'/.
 
 JOHN HOWARD Esp! 
 
 / & At
 
 
 A VIEW 
 
 CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 JOHN HOWARD, ESQ., 
 
 LL.D. F.R. S. 
 
 By JOHN A I KIN, M.D. 
 
 In commune auxilium narus, ac publicum bonum, ex quo dabit 
 cuique partcm : etiam ad calamitofos, pro portione, iroprob^ades 
 e: emendandos, boniutem fuatn permittee. SENECA. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED ra&J.j9BM$ON, No. 74, ST. 
 MDCCXCII.
 
 ISAAC FOOT' 
 LIBRARY
 
 VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHARACTER, &c. 
 
 IF it be a juft obfervation, that every 
 man who has attained uncommon emi- 
 nence in his particular line of purfuit, 
 becomes an object worthy of the pub 
 lie notice, how forcibly muft fuch a 
 maxim apply to that fpecies of excel- 
 lence which renders a man the greateft 
 benefactor to his fellow-creatures, and 
 the nobleft fubject of their contempla- 
 tion ? Beneficence, pure in its inten- 
 tions, wife and comprehenfive in its 
 plate, and active and fuccefsful in exe- 
 B cution,
 
 cution, mxift ever ft and at the head of 
 thofe qualities which elevate the human 
 character; and mankind cannot have 
 a concern fo important; as the diffu- 
 fion of fuch a fpirit, by means of the 
 moft perfect and imprefiive examples, 
 in which it has actually been difplayed. 
 
 Among thofe truly illuftrious per- 
 fons who, in the feveral ages and nations 
 of the world, have marked their track 
 through life by a continued courfe of 
 doing good, few have been fo diftinguifh- 
 ed, either by the exttnt of the good 
 produced, or the purity of motive and 
 energy of character exhibited in the 
 procefs of doing it, as the late Mr. 
 HOWARD. To have adopted the 
 eaufe of the prifoner, the fick, and the 
 destitute, not only in his own country, 
 
 but
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 but throughout all Europe; -to have 
 confiderably alleviated the burden of 
 prefent mifery among thofe unfortu- 
 nate clafies, and at the fame time to 
 have provided for the reformation of 
 the vicious, and the prevention of fu- 
 ture crimes and calamities; to have 
 been inflrumental in the actual eftablifh- 
 ment 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 private 
 unaided individual, flruggling with toils, 
 dangers, and difficulties, which might 
 have appalled the moft refolute; is furely 
 a range of beneficence which fcarcely 
 ever before came within the compafs 
 of one man's exertions. Juftly, tnen, 
 does the name of Howard (land among 
 B 2 thofc
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 thofe which confer the higheft honour 
 on the Englifh character; and, fmce his 
 actions cannot fail to tranfmit his memo- 
 ry with glory to pofterity, it is incum- 
 bent on his countrymen and cotempo- 
 raries, for their own fakes, to tranfmit 
 ' correfponding memorials of their vene- 
 ration and gratitude. 
 
 It would, indeed, be a convincing 
 proof of the increafed good fenfe and 
 virtue of the age, if fuch characters as 
 this were found to rife in the compa- 
 rative fcale of fame and applaufe. Long 
 enough has mankind weakly paid its 
 admiration as the reward of pernicious 
 exertions, of talents, often very mo- 
 derate in themfelves, and only rendered 
 confpicuous by the blaze of mifchief 
 they have kindled. It is now furely 
 
 time
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 time that men fliould know and diftin- 
 guifh their benefactors from their foes; 
 and that the nobleft incitements to action 
 fhould be given to thofe actions only 
 which are directed to the general wel- 
 fare. 
 
 Since the lamented death of this ex- 
 cellent perfon, there have not been want- 
 ing refpectable eulogies of his character, 
 and fuch biographical notices concerning 
 him, as might in fome meafure gratify 
 that public curiofity which is awakened 
 by every celebrated name. There is yet 
 wanting, however, what I confider as by 
 much the moft valuable tribute to the 
 memory of every man diftinguifhed by 
 public fervicesj 1 mean, a portraiture 
 of him, modelled upon thofe circum- 
 ftances which rendered him eminent; 
 B 3 difplaying
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 difplaying in their rife and progrefs thofe 
 features of character which fo peculiarly 
 fitted him for the part he undertook, the 
 origin and gradual developement of his 
 great defigns, and all the fucceflive fteps 
 by which they were brought to their 
 final (late of maturity. It is this branch 
 of biographical writing that alone entitles 
 it to rank high among the compofi- 
 tions relative to human life and man- 
 ners. Nature, indeed, has implanted 
 jn us a defire of becoming acquainted 
 with thofe circumftances belonging to a 
 diftinguifhed character which are com- 
 mon to him and the herd of mankind ; 
 and it is therefore right that fuch a de- 
 fire fliould in fome degree be gratified; 
 but to make that the principal object of 
 attention, which, but for its afibciation. 
 3 with
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 with fomewhat more important, would 
 not at all deferve notice, is furely to 
 reverfe the value of things, and to efti- 
 mate the mafs by the quantity of its 
 alloy, rather than by that of the precious 
 metal. 
 
 The deficiency which I have ftated re- 
 lative to Mr. Howard, it is my prefent 
 object, as far as I am able, to fupply; 
 and however the tafk in fome refpect 
 may be beyond my powers, yet the ad- 
 vantage I enjoyed of a long and con- 
 fidential intercourfe with him during the 
 publication of his works, and of frequent 
 converfation with him concerning the 
 paft and future objects of his -enquiries, 
 together with the communications widi 
 which I have been favoured by fome of 
 his moft intimate friends, will, I hope, 
 B 4
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 juflify me in the eye of the public for 
 taking it upon myfelf. I truft 1 have 
 already appeared not infenfible to his 
 exalted merit, nor indifferent to his re- 
 putation. 
 
 One thing more I think it necefiary to 
 fay concerning this attempt. It has 
 been more than once fuggefted in print, 
 but, 1 believe, without any foundation, 
 that a life of Mr. Howard might be ex- 
 pedted to appear under the fandtiqn and 
 authority of his family* It is proper 
 for me to avow, that this is not that 
 work. The undertaking is perfectly 
 fpontaneous on my part, without encou- 
 ragement from his relations or reprefen- 
 tatives. Mr. Howard was a man with 
 whom every one capable of feeling the 
 excellence and dignity of his character, 
 4 might
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 might claim kindred ; and they were 
 the neareft to him whom he made the 
 confidents and depofitaries of his deligns. 
 
