Peel, Pardon and Punishment: The Recorder’s Report Revisited

摘要: Few English statesmen have been subjected to as substantial a shift in historical reputation recent years Sir Robert Peel. Only two after Norman Gash completed his massive two-volume biography, Derek Beales struck the first blow at Peel’s status, amongst other things great reformer of criminal law during terms Home Office 1820s, arguing that real changes were made by Whig ministries 1830 and beyond.1 Boyd Hilton has demonstrated that, economic matters well personal penal philosophy, Peel was more often dogmatic than flexible, clinging established ways doing until last possible moment.2 The latest most forceful come V.A.C. Gatrell’s Hanging Tree (1994), which concludes with an extended portrait seemingly unremitting severity enforcing letter England’s still extensive capital code down least.3