Queen Anne set this code aside, and substituted the statute and common law of the mother country.
It was, however, resumed in time, and acted upon for some years, when it was set aside by the mother country again.

From this time it continued dormant till the separation of America from England.

But no sooner had this event taken place, which rendered the American states their own legislators, than the Pennsylvanian Quakers began to aim at obtaining an alteration of the penal laws.

In this they were joined by worthy individuals of other denominations; and these, acting in union, procured from the legislature of Pennsylvania, in the year 1786, a reform of the criminal code.

This reform, however, was not carried, in the opinion of the Quakers, to a sufficient length.