 JOHN HOWARD was born, according 
 to the beft information I am able to 
 obtain, about the year 1727. His fa- 
 ther was an upholfterer and carpet-ware- 
 houfeman in Long-lane, Smithfleld, who, 
 having acquired a handfome fortune, re- 
 tired from bufinefs, and had a houfe firft 
 at Enfield and afterwards at Hackney. 
 j[t was, I believe, at the former of thefc 
 places that Mr. Howard was born. 
 
 As Mr. Howard's father was a ftrict 
 proteftant diffcnter, it was natural for 
 him to educate his fon under a precep- 
 tor of the fame principles. But his 
 choice for this purpofe was the fource of 
 a laiting misfortune, which, as it has been 
 
 too
 
 too frequent an occurrence, deferves par- 
 ticular notice. There was at that time a 
 fchoolrnailer at fome diflance from Lon- 
 don, who, in confequence of his moral 
 and religious character, had been in- 
 truded with the education of the chil- 
 dren of moft of the opulent difTenters in 
 the metropolis, though extremely defi- 
 cient in the qualifications requifite for 
 iuch an office *. That perfons whofe 
 own education and habits of life have 
 Tendered them very inadequate judges of 
 
 I find it aflerted in fome memoir's of Mr. 
 Efward in the Univerfal Magazine) that this perfon 
 (whofe name is there mentioned) was a man of 
 confiderable learning, and author of a translation 
 cf the New Teftament and of a Latin grammar. 
 Without inquiring how far this may fct afide the 
 charge of his being deficient as an inftruilor, I 
 think it proper to fay, that my only foundation 
 for that charge is Mr. Harvard's own authority. 
 
 the
 
 the talents neceflary for an inftruftor of 
 youth, fhould eafily fall into this error, 
 js not to be wondered at ; but the evil is 
 a real one, though its caufe be excufe* 
 able: and, as fmall communities with 
 ftrong party attachments are peculiarly 
 liable to this mifplaced confidence, it is 
 right that they Ihould in a particular 
 manner be put on their guard againft 
 it. They who know the difienters will 
 acknowledge, that none appear more 
 fenfible of the importance of a good 
 education, or lefs fparing in their endea- 
 vours to procure it for their children $ 
 nor, upon the whole, can it be faid that 
 they are unfuccefsful in their attempts. 
 Indeed, the very confined fyftem of in- 
 ftrucYion adopted in the public fchools 
 of this kingdom, renders it no difficult 
 
 tafk
 
 tafk to vie with them in the attainment 
 of objeds of real utility. But if it 
 be made a leading purpofe to train 
 up youth in a certain fet of opinions, 
 and for this end it bs thougnt effemial 
 that the matter fhould be exclufivcly 
 chofen from among thofe who are the 
 moft clofely attached to them, it is ol> 
 vious that a fmall community muft lie 
 under great comparative difadvantages. 
 
 The event with refpect to Mr. Howard 
 was (as he has affured me, with greater 
 indignation than I have heard him ex- 
 prefs upon many fubjects), that, after a 
 continuance of feven years at this fchool, 
 he left it not fully taught any one thing. 
 The lofs of this period was irreparable ; 
 he felt it all his life after, and it was but 
 too obvious to thofe who converfed with 
 
 him.
 
 him. From this fchool he was removed 
 to Mr. Eames's academy ; but his con- 
 tinuance there muft, I conceive, have 
 been of fhort duration; and, whatever 
 might be his acquifitions in that place, 
 he certainly did not fupply the defi- 
 ciencies of his earlier education. As 
 fome of the accounts publifhed concern- 
 ing him, might inculcate the idea that 
 he had attained confiderable proficiency 
 in letters, I feel myfelf obliged, from 
 my own knowledge, to affert, that he 
 was never able to fpeak or write his 
 native language with grammatical cor- 
 re&nefs, and that his acquaintance with 
 other languages (the French, perhaps, 
 excepted) was flight and fuperficial. 
 In eftimating the powers of his mind, 
 it rather adds to the account, that he 
 
 had
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 had this additional difficulty to combat 
 in his purfuit 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, confiderable 
 fortunes. He directed in his will, that 
 his fon fhould not come to the poflef- 
 fion of his property till his twenty-fifth 
 year. 
 
 It was, probably, in confequence of 
 the father's direction that he was bound 
 apprentice to a wholefale grocer in the 
 city. This will appear a fingular ftep in 
 the education of a young man of for- 
 tune; but, at that period, inuring youth 
 to habits of method and induftry, and 
 giving them a prudent regard to money* 
 with a knowledge of the modes of em* 
 
 ploying
 
 ( is ) 
 
 ploying it to advantage, were by man? 
 confidered as the moft important points 
 in every condition of life. Mr. Howard 
 was probably indebted to this part of 
 his education for fome of that fpirit of 
 order, and knowledge of common affairs, 
 which he poffefied; but he did not in 
 this fituation contract any of that love 
 of aggrandifement which is the bafis of 
 all commercial exertions; and fo irkfome 
 was the employment to him, that, on 
 coming of age, he bought out the re- 
 mainder ''of his time, and immediately 
 fet out on his travels to France and 
 Italy. 
 
