A pardon may be either absolute or subject to any condition which the crown may think proper to annex to it ; and in the latter case, the validity of the pardon will depend upon the performance of the condition. Until the recent improve ments in the criminal law of England, al most all felonies were nominally capital ; and in the numerous cases where it was not intended that the sentence of death should be executed, the criminal obtained a pardon upon condition of his submitting to transportation or some other punish ment. At the present day, where the crown interferes to mitigate or commute a sentence, the mode by which it is ef fected is by granting a conditional par don.
It was formerly necessary that every valid pardon from the crown should be under the seal ; but by the stat. 7 & 8 Geo. I ., c. 28, s. 13, it is declared and enacted "that where the king's ma jesty shall be pleased to extend his royal mercy to any offender convicted of any felony, punishable with death or other wise, and by warrant under his royal sign manual, countersigned by one of his principal secretaries of state, shall grant to such offender either a free or condi tional pardon, the discharge of such of fender in the case of a free pardon, and the performance of the condition in the case of a conditional pardon, shall have the effect of a pardon under the great seal." The effect of a pardon is not merely to prevent the infliction of the punishment denounced by the sentence upon the of fender, but to give him a new capacity, credit, and character. A man attainted
of felony can neither bring an action for damages nor be a witness or a juror in any legal proceeding ; but upon receiving a pardon, all these legal disabilities are removed. In this respect a pardon by the law of England differs from the abo litio of the Roman law, to which in other points it bears a near resemblance. Ac cording to the latter, " Indulgentia, quos liberat, notat; nee infamiam criminis tollit, sed puns° gratiam facit." (Cod., lib. ix., tit. 43.) By the English law a distinction is made as to the effect of a pardon where the incapacity is part of the legal sentence, and not merely a conse quence of attainder, as in the case of per jury under the statute 5 Elizabeth, c, 9; where the incapacity or infamy is part of a statutory sentence, a pardon from the crown has been held not to restore the party, and in such a case nothing less than an act of parliament will have that effect. (Chitty's Criminal Law, vol. i. p. 776.) Some doubt has been expressed, and the point has not yet received a ju dicial determination, whether a royal pardon will fully restore a person con victed of a crime, such as perjury, which is considered infamous at the common law. This subject is elaborately dis cussed, and all the authorities carefully examined, in Mr. Hargrave's ' Argument on the Effect of the King's Pardon of Perjury.' (Hargrave's Juridical Argu ments, vol. ii., p. 221; LAW, CRIMINAL, p. 223, 228.)