§ MR. J. G. TALBOTasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether the time has not arrived for recommending to the Crown to exercise the Royal Prerogative, in order to release from prison the Rev. S. F. Green, who has now been imprisoned for more than sixteen months?
§ SIR WILLIAM HARCOURTSir, in reference to this Question, I have to say that the Prerogative of pardon is exercised in respect of past offences, and the sentence is commuted where there is reason for doing so. But in the case of a committal for contempt of Court the thing is totally different. It is not a past, but a continuing offence. The committal is in order to enforce the authority of the Court. If, then, the Crown were to discharge a prisoner who had not purged his contempt, the Crown would set aside the authority of the Court. As far as I know, within the Constitutional period no such pardon has been granted, because the prisoner himself is still in open and continuing defiance of the authority of the Court and of the law. I am as anxious as the hon. Gentleman that Mr. Green should be delivered from prison; but, as a right rev. Prelate very properly observed, his prison door is locked on the inside. He can open the door whenever he chooses to declare his desire to conform to the law, and I know nothing is more difficult than to get a man out of prison who insists upon keeping the key turned on the inside.