ABSTRACT
There was another type of crime which led to a certain collision between the Queen and Harcourt. It was that most unhappy of all forms of murder, infanticide. Harcourt in June 1884 commuted the sentence of death passed on Mary Wilcox for the murder of her illegitimate child, and the Queen wrote from Balmoral that she could not “help observing that this is the third or fourth case in which conviction for murder has been commuted,” and requesting explanation. Harcourt replied that even in days when the law was more cruel, mercy was frequently extended by the Crown in such cases “in the manner so beautifully recounted by Sir W. Scott in the Heart of Midlothian.”.
