Engrav'd by Thackara & Vallance Philad. a 1794.
JOHN HOWARD, L.L.D. F.R.S
Published by J.ORMROD N° 41 Chesnut Street PHTLAD. A 

A VIEW
OF THE
LIFE, TRAVELS,
AND
PHILANTHROPIC LABORS
OF THE LATE
JOHN HOWARD,
Esquire, L.L.D. F.R.S.
By JOHN AIKIN, M.D.
In Commune auxilium natus, ac publicum bonum,
ex quo dabit cuique partem: etiam ad calamitosos,
pro portione, improbandos et emendandos, bonitatem
suam permittet. SENECA.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED FOR JOHN ORMROD, By W. W. WOODWARD,
At Franklin's Head, No. 41, Chesnut-street. 
1794. 



INTRODUCTION.
IF it be a just observation, that every man
who has attained uncommon eminence in
his particular line of pursuit, becomes an object
worthy of the public notice, how forcibly must such
a maxim apply to that species of excellence which
renders a man the greatest benefactor to his fel-
low-creatures, and the noblest subject of their con-
templation? Beneficence; pure in its intentions,
wise and comprehensive in its plans, and active
and successful in execution, must ever stand at
the head of those qualities which elevate the hu-
man character; and mankind cannot have a con-
cern so important, as the diffusion of such a spi-
rit, by means of the most perfect and impressive
examples, in which it has actually been displayed.
Among those truly illustrious persons who, in
the several-ages and nations of the world, have 

4 INTRODUCTION.
marked their track through life by a continued
course of doing good, few have been so distinguish-
ed, either by the extent of the good produced, or
the purity of motive and energy of character
exhibited in the process of doing it, as the late
Mr. Howard. To have adopted the cause of
the prisoner, the sick, and the destitute, not on-
ly in his own country, but throughout all Eu-
rope; to have considerably alleviated the bur-
den of present misery among those unfortunate
classes, and at the same time to have provided for
the reformation of the vicious, and the preven-
tion of future crimes and calamities;--to have
been instrumental in the actual establishment of
many plans of humanity and utility, and to have
laid the foundation for much more improvement
hereafter;--and to have done all this as a pri-
vate unaided individual, struggling with toils,
dangers and difficulties, which might have appal-
led the most resolute; is surely a range of bene-
ficence which scarcely ever before came within
the compass of one man's exertions. Justly, then,
does the name of Howard stand among those which
confer the highest honor on the English charac-
ter; and, since his actions cannot fail to transmit
his memory with glory to posterity, it is incum-
bent on his countrymen and cotemporaries, for 

INTRODUCTION. 5
their own sakes, to transmit corresponding me
morials of their veneration and gratitude.
It would, indeed, be a convincing proof of the
increased good sense and virtue of the age, if
such characters as this were found to rise in the
comparative scale of same and applause. Long e-
nough have mankind weakly paid their admiration
as the reward of pernicious exertions,--of talents,
often very moderate in themselves, and only ren-
dered conspicuous by the blaze of mischief they
have kindled.. It is now surely time that men
should know, and distinguish their benefactors
from their foes; and that the noblest incitements
to action should be given to those actions only
which are directed to the general welfare..
Since the lamented death of this excellent per-
son, there have not been wanting respectable eu-
logies of his character, and such biographical no-
tices concerning him, as might in some measure
gratify that public curiosity which is awakened
by every celebrated name. There is yet want-
ing, however, what I consider as by much the
most valuable tribute to the memory of every
man distinguished by public services; I mean a
portraiture of him, modelled upon those circum-
stances which rendered him eminent; displaying.
A2 

6 INTRODUCTION.
in their rise and progress those features of cha-
racter which so peculiarly fitted him for the part
he undertook, the origin and gradual develope-
ment of his great designs, and all the successive
steps by which they were brought to their final
state of maturity. It is this branch of biogra-
phical writing that alone entitles it to rank high
among the competitions relative to human life
and manners. Nature, indeed, has implanted
in us a desire of becoming acquainted with those
circumstances belonging to a distinguished cha-
racter which are common to him and the mass of
mankind, and it is therefore right that such a
desire should in some degree be gratified: but
to make that the principal object of attention,
which, but for its association with somewhat
more important, would not at all deserve no-
tice, is surely to reverse the value of things, and
to estimate the mass by the quantity of its alloy,
rather than by that of the precious metal.
The deficiency which I have stated relative to
Mr. Howard, it is my present object, as far as I
am able, to supply; and however the task in
some respect may be beyond my powers, yet the
advantage I enjoyed of a long and confidential
intercourse with him during the publication of
his works, and of frequent conversation with 

INTRODUCTION. 7
him concerning the past and future objects of his
enquiries, together with the communications
with which I have been favoured by some of
his most intimate friends,--will, I hope, justify
me in the eye of the public for taking it on my-
self. I trust I have already appeared not insen-
sible to his exalted merit, nor indifferent to his
reputation.
One thing more I think it necessary to say
concerning this attempt. It has been more than
once suggested in print, but, I believe, without
any foundation, that a life of Mr. Howard might
be expected to appear under the sanction and au-
thority of his family. It is proper for me to avow,
that this is not that work. The undertaking is
perfectly spontaneous on my part, without encou-
ragement from his relations or representatives.
Mr. Howard was a man with whom every one
capable of feeling the excellence and dignity of
his character, might claim kindred; and they
were the nearest to him whom he made the con-
fidents and depositaries of his designs. 



A VIEW
OF THE
LIFE, TRAVELS, AND PHILANTHROPIC
LABORS
OF THE LATE
John Howard, Esq. L.L.D.F.R.S.
JOHN HOWARD was born, according
to the best information I am able to obtain,
about the year 1727.  His father was an up-
holsterer and carpet-warehouse man in Long-
lane, Smithfield, who, having acquired a hand-
some fortune retired from business, and had a
house first at Enfield, and afterwards at Hack-
ney. It was, I believe, at the former of these
places that Mr. Howard was born.
As Mr. Howard's father was a strict Protest-
ant dissenter, it was natural for him to educate
his son under a preceptor of the same princi- 

(10)
ples. But his choice for this purpose was the
source of a lasting misfortune, which, as it has
been too frequent an occurrence, deserves particu-
lar notice. There was at that time a schoolmaster
at some distance from London, who, in conse-
quence of his moral and religious character, had
been intrusted with the education of the chil-
dren of most of the opulent dissenters in the me-
tropolis, though extremely deficient in the qua-
lifications requisite for such an office*. That
persons whose own education and habits of life
have rendered them very inadequate judges of
the talents necessary for an instructor of youth,
should easily fall into this error, is not to be won-
dered at; but the evil is a real one, though its
cause be excuseable: and, as small communities
with strong party attachments are peculiarly lia-
ble to this misplaced confidence, it is right that
they should in a particular manner be put on their 
*I find it asserted in some memoirs of Mr. How-
ard in the Universal Magazine, that this person (whose
name is there mentioned) was a man of considerable
learning, and author of a translation of the New
Testament and of a Latin grammar. Without en-
quiring how far this may set aside the charge of his
being deficient as an instructor, I think it proper to
say, that my only foundation for that charge is Mr.
Howard's own authority. 

(11)
guard against it. They who know the dissen-
ters, will acknowledge, that none appear more
sensible of the importance of a good education,
or less sparing in their endeavours to procure it
for their children; nor, upon the whole, can it
be said that, they are unsuccessful in their at-
tempts. Indeed, the very confined system of in-
struction adopted in the public schools of this
kingdom, renders it no difficult task to vie with
them in the attainment of objects of real utility.
But if it be made a leading purpose to train up
youth in a certain set of opinions, and for this
end it be thought essential that the master should
be exclusively chosen from among those who are
the most closely attached to them, it is obvious
that a small community must lie under great
comparative disadvantages.
The event with respect to Mr. Howard, was,
(as he assured me, with greater indignation than
I have heard him express upon many subjects),
that, after a continuance of seven years at this
school, he left it, not fully taught any one thing.
The loss of this period was irreparable; he felt
it all his life after, and it was but too obvious to
those who conversed with him. From this
school he was removed to Mr. Eames' acade-
my, but his continuance there must, I con- 

(12)
ceive, have been of short duration; and, whate-
ver might be his acquisitions in that place,
he certainly did not supply the deficiencies of
his earlier education. As some of the accounts
published concerning him, might inculcate the
idea that he had attained considerable proficien-
cy in letters, I feel myself obliged, from my own
knowledge, to assert, that he was never able to
speak or write his native language with gram-
matical correctness, and that his acquaintance
with other languages (the French, perhaps, ex-
cepted) was slight and superficial. In estimating
the powers of his mind, it rather adds to the ac-
count, that he had this additional difficulty to
combat in his pursuit of the great objects of his
later years.
Mr. Howard's father died when he was
young, and bequeathed to him and a daughter,
his only children, considerable fortunes. He di-
rected in his will, that his son should not come
to the possession of his property till his twenty-
fifth year.
It was, probably, in consequence of the father's
direction that he was bound apprentice to a
wholesale grocer in the city. This will appear
a singular step in the education of a young man 

(13)
of fortune; but, at that period, inuring youth
to habits of method and industry, and giving
them a prudent regard to money, with a know-
ledge of the modes of employing it to advan-
tage, were by many considered as the most im-
portant points in every condition of life. Mr.
Howard was probably indebted to this part of
his education for some of that spirit of order,
and knowledge of common affairs, which he
possessed; but he did not in this situation con-
tract any of that love of aggrandisement which
is the basis of all commercial exertions; and so
irksome was the employment to him, that, on
coming of age, he bought out the remainder of
his time, and immediately set out on his travels
to France and Italy.
On his return he mixed with the world, and
lived in the style of other young men of leisure
and fortune. He had acquired that taste for
the arts which the view of the most perfect ex-
amples of them is fitted to create; and, not-
withstanding, the defects of his education, he
was not without an attachment to reading and
the study of nature. The delicacy of his con-
stitution, however, induced him to take lodg-
ings in the country, where for some time his
B

(14)
health was the principal object of his attention.
As he was supposed to be of a consumptive ha-
bit, he was put upon a rigorous regimen of
diet, which laid the foundation of that extraor-
dinary abstemiousness and indifference to the
gratifications of the palate which ever after so
much distinguished him. It is probable that,
from his first appearance in a state of indepen-
dence, his way of thinking and acting was
marked by a certain Singularity. Of this, one
of the most remarkable consequences was his
first marriage about his twenty-fifth year. As
a return of gratitude to Mrs. Sarah Lardeau
(or Loidore), widow, with whom he lodged at
Stoke Newington, for her kind attention to
him during his invalid state, he proposed mar-
riage to her, though she was twice his age, and
extremely sickly; and, notwithstanding her re-
monstrances on the impropriety of such an uni-
on, he persisted in his design, and it took place.
She is represented as a sensible, worthy wo-
man; and on her death, three years afterwards
(during which interval he continued at New-
ington), Mr. Howard was sincerely affected
with his loss; nor did he ever fail to mention
her with respect, after his sentiments of things
may have been supposed, from greater com-
merce with the world, to have undergone a
change. 

(15)
His liberality with respect to pecuniary con-
cerns was early displayed; and at no time of
his life does he seem to have considered money
in any other light than as an instrument of pro-
curing happiness to himself and others. The
little fortune that his wife possessed he gave to
her sister; and during his residence at New-
ington he bestowed much in charity, and made
a handsome donation to the dissenting congre-
gation there, for the purpose of providing a
dwelling-house for the minister.
His attachment to religion was a principle
imbibed from his earliest years, which continu-
ed steady and uniform through life. The body
of Christians to whom he particularly united
himself were the Independents, and his system
of belief was that of the moderate Calvinists.
But though he seems early to have made up his
mind as to the doctrines he thought best found-
ed, and the mode of worship he most approved, 
yet religion  abstractedly considered, as the re-
lation between man and his Maker, and the
grand support of morality, appears to have been
the principal object of his regard. He was less
solicitous about modes and opinions, than the
internal spirit of piety and devotion: and in
his estimate of different religions societies, the

(16)
circumstances to which he principally attended,
were their zeal and sincerity. As it is the na-
ture of sects in general, to exhibit more ear-
nestness in doctrine, and strictness in discipline,
than the establishment from which they dissent,
it is not to be wondered at that a person of Mr.
Howard's, disposition should regard the various
denominations of sectaries with predilection,
and attach himself to their most distinguished
members. In London he seems chiefly to have
joined the Baptist congregation in Wild-Street,
long under the ministry of the much-respected
Dr. Stennett. His connexions were, I be-
lieve, least with that class called the Rational
Dissenters; yet he probably had not a more
intimate friend in the world than Dr. Price,
who always ranked among them. It was his
constant practice to join in the service of the
establishment when he had not the opportuni-
ty of attending a place of dissenting worship;
and though he was warmly attached to the in-
terests of the party he espoused, yet he had that
true spirit of catholicism, which led him to ho-
nour virtue and religion wherever he found
them, and to regard the means only as they
were subservient to the end.
He was created a Fellow of the Royal Socie-
ty on May 13, 1756. This honour was not, 

(17)
I presume, conferred upon him in consequence
of any extraordinary proficiency in science
which he had manifested; but rather in con-
formity to the laudable practice of that society,
of attaching gentlemen of fortune and leisure to
the interests of knowledge, by incorporating
them into their body. Mr. Howard was not
unmindful of the obligation he lay under to
contribute something to the common stock of
information. Three short papers of his are pu-
blished in the Transactions. These are,
In Vol. LIV. On the Degree of Cold ob-
served at Cardington in the Winter of 1763,
when Bird's Thermometer was as low as 10 1/2.
In Vol. LVII. On the Heat of the Waters
at Bath, containing a Table of the Heat of the
Waters of the different Baths.
In Vol. LXI. On the Heat of the Ground
on Mount Vesuvius.
This list may serve to give an idea of the
kind and degree of his philosophical research.
Meteorological observations were much to his
taste; and even in his later tours, when he was
occupied by very different objects, he never
B2

(18 )
travelled without some instruments for that
purpose. I have heard him likewise mention
some experiments on the effects of the union of
the primary colours in different proportions, in
which he employed himself with some assidui-
ty.
After the death of his wife, in the year 1756,
he let out upon another tour, intending to com-
mence it with a visit to the ruins of Lisbon.
The event of this design will be hereafter men-
tioned. He remained abroad a few months;
and, on his return, began to alter the house on
his estate at Cardington near Bedford, where
he settled. In 1758 he made a very suitable
alliance with Miss Henrietta Leeds, eldest
daughter of Edward Leeds, Esq. of Croxton,
Cambridgeshire, king's serjeant; and Sister of
the present Edward Leeds, Esq. a Master in
Chancery, and of Joseph Leeds, Esq. of Croy-
don. With this lady, who possessed in an emi-
nent degree all the mild and amiable virtues
proper to her sex, he passed, as I have often
heard him declare, the only years of true en-
joyment which he had known in life. Soon af-
ter his marriage he purchased Watcombe, in
the New Forest, Hampshire, and removed thi-

(19)
ther. Concerning his way of life in this plea-
sant retreat, I find nothing characteristic to re-
late, except the state of perfect security and
harmony in which he managed to live in the
midst of a people, against whom his predecessor
thought it necessary to employ all the contri-
vances of engines and guns in order to preserve
himself from their hostilities. He had, indeed,
none of those propensities which so frequently
embroil country gentlemen with their neigh-
bours, both small and great. He was no
sportsman, no executor of the game laws, and
in no respect an encroacher on the rights and
advantages of others. In possessing him, the
poor could not fail soon to find that they had
acquired a protector and benefactor; and I am
unwilling to believe that in any part of the
world these relations are not returned with
gratitude and attachment. After continuing
at Watcombe three or four years, he sold the
place, and went back to Cardington, which
thenceforth became his fixed residence.
Here he steadily pursued those plans, both
with respect to the regulation of his personal
and family concerns and to the promotion of the
good of those around him, which principle and
inclination led him to approve. Though without 

(20)
the ambition of making a splendid appearance,
he had a taste for elegant neatness in his habi-
tation and furniture. His sobriety of manners
and peculiarities of living did not fit him for
much promiscuous society; yet no man received
his select friends with more true hospitality;
and he always maintained an intercourse with
Several of the first persons in his county, who
knew and reflected his worth. Indeed, however
uncomplying he might be with the freedoms
and irregularities of polite life, he was by no
means negligent of its received forms; and,
though he might be denominated a man of
scruples and singularities, no one would dispute
his claim to the title of a gentleman.
But the terms on which he held society with
persons of his own condition, are of much less
importance in the view I mean to take of his
character, than the methods by which he ren-
dered himself a blessing to the indigent and
friendless in a small circle, before he extended
his benevolence to so wide a compass. It seems
to have been the capital object of his ambition,
that the poor in his village should be the most
orderly in their manners, the neatest in their
persons and habitation, and possessed of the, 

(21)
greatest share of the comforts of life, that could
be met with in any part of England. And as
it was his disposition to carry every thing he
undertook to the greatest pitch of perfection,
so he spared no pains or expence to effect this
purpose. He began by building a number of
neat cottages on his estate, annexing to each a
little land for a garden, and other convenien-
ces. In this project, which might be consi-
dered as an object of taste as well as of benevo-
lence, he had the full concurrence of his ex-
cellent partner. I remember his relating,
that once, having settled his accounts at the
close of a year, and found a balance in his fa-
vor, he proposed to his wife to make use of it
in a journey to London, or any other grati-
fication she chose. "What a pretty cottage
it would build," was her answer; and the mo-
ney was so employed. These comfortable ha-
bitations he peopled with the most industrious
and sober tenants he could find; and over them
he exercised the superintendence of master and
father combined. He was careful to furnish
them with employment, to assist them in sick-
ness and distress, and to educate their children.
In order to preserve their morals, he made it
a condition that they should regularly attend
their several places of worship, and abstain 

(22)
from public houses, and from such amusements
as he thought pernicious; and he secured their
compliance with his rules by making them te-
nants at will.
I shall here beg leave to digress a little, in
order to make some general observations on
the different methods that may be proposed for
bettering the condition of the lowest and most
numerous class among us. In the state in which
they too frequently appear, depressed to the
extremest point of indigence, unable by their
utmost exertions to obtain more than the bare
necessaries of existence, debased by the total
want of instruction, and partaking of nothing
that can dignify the human character, it is no
wonder that a benevolent person of the higher
ranks in society should consider them as crea-
tures of an inferior species, only to be benefit-
ed by the constant exercise of his authority
and superintendence. And I believe the fact
to be, that, from the operation of our poor
laws, and other circumstances, the poor in this
country are more thoughtless, improvident,
and helpless, than those of almost any other na
tion. Humanity will, therefore, in such a state
of things, think it necessary to assume the entire

(23)
management of those who can neither think
nor act for their own good; and will direct and
over-rule all their concerns, just as it would
those of children and idiots. In short, it will
aim at such a kind of influence, as the Jesuits
of Paraguay established, (perhaps with the
same benevolent views) over the simple na-
tives.
But is this state of pupilage to be perpetual?
and, in a land of liberty and equal laws, is the
great body of people always to exist in a con-
dition of actual subjection to and dependence on
the few? Are they never to be intrusted with
their own happiness but always to look up for
support and direction to those who in reality
are less independent than themselves? This
is an idea which a liberal mind will be unwill-
ing to admit; and it will anxiously look for-
ward to a period, in which meanness of condi-
tion shall not necessarily imply debasement of
nature; but those of EVERY rank in society,
feeling powers within themselves to secure
their essential comforts, shall rely upon their
own exertions, and be guided by the dictates of
their own reason. That this is not an imagin-
ary state of things the general condition of the

(24)
lowest classes in some countries, and even in
some parts of England where the working poor,
at the same time that their earnings enable
them to procure the comforts of life, are inur-
ed to habits of sobriety and frugality, is a suf-
ficient proof.
There are few counties in England which
afford less employment to a numerous poor than
that of Bedford; of course, wages are low,
and much distress would prevail, were it not
for the humanity of the gentlemen who reside
upon their estates. Among these Mr. Howard
distinguished himself by a peculiar attention to
the comfort and improvement of his depend-
ents; and he was accordingly held by them in
the highest respect and veneration. I may
add, that he possessed their love; which is
not always the case with those who render es-
sential services to the people of that class. But
he treated them with kindness, as well as be-
neficence; and he particularly avoided every
thing stern or imperious in his manner towards
them. Whatever there might appear of strict-
ness in the discipline he enforced, it had only
in view their best interests; and if under his
protection they could pass a tranquil old age
in their own comfortable cottages, rather than

(25)
end their lives in a work-house, the suberdina-
tion to which they submitted was amply com-
pensated. It is certain that the melioration of
manners and principles  which he promoted,
was the most effectual means of eventually ren-
dering them more independent; and I have
reason to know, that, latterly at least, he was
as well affected to the rights, as he was solici-
tous to augment the comforts of the poor.
His charities were not confined to those more
immediately connected with his property;
they took in the whole circle or neighbour-
hood. His bounty was particularly directed to
that fundamental point in improving the con-
dition of the poor, giving them a sober and
useful education. From early life he attend-
ed to this object; and he established schools for
both sexes, conducted upon the most judicious
plan. The girls were taught reading, and
needle-work in a plain way: the boys reading,
and some of them writing, and the rudiments
of arithmetic. They were regularly to attend
public worship in the way their parents approv-
ed. The number brought up in these schools
was fluctuating, but the institutions were unin-
terrupted. In every other way in which a
man thoroughly disposed to do good with the
means Providence has bestowed upon him, can
C

(26)
exercise his liberality, Mr. Howard stood
among the foremost. He was not only a sub-
scriber to various public schemes of benevo-
lence, but his private charities were largely
diffused, and remarkably well directed. It
was, indeed, only to his particular confidonts
and coadjutors that many of these were ever
known; but they render him the most ample
testimony in this respect. His very intimate
and confidential friend, the Rev. Mr. Tho-
mas Smith of Bedford, gives me the following
account of this part of his conduct, at a time
when he was deeply engaged in those public
exertions which might be supposed to interfere
with his private and local benefactions. " He
still continued to devise liberal things for his
poor neighbours and tenants; and, consider-
ing how much his heart and time were engag-
ed in his great, and comprehensive plans, it
was surprising with what minuteness he would
send home his directions about his private do-
nations. His schools were continued to the
last." It is impossible any stronger proof can
be given, that the habit of doing good was
wrought into his very nature, than that, while
his public actions placed him without a rival
for deeds of philanthropy, he should still be un-
able to satisfy his benevolent desires without

(27)
his accustomed benefits to his neighbours and
dependents.
Another early feature of that character
which Mr. Howard afterwards so conspicu-
ously displayed, was a determined resistance of
injustice and oppression. No one could be
more firmly relied on as the protector of right
and innocence against unfeeling and unprinci-
pled power. His indignation was roused by
any attempts to encroach or domineer; and his
spirit led him, without hesitation, to express,
both in words and actions, his sense of such
conduct. As no man could be more perfectly
independent, both in mind and situation, than
himself, he made that use of his advantage which
every independent man ought to do ;-- he act-
ed as principle directed him, regardless whom
he might displease by it; he strongly marked
his different sensations with respect to different
characters; and he was not less strenuous in
opposing pernicious schemes, than in promot-
ing beneficial ones.
The love of order and regularity likewise
marked the early as well as the later periods
of his life; it directed his own domestic con-
cerns equally with his plans for the benefit of

(28)
others. His disposition of time was exact and
methodical. He accurately knew the state of
all his affairs; and the hand of economy re-
gulated what the heart of generosity dispens-
ed. His taste in dress, furniture, and every
thing exterior, was turned to simplicity and
neatness; and this conformity of disposition
rendered him an admirer of the sect of Qua-
kers, with many individuals of which he main-
tained an intimate connection.
In common with many other benevolent and
virtuous characters, he had a fondness for gar-
dening, and the cultivation of plants both use-
ful and ornamental. Indeed, as his own diet
was almost entirely of the vegetable kind, he
had various inducements to attend to this pleas-
ing occupation. That most valuable root, the
potatoe, was a great favourite with him; and
a remarkably productive species of it, which he
recommended to public notice, was distinguish-
ed by his name. His garden was an object of
curiosity, both for the elegant manner in
which it was laid out, and for the excellence of
its productions; and in his various travels he
frequently brought home, and distributed
among his friends, the seeds of curious kinds of
cultivated vegetables.

