§ Mr. Tufnellasked whether William Mays, who had been convicted, at the Northampton Lent Assizes, of an assault, with intent to do grievous bodily harm to a gamekeeper, was to be pardoned or not?
§ Sir J. Grahamsaid, it was not by any means convenient that he, as Secretary of State, should be called upon to state the advice which he was prepared to offer to the Sovereign with respect to the exercise of the Royal prerogative; but he would say, in reply to the hon. Gentleman's question, that the prisoner William Mays was tried and convicted before Lord Chief Justice Tindal, at the last Spring Assizes, and by him sentenced to fifteen years' transportation. That period, with the concurrence and by the advice of Lord Chief Justice Tindal, he (Sir J. Graham) had commuted to seven years, and he had further ordered the prisoner to be detained until the Summer Assizes, when certain other parties who were inculpated for having taken part 1370 in the same transaction on which Mays was found guilty, would be tried also. Those parties were tried, but were not convicted. Circumstances, however, came out at their trial that confirmed the impression that had been entertained of the innocence of Mays of the offence of which the jury had found him guilty. The Lord Chief Baron, before whom these parties had been tried, had been so good as to send him his notes of the trial, and he had sent them to Lord Chief Justice Tindal, stating that if he thought the case with this additional light was a satisfactory one, he should advise Her Majesty to grant a free pardon to the convict Mays. He was only waiting for an answer from the learned Judge.