ABSTRACT
The Home Office memorandum that follows sets out the way in which the Royal Prerogative of Pardon worked in the later Victorian years. It is clear from this document that the Home Secretary gave effect to a recommendation from a judge, recorder, or chairman of Quarter Sessions. Sir William Harcourt entered parliament in 1868 as the Liberal M.P. for Oxford. He was a moderate radical, inclining always to the left of centre of his party. He was a forceful, not to say tactless, politician. Harcourt was Home Secretary between 1880 and 1885 and was renowned as a humane one. In 1878, he had declared in the House of Commons his unofficial view in favour of the abolition of the death penalty.