 On his return he mixed with the 
 world, and lived in the ftyle of other 
 young men of leifure and fortune. He 
 had acquired that tafte for the arts which 
 
 the
 
 ( '6 
 
 the view of the mod perfect examples of 
 them is fitted to create j and, notwithftand- 
 ing the defects of his education, he was 
 not without an attachment to reading and 
 the ftudy of nature. The delicacy of 
 his conftitution, however, induced him 
 to take lodgings in the country, where 
 for fome time his health was the prin- 
 cipal object of his attention. As he was 
 fuppofed to be of a confumptive habit, 
 he was put upon a rigorous regimen of 
 diet, which laid the foundation of that 
 extraordinary abftemioufnefs and indiffer- 
 ence to the gratifications of the palate 
 which ever after fo much diftinguifhed 
 him. It is probable that, from his firft 
 appearance in a (late of independence, his 
 way of thinking and ailing was marked 
 by a certain fingularity. Of this, one 
 
 of
 
 ( '7 ) 
 
 of the mod remarkable confequences 
 was his firft marriage about his twenty- 
 fifth year. As a return of gratitude to 
 Mrs. Sarah Lardeau (or Loidore), widow, 
 with whom he lodged at Stoke Ne wing- 
 ton, for her kind attention to him dur- 
 ing his invalid ftate, he propofed mar- 
 riage to her, though fhe was twice his 
 age, and extremely ficklyj and, not- 
 withftanding her remonftrances on the 
 impropriety of fuch an union, he per- 
 fifted in his defign, and it took place. 
 She is reprefented as a fenfible, worthy 
 woman j and on her death, three years 
 afterwards (during which interval he con- 
 tinued at Newington), Mr. Howard was 
 fincerely affe&ed with his lofs.j nor did 
 he ever fail to mention her with refpecl, 
 sifter his fentiments of things may havs 
 C been
 
 been fuppofed, from greater commerce 
 with the world, to have undergone a 
 change. 
 
 His liberality with refpect to pecu- 
 niary concerns was early difplayed j and 
 at no time of his life does he feem to 
 have confidered money in any other 
 light than as an inflrument of procur- 
 ing happinefs to himfelf and others. 
 The little fortune that his wife poffefied 
 he gave to her fifter; and during his 
 refidence at Newington he beftowed 
 much in charity, and made a hand- 
 fome donation to the diflenting congre- 
 g uion there, for the purpofe of provid- 
 ing a dwelling-houfe for the minifter. 
 
 His attachment to religion was a prin- 
 ciple imbibed from his earlieft years, 
 which continued Heady and uniform 
 S through
 
 through life. The body of Chriftians 
 to whom he particularly united himfelf 
 were the Indeperidents, and his fyftem 
 of belief was that of the moderate Cal- 
 vinifts. But though he feems early to 
 have made up his mind as to the doctrines 
 he thought beft founded, and the mode 
 of worfhip he moft approved, yet reli- 
 gion abftra&edly confidered, as the rela- 
 tion between man and his Maker, and 
 the grand fupport of morality, appears 
 to have been the principal object of his 
 regard. He was lefs felicitous about 
 modes and opinions, than the internal 
 fpirit of piety and devotion j and in his 
 eftimate of different religious focieties, 
 the circumftances to which he princi- 
 pally attended, were their zeal and fin- 
 oerity. As it is the nature of feels in 
 C 2 genera 1 ,
 
 general, to exhibit more earneftnefs irt 
 doctrine, and ftrictnefs in difcipline, than 
 the eftablifhment from which they dif- 
 fent, it is not to be wondered at that 
 a perfon of Mr. Howard's difpofition 
 fhould regard the various denominations 
 of fectaries with predilection, and attach 
 himfelf to their moft diftinguiihed mem- 
 bers. In London he feems chiefly to 
 have joined the Baptift congregation in 
 Wild-ftreet, long under the miniftry of 
 the much-refpected Dr. Stennett. His 
 connexions were, I believe, leaft with 
 that clafs called the Rational Difienters; 
 yet he probably had not a more intimate 
 friend in the world than Dr. Price, who 
 always ranked among them. It was his 
 conflant practice to join in the fervice of 
 the eftablifhment when he had not the 
 7 opportunity
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 opportunity of attending a place of dif- 
 fenting worfhip; and though he was 
 warmly attached to the interefts of the 
 party he efpoufed, yet he had that true 
 ipirit of catholicifm, which led him to 
 honour virtue and religion wherever he 
 found them, and to regard the means 
 only as they were fubfcrvient to the end. 
 He was created a Fellow of the Royal 
 Society on May 13, 1756. This honour 
 was not, I prefuine, conferred upon him 
 in confequence of any extraordinary pro- 
 ficiency in fcience which he had manifcft- 
 ed ; but rather in conformity to the laud- 
 able practice of that fociety, of attaching 
 gentlemen of fortune and leifure to the 
 interefts of knowledge, by incorporat- 
 ing them into their body. Mr. Howard 
 was not unmindful of the obligation he 
 C 3 Jay
 
 lay under to contribute fomething to the 
 common ftock of information.. Three 
 fhort papers of his are published in the 
 Tranfaftions. Thefe are, 
 
 In Vol. LIV. On the Degree of Cold 
 obferved at Cardington in the Winter of 
 i?63> when Bird's Thermometer was as 
 low as io-. 
 
 In Vol. LVII. Oq 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 Vefuvius. 
 
 This lift may ferve to give an idea of 
 the kind and degree of his philofophical 
 refearch. Meteorological obfervations 
 were much to his tafte ; and even in his 
 later tours, when he was occupied by 
 
 very
 
 very different objects, be never travelled 
 without fome inftruments for that pur- 
 pofe. I have heard him likewife men- 
 tion fome experiments on the effects of 
 the union of the primary colours in dif- 
 ferent proportions, in which he employ- 
 ed himfelf with fome afilduity. 
 
 After the death of his wife, in the year 
 1756, he fet out upon another tour, ir- 
 tending to commence it with a vifit to 
 the ruins of Lifbon. The event of this 
 defign will be hereafter mentioned. He 
 remained abroad a few months j and, on 
 his return, began to alter the houfe on 
 his eftate at Cardington near Bedford, 
 where he fettled. In 1758 he made a 
 very fuitable alliance with Mifs Henrietta 
 Leeds, eldeft daughter of Edward Leeds, 
 Efq of Croxton, Cambridgefhire, king's 
 C 4 ferjeant;
 
 -C # 1 
 
 ferjeant; and fitter of the prefent Ed- 
 ward Leeds, Efq; a Mafter in Chancery, 
 and of Jofeph Leeds, Efq; of Croydon. 
 With this lady, who poffeffed in an emi- 
 nent degree all the mild and amiable 
 virtues proper to her fex, he pafled, as 
 I have often heard him declare, the only 
 years of true enjoyment which he had 
 known in life. Soon after his marriage 
 he purchafed Watcombe, in the New 
 Forefl, Hampfhire, and removed thi- 
 ther. Concerning his way of life in this 
 pleafant retreat, I find nothing charac- 
 teriftic to relate, except the ftate of per- 
 fjfb fecurity and harmony in which he 
 managed to live in the midft of a peo- 
 ple, againft whom his predeceflbr thought 
 it neceflary to employ all the contrivr 
 ances of engines and guns in order to 
 
 preferve
 
 ( 25 ). 
 
