While in hospital, Harwood had slept alongside a soldier who had been raised a Quaker and who lamented his non-adherence to the pacifism of his faith.
Harwood and two other soldiers he had influenced were convicted under martial law for laying down his arms during battle.
)[2] Responses to his booklet against pacifism came from a number of Quaker writers including Joseph Besse and from an unknown and anonymous author who wrote a response called A Modest Plea in behalf of the People call'd Quakers.
[1] In 1755, Finch published a second pamphlet recanting his anti-pacifist views titled Second Thoughts concerning War, wherein that great subject is candidly considered, and set in a new light, in answer to, and by the author of a late pamphlet, intitled "The Nature and Duty of Self Defence, addressed to the People called Quakers".
[1][3] The historian Peter Brock draws a parallel between Finch's (albeit later recanted) anti-pacifism and the views of the banker and abolitionist Samuel Hoare Jr who similarly expressed some anti-pacifist beliefs.