(29)
In this manner Mr. Howard passed the tran-
quil years of his settled residence at Carding- 
ton; happy in himself, and the instrument of
good to all around him. But this state was
not long to continue. His domestic felicity re-
ceived a fatal wound from the death of his be-
loved wife, in the year 1765, soon after deli-
very of her only child. It is unnecessary to
say how a heart like his must have felt on such
an event. They who have been witnesses of
the sensibility with which, many years after-
wards, he recollected it, and know how he
honored and cherished her memory, will con-
ceive his sensations at that trying period. He
was thenceforth attached to his home only by
the duties annexed to it; of which the most in-
teresting was the education of his infant son.
This was an office which almost immediately
commenced; for according to his ideas, educati-
on had place from the very first dawn of the
mental faculties. The very unfortunate issue
of his cares, with respect to his son, has caused
a charge to be brought against him very deeply
affecting his paternal character. That this
charge was in its main circumstance false and
calumnious, has, I trust, been proved, to the
satisfaction of the public, by appeals to facts
which have remained uncontroverted. I shall
C2

(30)
not, therefore, go over again the ground of,
this controversy; but shall rather follow the
proper line of this work, by briefly displaying
Mr. Howard's ideas on education, and his man-
ner of executing them.
Regarding children as creatures possessed of
strong passions and desires, without reason and
experience to controul them, he thought that
nature seemed, as it were, to mark them out
as the subjects of absolute authority; and that
the first and fundamental principle to be incul-
cated upon them, was implicit and unlimited
obedience. This cannot be effected by any
process of reasoning, before reason has its
commencement; and therefore must be the
result of coercion. Now, as no man ever more
effectually combined the leniter in modo. with the
fortiter in re, the coercion he practised was calm;
and gentle, but at the same time steady and
resolute. I shall give an instance of it which I
had from himself. His child one day, wanting
something which he was not to have, fell into,
a fit of crying, which the nurse could not pa-
cify. Mr. Howard took him from her, and
said him quietly in his lap, till, fatigued with
crying, he became still. This process, a few
times repeated, had such an effect, that the

(31)
child, if crying ever so violently, was rendered
quiet the instant his father took him. In a si-
milar manner, without harsh words and threats,
still less blows, he gained every other point
which he thought necessary to gain, and
brought the child to such a habit of obedience,
that I have heard him say, he believed his son
would have put his finger into the fire if he
had commanded him. Certain it is, that many
fathers could not, if they approved it, execute
a plan of this kind; but Mr. Howard in this
case only pursued the general method which he
took to effect any thing which a thorough con-
viction of its propriety induced him to under-
take. It is absurd, therefore, to represent him
as wanting that milk of human kindness for his
only son, with which he abounded for the rest
of his fellow-creatures; for he aimed at what
he thought the good of both, by the very same
means; and, if he carried the point further
with respect to his son, it was only because he
was more interested in his welfare. But this
course of discipline, whatever be thought of it,
could not have been long practised, since the
child was early sent to school, and the father
lived very little at home afterwards. As to
its effect on the youth's mind (if that, and not
intention, be the circumstance on which Mr-

(32)
Howard's vindication is to depend), I consider
it as a manifest impossibility, that controuling
the child, should have been the cause of the
young man's insanity. If any such remote
cause could be supposed capable of producing
such an effect, the opposite extreme of indul-
gence would have been a much more likely one.
But I think it highly probable, that a father,
whose presence was associated with the per-
ception of restraint and refusal, should always
have inspired more awe than affection; and
should never have created that filial confidence,
which is both the most pleasing and most salu-
tary of the sentiments attending that relation.
And this has been the great evil of that rigor-
ous mode of education, once so general, and
still frequent, among persons of a particular
persuasion. I have authority to say, that Mr.
Howard was at length sensible that he had in
some measure mistaken the mode of forming his
son to that character he wished him to acquire;
though, with respect to his mental derange-
ment, I know that he imputed no blame to
himself on that head. With what parental
sorrow he was affected by that event will ap-
pear in the progress of the narration.

(33)
Having now given such a view of the temper
and manners of this excellent person, in his pri-
vate situation, as may serve to introduce him
to the reader's acquaintance at the time of his
assuming a public character, I shall, without
further delay, proceed to trace him through
those years of his life, the employment of which,
alone has rendered him an object of the curiosi-
ty and admiration of his countrymen.
In the year 1773, Mr. Howard was nominat-
ed High-Sheriff of the county of Bedford. An,
obstacle, however, lay in the way of his accept-
ing that office, concerning which I shall take
the liberty of making a few remarks.
When a principled Dissenter, whose condi-
tion in life permits him to aspire to the honor
of serving his country in some post of magistra-
cy, reflects on his situation, he finds that he must
make his election of one of the three following
determinations. He must either comply with a
religious rite of another church, merely on ac-
count of its being made the condition of receiv-
ing the office; or take upon himself the office
without such compliance, under all the hazard
that attends it; or he must quietly sit down un-
der that vacation from public charges which

(34)
the state, in its wisdom, has imposed upon him,
satisfied with promoting the welfare of individu-
als by modes not interdicted to him. It would
be great presumption in me to decide which of
these determinations is most conformable to du-
ty. In fact, there is only a choice of difficul-
ties, and the decision between them must be left
to every man's own feelings, which, if his in-
tentions be good and honest, will scarcely lead
him wrong. But it was perfectly suitable to
Mr. Howard's character to make option of the
office with the hazard: for as, on the one
hand, no consideration on earth could have in-
duced him to violate his religious principles;
so, on the other, his active disposition, and
zeal for the public good, strongly impelled him
to assume a station, in which those qualities
might have free scope for exertion; and as to
personal hazard, that was never an obstacle in
his way. There may be casuists who will con-
demn this choice, and regard it as a serious of-
fence against the laws of his country, to have
taken upon him an office without complying
with its preliminary conditions. But, I con-
ceive, the sincere philanthropist will rather
make different reflection, and feel a shock in
thinking, that, had Mr. Howard been influen-
ced by those apprehensions which would have

(35)
operated upon most men, he would have been
excluded from that situation, which gave occa-
sion to all those services which he rendered to
humanity in his own country, and throughout
Europe*.
He entered upon his office with the resolu-
tion of performing all its duties with that punc-
tuality which marked his conduct in every
thing he undertook. Of these, one of the most
important, though least agreeable, is the in-
spection of the prisons within its jurisdiction.
But this, to him, was not only an act of duty,
it interested him as a material concern of huma-
nity.
* The penalties to which Mr. Howard, in this in-
stance, exposed himself, are declared in the following
clause of the Test Act, which cannot too often be placed
before the eyes of Britons. ” Every person that shall
" neglect or refuse to take the sacrament as aforesaid,
" and yet, after such neglect or refusal, shall execute
" any of the said offices or employments, and being
" the eupon lawfully convicted, shall be disabled to
" sue, or use any action, bill, plaint or information,
" in course of law, or to prosecute any suit in any
" court of equity, or to be guardian of any child,
" or executor or administrator of any person, or

(36)
The attention of Mr. Howard to persons
“ sick and in prison," is by himself dated as far,
back as the year 1756, when he was induced by
a singular, but what I should call a sublime, cu-
riosity to visit Lisbon, then lying in the recent
ruins of its terrible earthquake. The packet
" capable of any legacy or deed of gift, or to bear
“ any office; and shall forfeit the sum of five hun-
“ dred pounds, to be recovered by him or them
“ that shall sue for the same. In the debate on the
repeal of this act, the mover, with much eloquence, in-
troduced the very case of Mr. Howard, and seemed con-
siderably to impress his audience by the supposition of
such a man suffering its penalties, in consequence of
an information which any villain might lay against
him. In reply it was said, that, whatever were a
man's intentions, if he voluntarily contravened a known
law of his country, it ought not to be reckoned a hard-
ship that he incurred the penalties by which it was
sanctioned. And this reasoning is undoubtedly just, as
it respects the interest of an individual put in competi-
tion with the security of a law. But surely it is a
proper consideration for the legislature, whether a
law be grounded on those principles of equity and gene-
ral utility which can justify the imposition of such
dreadful penalties for the breach of it, especially when
experience has shewn, that the most conscientious and
well-intentioned persons are most liable to incur them.

(37)
in which he sailed being taken by a French
privateer, he, with the rest of the crew, was
first exposed to all the barbarities exercised by
those licensed pirates, who possess the right of
the sword, not molified by the feelings of gen-
tlemen; and, on his arrival in France, he for
a time endured some of the hardships of a pri-
soner of war, and became acquainted with all
the sufferings of his countrymen in the same
situation. These, on his return to England,
he took care to make known to the Commission-
ers of sick and Wounded Seamen, who gave
him their thanks for his information, and ex-
erted themselves to obtain redress. It was im-
possible that so feeling a lesson of the calamities
inflicted upon the unprotected classes of man-
kind, by fellow-creatures " dressed in a little
brief authority,"should fail to make a durable
impression on such a mind as Mr. Howard's.
It was not, however, till the period of his
serving the office of sheriff, that the distresses of
those confined in the civil prisons of his own
country engaged his particular notice. In the
introduction to his State of the Prisons, he has
with the most unassuming simplicity, related
the gradual progress of his enquiries; and in
D

(38)
what manner he was led, from an examination
of the gaols in his own small county, to an inve-
stigation of all the circumstances belonging to
this branch of police throughout the kingdom.
The first thing which struck him, was the
enormous injustice of remanding to prison for
the payment of FEES, those who had been ac-
quitted or discharged without trial. As the
magistrates of his county, though willing to re-
dress this grievance, did not conceive them-
selves possessed of the power of granting a re-
medy, Mr. Howard travelled into some of the
neighbouring counties in search of a precedent.
In this search, scenes of calamity and injustice
still opening upon him, he went on, and paid
visits to most of the county gaols in England.
Some peculiarly deplorable objects coming in
his view, who had been brought from the
Bridewells, he was induced to enter upon an
examination of these places of confinement;
for which purpose he travelled again into the
counties he had before seen, and into all the,
rest, visiting Houses of Correction, City and
Town Gaols.
He had carried on these inquiries with so
much assiduity, that so early as March 1774,

(39)
he was desired to communicate his information
to the House of Commons, and received their
thanks. As he was then little known, I can-
not much wonder that so extraordinary an in-
stance of pure and active benevolence was not
universally comprehended even by that patri-
otic body; for a member thought fit to ask him
“ at whose expence he travelled?" a question
which Mr. Howard could scarcely answer
without some indignant emotions. Soon after
this public testimony given to the existence of
great abuses and defects in our prisons, a very
worthy member, Mr. Popham, brought into
the House two bills, one "for the relief of ac-
quitted prisoners in matter of fees" --the other
" for preserving the health of prisoners."--
These salutary acts passed during the same ses-
sion, and made a commencement of those re-
forms which have since been so much extend-
ed. Mr. Howard, aware of the great defici-
ency of the mode of promulgating laws among
us, had these acts printed in a different cha-
racter, and sent to every keeper of a county-
gaol in England.
In this year he was induced, by the urgent
persuasions of his neighbours and friends of the
town of Bedford, to stand candidate, in con- 

(40)
junction with Mr. Whitbread, to represent
that borough in parliament. No two persons
could be better entitled to the esteem of a
town; and they were very warmly supported
in a contest, which however terminated in the
return of two other gentlemen. Mr. Whit-
bread and Mr. Howard petitioned the House
against the return; and the event was, that
the former, and one of the fitting members,
were declared duly elected. To those who are
acquainted with the constitution of that bo-
rough, it will not appear extraordinary, that
a person possessing the attachment of a majority
of the inhabitant voters should lose his election.
This, however, was a most fortunate circum-
stance for the public; since, if Mr. Howard
had obtained a seat in the House of Commons,
his plans for the reformation of prisons, must
have been brought within a narrow compass;
and the collateral inquiries which, so greatly
to the advantage of humanity, he afterwards
adopted, could never have existed.
It was Mr. Howard's intention to have pub-
lished his account of English Prisons in  spring
1775; but as he was sensible, that to point out
defects, without at the same time suggesting
remedies, would be of little advantage, he

(41)
thought it best to examine with his own eyes,
what had been actuary put in practice with re-
spect to this part of police, in some of the most
enlightened countries on the continent. Ac-
cordingly, in that year he visited France, Flan-
ders, Holland, and Germany; and in 1776 re-
peated his visit to those countries, and also
went to Switzerland. In the intervals he
made a journey to Scotland and Ireland, and
revisited the county-gaols and many others in
England.
Thus furnished with a stock of information
greater than had ever before been collected on
this subject; and, indeed, probably greater
than any man had, in the same space of time,
ever collected on any Subject that required si-
milar pains; he offered it to the public in 1777
in a quarto volume of near 500 pages, dedicat-
ed to the House of Commons, by way of grate-
ful acknowledgment for the honor conferred
on him by their thanks, and for the attention
they had bestowed on the business. Before I
proceed to give an account of this work, I shall
just observe, that so zealous was Mr. Howard
to diffuse information, and so determined to
obviate any idea that he meant to repay his.
expences by the profitable trade of Book-
D2

(42)
making, that, besides a profuse munificence in
presenting copies to all the principal persons
in the kingdom, and all his particular friends,
he insisted on fixing the price of the volume so
low, that, had every copy been fold, he would
still have presented the public with all the
plates, and great part of the printing. And
this practice he followed in all his subsequent
publications; so that, with literal propriety,
he may be said to have given them to the
world. By the large expences of his journey,
charities and publications, he has made himself
even a greater pecuniary benefactor to mankind
than can readily be paralleled in any age or
country, his proportioned circumstances consi-
dered. Yet how small a part was this of the
sacrifices he made!
He chose the press of Mr. Eyres at War-
rington, induced by various elegant specimens
which had issued from it and by the opportu.
nity a country press afforded, of having, the
work done under his own inspection, at his
own time, and with all the minute accuracy
of correction he determined to bellow on  it.
I may also say, that an opinion of the advan-
tage he might there enjoy of some literary
assistance in the revision and improvement of

(43)
his papers, was a farther motive. To this
choice I was indebted for that intimate per-
sonal acquaintance with him, which I shall
ever esteem one of the most honourable cir-
cumstances of my life, and the lively recol-
lection of which will, I trust, never quit me
while memory remains. He resided in War-
rington during the whole time of printing,
and his attention to business was most indefati-
gable. During a very severe winter he
made it his practice to rise at three or four in
the morning, for the purpose of collating
every word and figure of his daily proof sheet
with the original.
As I thought it right to mention Mr. How-
ards literary deficiencies, it is become ne-
cessary to inform the public of the manner in
which his works were composed. On his re-
turn from his tours he took all his memoran-
dum-books to an old retired friend of his,
who assisted him in methodizing them, and co-
pied cut the whole matter in correct language.
They were then put into the hands of Dr.
Price, from whom they underwent a revisi-
on and received occasionally considerable
alterations. What Mr. Howard himself
thought of the advantages they derived from

(44)
his assistance, will appear from the following
passages in letters to Dr. Price. " I am
“ ashamed to think how much I have accumu-
“ lated your labors, yet I glory in that assist-
" ance to which I owe so much credit in the
" world, and, under Providence, success in
" my endeavours." -- " It is from your
" kind aid and assistance, my dear friend,
" that I derive so much of my character and
" influence. I exult in declaring it, and
" shall carry a grateful sense of it to the last
" hour of my existence." -- With his papers
thus corrected, Mr. Howard came to the press
at Warrington; and first he read them all over
carefully with me, which perusal was repeated,
sheet by sheet, as they were printed. As new
facts and observations were continually suggest-
ing themselves to his mind, he put the matter of
them upon paper as they occurred, and then
requested me to clothe them in such expressi-
ons as I thought proper. On these occasions,
such was his diffidence, that I found it diffi-
cult to make him acquiesce in his own lan-
guage when, as frequently happened, it was
unexceptionable. Of this additional matter,
some was interwoven with the text, but the
greater part was necessarily thrown into notes,
which in force of his volumes, are numo-
rous.

(45)
The title of this first work is, The State of
the Prisons in England and Wales; with preli-
minary Observations, and an Account of some
Foreign Prisons. It begins with a general
View of Distress in Prisons, shewing in what
respects those of England are deficient in the
articles of food, water, bedding, and fresh air;
and that the morals of the prisoners are to-
tally neglected, the most criminal and aban-
doned being suffered to corrupt the younger
and less practiced. Notice is also taken of
the gaol-fever, a disease which has in a pecu-
liar manner infested the prisons of this coun-
try, and has at various times spread its rava-
ges from them among our courts of judica-
ture, our fleets, and armies. The author's
next section is on Bad Customs in Prisons, un-
der which he takes notice of the demand of
garnish, the permission of gaming, the use of
iron, the practice of varying the towns where
the assizes are held, the local unfrequency of
gaol-delivery, the fees still demanded by clerks
of assize and of the peace, the non-residency
of gaolers, the crowding of gaols with the
wives and children of prisoners, and the cir-
cumstance of some gaols being private proper-
ty. From this, and the foregoing sect on,
every one must be convinced of the dreadful

(46)
state of our police in this important matter,
and the absolute necessity for a reformation.
For proof that the complaints here made in
general terms are not unfounded or exagge-
rated, he properly refers to the subsequent
account of particular gaols, where they are
too abundantly verified. He concludes the
second section with an enumeration of all the
prisoners in England and Wales, under their
several classes, who, in 1776, amounted to
4084, a number much less than some vague
conjectures had stated, yet sufficiently great to
demand the serious attention of the legisla-
ture, especially when it is considered that
every man in prison maybe reckoned to have
two dependents on him for support.
Mr. Howard's third section offers propos-
ed Improvements in the Structure and Ma-
nagement of Prisons. He begins with ob-
servations on the prison itself, with respect to
its situation and plan, the latter of which is
illustrated by an engraving. He then pro-
ceeds to that most essential topic, the regulati-
ons. These he considers under the several
heads of gaoler, chaplain, surgeon, fees,
cleanliness, food, bedding, rules and orders,
and inspector.  He much insists upon the ne-

(47)
cessity of absolutely taking away the tap from
the keepers of prisons, the possession of which
was obviously the cause of promoting intem-
perance and riot, from the interest it gave
the keeper in such irregularities. In lieu of
this source of profit, he proposes a liberal ad-
dition to the salaries of this officer, the im-
portance and respectability of whose employ
he every where inculcates. He makes a se-
parate article of Bridewells, the original pe-
nitentiary-houses of the country, and plan-
ned with much wisdom, but which, by long
neglect and abuse, were become rather a nui-
sance than an advantage to the police. In
many of them, though the persons confined
were sentenced to hard labour, no work of any
kind was done; and this state of idleness, with
the company of hardened criminals, proved to
be a most effectual method of completing the
corruption of young and petty offenders. Va-
rious excellent remarks and suggestions are
given in the whole of this section, which con-
tains the ground-work of all improvement
in the economy of prisons and houses of cor-
rection.
In sect. IV. Mr. Howard gives an account
of Foreign Prisons; not of all he had seen,

