At the commencement of the year 1820, Mr. Buxton thus enumerates the subjects which he hoped to accomplish in the course of the year:— “First; to assist, to the best of my ability, in Parliament, to amend our criminal code; and, secondly, to amend our Prisons. Thirdly; to obtain a return of the number of widows who burn themselves at their husbands' funeral in India, preparatory to a law prohibiting such enormities. Fourthly; to establish a fund for supporting the Sunday schools, (on the plan of that at Friar's Mount,) in Spitalfields.” He then mentions, that his thoughts had been principally engaged upon the Criminal Code, till incapacitated for study by an attack of illness; his health having been indifferent for some months previously.

The death of the King, and the consequent prospect of a dissolution of Parliament, occasioned some anxious thoughts. “I have felt some doubt,” he says, on the 6th of February, “whether I should stand;” and he mentions his “eight children,” among the reasons against doing so.