, besides 

 pardons by act of parliament, the power of granting pardons for crimes 

 is exclusively vested in the sovereign as a branch of the prerogative. 

 [PREROGATIVE.] 



Formerly, Counts Palatine, Lords Marchers, and others who pos- 

 sessed jura rtyalia, had authority to pardon crimes ; but by the stat. 

 27 Henry VIII., c. 24, this power was entirely abolished, and the sole 

 right of remitting the sentence of the laws was permanently vested in 

 the crown. The power of pardoning is applicable in all cases in which 

 the crown is either concerned in interest or prosecutes for the public ; 

 the only exception being that contained in the Habeas Corpus Act 

 (31 Car. II., c. 2, s. 12), by which persons convicted of signing commit- 

 ments of British subjects to foreign prisons, are declared to incur the 

 penalties of &j>ramunire nd to be " incapable of any pardon from the 

 crown." 



The crown has, moreover, no power to pardon any offence in the 

 prosecution of which a subject has a legal interest, or, as Bracton 

 expresses it, "non potest rex gratiam facere cum injuria et damno 

 alioruin " (lib. iii., p. 132). Thus in appeals of death, robbery, or rape, 

 the king could not pardon the defendant, " because," says Sir Edward 

 Coke, " it is the suit of the party to have revenge by death " (3 ' Inst.' 

 237). Upon the same principle, where an attaint was brought against 

 a jury who had delivered a false verdict, and the party in whose favour 

 it had been given was joined in the attaint, the king might pardon the 

 jury, if convicted, because they were merely subject to an exemplary 

 punishment ; but he could not pardon the party, because the latter 

 was liable to make restitution to the plaintiff who prosecuted the 

 attaint So also in informations upon penal statutes, where the penalty 

 or any part of it goes to the informer, or the party grieved, the crown 

 cannot pardon the offender. Formerly, the crown appears to have 

 exercised without restriction the power of pardoning offenders im- 

 peached by the Commons in parliament ; but the lawfulness of the 

 exercise of this power during the pendency of the proceedings was 

 questioned by the House of Commons on the impeachment of the Earl 

 of Danby in the reign of Charles II. (Howell's ' State Trials,' vol. ii., 

 p. 724) ; and it was afterwards enacted, by the Act of Settlement, 

 " that no pardon under the great seal of England shall be plaulabte to 

 an impeachment by the Commons in Parliament." This statute how- 

 ever does not affect the power of the crown to pardon the offender 

 after he has beef found guilty upon the impeachment, and the pro- 

 ceedings are determined. 



A pardon from the crown to be effectual must apply in express 

 terms to the particular offences intended to be pardoned ; and no grant 

 of a commission or protection by the king can amount by implication 

 to a pardon of any offence previously committed. 



A pardon may be either absolute or subject to any condition which 

 the crown may think proper to annex to it ; and in the latter case, the 

 validity of the pardon will depend upon the performance of the condi- 

 tion. Until the recent improvements in the criminal law of England, 

 almost all felonies were nominally capital ; and in the numerous cases 

 where it was not intended that the sentence of death should be exe- 

 cuted, the criminal obtained a pardon upon condition of his submitting 

 to transportation or some other punishment. At the present day, 

 where the crown interferes to mitigate or commute a sentence, the 

 mode by which it is effected is by granting a conditional pardon. 



It was formerly necessary that a pardon should be under the great 

 seal ; but by tat. 7 & 8 Geo. IV., c. 28, s. 13, it is now sufficient, if 

 under the sign manual, and countersigned by one of the secretaries of 

 state. 



The effect of a pardon is not merely to prevent the infliction of the 

 punishment denounced by the sentence upon the offender, but to give 

 him a new capacity, credit, and character. A man attainted of felony 

 ceases to be priittut et legalit homo, and can neither bring an action for 

 damages nor be a witness or a juror in any legal proceeding ; but upon 

 receiving a pardon, all these legal disabilities are removed. In this 

 respect a pardon by the law of England differs from the abolitio of the 

 Roman law, to which in other points it bears a near resemblance. 

 According to the latter, " Indulgentia, quos liberat, notat; nee in- 



famiam criminis tollit, sed pamse gratiam facit. 1 ' (' Cod.' lib. ix., tit. 

 43.) By the English law a distinction is made as to the effect of a 

 pardon where the incapacity is part of the legal sentence, and not 

 merely a consequence of attainder, as in the case of perjury under the 

 statute 5 Elizabeth, c. 9 ; where the incapacity or infamy is part of a 

 statutory seuteuce, a pardon from the cruwn has been held not to 

 restore the party, and in such a case nothing less than an act of parlia- 

 ment will have that effect. Some doubt has beeu expressed, and the 

 point has not yet received a judicial determination, whether a pardon 

 will fully restore a person convicted of a crime, such as perjury, which 

 is considered infamous at the common law. This subject is elaborately 

 discussed, and all the authorities carefully examined in Mr. Hargrave's 

 ' Argument on the Effect of the King's Pardon of Perjury.' 



