“Yesterday I had a day of ups and downs, as far as the opinions of man are concerned, in a remarkable degree.  I found that there was a grievous misunderstanding between Lord Sidmouth and myself, and that some things I had done had tried him exceedingly; indeed, I see that I have mistaken my conduct in some particulars respecting the case of poor Skelton, and in the efforts made to save her life, I too incautiously spoke of some in power.  When under great humiliation in consequence of this, Lady Harcourt, who most kindly interested herself in the subject, took me with her to the Mansion House, rather against my will, to meet many of the royal family at the examination of some large schools.  Among the rest, the Queen was there.  There was quite a buzz when I went into the Egyptian Hall, where one or two thousand people were collected; and when the Queen came to speak to me, which she did very kindly, I am told that there was a general clapp.  I think I may say this hardly raised me at all; I was so very low from what had occurred before....  My mind has not recovered this affair of Lord Sidmouth, and finding that the bank directors are also affronted with me added to my trouble, more particularly as there was an appearance of evil in my conduct; but, I trust, no greater fault in reality than a want of prudence in that which I expressed.”

The Society of Friends had always been opposed to capital punishment.  Ten years previously, Sir Samuel Romilly had determined to attack these sanguinary enactments, one by one, in order to ensure success.  He began, therefore, with the Act of Queen Elizabeth, “which made it a capital offense to steal privately from the person of another.”  William Alien records in the same year, 1808, the formation of a “Society for Diffusing Information on the Subject of Punishment by Death.”  This little band worked with Sir Samuel until his painful death in 1818; while Dr. Parr, Jeremy Bentham, and Dugald Stewart aided the enterprise by words of encouragement, both in public and in private.  In Joseph John Gurney’s Memoirs, it is stated that Dr. Lushington declared his opinion that the poor criminal was thus hurried out of life and into eternity by means of the perpetration of another crime far greater, for the most part, than any which the sufferer had committed.

The feeling grew, and in place of the indifference and scorn of human life which had formerly characterized society, there sprang up an eager desire to save life, except for the crime of murder.  In May, 1821, Sir James Mackintosh introduced a bill for “Mitigating the Severity of Punishment in Certain Cases of Forgery, and Crimes connected therewith.”  Buxton, in advocating this measure, says truly: