The Petition of Right. By Walter Clode. (Clowes and Son.)—
This is meant in the first place for lawyers, but lay readers also will not fail to find interest in it. There are, for instance, the cases in which it seems that there has been a miscarriage of justice in the matter of claims on the Crown. The Crown has money in its possession which has been paid for the definite purpose of satisfying certain claims, and it refuses to do so. The Courts hold that the Sovereign cannot be considered a trustee. In the case of " Rustomjee v. Regina," Cockburn, CJ., said :—" The notion that the Sovereign received the money as agent or trustee is too wild to need observation. The distribution must be left to her Majesty's discretion ; no petition of right has ever been held applicable to such a case." Is there, then, no remedy ? Yes ; a political, but not a judicial remedy. So Lush, J., put it :—" The distribution when made would not be the act of an agent accounting to a principal, but the act of a Sovereign in dis- pensing justice to her subjects. For any omission of that duty the Sovereign cannot be held responsible. The responsibility would rest with the advisers of the Crown, and they are responsible to Parliament, and to Parliament alone." Mr. Clode apologises for possible defects in his treatise, as being the first attempt to deal with this branch of law. It is strange that the subject has been left unattempted so long. The greater the credit due to the first explorer.
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