The Bloody Code and The English Legal System
Repressive Reaction to the French Revolution in the 19th Century
Nov 6, 2009
After the French Revolution, English law became harsher and more repressive. For instance, alarm bells rang when workers banded together for concerted action, as had happened in France.
Reaction was ruthless after the Captain Swing riots of 1830 when agricultural labourers in Kent smashed machines, burned hayricks and demanded higher wages and an end to the mechanisation that threatened their jobs. Nine labourers were executed. Hundreds were imprisoned or transported to Australia, a punishment second in severity only to death
The Tolpuddle Martyrs, Transported to Australia
Four years later, six agricultural workers, afterward known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, tried to prevent a threatened cut in their already miserable wages. They sealed their bargain - and their downfall - with oaths of loyalty to a trades union
Found guilty of swearing unlawful oaths, they, too, were sentenced to transportation. A public outcry led to their release after two years but the legal system that condemned them was not greatly softened as a result
The Terror of the Bloody Code
The Bloody Code of English law, so called because of the vast number of crimes for which the penalty was death, escalated during the 19th century. Execution was used not only to punish criminals but to stage public hangings. Though intended to frighten people out of committing crimes, public hangings appealed to popular sadism and soon became a popular entertainment
In 1688, fifty crimes had been subject to the death sentence. This rose to 160 by 1765 and by 1815 to 225. Capital crimes included cutting down trees, being out at night with a blackened face or stealing a loaf of bread, as well as the obviously more serious murder or treason. The code could be self-defeating, though, for juries frequently saved the accused from death by refusing to find them guilty
The Poor and the Dreaded Workhouse
The harsh legal view of the poor, the needy or the unemployed was typified by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and its workhouses. Only those who accepted the draconian regime of the workhouse were eligible for relief which afforded minimal conditions and the lowest possible quality of life
The Poor Law and the workhouse, which remained part of the English relief system until 1929, soon became a synonym for shame and humiliation and the poor often preferred to live in poverty rather than submit to it
Sir Robert Peel’s Police Force
However, the more brutal trends in the English legal system had been muted by the creation in 1829 of a police force, known as the Peelers after its founder, the Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel. They helped to deter crime and criminals and in so doing, won some public confidence. But though lessened, repression was still apparent late in the 19th century, especially in the continuing struggles between employers and trades unions
Even so, a more humane approach was also emerging. This was largely the work of philanthropic Members of Parliament, like Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. Shaftesbury pioneered revolutionary legislation such as the Factory Acts, the Mines Act and the Ten Hour Act, all of which protected workers from exploitation
Under these laws, provision was made for dangerous machinery to be fenced in and women and children were no longer allowed to work underground in the mines or to labour for more than ten hours a day in factories
The Code Becomes Less Bloody
Even the Bloody Code yielded somewhat to the trend for greater clemency in the practice of English law. The number of capital crimes was gradually reduced until, by 1861, only murder, arson, piracy and treason remained. The last public hanging took place in 1868.
Sources
Potter, Harry: Hanging in Judgement: Religion and the Death Penalty in England from the Bloody Code to Abolition (London, UK, SCM Press, 1993) ISBN-10: 0334025338/ISBN-13: 978-0334025337
Vsc, Poverty in the Victorian Age: English Poor Laws, 1834-70, Vol.2 (Aldershot, UK Gregg Revivals) ISBN-10: 0576532673/ISBN-13: 978-0576532679
Victorian Crime and Punishment from E2BN
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