(48)
but of such only as afforded matter of instruc-
tion; nor in these does he notice the frauds
and defects he observed, for he says, " the
" redress and investigation of foreign abuse
“ was not my object." The countries of
which the prisons are described are France,
Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and Flan-
ders. In the first, the suspicious policy which
then prevailed would have rendered it very
difficult for him to have obtained access to the
interior part of the prisons, had he not avail-
ed himself of a benevolent rule, which per-
mits any person to distribute alms to the pri-
soners with his own hands. A spirit of order
and precision, tempered with humanity, was
observable in the conduct of this department,
the regulations of which were fixed by a very
comprehensive and judicious code contained
in an arret of 1717. In Switzerland, the
separation of male and female prisoners, the
solitary confinement of felons, and the em-
ployment of those called galley-slaves, are
circumstances deserving notice. The Ger-
man prisons are regulated in a similar man-
ner; and the houses of correction at Man-
heim, Hamburgh, and Bremen, afford useful
examples of order and industry. But it is in
Holland that the purpose of reforming crimi-

(49)
nals by a course of discipline is carried into execu-
tion with most care and effect. Few debtors and
few atrocious offenders are to be found there;
and the rasp and spin-houses contain the great bo-
dy of prisoners. The regulations of these are gi-
ven in detail, and the different employments of
the prisoners in different towns are particular-
ly noted. Holland appears to be Mr. How-
ard's great school, to which we shall see that
he was never wearied in returning. The
Austrian Netherlands offer some of the largest
establishments of the penitentiary kind, and
prove the possibility of managing a great num-
ber of criminals so as to make them useful to
the state, and decent in their behaviour, by
the aid of steady discipline and Separate con-
finement at night. Mr. Howard saw, what
I suppose was then deemed an impossibility in
England, in the house of correction at Ghent,
near 190 stout criminals governed with as
much apparent ease as the most sober and
well-disposed assembly in civil society. The
regulations of this prison are deservedly given
at some length. Mr. Howard concludes this
section with a forcible and manly appeal to
his countrymen with respect to the comparison
he was obliged to exhibit between foreign and
English police in this point, so unfavourable to
E

(50)
the latter; calling upon his reader to judge,
from the facts laid before him, " whether a
design of reforming our prisons be merely vi-
sionary; and whether idleness, debauchery,
disease, and famine, be the necessary attend-
ants of a prison, or only connected with it in
our ideas, for want of a more perfect know.
ledge and more enlarged views."
Section V. takes up the greatest part of the
book. It contains a particular account of En-
glish prisons, arranged according to the cir-
cuits, and comprising every county in Eng-
land and Wales. The mode adopted is very
well contrived for the easy consultation of
magistrates and other persons concerned. Eve-
ry principal prison in London, and every
county and city gaol, has the leading facts res-
pecting it disposed in a short table under the
four heads of gaoler, prisoners, chaplain, and
surgeon. A brief description follows of situa-
tion, plan, measurements, &c. with such re-
marks, either of approbation or censure, as
the circumstances suggested. Lists are given
of legacies and benefactions; and all tables of
fees, and rules and orders, are copied verbatim.
Next to these, are concise accounts of all the
county Bridewells, and the town gaols and

(51)
Bridewells, with occasional remarks. The
work is closed by some tables relative to
fees and numbers, crimes and punishments of
criminals. A short conclusion terminates the
whole, in which the author apologizes for the
language of censure he has so often been com-
pelled to use, enumerates the leading objects
requiring reform, and promises, that if such
a thorough parliamentary enquiry into this
great object, as alone can prove effectual to
put it upon a proper footing, should be un-
dertaken, he would devote his time to a more
extensive foreign journey, for the sake of ob-
taining new information to lay before the pub-
lic.
I cannot dismiss the account of Mr. How-
ard's first and great work, without a few re-
flections, to which the contemplation of it
gives rise. And first, we may derive from it
a clear idea of the capital objects which the
author had at heart respecting prisoners.
These were, to alleviate their miseries, and
correct their vices. As to the former purpose,
he considered that men, partaking a common
nature, have certain claims upon their fellow-
creatures which nothing can entirely abro-
gate;--that even the highest degree of crimi-

(52)
nality does not absolutely exclude compassion
towards the perpetrators of crimes, especially
when suffering under their effects;--that as
no man passes through life without some de-
viation from strict rectitude, so none has lived
without the performance of some good actions
--and that, although human laws must draw
a line between such circumstances of conduct
as do, or do not, come within their cognizance,
yet there is a tribunal before which all man-
kind must appear as culprits, only distinguish-
ed by the degree of delinquency. He further
considered, that among the inmates of a pri-
son there is every possible degree of moral de-
merit, from the mere inconsiderate violation
of some hard, ill-understood, local law, to the
deliberate breach of the most sacred and uni-
versal rule of action; and that a great number
are in the eye of the law, innocent persons,
only under a temporary state of confinement,
till their conduct is properly investigated.
From these different views of the subject, he
convinced himself, that it was the duty of
every society to pay due attention to the
health, and, in some degree, even to the com-
forts, of all who are held in a state of confine-
ment;--that wanton and unnecessary rigour
should be practised upon none;--and that some

(53)
were entitled to all the indulgencies compati-
ble with their condition. It was, however, by
no means his wish (as some chose to represent
it) to render a prison so comfortable an abode,
that the lowest order of society might find
their condition even bettered by admission in-
to it. On the contrary, the system of disci-
pline which he desired to establish, was such
as would appear extremely grievous to those
of an idle and licentious disposition. For,
whenever imprisonment was made the punish-
ment of a crime, his idea of reformation be-
came a leading principle in the regulation of
prisons; and it was that which cost him the
chief labour in collecting and applying facts.
To accomplish this end, he shewed that these
things were essential;--strict and constant su-
perintendence--close and regular employment
--religious instruction--rewards for industry
and good behaviour, and penalties for sloth
and audaciousness--distribution into classes and
divisions according to age, sex, delinquency,
&c.--and occasional and nocturnal solitude.
In laying down these regulations, he might be
thought to have given way to a certain auste-
rity, were it not so tempered by attention to
the real demands of human nature, and sanc-
tified by a regard to the best interests of of-
E 2

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fenders themselves, that the friend of man-
kind was ever apparent, even in the strict dis-
ciplinarian. He extremely lamented that the
plan of reformation seemed, of all parts of his
system of improvement, least entered into or
understood in this country. The vulgar idea
that our criminals are hardened and abandon-
ed beyond all possibility of amendment, ap-
peared to him equally irrational and pernicious.
He scorned, through negligence or dispair, to
give up the worst cases of mental corruption;
he fully believed that proper remedies, duly
administered, would recover a large share of
them; and he thought it the greatest of cru-
elties to consign a soul to perdition, without
having made every effort for retrieving it.
Merely to get rid of convicts by execution or
perpetual banishment, he regarded as a piece
of barbarous policy, equally denoting want of
feeling, and deficiency of resource; and he
had not so much English prejudice about him,
as to suppose, that a system not adopted in
this country was therefore absurd or imprac-
ticable.
My second topic of reflection is the striking
proof this work affords of the extensive benefit
arising from a free press. By its means we see

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an individual, enjoying neither royal nor mi-
nisterial patronage, but solely borne up by ar-
dent zeal for the public good, and the resour-
ces of his own mind and fortune, enabled not
only to lay before the world complete inform-
ation concerning a most important and little
known subject, but, in some measure, also to
enforce the correction of abuses, by bringing
before the bar of the public those by whose
negligence or criminality they had been foster-
ed. For as the history of mankind has shewn
on the one hand, that palpable injustice and
mismanagement, even in an absolute govern-
ment, cannot long stand their ground against
the odium of an enlightened public; so, on the
other, it has proved, that even in free consti-
tutions, notwithstanding all their boasted checks
and balances, very gross abuses may long pre-
vail, unless they are placed in open day, and
submitted to the censure of the nation at large.
It is scarcely, I think, to be doubted, that the
freedom we enjoy in this country, and the ul-
timate defeat of every pernicious project, are
less owing to the mechanism of our constituti-
on, than to the habitual practice (rather as-
sumed by the spirit of the people than grant-
ed by the laws) of subjecting every public mea-
sure to popular discussion by means of the press.

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From this ready communication of facts and
opinions, it has happened, that many useful
designs and improvements have among us ori-
ginated from persons who had neither power
nor interest of their own, but whose plans
were adopted in consequence of the public con-
viction. The respect paid to Mr. Howard's
virtues, abilities, and industry, placed him in a
manner at the head of the department in which
he had engaged as a volunteer; and this, not
only in his own country, but afterwards, in
some measure, throughout Europe. Though
in exercising the office of a censor he was supe-
rior to the fear of giving offence, yet he ever
observed the utmost delicacy in marking out
individuals as objects of blame. He boldly and
forcibly displayed the abuse, but left it to those
more immediately concerned, to take notice of
the delinquent. It cannot be questioned, that
numbers looked with an evil eye upon his keen,
researches and free detections; but how could
they venture, before the public, to confront a
man whose assertions were correct, whose in-
tentions were above all suspicion, and whose
life would stand the severest rest? May this
example animate all future friends of mankind
with a noble confidence, becoming their cause?

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The House of Commons now took up, with
laudable zeal, the important business of regula-
ting the prisons; and in the draught of a bill
"to punish by imprisonment and hard labour
certain offenders, and to establish proper places
for their reception," the plan was formed upon
the Rasp and Spin-Houses in Holland. Mr.
Howard was now called upon by his promise,
as well as his inclination, to make a new tour
for the purpose of acquiring fresh and more
exact information. He, accordingly, in April
1778, went over to Holland, and revisited
with the greatest attention the well-conducted
establishments of the penitentiary kind in the
United Provinces. Thence he travelled into
Germany, taking his course through Hanover
and Berlin, to Vienna. From this capital he
proceeded to Italy by Venice; and, having
gone as far south as Naples, returned by the
Western side of that country to Switzerland.
Thence he pursued the course of the Rhine
through Germany; and, crossing the Low
Countries to France, returned to England in
January 1779. During the spring and sum-
mer of this year he made another complete
tour of England and Wales, and likewise
took a journey through Scotland and Ire-
land.

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The labours of these two years were cer-
tainly not less productive of useful information
than his former journeys. In some respects
they were more valuable, since, being now
fully master of his subject, and acquainted with
the means of procuring the best intelligence,
he pursued his inquiries with greater ease and
effect. He was now, too, a distinguished cha-
racter in Europe, and might venture to assume
that kind of authority, to which the collection
of facts, interesting to all civilized nations,
seemed to entitle him. It is here proper to
mention, that although he often found it ne-
cessary, especially when treading new ground,
to avail himself of recommendations to persons
high in rank and office; yet that he much pre-
ferred, when he could practise it, carrying on
his researches as an unknown individual, whose
business was not suspected, and who took such
times and opportunities of making his visits, as
secured him against any thing like disguise or
preparation. And it was his general custom,
after he had once obtained access to a prison
by the presence and interposition of authority,
to stay some time in the place, or revisit it, for
the purpose of renewing his enquiries single
and unexpected. Thus careful was he to guard
against deception; and with such coolness of

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investigation did he execute a design which it
required so much ardour of mind to conceive.
I shall not, however, conceal, that some
sensible and not uncandid observers of his con-
duct have thought him too apt to be prejudic-
ed by first impressions, the effects of which it
appeared extremely difficult to remove; and
they have also charged him with sometimes
giving undue credit to persons of inferior con-
dition, at the places where he was making his
inquiries; and likewise with being apparently
better pleased with finding occasion to censure
than to commend. If, in a few instances,
there may have been grounds for these impu-
tations (as nothing human is without its de-
fects), yet I think his works may, on the whole,
be confidently referred to, as proving, by an
immense mass of allowed and uncontr adicted
facts, the accuracy of his representations. It
is likewise to be considered, that, as abuses in
general proceed from superiors, it was not
likely that a fair account of them should be
obtained from that quarter: and, as his great
purpose was to correct, it is natural that his
attention should have been more drawn to
what was wrong than what was right. A
Hercules who went about in order to contend

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with monsters, had little to do with the fair
forms of civil life. Yet numerous instances
of liberal praise may be found in his works, es-
pecially where he could propose the object of
it as an example proper for imitation.
The tours now before us were likewise ren-
dered richer in utility by the comprehension of
another great object, that of hospitals. To
these institutions of humanity Mr. Howard
had long been attached; he had been a pro-
moter of them, and attentive to their improve-
ment; and in his journies through this king-
dom, he had seldom failed to visit the hospi-
tals and infirmaries situated in our principal
towns. He had also, in his first publication,
taken cursory notice of a few which he saw
abroad. But he now made them an avowed
object of his examination; a circumstance, it
may be supposed, not a little pleasing to his
medical friends. For, although the knowledge
collected by a professional man with similar
opportunities would, doubtless, have been
more applicable to the purpose of science, yet
matter of fact, accurately stated by a sensible
observer, must ever have its value. Besides,
when can we expect to see the spirit and quali-

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ties of a Howard, united, in one of our
profession, with his fortune and leisure?
The fruit of all this research appeared in the
year 1780, in an Appendix to the state of the
Prisons in England and Wales; containing a
further account of foreign Prisons and Hospi-
tals, with additional remarks on the Prisons of
this country. It is a quarto volume of about
two hundred pages, with several plates. The
work begins with the foreign prisons and hos-
pitals, and Holland takes the lead, since a main
object of the journey was a minute account of
the excellent regulations of the houses of cor-
rection in that country. Many of the rules,
dietaries, &c. are copied; and on quitting the
country, Mr. Howard gives his testimony to
the large field of information on this subject
that it affords, and says, that he knows not
which most to admire, " the neatness and
cleanliness appearing in the prisons, the indus-
try and regular conduct of the prisoners, or
the humanity and attention of the magistrates
and governors." He takes little notice of the
hospitals for the sick in Holland, not approving
their mode of keeping patients so warm, and
excluding the fresh air. At Berlin the re-
F

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gularity and strictness of the police shews the
ruling spirit of the great Frederic. A work-
house here is conducted in the best Dutch mode.
Vienna affords little to commend in its prisons;
on the contrary, its horrid dungeons seem the
abode of the extremest human misery. Scarce-
ly any thing in Mr. Howards descriptions is
more touching than the following picture;--
" In one of the dark dungeons, down twenty-
four steps, I thought I had found a person
with the gaol-fever. He was loaded with heavy
irons, and chained to the wall: anguish and
misery appeared with tears clotted on his face.
He was not capable of speaking to me; but,
on examining his breast and feet for Petechiæ,
or spots, and finding a strong intermitting
pulse, I was convinced that he was not ill of
that disorder. A prisoner in an opposite cell
told me, that the poor creature had desired
him to call for assistance, and he had done it,
but was not heard*." The charities of this
* This scene is the subject the frontispiece to Mr.
Haley's Ode to Mr. Howard; and it is better drawn
in the following stanza of that performance.
Where in the dungeon’s loathsome shade
The speechless captive clanks his chain,
with heartless hope to raise that aid
His feeble cries have call'd in vain:

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city, chiefly founded by the late Empress
Queen, are much more pleasing subjects of de-
scription.
Mr. Howard entered Italy with high expec-
tations of improvement from its numerous cha-
ritable institutions and public edifices; nor
does it appear that he was altogether disap-
pointed, as this country affords him a pretty
long and interesting article. The govern-
ments in which a spirit of improvement and at-
tention to public objects, seem most to prevail,
are those of Milan and Tuscany. The hospi-
tals in Italy afford some novelties and useful
hints; but there appears to be a great differ-
ence among them as to cleanliness and good
management. Rome and Milan have well
conducted houses of correction, of which plans
and descriptions are given. In a room of the
former is inscribed a sentence, which so admir-
ably expressed Mr. Howard's idea concerning
the purpose of civil policy relative to criminals,
that he would, I believe, almost have thought
Thine eye his dumb complaint explores;
Thy voice his parting breath restores;
Thy cares his ghastly visage clear
From death’s chill dew, with many a clotted tear,
And to his thankful soul returning life endear.

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it worth while to have travelled thither for
that alone. PARUM EST COERCERE IMPROBOS
POENA, NISI PROBOS EFFICIAS DISCIPLINA. It
is doing little to refrain the bad by punishment,
unless you render them good by discipline. The
galleys belonging to various states in Italy, and
used for punishment, may be usefully compared
with our HULKS.
The western side of Germany offers some
good regulations in its houses of correction;
but in general, the police of this country is no
object of imitation. The dungeons of Liege
present pictures to the imagination, more dread-
ful, if possible, than those of Vienna. "In de-
scending deep below ground," says Mr. How-
ard, " I heard the moans of the miserable
wretches in the dark dungeons. The sides
and roof were all stone. In wet seasons, water
from the fosses gets into them, and has greatly
damaged the floors."----" The dungeons in
the new prison are abodes of misery still
more shocking; and confinement in them so
overpowers human nature, as some times irre-
coverably to take away the senses. I heard
the cries of the distracted as I went down to
them." Surely the Liegois cannot be blamed
for endeavouring to place civil authority in dif-

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ferent hands from those who thus outraged the
feelings of human nature!
The additional notices of France are distin-
guished by an account of the Bastille, extracted
from a scarce pamphlet, which Mr. Howard
procured, not without hazard, and a translation
of the whole of which he likewise printed. He
had reason to believe, that this exposure to all
Europe of the horrid secrets of this " prison-
house," was a cause that his after visits to that
country were attended with no small danger
to his liberty; and it was once not improbable
that Mr. Howard should have been in the num-
ber of those victims whom the demolition of
that fortress of despotism restored to light and
freedom. What a triumph must it have been
to him, to have learned, that the frowning
towers, which could not be approached or even
gazed at, without offence, were levelled to the
ground, as the first Sacrifice to the recovered
rights of a generous nation! It is remarkable,
that France was of all countries that in which
he found intelligence concerning the prisons
and other government establishments, most dif-
ficult to be obtained; and this union of the
suspicious rigour of the police with the exterior
gaiety and frivolity of the national character,
F 2

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gave him no small disgust. It is to be presum-
ed, that the change in their constitution will
soften this contract into a desirable harmony be-
tween the principles of the administration and
the manners of the people.
Great Britain being then at war with
France, Spain, and America, Mr. Howard
could not be unmindful of that class of honour-
able prisoners to which he himself had once be-
longed. He very attentively visited the Eng-
lish prisoners of war confined in Calais and
French Flanders, noting down their complaints
and all the particulars of their treatment. He
also, as I have been well informed, clothed at
his own expence, several who had been ship-
wrecked on the French coast in the dreadful
storm of December 31, 1778, and were left
almost naked. He likewise exerted himself in
dissuading the men from enlisting with the
French, who were endeavouring to seduce
them; by which he greatly offended the per-
sons in office there, who could not imagine
that he acted in all this as a private man, but
were strongly persuaded that he was a secret
agent or spy or the English government. This
natural supposition may serve as some apology

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for the suspicion and illiberality with which he
was constantly treated in that country.
On his return to England, with the true
spirit of a citizen of the world, he paid imme-
diate visits to the French, Spanish, and Ameri-
can prisoners of war in this country; nor did
he forget those in Scotland and Ireland. The
results of his observations, given with the most
perfect impartiality, succeed the account of fo-
reign prisons and hospitals; and it cannot be
doubted that they had considerable effect in
alleviating the unavoidable hardships of war.
Mr. Howard next gives a brief account of
what he observed worthy of notice in his tours
through Scotland and Ireland. The former
country being governed by a different system
of municipal law from that of England, afford
some useful remarks concerning imprisonment
for debt, the form of administering an oath,
and the mode of conducting executions. Ire-
land has not been at all behind-hand with the
sister kingdom in passing acts for the liberal im-
provement of its prisons; but there did
not, at that time, appear an equal attention
in magistrates to put them in execution.
Some remarks here introduced, concerning the

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practice of recruiting the army out of the gaols,
will be thought important by those, who wish
that the class of armed citizens should be re-
spectable, in proportion to its consequence.
The next article relates to the Hulks on the
Thames. These, at their first institution, had
been extremely unhealthy, in consequence of
faults which Mr. Howard pointed out in his
former work. Their state was now much
mended by means of parliamentary interfe-
rence; yet, on the whole, it was not a mode
of imprisonment and employment which met
with his approbation. Some further remarks
on the Gaol-fever succeed; which, in addition
to the general causes of want of fresh air and
cleanliness, he attributes to such a sudden
change of diet and lodging as breaks the spi-
rits of convicts. This corresponds with the
medical doctrine of the effect of debilitating
causes, in producing fevers of the typhus kind;
yet it seems such a cause as cannot well be
avoided.
The remainder of the book is occupied by a
fresh survey of the prisons in England and
Wales, in which such changes as had taken
place since his former publication are noted,

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with occasional observations. The reader will
remark with pleasure, that in most parts of
the kingdom, various useful alterations had
been made since the period in which Mr.
Howard began his enquiries; and the great
share he had in occasioning them will be uni-
versally admitted.
His conclusion expresses satisfaction with the
result of his labours; and mentions, that it
had been his intention now to retire to the
tranquil enjoyment of that competence Provi-
dence had bestowed on him, but that the ear-
nest persuasions of those who thought  him a
proper person to superintend one of the great
plans he had so much recommended, had in-
duced him still to devote his time to the public.
Concerning this matter, it is proper to enter
into an explanation. I shall only first menti-
on, that, together with this Apendix, there
was printed a new edition, in octavo, of the
State of the Prisons, with which all this addi-
tional matter was interwoven.
An act for establishing Penitentiary Houses,
on which much labour and thought had been
bestowed by men of great ability, passed in

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1779. By this act, three supervisors were ap-
pointed for the purpose of superintending the
execution of the buildings. The whole king-
dom would naturally turn its eyes on Mr. How-
ard, as the first person whose services should
be engaged on this occasion; but it was not an
easy talk to obtain his acquiescence. Among
other objections, his extreme delicacy, with
respect to pecuniary emolument, stood in his
way; and even the moderate salary annexed
to this office, seemed to him scarcely compati-
ble with the absolute disinterestedness of con-
duct he had maintained, and was determined to
preserve, during the whole of his labours. At
length, however, the solicitations of his friends,
particularly of the late Sir W. Blackstone, the
great promoter of the design, together with a
consciousness of the service he might render
the public in this station, overcame his reluct-
ance. Having resolved to accept of no salary
for himself, and having made the association of
his highly-respected friend, Dr. Fothergill, a
condition of his compliance, he, with the Doc-
tor, and Mr. Whately, treasurer of the
Foundling-hospital, were nominated by his
Majesty as the three supervisors. The first
matter for their determination was, fixing on