 prefcrrve himfelf from their hoftilities. 
 He had, indeed, none of thofe propen- 
 fities which fo frequently embroil coun- 
 try gentlemen with their neighbours, 
 both fmall and great. He was no fportf- 
 man, no executor of the game laws, and 
 in no refpecl: an encroacher on the rights 
 and advantages of others. In poffeffing 
 him, the poor could not fail foon to find 
 that they had acquired a protector and 
 benefactor j and I am unwilling to be- 
 lieve that in any part of the world thefe 
 relations are not returned with gratitude 
 and attachment. After continuing at 
 Watcombe three or four years, he fold 
 the place, and went back to Cardington, 
 which thenceforth became his fixed re- 
 fidence. 
 
 Here
 
 Here he fteadily purfued thofe plans, 
 both with refpeft to the regulation of 
 his perfonal and family concerns, and 
 to the promotion of the good of thofe 
 around him, which principle and incli- 
 nation led him to approve. Though 
 without the ambition of making a Iplen-^ 
 did appearance, he had a tafte for elegant 
 neatnefs in his habitation and furniture. 
 His fobriety of manners and peculiari- 
 ties of living did not fit him for much 
 promifcuous fociety ; yet no man re- 
 ceived his feleft friends with more true 
 hofpitalityj and he always maintained an 
 intercourfe with feveral of the firft per- 
 fons in his county, who knew and rer 
 fpe&ed his worth. Indeed, however 
 uncomplying he might be with the free- 
 doms
 
 doms and irregularities of polite life, he 
 was by no means negligent of its receiv- 
 ed forms ; and, though he might be de- 
 nominated a man of fcruples and fmgu- 
 larities, no one would difpute his claim 
 to the title of a gentleman. 
 
 But the terms on which he held fo- 
 ciety with perfons of his own condition, 
 are of much lefs importance in the view 
 I mean to take of his character, than 
 the methods by which he rendered him- 
 felf a bleffing to the indigent and friend- 
 lefs in a fmall circle, before he extended 
 his benevolence to fo wide a compafs. 
 It feems to have been the capital ob- 
 jedl: of his ambition, that the poor in his 
 yillage fhould be the mod orderly in 
 their manners, the neateft in their per- 
 fons ancj habitations, and pofleflfed of the 
 
 greateft
 
 greatcft Ihare of the comforts of life, 
 t|fe: could be met with in any part of 
 England. And as it was his difpofition 
 to carry every thing he undertook to the 
 greateft pitch of perfection, fo he fpared 
 no pains or expence to effect this purpofe. 
 He began by building a number of neat 
 cottages on his eftate, annexing to each 
 a little land for a garden, and other con- 
 veniences. In this project, which might 
 be confidered as an object of tafte as 
 well as of benevolence, he had the full 
 concurrence of his excellent partner. I 
 remember his relating, that once, having 
 fettled his accounts at the clofe of a year, 
 and found a balance in his favour, he 
 propofed to his wife to make ufe of it in 
 a journey to London, or any other gra- 
 tification fhe chofe. " What a pretty 
 
 cottage
 
 ( '9 ) 
 
 Cottage it would build," was her anfwerj 
 and the money was fa employed. Thefe 
 comfortable habitations he peopled with 
 the moil induftrious and fober tenants he 
 could find 3 and over them he exercifed 
 the fuperintendence of matter and father 
 combined. He was careful to furnifh 
 them with employment, to aflift them 
 in ficknefs and diflrefs, and to educate 
 their children. In order to preferve 
 their morals, he made it a condition that 
 they fhould regularly attend their feverai 
 places of worfhip, and abftain from pub- 
 lic-houfes, and from fuch amufements 
 as he thought pernicious ; and he fecur- 
 ed their compliance with his rules by 
 making them tenants at will. 
 
 I fhall here beg leave to digrefs a lit- 
 tle, in order to make fome general ob- 
 
 fervations
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 fervations on the different methods that 
 may be propofed for bettering the con A 
 dition of the lowed and moft numerous 
 clafs among us. In the ftate in which 
 they too frequently appear, depreffed to 
 the extremeft point of indigence, unable 
 by their utmoft exertions to obtain more 
 than the bare riecefiaries of exiftence, 
 debafed by the total want of inftruc- 
 tion, and partaking of nothing that 
 can dignify the human character, it is 
 no wonder that a benevolent perfon of 
 the higher ranks in fociety Ihould con- 
 fider them as creatures of an inferior 
 Ipecies, only to be benefited by the con- 
 ftant exercife of his authority and fuper- 
 intendence. And I believe the fact to 
 be, that, from the operation of our poor 
 laws and other circumftances, the poor 
 
 in
 
 ift this country are more thoughtlefs, 
 improvident, and helplefs, than thofe 
 of almoft any other nation. Humanity 
 will therefore, in fuch a ftate of things, 
 think it necefiary to affume the enure 
 management, of thofe who can neither 
 think nor aft for their own good ; and 
 will direct and over-rule all their con- 
 cerns, juft as it would thofe of children 
 and idiots, In fhort, it will aim at fuch 
 a kind of influence, as the Jefuits of Pa- 
 raguay eftablifhed, (perhaps with the 
 fame benevolent views) over the fimple 
 natives. 
 
 But is this ftate of pupilage to be per- 
 petual ? and, in a land of liberty and 
 equal laws, is the great body of people 
 always to exift in a condition of actual 
 fubjedion to and dependence on the few ? 
 
