Fifty-eight years back from this date there were one-pound Bank of England notes in circulation, and, unfortunately, many forged notes were in circulation also, or being passed, the punishment for which offense was in some cases transportation, in others DEATH. At this period, having to go early to the Royal Exchange one morning, I passed Newgate jail, and saw several persons suspended from the gibbet; _two_ of these were women who had been executed for passing one-pound forged notes. I determined, if possible, to put a stop to such terrible punishments for such a crime, and made a sketch of the above note, and then an etching of it. Mr. Hone published it, and it created a sensation. The Directors of the Bank of England were exceedingly wroth. The crowd around Hone's shop in Ludgate Hill was so great that the Lord Mayor had to send the police to clear the street. The notes were in such demand that they could not be printed fast enough, and I had to sit up all one night to etch another plate. Mr. Hone realized above L700, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that no man or woman was ever hanged after this for passing one-pound Bank of England notes. The issue of my "Bank Note note not to be Imitated" not only put a stop to the issue of any more Bank of England one-pound notes, but also put a stop to the punishment of death for such an offense--not only for that, but likewise for forgery--and then the late Sir Robert Peel revised the penal code; so that the final effect of my note was to stop hanging for all minor offenses, and has thus been the means of saving thousands of men and women from being hanged. It may be that the great caricaturist claims almost too much when he says that the publication of his note eventually stopped hanging for all minor offenses; but certainly there is no denying that this publication was an important factor in the agitation. It is said that George III. kept a register of all the cases of capital punishment, that he entered in it all names of felons sentenced to death, with dates and particulars of convictions, together with remarks upon the reasons which induced him to sign the warrants. It is also said that he frequently rose from his couch at night to peruse this fatal list, and that he shut himself up closely in his private apartments during the hours appointed for the execution of criminals condemned to death. Tyburn ceased to be the place of execution for London in 1783; from that year Newgate witnessed most of these horrors.