AMNESTY

AMNESTY, or Amnistry, a General Pardon, which a Prince grants to his Subjects, by a Treaty, or Edict; wherein he declares that he forgets and annuls all that is past, and promises not to make any farther Inquiry into the same. See PARDON. Such Amnesties are usually practiced upon Reconciliations of the Sovereign towards his People, after Rebellions, general Defections, &c. Such, e.g. was the Act of Oblivion granted at King Charles's Restoration. The Word is derived from the Greek αμνηστία, Amnestia; which was the Name of a Law of this kind, passed by Thrasybulus upon the Expulsion of the thirty Tyrants out of Athens.—Andicides, an Athenian Orator, whose Life is written by Plutarch, and of whom we have an Edition, of the Year 1575; gives us, in his Oration upon Mysteries, a Formula of the Amnesty, and the Oaths taken thereupon.

AMNESTY