 Arc
 
 Are they never to be intruded with their 
 own happinefs, but always to look up 
 for fupport and direction to thofe who 
 in reality are lefs independent than them* 
 felves ? This is an idea which a liberal 
 mind will be unwilling to admit j and it 
 will anxioufly look forward to a period, 
 in which meannefs of condition fliall not 
 neceffarily imply debafement of nature ; 
 but thofe of every rank in fociety, feel- 
 ing powers within themfelves to fecure 
 their effential comforts, lhall rely upon 
 their own exertions, and be guided by 
 the dictates of their own reafon. That 
 this is not an imaginary ftate of things, 
 the general condition of the loweft clafles 
 in fome countries, and even in feme 
 parts of England, where the working 
 poor, at the fame time that their earn- 
 ings
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 ings enable them to procure the comforts 
 of life, are inured to habits of fobriety 
 and frugality, is a fufficient proof. 
 
 There are few counties in England 
 which afford lefs employment to a nume- 
 rous poor than that of Bedford; of courfe, 
 wages are low, and much diftrefs would 
 prevail, were it not for the humanity 
 of the gentlemen who refide upon their 
 eftates. Among thefe, Mr. Howard di- 
 tinguiihed himfelf by a peculiar atten- 
 tion to the comfort and improvement of 
 his dependents j and he was accordingly 
 held by them in the higheft refpect and 
 veneration. 1 may add, that he pofleffed 
 their love-, which is not always the cafe 
 with thofe who render eflential fcrvices 
 to people of that clafs. But he treated 
 them with kindnefs, as well as with be- 
 D neficence $
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 aefkence; and he particularly avoided 
 every thing ftern or imperious in his 
 manner towards them. Whatever there 
 might appear of ftrictnefs in the difci- 
 pline he enforced, it had only in view 
 their beft interefts ; and if under his pro- 
 tection they could pafs a tranquil old 
 age in their own comfortable cottages, 
 rather than end their lives in a work- 
 houfe, the fubordination to which they 
 fubmitted was amply compenfated. It 
 is certain that the melioration of man- 
 ners and principles which he promot* 
 ed, was the moft effectual means of 
 eventually rendering them more inde- 
 pendent j and I have reafbn to know, 
 that, latterly at leaft, he was as well af- 
 fected to the rights, as he was folicitous 
 to augment the comforts, of the poor. 
 
 3 His
 
 His charities were not confined to 
 thofe more immediately connected with 
 his property; they took in the whole 
 circle of neighbourhood. His bounty 
 was particularly directed to that funda- 
 mental point in improving the condition 
 of die poor, giving them a fober and 
 uleful education. From early life he 
 attended to this object ; and he eftablifh- 
 ed fchools for both fexes, conducted 
 upon the moft judicious plan. The 
 girls were taught reading, and needle- 
 work in a plain way: the boys reading, 
 and fome of them writing, and the ru- 
 diments of arithmetic. They were re- 
 gularly to attend public worfhip in the 
 way their parents approved. The num- 
 ber brought up in thefe fchools was fluc- 
 tuating, but the inftitutions were uninter- 
 D 2 rupted.
 
 fupted. In every other way in whidi a 
 man thoroughly difpofed to do good 
 with the means providence has beftowed 
 upon him, can exercife his liberality, 
 Mr. Howard flood among the foremoft.. 
 He was not only a fubfcriber to various 
 public fchemes of benevolence, but his 
 private charities were largely diffufed, 
 and remarkably well directed. It was, 
 indeed, only to his particular confidents 
 and coadjutors that many of thefe were 
 ever known; but they render him the 
 mod ample tefttmony in this refpect. 
 His very intimate and confidential friend, 
 the Rev. Mr. Thomas Smith of Bedford, 
 gives me the following account of this 
 part of his conduct, at a time when 
 he was deeply engaged in thofe public 
 exertions which might be fuppofed to 
 
 interfere
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 interfere with his private and local be- 
 nefactions. " He ftill continued to 
 devife liberal things for his poor neigh- 
 bours and tenants j and, confidering how 
 much his heart and time were engaged 
 in his great and comprehenfive plans, 
 it- was furprifmg with what minutenefs 
 he would fend home his directions about 
 his private donations. His Jcbooh were 
 continued to the laft." It is impof- 
 fible any ftronger 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 fhould ftill 
 be unable to fatisfy his benevolent de- 
 fires without his accuftomed benefits to 
 his neighbours and dependents, 
 
 P Another
 
 C 38 ) 
 
 Another early feature of that character 
 which Mr. Howard afterwards fo con- 
 fpicuoufly difplayed, was a determined 
 refiilance of injuftice and oppreffion. 
 No one could be more firmly relied on 
 as the protector of right and innocence 
 againft unfeeling and unprincipled power. 
 His indignation was roufed by any at- 
 tempts to encroach or domineer ; and his 
 fpirit led him, without hefitation, to ex- 
 prefs, both in words and actions, his 
 fenfe of fuch conduct. As no man could 
 be more perfectly independent, both in 
 mind and fituation, than himfelf, he 
 made that ufe of his advantage which 
 every independent man ought to do; * 
 lie acted as principle directed him, re- 
 gardlefs whom he might difpleafe by
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 it ; he ftrongly marked his different fen- 
 fations with refpect to different charac- 
 ters j and he was not lefs ftrenuous in 
 oppofing pernicious fchemes, than in 
 promoting beneficial ones. 
 
 The love of order and regularity like- 
 wife marked the early as well as the later 
 periods of his life; it directed his own 
 domeftic concerns equally with his plans 
 for- the benefit of others. His difpofi tion 
 of time was exact and methodical. He 
 accurately knew the ftate of all his 
 affairs; and the hand of economy re- 
 gulated what the heart of generofity dif- 
 penfed. His tafte in drefs, furniture, and 
 every thing exterior, was turned to fim- 
 plicity and neatnefs; and this confor- 
 mity of difpofition rendered him an ad- 
 mirer of the fed of Quakers, with many 
 D - individuals
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 individuals of which he maintained an 
 intimate connexion. 
 
 In common with many other benevo- 
 lent and virtuous characters, he had a 
 fondnefs for gardening, and the cultiva- 
 tion of plants both ufeful and ornamen- 
 tal. Indeed, as his own diet was almoft 
 entirely of the vegetable kind, he had 
 various inducements to attend to this 
 pleaflng occupation. That moft valu- 
 able root, the potato, was a great fa- 
 vourite with him -, and a remarkably pro- 
 ductive fpecies of it, which he recom- 
 mended to public notice, was diftin- 
 guilhed by his name. His garden was 
 an object of curiofity, both for the ele- 
 gant manner in which it was laid out, 
 and for the excellence of its productions ; 
 and in his various travels he frequently 
 
 brought
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 brought home, and diftributed among his 
 friends, the feeds of curious kinds of 
 cultivated vegetables. 
 