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the spot where the two penitentiary houses for
the metropolis should be erected. Various si-
tuations were proposed, and Mr. Howard paid
due attention to all the plans, by visiting the
spots, and maturely considering all circumstan-
ces favourable and objectionable. The result
was, that his opinion and that of Dr. Fother-
gill coincided in giving a preference to Isling-
ton, for reasons which he has stated in his last
publication. Mr. Whately preferred the Situ-
ation of limehouse. By the death-bed advice
of Sir W. Blackstone, the two friends adhered
to their opinion; but the matter was made an
affair of obstinate contention, and remained
undecided during the year 1780. At the end
of it Dr. Fothergill died; upon which event,
Mr. Howard, foreseeing that the want of the
support of such a colleague would render his
future interference useless, sent his resignation
of the office of supervisor in January 1781, in
a letter to Earl Bathurst, which he has
printed.
Now that Mr. Howard had freed himself
from the engagement, which seemed to be the
only obstacle between him and that elegant re-
treat which for so many years he had inhabited,
it might naturally be imagined that he would 

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sit down in repose, for the remainder of his
life, satisfied with the unparalleled and success-
ful exertions he had made for the relief of the
most distressed portion of mankind; and thence-
forth employ himself only in those more confin-
ed deeds of beneficence which he had ever
practised. But it was a leading feature in his
character, not to be content with any thing
short of the greatest perfection, which every
object of his pursuit was capable of attaining--
and this principle could scarcely fail of applying
itself to a subject so important as that which
had for some years occupied his attention.--
Though his researches in those foreign coun-
tries which promised most information, might
have been supposed to have exhausted that
source of improvement, yet, on surveying so
large a tract of Europe as yet unvisited, he
could not be satisfied to remain unacquainted
with the useful facts relative to his purpose,
which might possibly lie there concealed. And
he was convinced, that every new visit, even
to places already examined, would afford new
instruction.
It was therefore no surprise to those who
intimately knew him, to learn, that in the
summer of 1781 he was set out on a tour to

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the capitals of Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and
Poland, with the further intention of revisiting
Holland and part of Germany. From this
tour he returned towards the close of the
year. I have before me a letter of his to a
friend (the Rev. Mr. Smith, of Bedford, dat-
ed Moscow, September 7, 1781, whence it
appears, that these parts of the world were
less suitable to his mode of living than the
countries through which his former travels
lay. " I thought (says he) I could live where
any man did live; but this northern journey,
especially in Sweden, has pinched me: no fruit,
no garden-stuff, sour bread, sour milk: -- but
in this city I find every luxury, even pine-
apples and potatoes." He mentions having
declined every honour that was offered him at
Petersburgh, even that of a soldier to attend
him on his journey; and says, that he will not
leave Moscow, till he has made repeated visits
to the prisons and hospitals, since the first man
in the kingdom had assured him, that his publi-
cation would be translated into Russian.
The year 1782 he was employed in another
complete Survey of the prisons in England, and
another journey into Scotland and Ireland.--
The Irish House of Commons having appointed
G

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a gaol-committee, he reported to it the state of
several of the prisons in Dublin. Other objects
in that Island also engaged his attention, of
which an account will be given hereafter.
Spain and Portugal yet remained untouched
ground. Considering how much the spirit of
religious bigotry and civil despotism has thrown
these countries back in the progress of modern
improvement, much instruction was not to be
expected from them; yet the very circum-
stance of their difference from the rest of Eu-
rope made their systems of police an object of
curiosity. He sailed to Lisbon in February
1783, and proceeded thence by land into Spain,
passing from Badajos to Madrid, and through
Valladolid, Burgos, and Pamplona, to France.
From this last country he returned through
Flanders and Holland to England. Travelling
in Spain is a severe trial of patience to those
who have been accustomed to easy conveyance
and luxurious indulgencies; but Mr. Howard's
wants were easily satisfied. "The Spaniards,
(says he, in a letter to the same friend) are ve-
ry sober, and very honest; and if a traveller
can live sparingly, and lie on the floor, he may
pass tolerably well through their country." 
From Lisbon to Madrid he could seldom get

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the luxury of milk with his tea; but one morn-
ing (he tells his friend) he robbed a kid of two
cups of its mother's milk. He remained, how-
ever, in perfect health and spirits; and receiv-
ed that mark of attention which he most of all
valued, a free access to the prisons of all the
cities he visited, by means of letters to the ma-
gistrates from Count Campomane ε.
After a Short repose on his return from this
tour, he made another journey in the summer
of the same year into Scotland and Ireland,
and again visited several of the English pri-
sons.
His materials had now once more accumulat-
ed to such a mass, as to demand communicati-
on to the public. During the last three years
his labours had been even greater than in any
former equal period; yet it could not be ex-
pected, that the matter absolutely new which
he had collected should be proportionally great.
It was however, enough, to employ him very
closely during several months of the year 1784,
in printing an Appendix, and a new edition of
the main Work, in which all the editions were
comprised. The Appendix contains all the
matter of that of 1780, together with what

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had since accrued. Of the latter I now pro-
ceed to give some account.
Several new houses of correction are des-
cribed under the head of Holland, the coun-
try which Mr. Howard ever found the most
fertile source of instruction in this branch of
police. The plan of the large new work-
house of Amsterdam must be well worth stu-
dying, as affording hints for the construction
of penitentiary houses. Germany has the ad-
dition of the prisons of Hanover and Bremen,
a minute account of the great and well regu-
lated work-house at Hamburg, and short no-
tices concerning Silesia. Of the northern
kingdoms which he now first visited, it may in
general be observed, that their models, as well
with respect to police, as to mode of living,
have been Holland and Germany; but their
poverty, and the rigour of their climate, have
made them degenerate in their imitations. In
particular, they are extremely deficient in
cleanliness and industry. The new articles,
therefore, of Denmark and Sweden, though
valuable for the information they contain, yet
afford little or nothing of instruction. The
vast empire of Russia, lately emerged from ob-
scurity to take a commanding station in the

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system of Europe, and governed by uncontrol-
ed power, at present directed by a Spirit of
magnificent improvement, could not but offer
in its institutions various things worthy of no-
tice. Its police respecting criminals, its pri-
sons, hospitals, and places of public education,
are briefly mentioned by Mr. Howard; but he
has found little to propose as an example for o-
ther countries. The regulations of the great
convent at Petersburgh, for the education of
female children of the nobility and common-
ers, are given in detail, and afford some salu-
tary rules for the preservation of the health of
young persons, and for promoting habits of
cleanliness and temperance. The plan and
description of a magazine for medicinal herbs
at Moscow, will be a pleasing novelty to most
readers. Mr. Howard had been anticipated
in his survey of the prisons and hospitals of the
northern kingdoms, by that well-informed
traveller, Mr. Coxe, who published a pamphlet
on the subject in 1781, here referred to with
commendation. The short head of Poland con-
tains little but a testimony to the neglected
and wretched state of public institutions in that
ill-governed country. All travellers have
concurred in similar representations of the
whole system of affairs, internal and external, 
G2

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in that unhappy seat of aristocratical tyranny;
so that it may be presumed, their does not ex-
ist so determined an enemy of innovation as not
to rejoice in the change of constitution which
has lately been effected there, by means of the
silent and peaceable progress of light and rea-
son.
There are various additional articles under
Flanders, one of which relates to a great al-
teration for the worse in the house of correc-
tion at Ghent. A once flourishing manufacto-
ry carried on in the prison was at an end; and
the allowance of victuals to the prisoners was
reduced in quantity and quality. In the ac-
count of a very offensive prison at Lille, Mr.
Howard expresses his grateful acknowledg-
ments to Providence for recovery from a
fever caught there of the sick.
The account of Portugal is almost confined
to the prisons and hospitals of Lisbon; the state
of which, upon the whole does credit to the
government. The employment of about a
a thousand vagrant and deserted children in
a manufactory, is one of the most observable
circumstances.

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SPAIN, which has been long distinguished
for its charitable establishments, affords like-
wise in its criminal police, many things deserv-
ing of attention; though the spirit of rigour
and severity is perhaps too apparent, amidst
much laudable order and exactness. The house
of correction at Madrid, called San Fernando,
may vie with some of the best regulated insti-
tutions of this nature; and the Hospicio, a
kind of work-house, in which extensive manu-
factories are carried on, is a good example of
the union of employment with confinement.--
The account of the charitable society of the
Hermandad del Refugio, who patrole the
streets in the evening, for the purpose of invit-
ing destitute wanderers to a comfortable sup-
per and night's lodging, will excite pleasing
sensations in the br--st of every lover, of hu-
manity. The prisons of the inquisition, those
objects of horror and detestation to every Pro-
testant, and now, probably, to most Catholics,
excited great curiosity in Mr. Howard, of
which however, all his efforts could only pro-
cure a partial gratification. Yet he has been
able to communicate enough concerning those
of Valladolid to form a Striking picture of ter-
ror. On the whole, the predilection he had
long entertained for the Spanish character, was 

(80)
not diminished by his visit to the country; nor
does he seem to have thought his pains in ex-
tending his inquiries to it, ill bestowed. The
additional notices in France, chiefly relate to
the Paris hospitals. It is needless to dwell on
these, since a very accurate description of them
has since been given in a capital work by M.
Tenon.
To the account of foreign prisons and hospi-
tals, succeeds a fresh survey of the prisoners of
war.
The new journies to Scotland, now extend-
ed as far as Inverness, afford little but censure
for the neglect of the prisons in that country.
Under Ireland are introduced additional re-
marks on the faults and abuses still observable
in the prisons there. Notwithstanding a very
spirited exertion of the legislature to amend
their state, by framing good acts for their re-
gulation. But, " quid leges sine moribus, &c"
The horrid effects of that cheap poison, whis-
ky, upon the health and morals of the lower
classes in that country, are noticed by Mr.
Howard with much indignant disgust. A new
object of attention occurred to him in the two
last visits to Ireland,--the Protestant Charter

(81)
Schools, a noble foundation, but which he
found sunk into wretched abuse, notwith-
standing the patronage and superintendance of
the first persons in that kingdom. Erroneous
accounts of them, published by a committee, and
authorized by being annexed to a printed ser-
mon of a prelate in their favour, were detected
by Mr. Howard on his visits to some of them,
and are exposed with his usual freedom.
Further accounts of the Hulks follow. To
the remarks on the gaol-fever, Mr. Howard
adds the information, that in 1782 he did not
find one person in this kingdom affected with
that disease; but that in 1783 he had the
mortification to observe several prisons, thro'
original bad construction and neglect, relapsing
to their former state. So essential is a plan of
constant vigilance and inspection, to counteract
the lamentable tendency to abuse in all public
institutions! This principle of corruption and
decay in every thing human is so incessantly ac-
tive, that, if not resisted by the timely efforts of
reformation, all the contrivances of wisdom
against natural and moral evils, would, like the
dykes of Holland, perpetually sapped and worn
by the force of the elements, fall into irremedi-
able ruin.

(82)
The remainder of this volume is taken up
with a review of all the English prisons, toge-
ther with particulars of all the alterations
which they had undergone since the last publi-
cation. The reader will be gratified in find-
ing, from the number of new prisons, and new
buildings and conveniencies added to the old,
that the counties in general had by no means
been deficient in liberal attention to this great
object, since it had been brought forward and
aided by Mr. Howard's indefatigable exertions.
At the conclusion, among the tables, is a sketch
of general heads of regulations for penitentiary-
houses, which will be highly useful in suggest-
ing a complete body of rules and orders for
such establishments, if ever they should again
be thought of in this country.
The printing of this copious Appendix, to-
gether with a complete edition of his state of
the Prisons, into which all the additions were
incorporated, making a large and closely print-
ed quarto volume, occupied much of Mr.
Howard's time in the year 1784. The re-
mainder of that, and the greater part of the
next year, do not appear marked with his
public services. They were, I believe, chief-
ly employed in domestic concerns, of which

(83)
the choice of a proper place of education for
his son, now rising towards manhood, was one
that most interested him. But the habitude of
carrying on researches into an object, which
by long possession had acquired deep root in
his mind, together with a new idea, collate-
rally allied to it, which had struck him, at
length impelled him once more to engage in
the toils and perils of a foreign journey.
He had observed that, notwithstanding the
regulations for preserving health in prisons
and hospitals, infectious diseases continued oc-
casionally to arise and spread in them: he had
also in his travels remarked the great solici-
tude of several trading nations to preserve
themselves from that most destructive of all
contagious distempers, the Plague; and, at the
same time, he was well apprized of the rude
and neglected state in which the police of our
own country is left respecting that object.
Combining these ideas, he thought that a visit
to all the principal Lazarettos, and to coun-
tries frequently attacked by the plague, might
afford much information as to the means of
preventing contagion in general, as well as
particular instruction concerning establishments
for the purpose of guarding against pestilential 

(84)
infection. His intent, therefore, was nothing
less, than to plunge into the midst of those
dangers which by other men are so anxiously
avoided; to search out and confront the great
foe of human life, for the sake of recognizing
his features, and discovering the most efficaci-
ous barriers against his assaults. Who but
must be struck with admiration of the firmness
of courage, and the ardour of benevolence,
which could prompt such a design! As a proof
of his own idea of the hazards he was to en-
counter, it may be mentioned, that he resolv-
ed to travel single and unattended; not think-
ing it justifiable to permit any of his servants
to partake of a danger to which they were not
called by motives similar to his own.
It was towards the end of 1785 that Mr.
Howard set out upon this tour, taking his way
through Holland and Flanders, to the south
of France. As, from the jealousy and dis-
pleasure of the French government, he was
notable to obtain permission to visit the esta-
blishments there, or even to gain assurance of
personal safety, he travelled through the
country as an English physician, never took
his meals in public, and entrusted his secret
only to the protestant ministers. In a letter

(85)
from Nice to the friend above-mentioned,
dated January 30, 1786, he acquaints him
with these circumstances, and says, that he
was five days at Marseilles and four at Toulon;
and, as it was thought that he could not get
out of France by land, he embarked in a Ge-
noese vessel, and was several days striving a-
gainst wind and tide. They who at present
conduct the government of France, I am per-
suaded, will blush at the idea, that a Howard
was obliged to conceal his name and purpose
while carrying on in their country inquiries
which had no other aim than the good of man-
kind!
From Nice, Mr. Howard went to Genoa,
Leghorn, and Naples, and to the islands of
Malta and Zante. He then failed to Smyrna,
and thence to Constantinople. I have been
favored with a letter of his to Dr. Price from
this metropolis, dated June 22, 1786, some
extracts from which I shall present to the rea-
der.
" After viewing the effects of the earth-
quake in Sicily, I arrived at Malta, where I
repeatedly visited the prisons, hospitals, poor-
houses and lazarettos, as I staid three weeks.
H

(86)
From thence I went to Zante: as they are all
Greeks, I wished to have some general idea of
their hospitals and prisons, before I went into
Turkey. From thence, in a foreign ship, I
got a passage to Smyrna. Here I boldly visited
the hospitals and prisons; but as some accidents
happened, a few dying of the plague, several
shrunk at me. I came thence about a fort-
night ago. As I was in a miserable Turk's
boat, I was lucky in a passage of six days and a
half. A family arrived just before me, had
been between two and three months.
" I am sorry to say some die of the plague
about us; one is just carried before my win-
dow; yet I visit where none of my conductors
will accompany me. In some hospitals, as in
the lazarettos, and yesterday among the sick
slaves, I have a constant headach, but in about
an hour after it always leaves me. Sir Ro-
bert Ainslie is very kind; but for the above
and other reasons, I could not lodge in his
house. I am at a physician's, and I keep some
of my visits a secret."
He designed to proceed from Constantinople
over land to Vienna; but, having determined,
upon reflection, to obtain by personal experi-

(87)
ence the fullest information of the mode of per-
forming quarantine, he returned to Smyrna,
where the plague then was, for the purpose of
going to  Venice with a foul bill, that would
necessarily subject him to the utmost rigor of
the process. His voyage was tedious, and
rendered hazardous by equinoctial storms; and
in the course of it be incurred a danger of
another kind, the ship in which he was a pas-
senger being attacked by a Tunisian corsair,
which, after a smart skirmish, was beaten off
by the execution done by a cannon loaded with
spike nails and bits of iron, and pointed by Mr.
Howard himself. It afterwards appeared to
have been the intention of the captain to blow
up his vessel, rather than submit to be taken in-
to perpetual slavery. It was not till the close
of 1786 that Mr. Howard left his disagreeable
quarters in the lazaretto of Venice, in which
his health and spirits suffered considerably.
Thence he went by Trieste to Vienna. In
this capital he had the honor of a private con-
ference with the Emperor, which was conduct-
ed with the utmost ease and condescension on
the part of Joseph II. and equal freedom on
the part of the Englishman. A relation of
this instructive scene in his own words, will, I
doubt not be agreeable to the reader: " The

(88)
Emperor desired to see me, and I had the ho-
nor of a private audience with him of above an
hour and an half. He took me by the hand
three times in conversation, and thanked me
for the visit. He afterwards told our Ambassa-
dor,' That his countryman spoke well for pri-
soners; that he used no flowers, which others
ever do, and mean nothing.’ But his greatest
favor to me was his immediate alterations for
the relief of the prisoners*." That the late
Emperor had an ardent zeal for improvement
Of every kind, and a strong desire of promot-
ing the prosperity of his subjects, will scarcely
be denied, even by those who are the severest
censurers of the mode in which he conducted
his plans, and his extreme mutability respect-
ing them. He will also be honored, for the
readiness with which he laid aside the etiquette
of his rank, on every occasion where it ob-
structed him in the acquisition of knowledge, or
the activity of exertion. Mr. Howard return-
ed through Germany and Holland, and arriv-
ed safe in England early in 1787.
It was during this tour, and while he was in
solitude occupying a cell of the Venice lazaret-
* Letter to Mr. Smith.

(89)
to, that he received from England two pieces
of intelligence, both of which distressed and
harrassed his mind, though the emotion they
excited must apparently have been very diffe-
rent. One of these related to the melancholy
derangement of mind into which his son had
fallen, and which, after various instances of
strange and unaccountable behaviour, termi-
nated at length in decided insanity. They who
cannot believe that the most benevolent of
mankind could be a stern and unnatural parent,
will sympathize in the anguish he must have felt
on hearing (and in such a situation too) of an
event which blasted the dearest hopes of com-
fort and solace in his declining years. I, who
have frequently heard him speak of this son,
with all the pride and affection of the kind fa-
ther of an only child, cannot read without
strong emotions, the expressions he uses in wri-
ting to his friend ralative to this bitter calami-
ty. When he concludes a long letter upon va-
rious topics, with the exclamation, " But, O!
my son, my son!" I seem to perceive the ef-
forts of a manly mind, striving by the aid of
its internal resources to dispel a gloomy phan-
tom, which was yet ever recurring to his ima-
gination. But in this emergency, as in all
H2

(90)
others, the consolations of religion were his
chief refuge*.
The other cause of uneasiness by which his
mind was agitated, will, to many, appear a
very extraordinary one; since it arose from a
testimony of esteem and veneration in his coun-
trymen, which might be imagined to afford
balm for his wounded spirit. During his ab-
sence, a scheme had been set on foot to honor
him in a manner almost unprecedented in this
age and country. Without attempting to trace
it to its origin, it may suffice to say, that, in a
periodical work of extensive circulation, the
public were called upon to testify their respect
for Mr. Howard by a subscription, for the pur-
* To prove that Mr. Howard had kind and tender
feelings for domestic as well as for public occasions,
will I hope, by most persons be deemed a superfluous talk,
For those who require such proof, I copy the following
passage from one of his letters to Mr. Smith. "My
old servants, John Prole, Thomas Thomason, and Jo.
sesh Crockford, have had a sad time. I hear they have
been faithful, wife, and prudent. Please to thank
them particularly in my name for their conduct. Two
of them, I am persuaded, have acted out of regard to
his excellent mother,--who I rejoice, is dead."


