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copy of the plaintiff's conviction of felony. There was no desire to prevent any convict from suing as between party and party, and official records proved that "one-third of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court had been convicts." The plaintiff against De Mestre was one of those whom Judge Bent had refused to permit to practise in the Courts. He had moreover special antipathy against Judge Field, and unsuccessfully prosecuted the Judge for slander. The Judge took the benefit of the Act which foiled his assailant in the prosecution of the American. The Governor's Court determined to give Field time to produce the record of conviction. The prosecutor was infuriated. He felt for the order to which he belonged, and the order felt with him. Its position was critical. Its right to property was imperilled by incapacity to sue. When the classic commentator, who might be read for his style as well as for his legal lore, published his great work on the Laws of England, it was distinctly laid down that "a pardon must be under the Great Seal. A warrant under the privy seal, or sign manual, was not "a complete irrevocable pardon." After Blackstone's death an Act was passed (30 George III. cap. 47) which enabled the Crown to authorize the Governor of a colony to remit sentences absolutely or conditionally. But such remission had only the virtue incident to the sign manual; and to make the pardon complete it was necessary that names of the pardoned convicts should be inserted in the next general pardon which might pass the Great Seal. There was one of the freed class in Sydney who had become reputed owner of nearly 20,000 acres in New South Wales. He felt warm interest in his possessions; and ex-convicts whom Macquarie had "admitted to his table" were equally fervid. Modestly disposed freedmen did not share the presumption of Macquarie's friends who strove to force themselves upon an unwilling society; but were anxious for indisputable title to the fruits of their industry. It was little consolation to them to be told that by the Act 54 Geo. III. cap. 145, corruption of blood and forfeiture of real property were abolished (1814), except in cases of treason or murder. Many of them had acquired property before that Act provided unretrospective relief. The man whom Macquarie had striven to thrust upon the society of