 In this manner Mr. Howard patted the 
 tranquil years of his fettled refidence at 
 Cardington; happy in himfelf, and the 
 inftrument of good to all around him. 
 But this ftate was not long to continue. 
 His domeftic felicity received a fatal 
 wound from the death of his beloved 
 wife, in the year 1765, foon after de- 
 livery of her only child. It is unnecef- 
 fary to fay how a heart like his muft 
 have felt on fuch an event. They who 
 have been witnefles of the fenfibility with 
 which, many years afterwards, he recol- 
 lected it, and know how he honoured 
 and cherilhed her memory, will conceive 
 his fenfations at that trying period. He 
 4 was
 
 ( 4* ) 
 
 was thenceforth attached to his home 
 only by the duties annexed to it; of 
 which the moft interefting was the edu- 
 cation of his infant fon. This was an 
 office which almoft immediately com- 
 menced; for, according to his ideas, 
 education had place from the very firft 
 dawn of the mental faculties. The very 
 unfortunate ifibe of his cares, with reipect 
 to his fon, has caufed a charge to be 
 brought againft him very deeply affect- 
 ing his paternal character. That this 
 charge was in its main circumftance falie 
 and calumnious, has, I trufi, been proved, 
 to the Satisfaction of the public, by ap- 
 peals to facts which have remained un- 
 controverted. I fhall not, therefore, go 
 over again the ground of this contro- 
 verfy; but fhail rather follow the pro- 
 per
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 per line of this work, by briefly difplay- 
 ing Mr. Howard's ideas on education, 
 and his manner of executing them. 
 
 Regarding children as creatures pof- 
 fefied of ftrong paflions and defires, with- 
 out reafon and experience to controul 
 them, he thought that Nature feemed, 
 as it were, to mark them out as the 
 fubjects of abfolute authority ; and that 
 the firft and fundamental principle to be 
 inculcated upon them, was implicit an4 
 unlimited obedience. This cannot be 
 effected by any procefs of reafoning y be- 
 fore reafon has its commencement ; and 
 therefore muft be the refult of coercion. 
 Now, as no man ever more effectually 
 combined the leniter in modo with the 
 fortiter in re y the coercion he practifed 
 was calm and gentle, but at the fame 
 
 time
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 time fteady and refolute. I fhall give an 
 inftance of it which I had from himfelf. 
 His child one day, wanting fomething 
 which he was not to have, fell into a fit 
 of crying, which the nurfe could not 
 pacify. Mr. Howard took him from 
 her, and laid him quietly in his lap, till, 
 fatigued with crying, he became ftill. 
 This procefs, a few times repeated, had 
 fuch an effect, that the child, if crying 
 ever fo violently, was rendered quiet 
 the inftant his father took him. In a 
 fimilar manner, without harfh words and 
 threats, ftill lefs blows, he gained every 
 other point which he thought neceflary 
 to gain, and brought the child to fuch a 
 habit of obedience, that I have heard 
 Jiim fay, he believed his fon would have 
 put his finger into the fire if he had 
 
 commanded
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 commanded him. Certain it is, that 
 many fathers could not, if they approved 
 it, execute a plan of this kind j but Mr. 
 Howard in this cafe only purfued the 
 general method which he took to effect 
 any thing which a thorough conviction 
 of its propriety induced him to under- 
 take. It is abfurd, therefore, to repre- 
 fent him as wanting that milk of human 
 kindnefs for his only fon, with which he 
 abounded for the reft of his fellow-crea- 
 tures ; for he aimed at what he thought 
 the good of both, by the very fame 
 means j and, if he carried the point fur- 
 ther with refpect to his fon, it was only 
 becaufe he was more interefted in his 
 welfare. But this courfe of difcipline, 
 whatever be thought of it, could not 
 
 have been long practifed, fmce the child 
 i 
 
 was
 
 was early fent to fchool, and the father 
 lived very little at home afterwards. 
 As to its effett on the youth's mind (if 
 that, and not intention, be the circum- 
 ftance on which Mr. Howard's vindica- 
 cation is to depend), I confider it as a 
 manifeft impoflibility, that controlling 
 the child, fhould have been the caufe of 
 the young man's infanity. If any fuch 
 remote caufe could be fuppofed capable 
 of producing fuch an effect, the oppofite 
 extreme of indulgence would have been 
 a much more likely one* But I think it 
 highly probable, that a father, whofe 
 prefence was aflbciated with the percep- 
 tion of reftraint and refufal, fhould always 
 have infpired more awe than affection j and 
 fhould never have created that filial con- 
 fidence, which is both the moft pleafmg 
 
 and
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 moft falutary of the fentiments at- 
 tending that relation. And this has been 
 the great evil of that rigorous mode of 
 education, once fo general, and ftill 
 frequent, among perfons of a particular 
 perfuafion. I have authority to fay, that 
 Mr. Howard was at length fenfible that 
 he had in fome meafure miftaken the 
 mode of forming his fon to that cha- 
 racter he wifhed him to acquire ; though, 
 with refped to his mental derange- 
 ment, I know that he imputed no 
 blame to himfelf on that head. With 
 what parental forrow he was affected by 
 that event will appear in the progrefs of 
 the narration. 
 
 Having now given fuch a view of the 
 temper and manners of this excellent 
 perfon, -in his private fituation, as may 
 
 ferrc
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 ferve to introduce him to the reader's 
 acquaintance at the time of his afiuming 
 a public character, I mail, without fur- 4 
 ther delay, proceed to trace him through 
 thofe years of his life, the employment 
 of which alone has rendered him an ob- 
 ject of the curiofity and admiration of 
 his countrymen. ' 
 
 In the year 1773 Mr. Howard was 
 nominated High-Sheriff of the county of 
 Bedford. An obftacle, however, lay in 
 the way of his accepting that office, con- 
 cerning which I mail take the liberty of 
 making a few remarks. 
 
