THE GALLOWS AND ENGLISH LAWS.
About this period the subject of Capital Punishment largely attracted
Mrs. Fry's attention. The attitude of Quakers generally towards the
punishment of death, except for murder in the highest degree, was
hostile; but Mrs. Fry's constant intercourse with inmates in the
condemned cell fixed her attention in a very painful manner upon the
subject. For venial crimes, men and women, clinging fondly to life, were
swung off into eternity; and neither the white lips of the
philanthropist, nor the official ones of the appointed chaplain, could
comfort the dying. Among these dying ones were many women, who were
executed for simply passing forged Bank of England notes; but as the
bank had plenary powers to arrange to screen certain persons who were
not to die, these were allowed to get off with a lighter punishment by
pleading "Guilty to the minor count." The condemned cell was never,
however, without its occupant, nor the gallows destitute of its prey. So
Draconian were the laws of humane and Christian England, at this date,
that had they been strictly carried out, at least four executions daily,
exclusive of Sundays, would have taken place in this realm.
According to Hepworth Dixon, and contemporary authorities, the
sanguinary measures of the English Government for the punishment of
crimes dated from about the time of the Jacobite rebellion, in 1745.
Prior to that time, adventurers of every grade, the idle, vicious, and
unemployed, had found an outlet for their turbulence and their energies
in warfare--engaging on behalf of the Jacobites, or the Government,
according as it suited their fancy. But when the House of Hanover
conquered, and the trade of war became spoiled within the limits of
Great Britain, troops of these discharged soldiers took to a marauding
life; the high roads became infested with robbers, and crimes of
violence were frequent. Alarmed at the license displayed by these
Ishmaelites, the Government of the day arrayed its might against them,
enacting such sanguinary measures that at first sight it seemed as if
the deliberate intent were to literally cut them off and root them out
from the land. That era was indeed a bloodthirsty one in English
jurisprudence.
Enactments were passed in the reign of the second George, whereby it
was made a capital crime to rob the mail, or any post-office; to kill,
steal, or drive away any sheep or cattle, with intention to steal, or to
be accessory to the crime. The "Black Act," first passed in the reign of
George I., and enlarged by George II., punished by hanging, the hunting,
killing, stealing, or wounding any deer in any park or forest; maiming
or killing any cattle, destroying any fish or fish-pond, cutting down or
killing any tree planted in any garden or orchard, or cutting any
hop-bands in hop plantations. Forgery, smuggling, coining, passing bad
coin, or forged notes, and shop-lifting; all were punishable by death.
From a table published by Janssen, and quoted from Hepworth Dixon, we
find that in twenty-three years, from 1749 to 1771, eleven hundred and
twenty-one persons were condemned to death in London alone. The offenses
for which these poor wretches received sentence included those named
above, in addition to seventy-two cases of murder, two cases of riot,
one of sacrilege, thirty-one of returning from transportation, and four
of enlisting for foreign service. Of the total number condemned, six
hundred and seventy-eight were actually hanged, while the remainder
either died in prison, were transported, or pardoned. As four hundred
and one persons were transported, a very small number indeed obtained
deliverance either by death or pardon. In fact, scarcely any extenuating
circumstances were allowed; so that in some cases cruelty seemed
actually to have banished justice. It is recorded, as one of these
cases, that a young woman with a babe at the breast, was hanged for
stealing from a shop a piece of cloth of the value of five shillings.
The poor woman was the destitute wife of a young man whom the press-gang
had captured and carried off to sea, leaving her and her babe to the
mercy of the world. Utterly homeless and starving, she stole to buy
food; but a grateful country requited the services of the sailor-husband
by hanging the wife.
The _certainty_ of punishment became nullified by the _severity_ of the
laws. Humane individuals hesitated to prosecute, especially for forgery;
while juries seized upon every pretext to return verdicts of "Not
guilty." Reprieves were frequent, for the lives of many were
supplicated, and successfully; so that the death-penalty was commuted
into transportation. Caricaturists, writers, philanthropists,
divines--all united in the chorus of condemnation against the bloody
enactments which secured such a crop for the gallows. Men, women, girls,
lads and idiots, all served as food for it. Jack Ketch had a merry time
of it, while society looked on well pleased, for the most part. Those
appointed to sit in the seat of justice sometimes defended this state of
things. One of the worthies of the "good old times"--Judge
Heath--notorious because of his partiality for hanging, is reported to
have said: "If you imprison at home, the criminal is soon thrown back
upon you hardened in guilt. If you transport you corrupt infant
societies, and sow the seeds of atrocious crimes over the habitable
globe. There is no regenerating a felon in this life. And, for his own
sake, as well as for the sake of society, I think it better to hang."
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 £700, 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.
It is said that George III. kept a register of all the cases of capital
punishment, that he entered in it all names of felons sentenced to
death, with dates and particulars of convictions, together with remarks
upon the reasons which induced him to sign the warrants. It is also said
that he frequently rose from his couch at night to peruse this fatal
list, and that he shut himself up closely in his private apartments
during the hours appointed for the execution of criminals condemned to
death.
Tyburn ceased to be the place of execution for London in 1783; from that
year Newgate witnessed most of these horrors.
Philanthropists of every class were, at the period of Mrs. Fry's career
now under review, considering this matter of capital punishment, and
taking steps to restrain the infliction of the death penalty. The Gurney
family among Quakers, William Wilberforce, Sir James Mackintosh, Sir
Samuel Romilly, and others, were all working hard to this end. In 1819
William Wilberforce presented a petition from the Society of Friends to
Parliament against death punishment for crimes other than murder.