(91)
pose of erecting a statue, or some other mo-
nument, to his honor. The authors of this
scheme, though, doubtless, actuated by a pure
and laudable admiration of illustrious virtue,
yet must have been totally unacquainted with
Mr. Howard's disposition; otherwise they
would never have thought of decorating a
man, whose characteristic feature had always
been a solicitude to Shun all notice and distincti-
on, with one of the most glaring and promi-
nent marks of public applause, which might
put to the blush modesty of a much less deli-
cate texture than his. The English national
character (if national character can be said to
belong to so heterogeneous a people) is by no-
thing so strongly marked, as by a coyness and
reserve which shrink from observation, and
even to those who are acting for the public,
render the gaze of the public eye painful. The
love of glory, which is so active a sentiment
to some of our neighbours, operates feebly
upon us: many do not rise to it, and some go
beyond it. That " humble Allen," whose
disposition it was to " do good by stealth and
blush to find it same," was a genuine English
philanthropist; and such was Mr. Howard,
rendered, perhaps, still more averse to public

(92)
praise, by a deep sense of religious humi-
lity.
A similar want of acquaintance with Mr.
Howard's designs, caused the proposers of this
plan to attribute to him an extravagance of
philanthropy, which could not but appear ri-
diculous to those whose judgment was not daz-
zled by the ardor of admiration. It was as-
serted, among real topics of applause, that he
was now gone abroad with the view of extir-
pating the plague from Turkey; an idea scarce-
ly so rational, the character of that nation con-
sidered, as would be that of a million to con-
vert the Grand Seignior to Christianity. Mr.
Howard meant, undoubtedly, to do all the
good which should lie within his compass in
that, as in all other countries which he visited;
but he never was so romantic as to suppose that
he could effect that, which would manifestly
require a total change in the religious and po-
litical system of a great empire, of all the least
disposed to change.
The project of a Statue, however, was eager-
ly adopted; the subscription filled, and was
adorned with the names of ministers, nobles,
and persons of distinction: and a committee

(93)
was appointed to determine upon the best mode
of fulfilling its purpose. The confidential
friends of Mr. Howard were in a disagreeable
dilemma; for as, on the one hand, they could
not but rejoice in the warmth of admiration
which his country testified for his character;
so, on the other, they well knew that its man-
ner of display could not fail to give him ex-
treme pain, and if effected, probably banish
him forever. On this account, they did not
concur in the scheme, and some of them ven-
tured publicly to throw out objections to it.
Some of its warm promoters, in reply, talked
of forcing his modesty, and seemed determined
at all events to put in execution their favorite
design. In the mean while, Mr. Howard was
informed of this honorable persecution that
was preparing against him at home; and the
sensations this intelligence occasioned in his
breast are shewn in the following expressions
contained in a letter to the intimate friend who
has already furnished me with various extracts.
" To hasten to the other very distressing af-
fair: oh, why could not my friends, who know
how much I detest such parade, have stopped
such a hasty measure!-- As a private man, with
some peculiarities, I wished to retire  into ob-
scurity and silence.-- Indeed, my friend, I can-

(94)
not bear the thought of being thus dragged
out. I immediately wrote, and hope some-
thing may be done to stop it. My best friends
must disapprove it. It deranges and confounds
all my schemes-- my exaltation is my fall, my
misfortune*." The same sentiments on this
business are expressed with equal strength in
his letters to Dr. Price. Among other things
he says, “ My truest, intimate, and best friends,
have, I see by the papers, been so kind as not
to subscribe to what you so justly term a hasty
measure. Indeed, indeed, if nothing now can
be done, I speak from my heart, never poor
creature was more dragged out in public."
That in all this there was no affectation,
clearly appeared from the letter he sent to the
subscribers; in which, after expressing his gra-
titude, he displayed so determined a repug-
nance against admitting of the proposed honor,
deprecating it as the severest of punishments,
*He mentions in the same letter, as a proof how
opposite his wishes were to monumental honors, that
before he set out on this journey, he had given directi-
ons, that in case of his death, his funeral expences
should not exceed ten pounds-- that his tomb should be a
plain slip of marble placed under that of his dear Hen-
rietta in Cardington church, with this inscription:
John Howard, died—aged—My hope in Christ. 

(95)
that nothing could be urged in reply, and the
business was dropped. Of the sum subscribed,
amounting to upwards of 1500l. Mr. Howard
refused to direct the disposal in any manner,
and begged it might no longer be termed the
Howardian fund.  A part of it was reclaimed
by the Subscribers, but a considerable share re-
mained in a stock: and, since Mr. Howard's
death, it has been resolved to employ it in con-
ferring those honors on his memory which he
would not accept while living. This intention
is in every respect strictly proper; and, as the
noble edifice of St. Paul's is at length destined
to receive national monuments, no commence-
ment can be more auspicious, than with a name
which will ever stand so distinguished among
those,
Qui sui memores alios secere merendo.
To resume the narrative of Mr. Howard's
public life:-- After his return in 1787, he took
a short repose, and then went over to Ireland,
and visited most of the county gaols and char-
ter schools, and came back by Scotland. In
1788 he renewed his visit to Ireland, and com-
pleted his survey of its gaols, hospitals, and
schools. I shall lay before the reader part of a
letter to Dr. Price, dated from Dublin, March

(96)
23, of this year. " My journey into this coun-
try was to make a report of the state of the
charter schools, which charity has been long
neglected and abused; as indeed most public
institutions are made private emoluments, one
sheltering himself under the name of a bishop,
another under that of a lord; and for electi-
oneering interest breaking down all barriers of
honor and honesty. However, Parliament now
seems determined to know how its grants have
been employed. I have, since my visits to these
schools in 1782, been endeavouring to excite
the attention of Parliament; and some circum-
stances being in my favor, a good Lord Lieute-
nant, a worthy Secretary (an old acquain-
tance,) and the first Secretary of State, the
Provost, a steady friend, I must still pursue;
so I next week set out for Connaught and other
remote parts of this kingdom, which indeed
are more barbarous than Russia. By my fre-
quent journies my strength is somewhat abated,
but not my courage or zeal in the cause I am
engaged in." During these two years, he
likewise repeated his examination of all the
county gaols, most of the Bridewells, and the
infirmaries and hospitals of England, and of

(97)
the hulks on the Thames, at Portsmouth and
Plymouth*.
The great variety of matter collected in
these journies was methodized and put to the
* It was, I believe, during his absence in some of the
tours of this period, that an incident happened which
the reader, I hope, will think well worth relating. A
very respectable-looking elderly gentleman on horse-
back, with a servant, stopt at the inn nearest Mr. How-
ard's house at Cardington, and entered into conversa-
tion with the landlord concerning him. He observed
that characters often appeared very well at a distance,
which could not bear close inspection, he had therefore
come to Mr. Howard's residence in order to satisfy him-
self concerning him. The gentleman then, accompa-
nied by the innkeeper, went to the house, and looked
through it, with the offices and gardens, which he
found in perfect order. He next enquired into Mr.
Howard's character as a landlord, which was justly
represented; and several near houses which he had
built for his tenants were shewn him. The gentleman
returned to his inn, declaring himself now satisfied
with the truth of all he had heard about Howard.
This respectable stranger was no other than Lord Mon-
boddo; and Mr. Howard was much flattered with the
visit, and praised his Lordship's good sense in taking
such a method of coming at the truth, since he thought
it worth his trouble.
I

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press in 1789. It composes a quarto volume,
beautifully printed, and decorated with a num-
ber of fine plates, which, as usual, are present-
ed to the public; and so eager were the pur-
chasers of books to partake of the donation,
that all the copies were almost immediately
bought up. The title is, An account of the
principal Lazarettos in Europe, with various pa-
pers relative to the Plague; together with fur-
ther observations on some foreign Prisons and
Hospitals; with additional remarks on the pre-
sent state of those in Great Britain and Ireland.
Of this work I shall proceed to give a brief
analysis.
The first faction relates to Lazarettos, be-
ginning with that of Marseilles, in which city
the horrid ravages of the plague, within the
present century, have left strong impressions
of dread of that destroyer of mankind. Those
of Genoa, Leghorn, Malta, Zante, Venice,
and Trieste follow; the descriptions of which
are illustrated by excellent views and plans*.
* In one of his letters, Mr. Howard mentions hav-
ing met with a young Frenchman going to the academy
at Rome, who for a few sequins thankfully worked un-
der his eye, so that he can attest the accuracy of his
draughts. Several of the plates were engraved in Hol-
land. 

(99)
Of the lazarettos of Venice a very particular
account is given, comprising the mode of re-
ception which he himself experienced, the re-
gulations of every kind, respecting officers and
their duty, visitation of ships, manner of per-
forming quarantine, and the expurgation of
goods of all classes, &c. All these appear to
have been devised with much judgment and
prudence; but Mr. Howard is obliged to give
testimony to various instances of abuse and ne-
glect, which greatly impair the utility of this
institution, as well as of many others in that
once celebrated and potent republic.
Sect. II. contains proposed regulations, and
a new plan for a lazaretto; followed by ob-
servations on the importance of such an esta-
blishment in England. In these are introduc-
ed two letters on the subject to Mr. Howard;
one, a long and argumentative one from the
English merchants residing at Smyrna; the
other, confirming their opinion, from those of
Salonica. These commercial papers appear
worthy of the most serious attention; and in-
deed it is wonderful that a nation which boasts
of good sense and knowledge, should so long
have remained patient under a police respecting
this matter, which answers no effectual pur-

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pose of security, but seems only calculated to
discourage commerce, and produce fees to per-
sons in office, by the most barefaced imposi-
tions*.
Sect. III. consists of papers relative to the
plague. They commence with a set of an-
swers, by different medical practitioners, to
queries with which Mr. Howard was furnished
by the late Dr. Jebb and myself. I must ob-
serve, however, that all the queries do not ap-
pear, some of them having been misapprehend-
ed, or imperfectly answered, particularly such
as related to the discrimination of other fevers
of the typhus genus from the plague. These
replies will probably be thought to add little
to the stock of knowledge we possessed respect-
ing this disease; yet it is of some importance,
that the leading facts on which all modes of
preservation must be founded, viz. that the
plague is not known to arise spontaneously any
where, but is always to be traced to contagi-
* Such is the negligence and absurdity respecting the
regulations of the quarantine of persons, that I have
been assured, a naval officer has been called out of the
Opera house, to go on board his ship and perform his
Quarantine.

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on; and that the distance to which its infection
extends through the atmosphere is very small,
are established in them by general agreement.
The " Abstract of a curative and preservative
method to be observed in Pestilential Contagi-
ons," communicated from the Office of Health
in Venice to the court of Russia; and the
" Abridged Relation of the Plague of Spalato
in Dalmatia, in 1784." both extracted from
the Italian originals by myself, are the other
papers in this Section. In the latter, the medi-
cal reader will be struck with the equivocal na-
ture of the symptoms supposed to discriminate
this disease, and the very gradual progress
from suspicion to certainty as to its presence.
Sect. IV. relates to foreign Prisons and
Hospitals. The employment of the gally-slaves
in the arsenal of Toulon, is the most observa-
ble circumstance relative to the south of France.
Under Italy there is a pleasing account of the
improvements at Florence, in consequence of
the humane attention of the Grand Duke
Leopold, the present Emperor. This prince,
besides other instances of liberal favor to Mr.
Howard's inquiries, caused a copy of his new
code of laws to be presented to him, of which,
on his return, Mr. Howard had a translation
12

(102)
printed, and distributed among the heads of
the law and other persons, in and out of Par-
liament. Of the Grand Duke Mr. Howard
never spoke without the warmest expressions
of gratitude and respect, calling him a glorious
prince, and declaring that nothing could ex-
ceed his attention to whatever might promote
the happiness and prosperity of his people. It is
earnestly to be wished, that the same regard to
the principles of justice and humanity may ac-
company him in the very elevated Station which
is now assigned him by Providence.
Malta, that celebrated feat of piracy, dig-
nified by the spirit of chivalry and devotion
affords a new and curious article. Its great
hospital, which boasts of lodging the sick in a
palace, and serving them in plate, is here des-
cribed by one whose penetrating eye could dis-
tinguish between parade and comfort; and it
undergoes some severe censure. Mr. Howard
visited it before he delivered his letter of re-
commendation from Sir W. Hamilton to the
Grand Master, as well as frequently after-
Wards.
The Turkish dominions, whence all light,
liberty, and public spirit, are most effectually 

(103)
excluded, could not be expected to yield in-
struction in police to Europe. Yet debtors
and felons are there confined in separate pri-
sons, a refinement to which this country is not
yet entirely arrived. The hospitals in the great
commercial city of Smyrna seem all to belong to
the Franks, Greeks, and Jews. Even at Con-
stantinople the Turks have few hospitals, and
those in a wretched state. The hospitals for
lunatics there, are, indeed, examples of ad-
mirable construction, but neglected in their
management. Yet, amidst this disregard of
the human species, Mr. Howard found an
asylum for cats. Such are the contradictions
of man!
The institutions of Vienna shew that singu-
lar mixture of clemency and rigour, of care and
neglect, that might be expected from the inde-
cisive character of the sovereign. The perpe-
tual confinement of criminals in dark, damp
dungeons, as a substitute for capital punish-
ment, manifestly appears to be as little an ad-
vantage on the side of lenity, as it is on that of
public utility. The much beaten ground of
Holland still affords new observations, particu-
larly respecting the legal process for debt, in
use there.

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Sect. V. relates to Scotland; and what is
new chiefly regards the charitable institutions
of Edinburgh. As to the prisons there, Mr.
Howard was obliged to remark to the Lord
Provost, "that the splendid improvements car-
rying on in their places of entertainment,
streets, squares, bridges, &c. seemed to occu-
py all the attention of the gentlemen in office,
to the total neglect of this essential branch of
the police." This weighty animadversion de-
serves serious notice, as a strong confirmation
of those charges against the spirit of luxury,
which various modern philosophers have been
fond of turning into ridicule. In fact, a spirit
which increases personal wants and indulgen-
cies, and augments the distance between the
higher and lower orders of society, cannot but
interfere with the duties, as well of charity,
as of justice, which are owing to our fellow-
creatures of every condition. The arts of lux-
ury may promote knowledge, and this may se-
condarily be employed with advantage on ob-
jects of general utility; but it is not likely that
the same persons whose minds are occupied
with schemes of splendor and elegant amuse-
ment, should bellow attention on the coarse
and disgusting offices annexed to the care of the
poor and miserable.

(105)
The subject of Sect. VI. is the Irish Pri-
sons and Hospitals. Mr. Howard observed a
very liberal and humane spirit with respect to
prisons, prevailing among the gentlemen of
that country, displayed in the erection of many
new gaols, the plans of which, however, he
could not approve. The evils occasioned by
the use of spiritous liquors, particularly ap-
parent in Ireland, draw from him much com-
plaint and censure. It is a shocking considera-
tion that the interest of the revenue should,
in this matter, be suffered to prevail over the
good of the nation; and nothing can deserve
severer animadversion, than the conduct of
those servants of the public, the commission-
ers of excise, who presume to grant licences to
tippling houses in villages, contrary to the de-
clared with and opinion of gentlemen who re-
side on the spot, and are witnesses of their fa-
tal consequences to the health and morals of
the neighbourhood. This is indeed, revers-
ing the order of civil government, and ele-
vating subaltern interests to ruling principles.
All the hospital in Dublin are noticed by Mr.
Howard, with remarks. He then proceeds to
a survey of all the county gaols and hospitals in
the kingdom. The county hospitals are in
fact national institutions, maintained in great

(106)
part by the county rates and king's letter, and
therefore are not so exactly superintended as
those in England, which depend upon private
subscription for their support. The conse-
quence of this is shewn in the wretched state
in which the greater part of them were found;
the abodes of filth, hunger, neglect, and eve-
ry species of abuse. Yet a spirit of improve-
ment was beginning to operate among them,
to which this free statement of  their defects
would, doubtless, much contribute.
Sect. VII. is devoted to an account of the
Charter schools in Ireland. The public de-
tection of misrepresentations and abuses in this
great national object had excited the attention
of several of the leading men; and Mr. How-
ard had been desired today his obervations be-
fore the committee of fifteen in Dublin, who
have the superintendance of them. He also
made a report of their state before the Irish
House of Commons; and, having entered hear-
tily into the subject, he resolved to give it a
thorough investigation. He therefore extend- 
ed his visits to the whole of them, in number
thirty-eight, and to the four provincial nur-
series from which they are supplied. The re-
sult of his observations is here given with free 

(107)
censures of defects, and candid acknowledg-
ments of improvement. He concludes the ac-
count with some general remarks on the insti-
tution, and some hints for rendering it more
useful; and, after expressing a wish, that the
benefits of education were more generally ex-
tended over Ireland than they can be by those
schools, he displays the enlarged liberality of his
mind in the following sentence, which contains
a maxim worthy of being written in letters of
gold." I hope I shall not be thought, as a Pro-
testant dissenter, indifferent to the Protestant
cause, when I express my wish, that these distinc-
tions (between Catholic and Protestant) were less
regarded in bellowing the advantages of edu-
cation; and that the increase of Protestantism
were chiefly trusted to the dissemination of
knowledge and found morals."
This section is concluded, with an example
strikingly illustrative of the ease with which
education may be extended to the whole body
of poor, afforded by the trustees of the blue-
coat-hospital in Chester, whose report of their
plan and its success is here copied: and also,
with the rules of the Quaker's-school at Ack-
worth, excellently adapted to promote that
decent and regular deportment in youth which 

(108)
Mr. Howard so much admired. Ireland has
reason to think herself peculiarly indebted to
him for his laborious investigations and free re-
marks on her public institutions. No country
certainly wanted them more; and none, I be-
lieve, is better disposed to profit by them. She
has not been ungrateful to her benefactor (that
was never her character) for in no country
is the memory of Mr. Howard more revered.
During his journies there, several of the prin-
cipal towns presented him with their freedom;
and the University of Dublin, with great li-
berality, conferred on him the honorary de-
gree of Doctor of Laws. Mr. Howard's aver-
sion to all kinds of distinction, and the natural
dislike of changing his usual designation at an
advanced age, prevented him from publicly as-
suming this respectable title.
Sect. VIII. relates to English Prisons and
Hospitals. The prisons are all specified in the
order of the former works, with such remarks
as the alterations made in them, and other
circumstances, suggested. Many of the des-
criptions of hospitals are new, particularly an
account of all the hospitals for the sick in the
metropolis. It is probable that few institutions
of the kind in Europe are better conducted than

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these; yet there are defects, both general and
particular, which Mr. Howard has briefly
pointed out, and which claim the attention of
those who are really interested in the utility of
these noble charities, and do not consider them
merely as subservient to private emolument.
In a note under the county gaol in Southwark,
he mentions in strong terms of pity and indig-
nation the state of fifty felons, sentenced for
transportation in the course of the preceding
five years, and kept in the most wretched con-
dition till an opportunity should offer of put-
ting their sentence in execution. This neces-
sary delay of punishment must ever be a strong
objection to the scheme of distant banishment,
and gives a decided preference, both in justice
and policy, to the plan of penitentiary houses,
so thoughtlessly abandoned for the Botany-bay
settlement. The injustice, indeed, of the in-
termediate confinement, is lessened by an act of
24th Geo. III. which directs, that all the
time during which a convict shall have conti-
nued in gaol under sentence of transportation,
shall be deducted out of the term of his trans-
portation. Still, however, such confinement
is a different, and, in these circumstances, a
much worse, punishment, than that to which
they are sentenced.
K

(110)
The county Bridewell at Reading occasions
a note which deserves particular attention.
Mr. Howard has been supposed the peculiar
patron of solitary confinement, and his recom-
mendation has caused it to be adopted in vari-
ous places, but to a degree beyond his intenti-
ons. He well knew, from manifold observati-
on, that human nature could not endure, for a
long time, confinement in perfect solitude,
without sinking under the burden. He had
seen the most desperate and refractory in fo-
reign countries tamed by it; he therefore pro-
posed in our own prisons a temporary treatment
of this kind, as the most effectual, yet lenient,
mode of subduing the ferocity of our crimi-
nals: but he never thought of its being made
the sentence of offenders during the whole
term of their imprisonment; such being not
only extreme and scarcely justifiable severity,
but inconsistent with the design of reclaiming
them to habits of industry by hard labour. He,
indeed, universally approved of nocturnal so-
litude, as affording an opportunity for serious
reflection, and preventing those plans of mis-
chief, and mutual encouragements to villainy,
which are certain to take place among crimi-
nals, when left to herd together without in-
spection.