(Hargrave's Juridical Arguments, vol. ii., p. 221.) 



PARhlLLIC ACID (C, 5 H^O S ?), Paretlin One of the substances 

 produced in the various dyeing lichens of commerce. It is found in 

 company with lecanoric acid. [LICHENS, Culuuring matters o/.] 



PARKLLIN. [PARELLIC ACID.] 



PARENT AND CHILD. This relation arises only from a legal 

 marriage. The relation between parents and their illegitimate children 

 is considered in the article BASTARD. 



Parents are bound to maiutain their legitimate children who are 

 unable to maintain themselves owing to infancy or inability to work. 

 This obligation extends to father and mother, grandfather and grand' 

 mother, if they are able to perform it (43 Eliz., c. 2 ; 5 Geo. I., c. 8). 

 But such persons are only bound to furnish the children with the 

 necessaries of life ; and the penalty incurred in case of refusal is only 

 20. per month. A husband is also, by 4 & 5 Will. IV., c. 76, liable 

 to maintain the children of his wife, born before marriage, whether 

 they are legitimate or not, until they are of the age of sixteen, or 

 until the death of his wife. If a parent deserts his children, the 

 churchwardens and overseers may seize his goods and chattels, and 

 receive his rents, to the amount mentioned in the justices' warrant, 

 which must be obtiained before such seizure is made. 



Formerly, if a Popish parent refused to allow his Protestant child a 

 suitable maintenance, with the view of compelling him to come over to 

 the Roman Catholic religion, the lord chancellor might enforce from the 

 parent a proper allowance (11 & 12 Will. III., c. 4) ; and so if Jewish 

 parents refused to allow their Protestant children a maintenance suit- 

 able to the parent's fortune and the age and education of the children, 

 the lord chancellor might make such order as he thought proper 

 (1 Anne, st. i. c. 80). Both statutes were repealed by 9 & 10 Viet., 

 c. 59. 



Parents are not bound to make any provision for their children after 

 their death. Every man, and every woman who is capable of disposing 

 of her property by will, may dispose of it as they please ; except a 

 freeman of London, who is under some limitations as to the power of 

 disposing of his personalty by will, which limitations are in favour of 

 his wife and children. A parent or child may aid each other in a law 

 suit, without being guilty of maintenance. [MAINTENANCE.] 



Parents are not legally bound to give any education to their children, 

 nor are they under any restrictions as to the kind of education thy 

 may give. Certain penalties might formerly be imposed (1 Jac. I., 

 c. 4 ; 3 Jac. I., c. S) on a person who sent a child under his government 

 beyond seas, either to prevent his good education in England or for the 

 purpose of placing him in a Popish college, or being instructed in the 

 Popish religion. The statute 3 Car. I. , c. 2, extended these penalties, 

 and added certain disabilities. It seems that it was intended to repeal 

 these penal and disabling statutes by the 31 Geo. Ill , c. 32, in favour 

 of any Roman Catholic who took the oath therein prescribed. They 

 are now repealed by 2 4 3 Will. IV. c. 115. 



The power of a parent over his childen continues until the age of 

 twenty-one, when they are emancipated ; and if a parent die leaving a 

 child under age, he may appoint a guardian to such child till the age 

 of twenty-one. A mother has no power over her children. 



A child under age may acquire property by gift ; and if a father is 

 the trustee of his child's estate, he must account to the child when he 

 comes of age, like any other trustee. So long as a child who is under 

 age lives with and is supported by the. father, the father is entitled to 

 receive the reward of the child's labour. When a child has a fortune 

 of his own, and the father is not able to maintain him suitably to 

 such fortune, a court of equity wiil allow the father a competent 

 sum for maintenance out of the child's estate ; but a father is not 

 entitled to any such allowance in respect of costs incurred by him 

 for his child's maintenance before he obtains such order of court for 

 maintenance. 



A parent may maintain an action for the seduction of a daughter 

 on the ground of loss of her services, if there is evidence of her acting 

 in the capacity of servant, or living with the parent in such a manner 

 that the parent had a right to her services. This action has been main- 

 tained by a father in the case of his daughter, a married woman above 

 age, living separate from her husband, and with the father ; and by an 

 aunt for the seduction of her niece living with her, to whom she stood 

 in the relation of parent. The foundation of the right to maintain 

 such an action is the loss of the services to which the parent is 

 entitled. 



A father is legally entitled to the care and custody of his children, 

 but he may be deprived of the care of them by the court of chancery, 



