As a caricaturist George Cruikshank entered the field, and waged battle on behalf of the poor wretches who swung at the gallows for passing forged Bank of England notes.  He drew a note resembling the genuine one, and entitled it “Bank note, not to be imitated.”  A copy of this caricature now lies before us.  It bears on its face a representation of a large gallows, from which eleven criminals, three of whom are women, are dangling, dead.  In the upper left hand corner, Britannia is represented as surrounded by starving, wailing creatures, and surmounted by a hideous death’s head.  Underneath is a rope coiled around the portraits of twelve felons who have suffered; while, running down, to form a border, are fetters arranged in zig-zag fashion.  Across the note run these words, “Ad lib., ad lib., I promise to perform during the issue of Bank notes easily imitated, and until the resumption of cash payments, or the abolition of the punishment of death, for the Governors and Company of the Bank of England.—­J.  KETCH.”  The note is a unique production, and must have created an enormous sensation.  Cruikshank’s own story, writing in 1876, is this:—­

Fifty-eight years back from this date there were one-pound Bank of England notes in circulation, and, unfortunately, many forged notes were in circulation also, or being passed, the punishment for which offense was in some cases transportation, in others DEATH.  At this period, having to go early to the Royal Exchange one morning, I passed Newgate jail, and saw several persons suspended from the gibbet; two of these were women who had been executed for passing one-pound forged notes.

     I determined, if possible, to put a stop to such terrible
     punishments for such a crime, and made a sketch of the above note,
     and then an etching of it.

Mr. Hone published it, and it created a sensation.  The Directors of the Bank of England were exceedingly wroth.  The crowd around Hone’s shop in Ludgate Hill was so great that the Lord Mayor had to send the police to clear the street.  The notes were in such demand that they could not be printed fast enough, and I had to sit up all one night to etch another plate.  Mr. Hone realized above L700, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that no man or woman was ever hanged after this for passing one-pound Bank of England notes.

The issue of my “Bank Note note not to be Imitated” not only put a stop to the issue of any more Bank of England one-pound notes, but also put a stop to the punishment of death for such an offense—­not only for that, but likewise for forgery—­and then the late Sir Robert Peel revised the penal code; so that the final effect of my note was to stop hanging for all minor offenses, and has thus been the means of saving thousands of men and women from being hanged.

It may be that the great caricaturist claims almost too much when he says that the publication of his note eventually stopped hanging for all minor offenses; but certainly there is no denying that this publication was an important factor in the agitation.