Word: ellenborough
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Great Britain's historical opposition to abortion comes from both common and canon law. In 1803 Lord Ellenborough pushed through a bill to make abortion a crime punishable by death if performed after the fetus had "quickened." In 1837 Parliament revised the law, eliminating the death penalty, but in the process lost the distinction between abortion before and after quickening and consequently outlawed all abortion. A 1929 change made abortion illegal except to save the life of the pregnant woman...
...Cesare Beccaria, who argued that harsh punishments had a brutalizing effect upon society and thus bred crime instead of deterring it. But to the rulers of England, it seemed that capital punishment, even for offenses now considered petty, was necessary for the preservation of law and order. Cried Lord Ellenborough, Chief Justice of England, speaking in the House of Lords in 1810 against a bill to abolish the death penalty for shoplifting: "I am certain depredations to an unlimited extent would immediately be committed . . . Repeal this law and see the contrast-no man can trust himself for an hour...
Jane Digby, Lady Ellenborough (1807-81) was a superb horsewoman and "the greatest beauty of her day." Jane thought that she could find salvation in "romantic relationships." Divorced by her husband for adultery with an Austrian prince, Jane moved to Paris, bore her princely lover two children, took up briefly with Novelist Balzac ("I have since noted," said he dryly, "that most women who sit a horse well are lacking in tenderness"). From Paris, Jane rode on to Bavaria, became the mistress of King Ludwig I, married a Bavarian baron and bore two more children. Swept off her feet...
...George III's reign, more than 200 crimes were punishable by death. Among them: felling a tree, picking a pocket, associating with gypsies for a month. In 1810, to a proposal to abolish 'the death penalty for shoplifting of articles worth five shillings or more, Lord Ellenborough had solemnly objected: "I trust your lordships will pause before you assent to an experiment pregnant with danger to the security of property . . . Repeal this law and see the contrast-no man can trust himself for an hour out of doors without the most alarming apprehensions that on his return every...
...without the dire consequences predicted by Ellenborough, gibbet and gallows were prescribed for fewer & fewer crimes. When murder was crossed off the list last week, only three capital crimes remained: high treason in time of war, piracy with violence, arson in dockyards...