LAW AND THE COURTS 247

two departments of the Executive closely connected with the
administration of justice. First, the Home Secretary, through the
exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, can abolish or reduce
sentences, so there is, in a sense, appeal to him in criminal cases.
Secondly, there is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
This is not, strictly, a court delivering judgments, but a council
advising His Majesty. Since, however, 4ts membership includes
those Privy Councillors who have been judges, the Lords of
Appeal in Ordinary, and some judges from the self-governing
Dominions and India, it possesses more legal knowledge and
experience than any court, and has become in practice a court of
appeal from courts in territories belonging to His Majesty but
outside the United Kingdom, and a court to which disputes
between Dominions may be referred. It can also revise the
decisions made by the Ecclesiastical Courts in which the Church
of England settles problems arising in its own organisation.
Finally, in the unlikely event of the courts ignoring the most
obvious principles of justice, it might be that the Judicial Com-
mittee would intervene with advice to'the King to see that
justice was done.

BOOKS:

VINOGRADOFF. Cornmonsense and Law.
GELDART. Elements of English Law.
*DICEY. Law and Opinion in England,
STONE'S Justices Manual.