 When a principled Difienter, whofe 
 condition in life permits him to afpire 
 to the honour of ferving his country in 
 fome poft of magiftracy, reflects on his 
 fituation, he finds that he muft make 
 
 his
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 his election of one of the three following 
 determinations. He mud either com- 
 ply with a religious rite of another 
 church, merely on account of its being 
 made the condition of receiving the ofEce; 
 or take upon himfelf the office without 
 fuch compliance, under all the hazard 
 that attends it; or he muft quietly fit 
 down under that 'vacation from public 
 charges which the (late, in its wifdom, 
 has impoied upon him, fatisfied with 
 promoting the welfare of individuals by 
 modes not interdicted to him. It would 
 be great preemption in me to decide 
 which of thefe determinations is mod 
 conformable to duty. In fact, there is 
 only a choice of difficulties-, and the de;- 
 cifion between them muft be left to every 
 man's own feelings, which, if his inten- 
 E tions
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 tions be good and honeft, will fcarcely 
 lead him wrong. But it was perfectly 
 fuitable to Mr. Howard's character to 
 make option of the office with the hazard: 
 for as, on the one hand, no confideratiort 
 on earth could have induced him to vio- 
 late his religious principles ; fo, on the 
 other, his active difpofition, and zeal for 
 the public good, ftrongly impelled him 
 to affume a ftation in which thofe quali- 
 ties might have free fcope for exertion ; 
 and as to perfonal hazard, that was never 
 an obflacle in his way. There may be 
 cafuifts who will condemn this choice, 
 and. regard it as a ferious offence againft 
 the laws of his country, to have taken 
 wpon him an office without complying 
 with its preliminary conditions. But, I 
 conceive, the fincere philanthropifl will 
 
 rather
 
 ( 5' ) 
 
 father make a different reflection, and 
 feel a (hock in thinking, that, had Mr. 
 Howard been influenced by thofe ap- 
 prehenfions which would have operated 
 upon moft men, he would have been ex- 
 cluded from that fituation, which gave 
 occalion to all thofe fervices which he 
 rendered to humanity in his own coun- 
 try, and throughout Europe *. 
 
 He 
 
 The penalties to which Mr. Howard in this 
 inftance expofed himfelf are declared in the follow- 
 ing claufe of the Tejl Aft, which cannot too often be 
 placed before the eyes of Britons. " Every per- 
 " fon that fhall negleft or refufe to take the facra- 
 " crament as aforefaid, and yet, after fuch negleft 
 " or refufal, fhall execute any of the faid offices or 
 " employments, and being thereupon lawfully con- 
 " vifted, Jhall be difabled to fue or ufe any aflion, 
 *' blll t flaint, or information, in courfe of laiv, or to 
 " profecute any fuit in any court of equity, or to be 
 " guardian of any child, or executor or adm'nijlrator 
 E 2 "of
 
 ( 5* ) 
 
 He entered upon his office with the re- 
 folucion of performing all its duties with 
 
 "of any per/on, or capable of any legacy cr deed of 
 " */** or to bear any office ; and Jhall forfeit the fum 
 " *f fr ve hundred pounds, to be recovered by him or 
 " them that Jhall fue for the fame?" In the debate 
 en the repeal of this aft, the Mover with much elo- 
 quence introduced the very cafe of Mr. Howard, 
 and feemed confiderably to imprefs his audience by 
 the fuppofition of fuch a man fuffering its penalties, 
 in confequence of an information which any villain 
 might lay againft him. In reply it was faid, that, 
 whatever were a man's intentions, if he voluntarily 
 contravened a known law of his country, it ought 
 not to be reckoned a hardfhip that he incurred the 
 penalties by which it was fan&ioned. And this rea- 
 foning is undoubtedly juft, as it refpe&s the intereft 
 of an individual put in competition with the fecurity 
 of a law. But furely it is a proper confideration 
 for the legiflature, whether a law be grounded on 
 thofe principles of equity and general utility which 
 can juftify the impofition of fuch dreadful penalties 
 for the breach of it, efpecially when experience has 
 fh wr, that the moft confcientious and well-inten- 
 tioned perforis are moft liable to incur them. 
 
 that
 
 f 53 ) 
 
 that punctuality which marked his con- 
 duct in every thing he undertook. Of 
 thefe, one of the moft important, though 
 lead agreeable, is the infpeclion of the 
 prifons within its jurifdiction. But this 
 to him was not only an aft of duty, it 
 interefted him as a material concern of 
 humanity. 
 
 The attention of Mr. Howard to per- 
 fons *' fick and in prifon" is by himfelf 
 dated as far back as the year 1756, when 
 he was induced by a fingular, but what 
 I mould call a fublime, curiofity to vifit 
 Lilbon,then lying in the recent ruins of its 
 terrible earthquake. The packet in which 
 he failed being taken by a French pri- 
 vateer, he, with the reft of the crew, 
 was firft expofed to all the barbarities 
 exercifed by thofe licenfed pirates, who 
 E 3 pofief*
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 pofiefs the right of the fword, not mol- 
 lified by the feelings of gentlemen; and, 
 on his arrival in France, he for a time 
 endured fome of the hardfhips of a pri- 
 foner of war, and became acquainted 
 with all the fufferings of his country- 
 men in the fame fituation. Thefe, on 
 his return to England, he took care to 
 make known to the Commijfioners of 
 Sick and Wounded Seamen, who gave 
 him their thanks for his information, 
 and exerted themfelves to obtain redrefs. 
 It was impofiible that fo feeling a lefibn 
 of the calamities inflicted upon the un- 
 protected clafles of mankind, by fellow- 
 creatures " dreffed in a little brief au- 
 thority," fhould fail to make a durable 
 impreflion on fuch a mind as Mr. How- 
 ard's. 
 
 It
 
 r 55 ) 
 
 It was not, however, till the period ,of 
 his ferving the office of fheriff, that the 
 diftrefies of thofe confined in the civil 
 prifons of his own country engaged his 
 particular notice. In the Introduction 
 to his State of the Prifons he has, with 
 the mod unaflumrng fimplicity, related 
 the gradual progrefs of his inquiries ; and 
 in what manner he was led, from an ex- 
 amination of the gaols in his own fmall 
 county, to an inveftigation of all the 
 circumftances belonging to this branch 
 of police throughout the kingdom. 
 