(111)
The employment of convicts in building a
new county gaol at Oxford, with their gene-
ral good behaviour in it, affords an example
of the possibility and probable good effect of
occupying them in useful labour at home.
The fever wards of the Chester infirmary
are very properly noticed, as a spirited instance
of extending relief to persons suffering under
a dangerous and infectious disease, and, by
proper regulations, rendering the contagion
harmless to others. I am persuaded, that the
plague itself, thus managed, might be prevent-
ed from communicating itself even to those un-
der the same roof with it. Mr. Howard was
happy to find in this city a character congenial
with his own in the ardour of active benevo-
lence, and distinguished by various successful
plans for the public good. To the medical
reader, as well as to many others, it will be
unnecessary to mention the name of Dr. Hay-
garth.
A particular account of all the hulks is given
at the end of the English gaols. The conditi-
on of these floating Bridewells was improved
in several respects since Mr. Howard's former
visits; but, if considered in any other light 

(112)
than as temporary places of confinement till
some better plan is adopted, they are liable to
many objections, which are here stated.
Remarks on Penitentiary Houses follow.
In these the writer states his ideas concerning
their nature and object, gives the reasons which
induced Dr. Fothergill and himself to fix on
the situation of Islington, and relates his re-
signation of the office of supervisor, as former-
ly mentioned. The general heads of regula-
tions proposed for such houses in the last Ap-
pendix, are here reprinted; and a plate is add-
ed explanatory of the plan of building he ap-
proves. It is on every account to be lamented,
that Mr. Howard should not have had the sa-
tisfaction of seeing one of his favourite designs,
the subject of his most laborious research and
maturest reflection, carried into execution.
The objection of expence was surely unworthy
of a country like this, whose prosperity and
resources are so magnificently displayed, when
the provinces of Holland, petty states of Ger-
many, and cantons of Switzerland, have not
been afraid of incurring it. Whether the pre-
ferred scheme of colonizing with convicts at
the Antipodes, has the advantage of it in this

(113)
respect, the public are now pretty well able to
determine.
In the remarks on the gaol fever, repeated
with a little variation from the last publication,
we are informed, that since 1782, when the
prisons of this kingdom were entirely free from
this disease, several fatal and alarming instances
of it had occurred. Its appearance and fre-
quency will probably much depend upon the
epidemic constitution of the year, as long as its
occasional causes continue to subsist; but that
proper care and regulations in prisons might
almost entirely extirpate these causes, there
seems no reason to doubt.
The conclusion expresses the writers satis-
faction in that humane and liberal spirit which
has so much alleviated the distress of prisoners;
but laments, that here its exertions seem to
stop, and that little or nothing is done towards
that most important object, the reformation of
offenders. From close observation he is con-
vinced, that the vice of drunkenness is the
root of all the disorders of our prisons, and that
some effectual means to eradicate it are necessa-
ry, if we mean to preserve the health and
amend, the morals of prisoners. Mr. Howard
K2

(114)
therefore subjoins, as his final legacy towards
the improvement of this branch of police, the
draught of a bill for the better regulation of
gaols, and the prevention of drunkenness and
rioting in them. Of this, the leading clauses
are framed for the purpose of absolutely pro-
hibiting the entrance of any liquor into a gaol
except milk, whey, buttermilk, and water, un-
less in case of sickness and medical prescription.
He was fully sensible that, in this free living
country, the denial of even small beer would
be deemed a species of cruelty; and he doubt-
ed not that it would go far to lose him, in the
popular estimation, the title of the Prisoner's
Friend: but as attaining a popularity of that
kind was not his original object, so he could
bear to forfeit it, while conscious of still pur-
suing the real good of those unhappy people.
Being convinced from experience, that there
was no medium in this matter, and that if strong
liquors were at all admitted into prisons, no
bounds could be set to their use, he thought it
right to deny an indulgence to a few, for the
sake of the essential advantage of the many.
Debtors, then, while the same place of con-
finement serve for them and felons, must be
subjected to the same restraints. And, to take
off the objection of the hardship this would im-

(115)
pose upon innocent debtors, it was greatly his
wish, that such alterations should take place in
our law for debt, that none but fraudulent
debtors should be liable to imprisonment, who,
he justly observes, are really criminals. He
supposes that the gentlemen of the faculty will
condemn the total rejection of fermented li-
quors from the diet of prisoners, under the no-
tion of their being useful as antiseptics; and I
confess I was one who pleaded with him on
this subject: but he answered me with argu-
ments which he has here stated, and they are
worthy of consideration. After all, many will
suppose, that in his feelings, both with respect
to these privations, and to his proposed indul-
gencies of tea, and other vegetable articles, he
was in some measure under the influence of his
own peculiar habits of life; so natural is it for
our judgment of particulars to be warped, when
our general principles remain fixed and unal-
tered. The draught of a bill will, I presume,
appear in most respects excellent; and the great
purpose of preserving sobriety in gaols, cannot,
surely, be too much insisted on.
Mr. Howard's leading ideas on this subject
were formed some years before. In May
1787, the Lord Chancellor, in an excellent

(116)
speech on a proposed Insolvent Bill, after dis-
cussing the point of imprisonment for debt, and
the nature of such bills, proceeded to some
considerations respecting the management and
discipline of our prisons. He said, " he had
lately had the honor of a conversation upon
the subject, with a gentleman who was, of all
others, the best qualified to treat of it -- he
meant, Mr. Howard, whose humanity, great as
it was, was at least equalled by his wisdom;
for a more judicious, or a more sensible reason-
er upon the topic, he never had conversed with.
His own ideas had been turned to solitary im-
prisonment and a strict regimen, as a punish-
ment for debt; and that notion had exactly
corresponded with Mr. Howard's, who had
agreed with him, that the great object ought
to be, when it became necessary to seclude a
man from society, and imprison him for debt,
to take care that he came out of prison no
worse a man in point of health and morals than
he went in." His Lordship afterwards recited
a story which Mr. Howard had told him, in
proof of the corruption and licentiousness of
our prisons. A Quaker, he said, called upon
him to go with him and witness a scene which,
if he were to go singly, would, he feared, be
too much for his feelings; it was, to visit a

(117)
friend in distress -- a person who had lately gone
into the King's-bench prison. When they ar-
rived, they found the man half-drunk, playing
at fives. Though greatly shocked at the cir-
cumstance, they asked him to go with them to
the coffee room, and take a glass of wine. He
refused, saying he had drank so much punch,
that he could not drink wine -- however, he
would call upon them before they went
away. Mr. Howard and his friend returned,
with feelings very different from those with
which they entered the place, but not less pain-
ful.
The volume concludes with several curious
and valuable tables, which will probably be
used for reference at future distant periods.
The enumeration of all the prisoners in Eng-
land at his visits in 1787 and 1788, shews an
alarming increase, though in some measure to
be accounted for, from a long suspension of
the usual transportation. They amount to
seven thousand four hundred and eighty-two.
Mr. Howard remained but a short time at
home after the printing of this work. In the
conclusion of it he had declared his intention
" again to quit his native country, for the pur-

(118)
pose of revisiting Russia, Turkey, and some
other countries, and extending his tour in the
east." The reason he has assigned for this de-
termination, is," a serious deliberate convic-
tion that he was pursuing the path of his duty;"
and it cannot be doubted, that this considera-
tion was now, as it ever had been, his leading
principle of action. But if if be asked, what
was his more peculiar object in this new jour-
ney, no decisive answer, I believe, can be given
by those who enjoyed the most of his confi-
dence. I had various conversations with him
on the subject; and I found rather a wish to
have objects of enquiry pointed out to him by
others, than any specific views present to his
own mind. As, indeed, his purpose was to ex-
plore regions entirely new to him, and of which
the police respecting his former objects was
very imperfectly known to Europe (for the
Turkish dominions in Asia, Egypt, and the
Barbary coast, were in his plan of travels), he
could not doubt that important subjects for ob-
servation would offer themselves unsought.
With respect to that part of his tour in which
he was to go over ground he had already trod-
den, I conceive that he expected to do good in
that censorial character, which his repeated
publications, known and attended to all over

(119)
Europe, gave him a right to assume; and which
he had before exercised to the great relief of
the miserable in various countries. If to these
motives be added the long formed habitude of
pursuing a certain track of enquiry, and an in-
quietude of mind proceeding from domestic
misfortune, no cause will be left to wonder
at so speedy a renewal of his toils and dan-
gers.
He had resolved to go this journey too,
without an attendant; and it was not till af-
ter the most urgent and affectionate entreaties,
that his servant obtained permission to accom-
pany him. Before he set out, he and his very
intimate and highly respected friend, Dr. Price,
took a most affectionate and pathetic leave of
each other. From the age and infirmities of
the one, and the hazards the other was going
to encounter, it was the foreboding of each of
them that they should never meet again in this
world; and their farewell corresponded with
the solemnity of such an occasion. The rea-
der's mind will pause upon the parting embrace
of two such men; and revere the mixture of
cordial affection, tender regret, philosophic
firmness, and christian resignation, which their
minds must have displayed. 

(120)
It was in the beginning of July 1789 that
he arrived  in Holland. Thence he proceeded
through the north of Germany, Prussia, Cour-
land, find Livonia, to St. Petersburgh. From
this capital he went to Moscow. Some ex-
tracts of a letter to Dr. Price dated from this
city, September 22, 1789, will, I doubt not,
be acceptable, as one of the latest records of his
career of benevolence.
" When I left England, I first stopped at
Amsterdam, and proceeded to Osnaburgh, Ha-
nover, Brunswick, and Berlin; then to Ko-
nigsberg, Riga, and Petersburgh; at all which
places I visited the prisons and hospitals, which
were all flung open to me, and in some, the
burgomasters accompanied me into the dun-
geons, as well as into the other rooms of con-
finement. I arrived a few days ago in this city,
and have begun my rounds. The hospitals are
in a sad state. Upwards of seventy thousand
sailors and recruits died in them last year. I
labour to convey the torch of philanthropy in-
to these distant regions. -- I am quite well—-
the weather clear-- the mornings fresh -- ther-
mometer 48, but fires not yet begun. I wish
for a mild winter, and then shall make some
progress in my European expedition. My me-

(121)
dical acquaintance give me but little hope of
escaping the plague in Turkey. I do not look
back, but would readily endure any hardships,
and encounter any dangers, to be an honor to
my Christian profession."
From Moscow he took his course to the very
extremity of European Russia, extended as it
now is to the shores of the Black-sea, where
long dreary tracts of desert are terminated by
some of those new establishments, which have
cost such immense profusion of blood and trea-
sure to two vast empires, now become neigh-
bors and perpetual foes. Here, at the distance
of 1,500 miles from his native land, he fell a
victim to disease, the ravages of which, among
unpitied multitudes, he was exerting every
effort to restrain. Finis vitæ nobis luctuosus,
amicis tristis, extraneis etiam ignotisque non sine
cura!
From the faithful and intelligent servant who
accompanied him (Mr. Thomas Thomason), I
have been favored with an account of various
particulars relative to his last illness, which I
shall give to the reader in the form in which I
received it.
L

(122)
" The winter being far advanced on the
taking of Bender, the commander of the Russi-
an army at that place gave permission to many
of the officers to visit their friends at Cherson,
as the Severity of the season would not admit
of a continuance of hostilities against the Turks.
Cherson, in consequence, became much crowd-
ed; and the inhabitants testified their joy for
the success of the Russians by balls and masque-
rades. Several of the officers, of the inhabi-
tants of Cherson, and of the gentry in the
neighbourhood, who attended these balls, were
almost immediately afterwards attacked with
fevers; and it was Mr. Howard's idea, that
the infection had been brought by the officers
from Bender. Amongst the number who caught
this contagion was a young lady who resided
about sixteen miles from Cherson. When she
had been ill some little time, Mr. Howard was
earnestly requested to visit her. He saw her
first on Sunday, December 27. He visited her
again in the middle of the week, and a third
time on the Sunday following, January 3. On
that day he found her sweating very profusely;
and, being unwilling to check this by uncover-
ing her arm, he passed his under the bed-
clothes to feel her pulse. While he was doing
this, the effluvia from her body were very of-

(123)
fensive to him, and it was always his own opi-
nion that he then caught the fever. She died
on the following day. Mr. Howard was much
affected by her death, as he had flattered him-
self with hopes of her amendment. From Ja-
nuary 3d to the 8th he scarcely went out*;
but on that day he went to dine with Admiral
Montgwinoff, who lived about a mile and a
half from his lodgings. He staid later than
usual; and when he returned, found himself
unwell, and thought he had something of the
gout flying about him. He immediately took
some Sal Volatile in a little tea, and thought
himself better till three or four on Saturday
morning, when feeling not so well, he repeat-
ed the Sal Volatile. He got up in the morn-
ing and walked out; but, finding himself worse,
soon returned and took an emetic. On the fol-
lowing night he had a violent attack of fever,
when he had recourse to his favorite remedy,
James powder, which he regularly took eve-
ry two or four hours till Sunday the 17th.
For though Prince Potemkin sent his own phy-
sician to him, immediately on being acquainted
* There seems some mistake here, as there is a full
report in his memorandums, of a visit to the hospitals in
Cherson, dated January 6. 

(124)
with his illness, yet his own prescriptions were
never interfered with during this time. On
the 12th he had a kind of fit, in which he sud-
denly fell down, his face became black, his
breathing difficult, and he remained insensible
for half an hour. On the 17th he had another
similar fit. On the 18th he was seized with
hiccuping, which continued on the next day,
when he took some musk draughts by direction
of the physician. About seven o'clock on
Wednesday morning, the 20th of January, he
had another fit, and died in about an hour af-
ter. He was perfectly sensible during his ill-
ness, except in the fits, till within a very few
hours of his death. This event he all along
expected to take place; and he often said, that
he had no other wish for life than as it gave
him the means of relieving his fellow-crea-
tures.
During his illness he received a letter from
a friend, who mentioned having lately seen his
son at Leicester, and expressed his hopes that
Mr. Howard would find him better on his re-
turn to England. When this account was read
to him, it affected him much. His expressions
of pleasure were particularly strong, and he
often desired his servant, if ever by the blessing 

(125)
of God, his son was restored, to tell him how
much he prayed for his happiness. He made a
will* on the Thursday before he died; and
was buried, at his own request, at the villa of
M. Dauphine, about eight miles from Cherson,
where a monument is erected over his grave.
He made the observation, that he should here
be at the same distance from Heaven, as if
brought back to England. While in Cherson,
he saw the accounts of the demolition of the
Bastille, which seemed to afford him a very
particular pleasure; and he thought it possible,
the account he had himself published of it,
might have contributed to this event."
On this relation, the general exactness of
which may, I doubt not be fully relied on, I
shall only make a medical remark or two. Not-
withstanding Mr. Howard's conviction of hav-
ing caught the contagion from the young lady,
I think the distance of time between his last
visit to her and his own seizure, makes the fact
dubious. Contagion thus sensibly received,
usually, I believe, operates in a less period than
* This must probably have been only some directions
to hit executors, as his will is dated in 1787.
L2

(126)
five days*. Perhaps his visit to the hospitals
on the 6th, or his late return from the Admi-
ral's on the 8th, in a cold season and un-
wholesome climate, will better account for it.
The nature of his complaint is not very clear,
for it is very uncommon for the senses to re-
main entire till the last, in a fever of the low
or putrid kind; nor are fits, resembling epi-
leptic attacks, among the usual symptoms of
such a disease. That a wandering gout might
make part of his indisposition, is not very im-
probable, as it was a disorder to which he was
constitutionally liable, though his mode of liv-
ing prevented any severe paroxysms of it. At
any rate, his disease was certainly attended
with debility of the vital powers, and therefore
the long and frequent use of James powders
must have been prejudicial. And I think it
highly probable, that Mr. Howard's name may
be added to the numerous list of those, whose
lives have been sacrificed to the empirical use
of a medicine of great activity, and therefore
capable of doing much harm as well as good.
* According to Dr. Lind, its effects, shivering and
sickness, are instantaneous. See Dissert, on Fevers and
Infection. Chap. ii. sect. I

(127)
It was Mr. Howard's written request, that
his papers should be corrected and fitted for
publication by Dr. Price and myself. The de-
clining state of health of Dr. Price*, has
* Whilst I am engaged in this work, Dr. Price has
followed his friend to the grave. A character so illu-
strious will, doubtless, have all justice done it by some
pen qualified to display its various merits. May I be
permitted, however, to take this occasion of mingling
my regrets with those of his other friends and admirers,
and offering a small tribute to the memory of one of the
most excellent of men! Though during life the advanc-
ed station he occupied in political controversy rendered
his name as obnoxious to some, as it was cherished and
revered by others, yet now he is gone to that place
where all worldly differences are at an end; it may be
hoped, that the liberal of all denominations will con-
cur, in respecting a long course of years spent in the
unremitted application of eminent abilities and ac-
quirements, to the promotion of what he regarded as
the greatest good of his fellow-creatures. A character
in which were combined simplicity of heart, with depth
of understanding,-- ardent love of truth, with true
Christian charity and humility;-- high zeal for the
public interests, with perfect freedom from all private
views; cannot be ultimately injured by the petulence
of wit, or the invectives of eloquence. Dr. Price's re-
putation as a moralist, philosopher, and politician,
may safely be committed to impartial posterity.

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caused the business to devolve solely on me,
and I have executed it to the best of my pow-
er. Little was requisite to be done to the
greatest part, which he had himself copied out
fair. The rest was with some difficulty to be
compiled out of detached and broken memo-
randums; but in these his own words are as
much as possible preserved. Of this Supple-
ment I shall give a general account, as I have
done of the former parts of his works.
The order and regularity of Holland still
afford useful descriptions, and some of the a-
buses which even there had crept in, seem to
have been corrected since Mr. Howard's visits.
The friend to humanity has yet, however, to
lament the continued use of the torture there,
to force confession. The state of the prisons in
Osnaburgh, Hanover, and Brunswick, is again
dwelt upon with some minuteness, obviously
because the writer thought there was some
probability of his attracting, in a more peculiar
manner, the notice of those who have the
power of remedying their defects. Who will
not sympathize with him in the disappointment
he expresses in this instance, and bewail the
strange fatality by which the utmost barbarity
of the torture is retained in the dominions of a

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mild and enlightened Sovereign, whose inter-
positions could not but be efficacious in suppres-
sing it!
At Berlin and Spandau the institutions ap-
pear to preserve the good order in which they
were left by the Great Frederic. Konigsberg
seems to shew the neglect incident to places dis-
tant from the seat of government. In a note
under this place, Mr. Howard makes an ac-
knowledgment of the attention with which his
remarks have been honored in various foreign
countries, and properly adduces it as a reason
for his adoption of that censorial manner of
noting abuses, which, in his later journies, he
has not scrupled freely to employ.
At St. Petersburgh he had the pleasure to
observe several improvements in the hospitals,
probably in great part owing to his own sug-
gestions. Under Cronstadt he finds occasion,
however, to animadvert upon an alteration in
the plan of diet, generally adopted throughout
the marine and military hospitals of Russia,
which, in his opinion, is highly prejudicial.
This alteration consists in changing milk, and
various other articles, constituting the usual li-
quid and middle diet of the sick, for the strong-

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er and less digestible food of men in health.
The prisons at Moscow seem greatly neglect-
ed by those whose office it is to superintend
them; but the charity displayed by individuals
towards the poor wretches confined in them,
gave Mr. Howard a favorable idea of the hu-
mane disposition of the nation, confirmed by
what he saw of their manners in his travels.
He now hastened to those scenes, where a
destructive war, co-operating with an unwhole-
some climate, produced such evils, aggravated
by neglect and inhumanity, that they gave him
no other occupation than to lament and com-
plain. After all the allowances that candor
demands, for inevitable wants and hardships in
the distant posts of a newly possessed country,
and during the heighth of widely extended mi-
litary operations, the Russian commanders can-
not be vindicated from an inattention to the
lives and comforts of their soldiers, greater, as
Mr. Howard observes, than he had seen in any
other country. Ignorance, abuse, mismanage-
ment, and deficiency, seem at their very sum-
mit in the military hospitals of Cherson, Wi-
towka, and St. Nicholas. The lively pictures
he has drawn of the distresses he here witnessed,
and his pathetic description of the sufferings of

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the poor recruits, marched from their distant
homes to these melancholy regions, must awa-
ken in every feeling breast a warm indignation
against the schemes of ambitious despotism,
however varnished over with the coloring of
glory, or even of national utility. No lesson
ought to be more forcibly impressed on man-
kind, than, that uncontroled power in one or
few, notwithstanding it may occasionally be
exercised in splendid and even beneficent de-
signs, is on the whole absolutely inconsistent
with the happiness of a people*. The Em-
press of Russia's unjust seizure of Lesser and
Crim Tartary, has been the cause of miseries
not to be calculated, to her own subjects and
those of Turkey,and has endangered the tran-
quility of all Europe.
I shall conclude this review of the works
and public services of Mr. Howard with brief
annals of his more than Herculean labors, du-
ring the last seventeen years of his life.
* Scilicet ut Turno contingat regia conjunx
Nos, animæ viles, inhumata infletaque turba,
Sternamur campis. Æn. xi.

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1773 High-sheriff of Bedfordshire. Visit.
ed many county and town gaols.
1774. Completed his survey of English
gaols. Stood candidate to represent
the town of Bedford.
1775. Travelled to Scotland, Ireland,
France, Holland, Flanders and Ger-
many.
1776. Repeated his visit to the above coun-
tries, and to Switzerland. During
these two years revisited all the Eng-
lish gaols.
1777. Printed his state of prisons.
1778. Travelled through Holland, Flanders,
Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and
part of France.
1779. Revisited all the counties of England,
and Wales, and travelled into Scot-
land and Ireland. Acted as Supervi
sor of the Penitentiary Houses.
1780. Printed his first Apendix.

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1781. Travelled into Denmark, Sweden,
Russia, Poland, Germany, and Hol-
land.
1782. Again surveyed all the English pri-
sons, and went into Scotland and Ire-
land.
1783. Visited Portugal, Spain, France,
Flanders and Holland: also, Scotland
and Ireland; and viewed several
English prisons.
1784. Printed the second Appendix, and a
new edition of his whole works.
1785. 
1786. 
1787.
From the close of the first of these
years, to the beginning of the last,
on his tour through Holland,
France, Italy, Malta, Turkey and
Germany. Afterwards went to
Scotland and Ireland.
1788. Revisited Ireland; and during this
and the former year, travelled over
all England.
M

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1789. Printed his work on Lazarettos, &c.
Travelled through Holland, Germa-
ny, Prussia, and Livenia, to Russia
and Lesser Tartary.
1790. January 20. Died at Cherson.
Having thus traced the footsteps of this great
philanthropist from the cradle to the grave, and
followed them with close inspection in that part
of his course which comprehends his more
public life, it only remains, to assemble those
features of character which have been display-
ed in his actions, and to form them in conjunc-
tion with such minuter strokes as studious ob-
servation may have enabled me to draw, into a
faithful portraiture of the man.
The first thing that struck an observer on
acquaintance with Mr. Howard, was a stamp
of extraordinary vigour and energy on all his
movements and expressions. An eye lively and
penetrating, strong and prominant features,
quick gait, and animated gestures, gave pro-
mise of ardor in forming, and vivacity in exe-

(135)
cuting his designs*. At no time of his life, I
believe, was he without some object of warm
pursuit; and in every thing he pursued, he was
indefatigable in aiming at perfection. Give him
a hint of any thing he had left short, or any
new acquisition to be made, and while you
might suppose he was deliberating about it, you
were surprised with finding it was done. Not
Cæsar himself could better exemplify the po-
et's
Nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum.
I remember that, having accidently remark-
ed to him that amongst the London prisons he
* Mr. Howard had so much contempt for worldly
honors that he would never fit to any painter whatever,
and this has given rise to an opinion that there is no
correct likeness of hint. In this respect, however, the
public seem to be under a mistake. An ingenious and
respectable artist, Mr. T. Holloway, whose talents are
justly admired, had often an opportunity of being in
company with Mr. Howard in a public place, where
a sketch of his features might be stolen. The tempta-
tion was too great to be resisted. An accurate sketch
was made, and an engraving  executed from it, ac-
companies this life, and will afford a very just idea of
the features of this great and good man.
The American Editor can assure the public, that,
the original sketch alluded to above, is now in the pos-
session of Mr. Caleb Lownes of this city. 

(136)
had omitted the Tower, he was so struck with
the deficiency (though of trifling consequence,
since confinement there is so rare), that at his
very first leisure he ran to London, and suppli-
ed it. Nor was it only during a short period
of ardour that his exertions were thus awaken-
ed. He had the still rarer quality of being
able, for any length of time, to bend all the
powers and faculties of his mind to one point,
unseduced by every allurement which curiosity
or any other affection might throw in his way,
and unsusceptible of that satiety and disgust
which are so apt to steal upon a protracted pur-
suit. Though by his early travels he had
shewn himself not indifferent to those objects of
taste and information which strike the cultiva-
ted mind in a foreign country, yet in the tours
expressly made for the purpose of examining
prisons and hospitals, he appears to have had
eyes and ears for nothing else: at least he suf-
fered no other object to detain him or draw him
aside*. Impressed with the idea of the impor-
tance of his designs, and the uncertainty of hu-
man life, he was impatient to get as much done
* He mentioned being once prevailed upon in Italy
to go and hear some extraordinary fine music; but,
finding his thoughts too much occupied by it, he would
never repeat the indulgence. 