Writing at later dates upon this subject, Joseph John Gurney says: "I
cannot say that my spirit greatly revolts against life for life, though
capital punishment for anything short of this appears to me to be
execrable." And, again, "I cannot in conscience take any step towards
destroying the life of a fellow-creature whose crime against society
affects my property only. I am in possession, like other men, of the
feelings of common humanity, and to aid and abet in procuring the
destruction of any man living would be to me extremely distressing and
horrible." As a banker, Mr. Gurney felt that the punishment for forgery
should be heavy and sharp, but less than death. In the Houses of
Parliament various efforts were made to obtain the commutation of the
death penalty, and when in 1810 the Peers rejected Sir Samuel Romilly's
bill to remove the penalty for shop-lifting, the Dukes of Sussex and
Gloucester joined some of the Peers in signing a protest against the
law. The time appeared to be ripe for agitation; all classes of society
reverenced human life more than of old, and desired to see it held less
cheap by the ministers of justice.
According to Mrs. Fry's experience, the punishment of death tended
neither to the security of the people, the reformation of any prisoner,
nor the diminution of crime. Felons who suffered death for light
offenses looked upon themselves as martyrs--martyrs to a cruel law--and
believed that they had but to meet death with fortitude to secure a
blissful hereafter. This fearful opiate carried many through the
terrible ordeal outwardly calm and resigned.
Among the condemned ones was Harriet Skelton, a woman who had been
detected passing forged Bank of England notes. She was described as
prepossessing, "open, confiding, expressing strong feelings on her
countenance, but neither hardened in depravity nor capable of cunning."
Her behavior in prison was exceptionally good; so good, indeed, that
some of the depraved inmates of Newgate supposed her to have been
condemned to death because of her fitness for death. She had evidently
been more sinned against than sinning; the man whom she lived with, and
who was ardently loved by her, had used her as his instrument for
passing these false notes. Thus she had been lured to destruction.
After the decision had been received from the Lords of the Council,
Skelton was taken into the condemned cell to await her doom. To this
cell came numerous visitors, attracted by compassion for the poor
unfortunate who tenanted it, and each one eager to obtain the
commutation of the cruel sentence. It was one thing to read of one or
another being sentenced to death, but quite another to behold a woman,
strong in possession of, and desire for life, fated to be swung into
eternity before many days because of circulating a false note at the
behest of a paramour. Mrs. Fry needed not the many persuasions she
received to induce her to put forth the most unremitting exertions on
behalf of Skelton. She obtained an audience of the Duke of Gloucester,
and urged every circumstance which could be urged in extenuation of the
crime, entreating for the woman's life. The royal duke remembered the
old days at Norwich, when Elizabeth had been know in fashionable society
and had figured somewhat as a belle, and he bent a willing ear to her
request. He visited Newgate, escorted by Mrs. Fry, and saw for himself
the agony in that condemned cell. Then he accompanied her to the bank
directors, and applied to Lord Sidmouth personally, but all in vain. It
was not blood for blood, nor life for life, but blood for "filthy
lucre;" so the poor woman was hung in obedience to the inexorable
ferocity of the law and its administrators.
On this occasion Mrs. Fry was seriously distressed in mind. She had
vehemently entreated for the poor creature's life, stating that she had
had the offer of pleading guilty only to the minor count, but had
foolishly rejected it in hope of obtaining a pardon. The question at
issue on this occasion was the power of the bank directors to virtually
decide as to the doom of the accused ones. Mrs. Fry made assertions and
gave instances which Lord Sidmouth assumed to doubt. Further than this,
he was seriously annoyed at the noise this question of capital
punishment was making in the land, and though not necessarily a cruel or
blood-thirsty man, the Home Secretary shrank from meddling too much with
the criminal code of England. This misunderstanding was a source of deep
pain to the philanthropist, and, accompanied by Lady Harcourt, she
endeavored to remove Lord Sidmouth's false impressions, but in vain.
While smarting under this wound, received in the interests of humanity,
she had to go to the Mansion House by command of Her Majesty Queen
Charlotte, to be presented. Thus, very strangely, and against her will,
she was thrust forward into the very foremost places of public
observation and repute. She recorded the matter in her journal, in her
own characteristic way:--
"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:
The people have made enormous strides in all that tends to civilize
and soften mankind, while the laws have contracted a ferocity which
did not belong to them in the most savage period of our history;
and, to such extremes of distress have they proceeded that I do
believe there never was a law so harsh as British law, or so
merciful and humane a people as the British people. And yet to this
mild and merciful people is left the execution of that rigid and
cruel law.
This measure was defeated, but the numbers of votes were so nearly
equal, that the defeat was actually a victory.
Time went on. In 1831, Sir Robert Peel took up the gauntlet against
capital punishment, and endeavored to induce Parliament to abolish the
death-penalty for forgery; the House of Commons voted its abolition, but
the Lords restored the clauses retaining the penalty. One thousand
bankers signed a petition praying that the vote of the Commons might be
sustained, but in vain; still, in deference to public opinion, after
this the death-penalty was not inflicted upon a forger. Nevertheless,
there remained plenty of food for the gallows. An incendiary, as well as
a sheep-stealer, was liable to capital punishment; and so severely was
the law strained upon these points, that he who set fire to a rick in a
field, as well as he who found a half-dead sheep and carried it home,
was condemned without mercy. But the advocates of mercy continued their
good work until, finally, the gallows became the penalty for only those
offenses which concerned human life and high treason.