The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment was a royal commission on capital punishment in the United Kingdom which worked from 1864 to 1866. It was chaired by Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond. Commissioners disagreed on the question of abolition of capital punishment, but their report's recommendations including abolishing public execution, which was effected by the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868. Appointment The Government agreed to a Royal Commission on 3 May 1864. In the House of Commons, William Ewart proposed a select committee, but withdrew in favour of Charles Neate's resolution requesting a Royal Commission. The Commission was formally appointed by Queen Victoria on 8 July 1864. Its terms of reference were: to inquire into the Provisions and Operation of the Laws now in force in the United Kingdom, under and by virtue of which the Punishment of Death may be inflicted upon persons convicted of certain crimes, and also into the manner in which Capital Sentences are carried into execution, and to report whether any, and if any what alteration is desirable in such Laws, or any of them, or in the manner in which such sentences are carried into execution. The commissioners were: Secretary to the Commission was James Henry Patteson Evidence The Commission took oral evidence on 15 days, between 29 November 1864 and 25 March 1865, dealing with three or four witnesses a day. Questionnaire Written questions were sent by the Commission via the Foreign Office to foreign law officers and experts: What crimes, if any, are now punishable with death by the law of . . . . . ? When a person is found guilty of a capital offence, is there any power in the jury, or the court, to reduce the punishment below that of death by finding attenuating circumstances ? If so, is this power frequently exercised? What is the most severe punishment next to that of death by the law of . . . . ? and in cases where the sentence of death is reduced by the finding of attenuating circumstances, or commuted by the government to such lesser punishment, is the latter invariably carried out in full ? If not, to what extent is it mitigated ? Have there been any changes of late years in the law of . . . . . by which certain crimes formerly capital have ceased to be so ? If so,