This article relates closely to Dickens's long-standing concern with the issue of capital punishment. He had contributed to a powerful series of letters advocating total abolition of the death penalty to the Daily News (23 February–16 March 1846). The previous year he had offered to write an article on capital punishment for the Edinburgh Review, but never did so (see Pilgrim, Vol. IV, pp. 340–41). By the time of his two 1849 letters to The Times deploring the disgusting scenes at the Mannings' execution (Pilgrim, Vol. V, pp. 644–45 and 651), he had come to believe that total abolition was not a practical possibility and concentrated on arguing for the abolition of public executions. For the texts of the five Daily News letters, see D. Paroissien (ed.), Selected Letters of Charles Dickens (1985), pp. 213–55; for an excellent detailed discussion of them, and Dickens's attitude to capital punishment generally, see Philip Collins, Dickens and Crime (1962), Ch. 10.
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