"Launched into eternity": Sympathetic interaction as a response to public executions in Canada West, 1847-1869

In this article, ideas central to Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments a s well as those of Benthamite reformers are shown to have informed legislat ive reports and statutes enacted during a period of legal and penal reform in Upper Canada/Canada West. Using newspaper reports, this article discusse s the relationship of these themes to narratives of public executions. In t he context of an increasingly democratic state in Canada West, sympathetic interaction between the condemned and the community appeared as the foundat ion of moral lessons to be drawn from the experience of public hangings.