(137)
as possible within the allotted limits. And in
this disposition consisted that enthusiasm by
which the public supposed him actuated; for
otherwise, his cool and steady temper gave no
idea of the character usually distinguished by
that appellation. He followed his plans, indeed,
with wonderful vigour and constancy, but by
no means with that heat and eagerness, that in-
flamed and exalted imagination, which de-
note the enthusiast. Hence, he was not liable
to catch at partial representations, to view
facts through fallacious mediums, and to fall
into those mistakes which are so frequent in
the researches of the man of fancy and warm
feeling. Some persons, who only knew him
by his extraordinary actions, were ready e-
nough to bestow upon him that sneer of con-
tempt, which men of cold hearts and selfish
dispositions are so apt to apply to whatever has
the shew of high sensibility. While others,
who had a slight acquaintance with him, and
saw occasional features of phlegm, and perhaps
harshness, were disposed to question his feeling
altogether, and to attribute his exertions ei-
ther merely to a sense of duty, or to habit
and humour. But both these were erroneous
conclusions. He felt as a man should feel; but
not so as to mislead him, either in the estimate
M2

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he formed of objects of utility, or in his rea-
sonings concerning the means by which they
were to be brought into effect. The reforma-
tion of abuses, and the relief of misery, were
the two great purposes which he kept in view
in all his undertakings; and I have equally
seen the tear of sensibility start into his eyes
on recalling some of the distressful scenes to
which he had been witness, and the spirit of
indignation flash from them on relating instan-
ces of baseness and oppression. Still, however,
his constancy of mind and self-collection never
deserted him. He was never agitated, never
off his guard; and the unspeakable advanta-
ges of such a temper in the scenes in which he
was engaged, need not be dwelt upon.
His whole course of action was such a trial
of intrepidity and sortitude, that it may seem
altogether superfluous to speak of his possession
of these qualities. He had them, indeed, both
from nature and principle. His nerves were
firm; and his conviction of marching in the
path of duty made him fearless of consequen-
ces. Nor was it only on great occasions that
this strength of mind was shown. It raised
him above false shame, and that awe which
makes a coward of many a brave man in the

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presence of a superior. No one ever less
"feared the face of man," than he. No one
hesitated less in speaking bold truths, or a-
vowing obnoxious opinions. His courage was
equally passive and active. He was prepared
to make every sacrifice that a regard to strict
veracity, or rigorous duty, could enjoin; and
it cannot be doubted, that, had he lived in an
age when asserting his civil and religious rights
would have subjected him to martyrdom, not a
more willing martyr would ever have ascend-
ed the scaffold, or embraced the stake.
The resolute temper of Mr. Howard dis-
played itself in a certain peremptoriness, which,
when he had once determined, rendered him
unyielding to persuasion or dissausion, and urg-
ed him on to the accomplishment of his pur-
pose, regardless of obstacles. He expected
prompt obedience in those from whom he had
a right to require it, and was not a man to be
treated with negligence and inattention. He
was, however, extremely considerate, and suf-
ficiently indulgent to human frailties; and a
good-will to please him could scarcely fail of
its effect. That his commands were reasona-
ble, and his expectations moderate, may be in-
ferred from the long continuance of most of

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his servants with him, and his steady attach-
ment to many of those whom he employed.
His means of enforcing compliance were chiefly
rewards; and the withholding them was his
method of showing displeasure*.
* The following characteristic anecdote was com-
municated to me by a gentleman who travelled in a
chaise with him from Lancashire to London in 1777.
Mr. Howard observed, that he had found few things
more difficult to manage than post-chaise drivers, who
would seldom comply with his wishes of going flow or
fast, till he adopted the following method. At the end
of a stage, when the driver had been perverse, he de-
sired the landlord to send for some poor industrious wi-
dow, or other proper object of charity, and to intro-
duce such person and the driver together. He then paid
the latter his fare, and told him, that as he had not
thought proper to attend to his repeated requests as to
the manner of being driven, he should not make him
any present; but, to show him that he did not withhold
it out of a principle of parsimony, he would give the
poor person present double the sum usually given to a
postillion. This he did, and dismissed the parties. He
had not long practised this mode, he said, before he
experienced the good effects of it on all the reads when
he was known.
A more extraordinary instance of his determined spi-
rit has been related to me. Travelling once in the king 

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The spirit of independence by which he was
ever distinguished, had in him the only founda-
tion to be relied on, moderate desires. Per-
fectly contented with the competence which
Providence had bestowed on him, he never
had a thought of increasing it; and even when
in a situation to expect a family, he made it a
rule with himself to lay up no part of his an-
nual income, but to expend in some useful or
benevolent scheme the superfluity of the year.
of Prussia's dominions, he came to a very narrow
piece of road, admitting only one carriage, where it
was enjoined on all postillions entering at each end, to
blow their horns by way of notice. His did so; but,
after proceeding a good way, they met a courier tra-
velling on the king's business, who had neglected this
precaution. The courier ordered Mr. Howard's postil-
lion to turn back; but Mr. Howard remonstrated, that
he had complied with the rule, while the other had vio-
lated it; and therefore that he should insist on going
forwards. The courier, relying on an authority, to
which, in that country, every thing must give way,
made use of high words, but in vain. As neither was
disposed to yield, they sat still a long time in their res-
pective carriages: at length the courier gave up the
point to the sturdy Englishman, who would on no ac-
count renounce his rights. 

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Lest this should be converted into a charge of
carelessness in providing for his own, it may be
proper to mention, that he had the best-
grounded expectations, that any children he
might have, would largely partake of the wealth
of their relations. Thus he preserved his
heart from that contamination, which (taking
in the whole of life) is perhaps the disease most
frequently attendant on a state of prosperity,-
the lust of growing rich; a passion, which is too
often found to swallow up liberality, public spi-
rit, and, at last, that independency, which it is
the best use of wealth to secure. By this tem-
per of mind he was elevated to an immeasur-
able distance above every thing mean and sor-
did; and in all his transactions he displayed a
spirit of honor and generosity, that might be-
come the " blood of the Howards" when flow-
ing in its noblest channels.
Had Mr. Howard been less provided with
the goods of fortune, his independency would
have found a resource in the fewness of his
wants; and it was an inestimable advantage
which he brought to his great work, an ad-
vantage perhaps more uncommon in this coun-
try than any of those already mentioned, that
he possessed a command over all corporeal ap-

(143)
petites and habitudes, not less perfect than that
of any ancient philosopher, or modern ascetic
The strict regimen of diet which he had adopt-
ed early in life from motives of health, he af-
terwards persevered in through choice, and
even extended its rigour, so as to reject all
those indulgencies which even the most tempe-
rate consider as necessary for the preservation
of their strength and vigor. Animal foods,
and fermented and spirituous drinks, he utter-
ly discarded from his diet. Water and the
plainest vegetables sufficed him. Milk, tea,
butter, and fruit, were his luxuries; and he
was equally sparing in the quantity of food,
and indifferent as to the stated times of taking
it. Thus he found his wants supplied in al-
most every place where man existed, and was
as well provided in the posadas of Spain and
caravanseras of Turkey, as in the inns and
hotels of England and France. Water was
one of his principal necessaries, for he was a
very Musselman in his ablutions; and if nicety
or delicacy had place with him in any respect,
it was in the perfect cleanliness of his whole
person. He was equally tolerant of heat, cold,
and all the vicissitudes of climate; and, what
is more wonderful, not even sleep seemed ne-
cessary to him, at least at those returns and in

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those proportions in which mankind in general
expect it. How well he was capable of endur-
ing fatigue, the amazing journies he took by
all modes of conveyance, without any inter-
vals of what might be called repose (since his
only baiting places were his proper scenes of
action), abundantly testify. In short no hu-
man body was probably ever more perfectly
the servant of the mind by which it was actu-
ated; and all the efforts of the strongest consti-
tution, not inured to habits of self-denial, and
moral as well as corporeal exercise, would have
been unequal to his exertions*.
With respect to the character of his under-
standing, that, too, was as happily adapted
to the great business in which he engaged.
* The following account of his mode of travelling,
communicated to me by a gentleman in Dublin,
who had much free conversation with him, and the
substance of which I well recollect to have heard
from himself, will, I doubt not, prove interesting.
" When he travelled in England or Ireland, it was
generally on horseback, and he rode about forty
English miles a day. He was never at a loss for
an inn. When in Ireland, or the highlands of Scot.
land, he used to stop at one of the poor cabins that
slick up a rag by way of sign, and get a little milk.

(145)
He had not, in a high degree, that extensive
comprehension, that faculty of generalizing,
which is said to distinguish the man of genius,
but which, without a previous collection of
authentic materials, is ever apt to lead into er-
roneous speculations. He was rather a man of
When he came to the town he was to sleep at, he be-
spoke a supper, with wine and beer, like another tra-
veller, but made his man attend him, and take it away,
whilst he was preparing his bread and milk. He al-
ways paid the waiters, postillions, &c. liberally, be-
cause he would have no discontent or dispute, nor suf-
fer his spirits to be agitated for such a matter; saying,
that in a journey that might cost three or four hundred
pounds, fifteen or twenty pounds addition was not
worth thinking about. When he travelled on the con-
tinent, he usually went post in his own chaise, which
was a German one that he bought for the purpose.
He never stopped till he came to the town he meant to
visit, but travelled all night, if necessary; and from
habit could sleep very well in the chaise for several
nights together. In the last tour but one he travelled
twenty days and nights together without going to bed,
and found no inconvenience from it. He used to carry
with him a small tea-kettle, some cups, a little pot of
sweetmeats, and a few loaves. At the post-house he
could get his water boiled, send out for milk, and make
his repast, while his man went to the auberge.”
N

(146)
detail; of laborious accuracy and minute exa-
mination; and therefore he had the proper
qualities for one who was to lead the way in
researches where all was ignorance, confusion,
and local custom. Who but such a man could
have collected a body of information, which
has made even professional men acquainted with
interesting facts that they never before knew;
and has given the English reader a more exact
knowledge of practices followed in Russia and
Spain, than he before had of those in his own
country? This minuteness of detail was what
he ever regarded as his peculiar province. As
he was of all men the most modest estimator of
his own abilities, he was used to say," I am
the plodder, who goes about to collect materials
for men of genius to make use of."  Let those
who look with fastidiousness upon long tables
of rules and orders, and measurements of cells
and work-rooms, given in feet and inches,
consider, that when a scheme is brought into
practice, these small circumstances must have
their place; and that the most ingenious plans
often fail in their execution for want of adjust-
ment in the nicer parts. Perhaps even the
great Frederic of Prussia was more indebted
for success to the exactness of his dispositions in
every minute particular connected with prac-

(147)
tice, than to deep and sublime views of gene-
ral principles.
From a similar cast of mind, Mr. Howard
was a friend to subordination, and all the de-
corums of regular society; nor did he dislike
vigorous exertions of civil authority, when di-
rected to laudable purposes. He intersered
little in disputes relative to the theory of go-
vernment; but was contented to take system
of sovereignty as he found them established in
various parts of the world, satisfied with
prompting such an application of their powers
as might promote the welfare of the respective
communities. A state of imprisonment being
that in which the rights of men are, in great
part, at least, suspended, it was natural that
his thoughts should be more conversant with a
people as the subjects, than as the source, of
authority. Yet he well knew, and properly
valued, the inestimable blessings of political
freedom, as opposed to despotism; and, among
the nations of Europe, he considered the Dutch
and Swiss as affording the best examples of a
strict and steady police, conducted upon princi-
ples of equity and humanity. To the charac-
ter of the Dutch he was, indeed, peculiarly
partial; and frequently asserted, that he should

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prefer Holland for his place of residence, to
any other foreign country. I can add, from
undoubted authority, that Mr. Howard was
one of those who (in the language of the great
Lord Chatham)  " rejoiced that America had
resisted," and triumphed in her final success;
and that he was principally attached to the po-
pular part of our constitution; and that in his
own county he distinguished himself by a spi-
rited opposition to aristocratical influence.
His peculiar habits of life, and the exclusive
attention he bestowed in his later years on a
few objects, caused him to appear more averse
to society than I think he really was; and it
has been mentioned as an unfortunate circum-
stance, that his shyness and reserve frequently
kept him out of the way of persons from whom
he might have derived much useful informati-
tion. But it is vain to desire things incompa-
tible. Mr. Howard can scarcely be denied to
have chosen the best way, upon the whole, of
conducting his enquiries; and if he had been a
a more companionable man, more ready to in-
dulge his own curiosity, and gratify that of
others, he would no longer have possessed one
of the chief advantages he brought to his great
work. Yet while he assiduously stunned all

(149)
engagements which would have involved him
in the forms and dissipation of society, he was
by no means disinclined to enter into conver-
sations on his particular topics; on the contra-
ry, he was often extremely communicative,
and would enliven a small circle with the most
entertaining relations of his travels and ad-
ventures.
Mr. Howard had in a high degree that res-
pectful attention to the female sex which so
much characterises the gentleman. Perhaps,
indeed, I may here be referring to rules of
politeness which no longer exist. But he was
as thoroughly impressed with the maxim of
place aux dames as any Frenchman, though
without the Strain of light and complimentary
gallantry which has accompanied it in the in-
dividuals of that nation. His was a more se-
rious sentiment, connected with the uniform
practice of giving up his own ease and accom-
modation, for the sake of doing a real kindness
to any female of decent character. It is ex-
cellently illustrated by an anecdote related in
a magazine, by a person who chanced to sail
with him in the packet from Holyhead to Dub-
lin, when the vessel being much crowded, Mr.
Howard resigned his bed to a servant-maid,
N2

(150)
and took up with the cabin floor for himself.
It is likewise displayed throughout his works,
by the warmth with which he always censures
the practice of putting female prisoners in irons,
and exposing them to any harsh and indelicate
treatment. He was fond of nothing so much
as the conversation of women of education and
cultivated manners, and studied to attach them
by little elegant presents, and other marks of
attention. Indeed, his soft tone of voice and
gentleness of demeanour might be thought to
approach somewhat to the effeminate, and
would surprise those who had known him only
by the energy of his exertions. In his judg-
ment of female character, it was manifest that
the idea of his lost Harriet was the standard of
excellence; and, if ever he had married again,
a resemblance to her would have been the
principal motive of his choice. I recollect to
this purpose a singular anecdote, which he re-
lated to us on his return from one of his tours.
In going from one town in Holland to another
in the common passage boat, he was placed
near an elderly gentleman, who had in com-
pany a young lady of a most engaging manner
and appearance, which very strongly remind-
ed him of his Harriet. He was so much struck
with her, that, on arriving at the place of de-

(151)
stination, he caused his servant to follow them,
and get intelligence who they were. It was
not without some disappointment that he learn-
ed, that the old gentleman was an eminent
merchant, and the young lady,-- his wife.
Mr. Howard's predilection for female socie-
ty, was in part a consequence of his abhorrence
of every thing gross and licentious. His own
language and manners were invariably pure
and delicate; and the freedoms which pass un-
censured or even applauded in the promiscuous
companies of men, would have affected him
with sensations of disgust. For a person pos-
sessed of such feelings, to have brought him-
self to submit to such frequent communication
with the most abandoned of mankind, was per-
haps a greater triumph of duty over inclina-
tion than any other he obtained in the prosecu-
tion of his designs. Yet the nature of his er-
rand to prisons probably inspired awe and respect
in the most dissolute; and I think he has record-
ed, that he never met with a single insult from
the prisoners in any of the gaols he visited.
As Mr. Howard was so eminently a religions
character, it may be expected that somewhat
more should be said of the peculiar tenets he

(152)
adopted. But, besides that this was a topic
which did not enter into our conversations,
I confess, I do not perceive how his ge-
neral plan of conduct was likely to be influ-
enced by any peculiarity of that kind. The
principle of religious duty, which is nearly the
same in all systems, and differs rather in strength
than in kind in different persons, is surely suf-
ficient to account for all that he did and under-
went in promoting the good of mankind, by
modes which Providence seemed to place be-
fore him. It has been suggested, that he was
much under the influence of the doctrine of
predestination; and I know not what of stern-
ness has been attributed to him as its natural
consequence. For my own part, I am not
able to discover in what those notions of Pro-
vidence, general and particular, which make
part of the profession of all religions, differ es-
sentially from the opinions of the predestinari-
ans; and, from manifold observation, I am
certain, that the reception of the doctrine of
predestination, as an article of belief, does not
necessarily imply those practical consequences
which might seem deducible from it. The lan-
guage, at least, of our lower classes of people
is almost universally founded upon it; but when
one them dies of an infectious disease, not with-

(153)
standing the bystanders all speak of the event
as fated and inevitable, yet each, for himself,
does not the less avoid the infection, or the less
recur to medical aid if attacked by it. Wish
respect to Mr. Howard, he never seemed to
adopt the idea that he was moved by an irre-
sistible impulse to his designs; for they were
the subject of much thought and discussion:
nor did he confront dangers because he had a
persuasion that he should be preserved from
their natural consequences, but because he was
elevated above them. This sentiment he has
himself more than once expressed in print; and
surely none could be either more rational, or
more adequate to the effects produced." Be-
ing in the way of my duty (says he), I fear
no evil." I may venture to affirm, that those
of the medical profession, whose fearlessness is
not merely the result of habit, must reason up-
on the same principle, when they calmly expose
themselves to similar hazards. They, for the
most part, use no precautions against contagion:
Mr. Howard did use some; though their ef-
fects were probably trifling compared with that
of his habitual temperance and cleanliness,
and his untroubled serenity of mind. On the
whole, his religious confidence does not appear
to have been of a nature different from that of

(154)
other pious men; but to be so steadily and uni-
formly under its influence, and to be elevated
by it to such a superiority to all worldly consi-
derations, can be the lot of none but those who
have formed early habits of referring every
thing to the divine will, and of fixing all their
views on futurity.
From Mr. Howard's connexions with those
sects who have ever shewn a particular abhor-
rence of the frauds and superstitions of pope-
ry, it might be supposed, that he would look
with a prejudiced eye on the professors and
ministers of that persuasion. But such was
his veneration for true vital religion, that he
was as ready to pay it honour when he met
with it in the habit of a monk, as under the
garb of a teacher: and throughout his works,
as well as in conversation, he ever dwelt with
great complacency on the pure zeal for the
good of mankind, and genuine Christian chari-
ty, which he frequently discovered among the
Roman Catholic clergy, both regular and se-
cular. He was no friend to that hasty disso-
lution of convents and monastaries which for-
med part of the multifarious reforms of the
late Emperor of Germany. He pitied the
aged inmates, male and female, of these quiet 

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abodes, who were driven from their beloved
retreats into the wide world, with a very
slender and often ill-paid pittance for their
support." Why might not they (he would
say) be suffered gradually to die away, and be
transplanted from one religious house to ano-
ther as their numbers lessened?" Those or-
ders which make it the great duty of their
profession to attend with the kindest assiduity
upon the sick and imprisoned, and who there-
fore came continually within his notice, seem-
ed to conciliate his good will to the whole
fraternity; and the virtues of order, decency,
sobriety, and charity, so much akin to his own,
naturally inclined him to a kind of fellowship
with them. He rigorously, however, abstained
from any compliances with their worship which
he thought unlawful; and gave them his es-
teem as men, without the least disposition to
concur with them as theologians.
Such were the great lines of Mr. Howard's
Character--lines strongly marked, and sufficient
to discriminate him from any of those who
have appeared in a part somewhat similar to
his own on the theatre of the world. The
union of qualities which so peculiarly fitted
him for the post he undertook, is not likely, in

(156)
our age, again to take place; yet different
combinations may be employed to effect the
same purposes; and, with respect to the ob-
jects of police and humanity concerning which
he occupied himself, the information he has
ollected will render the repetition of labours
like his unnecessary. To propose as a model,
a character marked with such singularities, and,
no doubt, with some foibles, would be equally
vain and injudicious; but his firm attachment
to principle, high sense of honor, pure benevo-
lence, unshaken constancy, and indefatigable
perseverance, may properly be held up to the
view of all persons occupying important stati-
ons, or engaged in useful enterprises, as quali-
ties not less to be imitated, than admired.
I shall conclude with some account of the li-
terary honors which Mr. Howard has received
from his countrymen. It would, indeed, have
been extraordinary, if, while senates and courts
of judicature offered him their tribute of ap-
plause, poetry and eloquence should have shewn
an insensibility to his merits. Besides the ac
knowledgments paid him in every publication
upon topics similar to his own, he became the
theme of the elegant muse of Mr. Hayley, who
addressed to him an ode in the year 1780, to

(157)
which reference has already been made. That
celebrated poem is, by the American Editor,
subjoined to the present work. In the suc-
ceeding year, Mr. Burke, adverting, in a speech
to the Freemen of Bristol, to a fact in Mr.
Howard's book, struck out, with the enthusi-
asm of genius, into a panegyrical digression on
his plans and actions, decorated with his pecu-
liar strain of glowing imagery. Nothing, per-
haps, can more forcibly express the general
idea entertained of Mr. Howard's exalted
worth than the following extract from that
speech. "I cannot name this gentleman, says
" Mr. Burke, I cannot name this gentleman,
" without remarking that his labours and wri-
" tings have done much to open the eyes and
" hearts of mankind. He has visited all Eu-
" rope, not to survey the sumptuousness of pa-
" laces, nor the stateliness of temples; not to
" make accurate measurements of the remains
" of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of
" the curiosities of modern art; not to collect
" medals, nor to collate manuscripts; but to
" dive into the depths of dungeons, to plunge 
" into the infection of hospitals; to survey the
" mansions of sorrow and pain; to take guage
" and dimensions of misery, depression, and
" contempt; to remember the forgotten; to
O

