British Royal Family

The Crown represents the power of the state to confiscate a convicted criminal’s property and to punish a transported convict who returns to Britain. Its authority governs Magwitch’s pursuit, trial, and loss of wealth, making the law a decisive force in Pip’s expectations and in the final course of Magwitch’s life.

Legal Authority and Convict Transportation

Magwitch explains that he was sentenced to transportation for life and that returning to Britain could mean death. Mr. Jaggers had warned him in New South Wales that his exile was for the term of his natural life, that he was unlikely to obtain a pardon, and that returning would constitute a felony carrying the most severe penalty. Magwitch nevertheless comes back, putting his attachment to Pip in direct conflict with the law’s continuing claim over his movements.

The novel gives that legal status a visible form through the prison ships. During the earlier escape, Pip watches Magwitch taken by boat to a black hulking prison ship, where he disappears aboard among the other convicts. Years later, Magwitch recounts that when he was discharged, he sought out the boy who had fed him and kept his secret, and gave him two one-pound notes. His life beyond Britain has brought him wealth through sheep-farming, stock-breeding, and other trades, but neither his success nor the passage of years cancels the identity imposed by his sentence.

Arrest, Trial, and Death Sentence

After Magwitch returns, he says he has come to stay, although he knows that discovery could mean death. His fear is not merely a private apprehension: the statutory penalty makes his presence in Britain an ongoing criminal danger. Compeyson’s warning to Pip further confirms that people who know Magwitch’s identity may seek to prevent him from remaining in the country.

The legal process turns on proof of identity. At the Police Court, Magwitch’s commitment for trial is delayed because an officer from the prison ship must be brought to identify him. Compeyson, who might have testified, is dead; without the required witness, the authorities cannot immediately complete the case. Mr. Jaggers, acting for Magwitch, admits nothing. After three days, an officer arrives, and Magwitch is committed for trial at the next Sessions.

At sentencing, Magwitch is one of thirty-two men and women brought before the judge. The court’s account presents his return as the culmination of a criminal history: repeated imprisonment, earlier transportation, escape, and a renewed sentence of exile for life. It acknowledges that he had lived peaceably and honestly abroad, but treats his return and his role in the death of his informer as aggravating facts. Under the penalty for returning from transportation, he is sentenced to death.

Confiscation and Its Consequences

The Crown’s claim reaches beyond Magwitch’s liberty. Pip understands that a conviction will forfeit Magwitch’s possessions to the state, and Magwitch asks that Pip not be known as belonging to him. Pip decides not to tell him that the fortune intended for Pip is lost. Mr. Jaggers is angry that Pip has allowed the matter to slip from his grasp and says they may petition for some of the property, but he makes clear that this case offers no grounds to expect relief.

Pip has no recognized legal relationship to Magwitch, and Magwitch made no written settlement in Pip’s favour before his apprehension. A transfer attempted after the arrest would be useless. Pip therefore gives up any effort to establish a claim, resolving not to sicken himself with a hopeless attempt to recover the inheritance.

The confiscation also explains the dead informer’s possible motive. Notes found among Compeyson’s possessions indicated knowledge of a New South Wales bank holding money and of valuable lands. Both were listed among Magwitch’s assets, which he had told Mr. Jaggers he expected Pip to inherit. Magwitch never suspects that the inheritance is no longer secure, and Pip keeps that loss from him.

Narrative Significance

The Crown’s power binds together the novel’s legal and personal conflicts. Magwitch’s wealth, acquired through years of work abroad, cannot undo his status as a transported convict; returning to see Pip exposes him to arrest, death, and forfeiture. The law thus overturns Pip’s expectation of inherited gentility while making his choice to remain loyal to Magwitch an act of care that persists after the fortune itself has vanished.