Note 8 — INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
The punishment of death for horse-stealing was abolished in 1832, but in 1833 a little boy of nine who pushed a stick through a cracked window and pulled out some painters’ colours worth twopence was sentenced to death. Since 1838 no person has been hanged in England for any offence other than murder. See Spencer Walpole’s History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815.