(158)
" attend to the neglected; to visit the forsak-
" en; and to compare and collate the distresses
" of all men in all countries. His plan is ori-
" ginal, and it is as full of genius, as it is of
" humanity. It is a voyage of philanthropy
" -- a circumnavigation of charity! Already
" the benefit of this labor itself is felt more or
" less in every country: I hope he will anti-
" cipate his final reward by seeing all its effects
" fully realized in his own. He will receive,
" not in retail but in gross, the reward of those
" who visit the prisoner, and he has so far
" forestalled and monopolised this branch of,
" charity, that there will be, I trust, little
" room to merit by such acts of benevolence
" hereafter." This speech was afterwards
printed, and the passage concerning Mr. How-
ard was copied into various periodical writings,
and read with universal approbation. His
character was even exhibited on the stage; for
a comedy of Mrs. Inchbald's, entitled Such
Things Are, contained a part evidently mo-
delled upon his peculiar cast of benevolence,
which for a time rendered the piece popu-
lar.
Dr. Darwin's very beautiful poem of the
Botanic Garden, printed in 1789, amidst an un-

(159)
expected variety of subjects, presents an eulo-
gium of Mr. Howard, so appropriate and poet-
ical, that I am sure no reader of taste will re-
quire an apology from me for inserting it.
-- And now BENEVOLENCE! thy rays divine
Dart round the globe from Zembla to the Line:
O 'er each dark prison plays the cheering light,
Like northern lustres o'er the vault of night.-—
From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crown'd,
Where'er mankind and misery are found,
O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow,
Thy HOWARD journeying seeks the house of woe.
Down many a winding step to dungeons dank,
Where anguish wails aloud, and fetters clank;
To caves bestrew'd with many a mouldering bone,
And cells, whose echoes only learn to groan;
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose,
No sunbeam enters, and no zephyr blows,
He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth,
Profuse of toil, and prodigal of health;
With soft assuasive eloquence expands
Power's rigid heart, and opes his clenching hands;
Leads stern-ey'd justice to the dark domains,
If not to sever, to relax the chains;
Or guides awaken'd mercy through the gloom,
And shews the prison, sister to the tomb! --
Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife,
To her fond husband liberty and life! --
--The spirits of the good, who bend from high


(160)
Wide o'er these earthly scenes their partial eye,
When first, array'd in virtue's purest robe,
They saw her HOWARD traversing the globe;
Saw round his brows her sun-like glory blaze
In arrowy circles of unwearied rays;
Mistook a mortal for an angel-guest,
And ask'd what seraph-foot the earth imprest.
--Onward he moves! -- Disease and death retire,
And murmuring demons hate him, and admire.
After these lines, the Editor avails himself
of this favorable opportunity of exhibiting to
the public, an extract from the funeral sermon
occasioned by the death of Mr. Howard. And
as it was delivered under the influence of heart-
felt emotions, accompanied with serious regret,
and refers to the leading principle of all his
actions, it is presumed, that it will not be
deemed misplaced, at the close of a volume,
the purpose of which is, to represent in strong,
faithful, and glowing colours the character of
the BENEVOLENT HOWARD.
" Those who best knew Mr. Howard," says
Mr. Palmer*, in his sermon on the death of
his benevolent friend," are so well acquainted
* Reverend Mr. Palmer of Hackney.

(161)
with the strength of his Christian principles,
and with his evangelical views, as not to en-
tertain a doubt but that, during his last sickness
and in the prospect of death, (melancholy as
his situation was, at a distance from all his
friends) he exercised the greatest degree of
firmness, patience, and submission to the Divine
will; a lively faith in the promises of the gos-
pel; a cheerful confidence in the grace of God,
in a Redeemer, for accceptance, renouncing,
as he often had explicitly done, all pretensions
to merit by all the good works he had perform-
ed; and an humble triumph in the prospect of
life eternal, as the free gift of God through
Jesus Christ. A little before he left England,
when a friend expressed his concern at parting
with him, from an apprehension that, they
should never meet again, he cheerfully replied,
" We shall soon meet in Heaven;" and, as he
rather expected to die of the plague in Egypt,
he added, "the way to Heaven from Grand
Cairo is as near as from London." He that
thus lived in the hope of immortality, may well
be supposed at death to have experienced a
joy unspeakable and full of glory."
"Thus lived and thus died this distinguished
philanthropist, this bright ornament of human
O2

(162)
nature and of the religion of Jesus. As his
life was singularly useful, his death was equally
glorious. He fell a martyr in the cause of hu-
manity. As thousands blessed him while living
millions will lament him now dead. A great-
er loss this country, may I not say this world,
has seldom sustained. It may appear to many
a mysterious providence, that such a friend to
his species should be cut off at a time when he
had such noble ends in view, and when, consi-
dering the vigour of his constitution at the age
of sixty-five, he might have been expected to
continue some years as a blessing to his native
country, particularly in promoting the execu-
tion of the plans which he had suggested in his
publications. But his work was done: the de-
signs of Providence by him were accomplished;
and doubtless all the circumstances of his death
were wisely ordered by Him who doth all
things well, and who can easily raise up other
instruments for perfecting what he had begun."
" His being cut off in a foreign country, how-
ever grievous it may be to his friends here, is a
circumstance, which may probably be wisely
designed, and happily over-ruled, for some
very important purposes in that rising kingdom,
which will esteem itself honoured by entombing

(163)
such a patriotic Englishman; and where a spi-
rit of emulation may probably be excited to
imitate his virtues, and to adopt his plans, for
promoting the growing glory and happiness of  
that vast empire."
" While therefore we devoutly praise God
for what he had done by this his eminent ser-
vant, let us submit to his will, and adore his
wisdom and sovereignty in his removal. And
let us make the best improvement of so affecting
a dispensation; particularly by cultivating that
benevolence by which the deceased was actuat-
ed, and by doing what we can, in our different
spheres, for repairing his loss. This will be
the best way of expressing our veneration for
his character, and doing honour to his me-
mory."
" That others, upon his decease, would be
excited to prosecute some of his schemes for
the public good, he himself had affirm persuasi-
ons. This made him the less anxious about his
own life, which his friends thought of so much
importance. In the last conversation I had
with him, when I expressed my fears for his
safety, and my wishes that he could have been
prevailed upon to continue at home, in order

(164)
to carry into execution the generous plans he
had formed for the good of his country, his an-
swer was, " When I am dead some body else
will take up the matter and carry it through."
God grant that his expectations may be veri-
fied! -- But where is the man to be found who
is like minded with him? Another HOWARD
this country cannot hope to see. Nor is one,
altogether his equal now needed. He laid a
foundation, on which it would be comparative-
ly easy to build. He, with incredible labour
and expence, has broken up the ground, pre-
pared the soil, and sown the seed: to raise and
gather the crop will require but a small portion
of industry and public spirit. And are there
none among you, ye men of fortune and lei-
sure, in whom that portion of industry and
public spirit is to be found? Ye who, in the
strongest terms language can supply, celebrate
the philanthropy of the deceased, and have
shewn yourselves impatient to erect a monu-
ment to his honor, so as scarcely to be restrain-
ed from hurting his modesty while yet alive;
is there no one among you that wishes to inhe-
rit his virtues, and rear the glorious fabric he
had framed? Who that has the ability would
not be ambitious of the honor? If it be honor
of too great magnitude for an individual to 

(165)
grasp, let it be divided. Here is enough to
adorn many a brow. Oh that all in the high-
er ranks of life would claim their share!"
"If but a few men of fortune and influence
had a spirit equal to their power, what a blessed
country would Britain soon become! The poor
would be more happy and less burthensome.
The industrious would live in ease: the idle
and profligate would be reclaimed. Crimes
would be prevented instead of being punished.
Our prisons in time would scarce need humane
visitants, but would often (like some abroad)
be almost empty; at least those confined in
them would be there useful to the community,
and not dangerous to it when discharged. Ma-
ny would go out reformed, and would become
good members of society. Thus Englishmen,
who vainly boast of their liberty, would enjoy
liberty: would rest in their beds, and travel by
day or by night, without fear of being mur-
dered or plundered by their own species. That
it is otherwise, is in a great measure owing to
the want of public spirit in men of rank and
power. Would to God that the loss of ONE
Patriot may prove the occasion of raising up
MANY!"



ODE, &c.



ODE
INSCRIBED TO
JOHN HOWARD,
L.L.D. F.R.S.
BY WILLIAM HAYLEY, ESQ.          
--" SECOND TO NONE,
IN THE WORKS OF HUMANITY AND BENEVOLENCE."
PHILADELPHIA,
PRINTED FOR JOHN ORMROD, BY WILLIAM W. WOODWARD,
AT FRANKLIN'S HEAD, NO. 41, CHESNUT-STREET.
1794.



ODE, &c
FAV'RITE of Heaven, and friend of earth!
Philanthropy, benignant power!
Whose sons display no doubtful worth,
The pageant of the passing hour!
Teach me to paint, in deathless song,
Some darling from thy filial throng,
Whose deeds no party-rage inspire,
But fill th' agreeing world with one desire,
To echo his renown, responsive to my lyre!
Ah! whither lead'st thou?--whence that
sigh?
What sound of woe my bosom jars?
Why pass, where Misery's hollow eye
Glares wildly thro' those gloomy bars?
Is Virtue sunk in these abodes,
Where keen remorse the heart corrodes;

(172)
Where guilt's base blood with frenzy boils,
And blasphemy the mournful scene embroils? --
From this insernal gloom my shudd'ring soul
recoils.
But whence those sudden sacred beams?
Oppression drops his iron rod!
And all the bright'ning dungeon seems 
To speak the presence of a God.
Philanthropy's descending day
Diffuses unexpected ray!
Loveliest of angels!--at her side
Her favorite votary stands;--her English
pride,
Thro' horror's mansions led by this celestial
guide
Hail! generous HOWARD! tho' thou bear
A name which glory's hand sublime
Has blazon'd oft, with guardian care,
In characters that fear not time;
For thee she fondly spreads her wings;
For thee from Paradise she brings,
More verdant than her laurel bough,
Such wreaths of sacred palm, as ne'er till now
The smiling Seraph twin'd around a mortal
brow.

(173)
That Hero's* praise shall ever bloom,
Who shielded our insulted coast;
And launch'd his light'ning to consume
The proud Invader's routed host.
Brave perils rais'd his noble name:
But thou deriv'st thy matchless fame
From scenes, where deadlier danger dwells;
Where fierce Contagion, with affright, repels
Valor's advent'rous step from her malignant
cells.
Where in the dungeon's loathsome shade,
The speechless Captive clanks his chain,
With heartless hope to raise that aid
His feeble cries have call'd in vain:
Thine eye his dumb complaint explores;
Thy voice his parting breath restores;
Thy cares his ghastly visage clear
From Death's chill dew, with many a clotted
tear,
And to his thankful soul returning life endeau.
What precious drug, or stronger charm,
Thy constant fortitude inspires
In scenes, whence, muttering her alarm,
* Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham.
P2

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Med'cine*, with selfish dread, retires?
Nor charm, nor drug, dispel thy fears:
Temperance, thy better guard, appears:
For thee I see her fondly fill
Her crystal cup from nature's purest rill;
Chief nourisher of life! best antidote of ill!
I see the hallow'd shade of HALES†,
Who felt, like thee, for human woe,
* Mussabat tacito Medecina timore. Lucretius.
† Stephen Hales minister of Teddington: he died at
the age of 84, 1761: and has been justly called " An
" ornament to his profession, as a clergyman, and to
" his country, as a philosopher.” I had the happi-
ness of knowing this excellent man, when I was very
young; and well remember the warm glow of benevo-
lence which used to animate his countenance, in rela-
ting the success of his various projects for the benefit of
mankind. I have frequently heard him dwell with
great pleasure on the fortunate incident which led him
to the discovery of his ventilator, to which I have allu-
ded.-- He had ordered a new floor for one of his rooms;
his carpenter not having prepared the work so soon as
he expected, he thought the season improper for laying
down new boards, when they were brought to his house
and gave orders for their being deposited in his barn;--
from their accidental position in that place, he caught
his first idea of this useful invention. 

(175)
And taught the health-diffusing gales
Thro' Horror's murky cells to blow,
As thy protecting angel wait;
To save thee from the snares of fate,
Commission'd from the Eternal Throne:
I hear him praise, in wonder's warmest tone,
The virtues of thy heart, more active than his
own.
Thy soul supplies new funds of health
That fail not, in the trying hour,
Above Arabia's spicy wealth
And Pharmacy's reviving power.
The transports of the generous mind,
Feeling us bounty to mankind,
Inspirit every mortal part;
And, far more potent than precarious art,
Give radiance to the eye, and vigour to the
heart.
Blest HOWARD! who like thee can feel
This vital spring in all its force?
New star of philanthropic zeal;
Enlight'ning nations in thy course!
And shedding comfort's Heavenly dew
On meagre want's deserted crew!
Friend to the wretch, whom friends disclaim,

(176)
Who feels stern justice, in his famish'd frame,
A persecuting fiend beneath an angel's name.
Authority! unfeeling power,
Whose iron heart can coldly doom
The debtor, drag'd from pleasure's bower,
To sicken in the dungeon's gloom!
O might thy terror-striking call,
Profusion's sons alone enthrall!
But thou canst want with guilt confound:
Thy bonds the man of virtuous toil surround,
Driven by malicious fate within thy dreary
bound.
How savage are thy stern decrees?
Thy cruel minister I see
A weak, laborious victim seize,
By worth entitled to be free!
Behold, in the afflicting strife,
The faithful partner of his life,
In vain thy ruthless servant court,
To spare her little children's sole support,
Whom this terrific form has frighten'd front
their sport.
Nor weeps she only from the thought,
Those infants must no longer share
His aid, whose daily labour bought

(177)
The pittance of their scanty fare.
The horrors of the loathsome jail
Her inly-bleeding heart assail:
E'en now her fears, from fondness bred,
See the lost partner of her faithful bed
Drop, in that murd'rous scene, his pale, ex-
piring head.
Take comfort yet in these keen pains,
Fond mourner! check thy gushing tears!
The dungeon now no more contains
Those perils which thy fancy fears:
No more contagion's baleful breath
Speaks it the hideous cave of death:
HOWARD has planted safely there;
Pure minister of light! his heavenly care
Has purg'd the damp of death from that pol-
luted air.
Nature! on thy maternal breast
For ever be his worth engraved!
Thy bosom only can attest
How many a life his toil has sav'd:
Nor in thy rescued sons alone,
Great parent! this thy guardian own!
His arm defends a dearer slave;

(178)
Woman, thy darling! 'tis his pride to save*
From evils, that surpass the horrors of the
grave.
Ye sprightly nymphs, by fortune nurst,
Who sport in joy's unclouded air,
Nor see the distant storms, that burst
In ruin on the humble fair;
Ye know not to what bitter smart
A kindred form, a kindred heart,
Is often doom'd, in life's low vale,
Where frantic fears the simple mind assail,
And fierce afflictions press, and friends and
fortune fail.
* Mr. Howard has been the happy instrument of
preserving female prisoners from an infamous and in-
decent outrage.-- It was formerly a custom in our
gaols to load their legs and thighs with irons, for the
detestable purpose of extorting money from these inju-
red sufferers.--This circumstance, unknown to me when
the Ode was written, has tempted me to introduce the
few additional stanzas, as it is my ardent wish to ren-
der this tribute to an exalted character as little unwor-
thy as I can of the very extensive and sublime merit
which it aspires to celebrate.

(179)
See yon' sweet rustic, drown'd in tears!
It is not guilt-- 'tis misery's flood,
While dire suspicion's charge She hears
Of shedding infant, filial blood:
Nature's fond dupe! but not her foe!
That form, that face, the falshood shew:--
Yet law exacts her stern demand;
She bids the dungeon's grating doors expand,
And the young captive faints beneath the gaol-
or's hand.
Ah, Russian! cease thy savage aim!
She cannot 'scape thy harsh controul:
Shall iron load that tender frame,
And enter that too-yielding soul?—
Unfeeling wretch! of basest mind!
To misery deaf, to beauty blind!
I see thy victim vainly plead;
For the worst fiend of hell's malignant breed,
Extortion, grins applause, and prompts thy
ruthless deed.
With brutal force, and ribbald jest,
Thy manacles I see thee shake;
Mocking the merciful request, 
That modesty and justice make;
E’en nature's shriek, with anguish strong,
Fails to suspend the impious wrong;

(180)
Till HOWARD's hand, with brave disdain,
Throws far away this execrable chain:
O Nature, spread his fame thro' all thy ample
reign!
His care, exulting BRITAIN found
Here first display'd, not here confin'd!
No single tract of earth could bound
The active virtues of his mind.
To all the lands, where'er the tear,
That mourn'd the prisoner's wrong severe,
Sad Pity's glist'ning cheek impearl'd,
Eager he steer'd, with every sail unfurl'd,
A friend to every clime! a Patriot of the
World!
Ye nations thro' whose fair domain
Our flying sons of joy have past,
By pleasure driven with loosen'd rein,
Astonish'd that they flew so fast!
How did the heart-improving sight
Awake your wonder and delight,
When, in her unexampled chace,
Philanthropy outstript keen pleasure's pace,
When with a warmer soul she ran a nobler
race!

(181)
Where'er her generous Briton went,
Princes his supplicants became:
He seem'd the enquiring angel, sent
To scrutinize their secret shame*.
Captivity, where he appeared,
Her languid head with transport rear'd;
And gazing on her godlike guest,
Like those of old, whom Heaven's pure ser-
vant blest,
E'en by his shadow seem'd of demons dispossest.
Amaz'd her foreign children cry,
Seeing their patron pass along;
" O! who is he, whose daring eye
Can search into our hidden wrong?
What monarch's Heaven-directed mind,
With royal bounty unconfin'd,
Has tempted Freedom's son to share
These perils; searching with an angel's care
Each cell of dire disease, each cavern of des-
pair?
* I am credibly informed that several Princes, or at
least person in authority, requested Mr. Howard net
to publish a minute account of some prisons, which re-
flected disgrace on their governments.
Q

(182)
No monarch's word, nor lucre's lust,
Nor vain ambition's restless fire,
Nor ample power, that sacred trust
His life-diffusing toils inspire:
Rous'd by no voice, save that whose cries
Internal bid the soul arise
From joys, that only seem to bless,
From low pursuits, which little minds possess,
To Nature's noblest aim, the succour of Dis-
tress!
Taught by that God, in Mercy's robe,
Who his cælestial throne resigned,
To free the prison of the globe
From vice, th' oppressor of the mind
For thee, of misery's rights bereft,
For thee, Captivity! he left
Inviting ease, who, in her bower,
Bade him with smiles enjoy the golden hour,
While Fortune deck'd his board with pleasure's
festive flower.
While to thy Virtue's utmost scope
I boldly strive my aim to raise
As high as mortal hand may hope
To shoot the glittering shaft of praise;
Say! HOWARD, say! what may the Muse,
Whose melting eye thy merit views,

(183)
What guerdon may her love design?
What may she ask for thee, from power Di-
vine,
Above the rich rewards which are already
thine?
Sweet is the joy when Science flings
Her light on philosophic thought;
When genius, with keen ardor, springs
To clasp the lovely truth he sought:
Sweet is the joy, when rapture's fire
Flows from the spirit of the lyre;
When Liberty and Virtue roll
Spring-tides of fancy o'er the poet's soul,
That waft his flying bark thro' seas above the
pole.
Sweet the delight, when the gall'd heart
Feels consolation's lenient hand
Bind up the wound from fortune's dart
With friendship's life-supporting band!
And sweeter still, and far above
These fainter joys, when purest love
The soul his willing captive keeps!
When he in bliss the melting spirit steeps,
Who drops delicious tears, and wonders that
he weeps!

(184)
But not the brightest joy, which arts,
In floods of mental light, bestow;
Nor what firm friendship's zeal imparts,
Blest antidote of bitterest woe!
Nor those that love's sweet hours dispense,
Can equal the ecstatic sense,
When, swelling to a fond excess,
The grateful praises of reliev'd distress,
Re-echoed thro' the heart, the foul of bounty
bless.
These transports, in no common state,
Supremely pure, sublimely strong,
Above the reach of envious fate,
Blest HOWARD! these to thee belong:
While years encreasing  o'er thee roll,
Long may this sunshine of the soul
New vigor to thy frame convey!
Its radiance thro' thy noon of life display,
And with serenest light adorn thy closing day!
And when the power, who joys to save,
Proclaims the guilt of earth forgiven;
And calls the prisoners of the grave
To all the liberty of Heaven;

(185)
In that bright day, whose wonders blind
The eye of the astonish'd mind;
When life's glad angel shall resume
His ancient sway, announce to death his doom,
And from existence drive that tyrant of the
tomb:
In that blest hour, when Seraphs sing
The triumphs gain'd in human strife;
And to their new associates bring
The wreaths of everlasting life:
May'st thou, in Glory's hallow'd blaze,
Approach the eternal Fount of Praise,
With those who lead the angelic van,
Those pure adherents to their Saviour's plan,
Who liv'd but to relieve the Miseries of Man.
Q2



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A
REV. JAMES ABERCROMBIE, A.M. Second
Assistant Minister of Christ Church and St.
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S--th Bowen,

(188)
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C.
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(189)
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(190)
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(191)
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(192)
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(193)
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N.
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J. Pouzols,
R

(194)
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(195)
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T.
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(196)
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The few succeeding came to hand too late for insert-
ing, in their alphabetical order--
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R2



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IN ONE HANDSOME VOLUME, 12mo.
[price 43. 8d.]
AND FOR SALE BY
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At Franklin's Head, No. 41, Chesnut-Street,
AN ESSAY ON THE NATURAL
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On the Rights that result from it, and on the Du-
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To which a MEDAL was adjudged by the TEYLERIAN
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CORRECTED AND ENLARGED.
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