 The firft thing which (truck him, was 
 the enormous injuftice of remanding to 
 prifon for the payment of fees, thofe who 
 had been acquitted or difcharged with- 
 out trial. As the magiftrates of his 
 county, though willing to redrefs this 
 E 4 grievance,
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 grievance, did not conceive themfelves 
 pofleflcd of the power of granting a re- 
 medy, Mr. Howard travelled into fome 
 of the neighbouring counties in fearch of 
 a precedent. In this fearch, fcenes of 
 calamity and injuftice ftill opening upon 
 him, he went on, and paid vifits to mod 
 of the County Gaols in England. Some 
 peculiarly deplorable objedls coming in 
 his view who had been brought from the 
 Bridewehy he was induced to enter upon 
 an examination of thefe places of con- 
 finement ; for which purpofe he travelled 
 again into the counties he had before 
 feen, and into all the reft, vifiting Houfcs 
 of Correction, City and Town Gaols. 
 
 He had carried on thefe inquiries with 
 fo much afiiduity, that fo early as March 
 1774 he was defired to communicate his 
 
 information
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 information to the Houfe of Common*, 
 and received their thanks. As he was 
 then little known, I cannot much won- 
 der that fo extraordinary an inftance of 
 pure and aftive benevolence was not uni- 
 verfally comprehended, even by that pa- 
 triotic body ; for a member thought fit 
 to afk him, " at whofc expence he tra- 
 velled ?" a queftion which Mr. Howard 
 could fcarcely anfwer without fome in- 
 dignant emotions. SoOn after this pub- 
 lic teftimony given to the exiftence of 
 great abufes and defects in our prifons, 
 a very worthy member, Mr. Popbam, 
 brought into the Houfe two bills, one 
 for the relief of acquitted prifoners in 
 matter of fees-, the other, for preferring 
 the health of prijonsrs. Thefe falutary 
 afts palled during the fame feflion, and 
 
 made
 
 ( 58 ) 
 
 made a commencement of thofe reforms 
 which have fince been fo much extended. 
 Mr. Howard, aware of the great defici- 
 ency of the mode of promulgating laws 
 among us, had thefe acts printed in a dif- 
 ferent character, and fent to every keep- 
 er of a county gaol in England. 
 . In this year he was induced, by the 
 urgent perfuafions of his neighbours and 
 friends of the town of Bedford, to ftand 
 candidate, in conjunction with Mr. Wkit- 
 Iread, to reprefent that borough in Par- 
 liament. No two perfons could be bet- 
 ter entitled to the efteem of a town ; and 
 they were very warmly fupported in a 
 conteft*, which however terminated in the 
 return of two other gentlemen. Mr. 
 Whitbread and Mr. Howard petitioned 
 the Houfe againft the return j and the 
 
 event
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 event was, that the former, and one of 
 the fitting members, were declared duly 
 elected. To thofe who are acquainted 
 with the conftitution of that borough, it 
 will not appear extraordinary, that a per- 
 fon pofll fling the attachment of a ma~ 
 jority of the inhabitant voters fhould lofe 
 his election. This, however, was a moft 
 fortunate circumftance for the public ; 
 fmce, if Mr. Howard had obtained a 
 feat in the Houfe of Commons, his plans 
 for the reformation of prifons mud have 
 been brought within a narrow com- 
 pafs -, and the collateral inquiries which, 
 fo greatly to the advantage of humanity, 
 he afterwards adopted, could never have 
 exifted. 
 
 It was Mr. Howard's intention to have 
 publilhed his account of Englifh Prifons 
 
 X in
 
 in fpring 1775; but as he was fenfiblc, 
 that to point out defects, without at the 
 fame time fuggefting remedies, would be 
 of little advantage, he thought it beft to 
 examine with his own eyes what had 
 been actually put in practice with refpect 
 to this part of police, in fome of the moft 
 enlightened countries on the continent. 
 Accordingly, in thatyear he vifited France, 
 Flanders, Holland, and Germany ; and 
 in 1776 repeated his vifit to thofe coun- 
 tries, and alfo went to Switzerland. In 
 the intervals he made a journey to Scot- 
 land and Ireland, and revifited the coun- 
 ty gaols and many others in England. 
 
 Thus furnilhed with a flock of in- 
 formation greater than had ever before 
 been collected on this fubject; and, in- 
 deed, probably greaier than any man 
 
 had,
 
 had, in the fame fpace of time, ever col- 
 lected on any fubject that required fimi- 
 lar pains -, he offered it to the public in 
 1777, in a quarto volume of near 500 
 pages, dedicated to the Houfe of Com- 
 mons, by way of grateful acknowledg- 
 ment for the honour conferred on him 
 by their thanks, and for the attentioa 
 they had beftowed on the bufmefs. Be- 
 fore I proceed to give an account of this 
 work, I (hall juft obferve, that fo zealous 
 was Mr. Howard to diffufe information, 
 and fo determined to obviate any idea 
 that he meant to repay his expences by 
 the profitable trade of book making^ that, 
 befides a profufe munificence in prefenting 
 copies to all the principal perfons in the 
 kingdom, and all his particular friends, 
 he infifted on fixing the price of the vo- 
 7 lurne
 
 ( 62 ) 
 
 lume fo low, that, had every copy been 
 fold, he would (till have preferred the 
 public with all the plates, and great part 
 of the printing. And this practice he 
 followed in all his fubfequent publica- 
 tions ; fo that, with literal propriety, he 
 may be faid to have given them to the 
 world. By the large expences of his 
 journey, charities, and publications, he 
 has made himfelf even a greater pecuniary 
 benefactor to mankind than can readilv 
 
 * * 
 
 be paralleled in any age or country, his 
 proportionate circumftances confidered. 
 Yet how fmall a part was this of the fa- 
 orifices he made ! 
 
 He chofe the prefs of Mr. Eyres at 
 
 Warrington, induced by various elegant 
 
 fpecimens which had iffued from it, and 
 
 by the opportunity a country prefs af- 
 
 8 forded,
 
 forded, of having the work done under 
 his own infpecYion, at his own time, and 
 with all the minute accuracy of correc- 
 tion he determined to bellow on it. I 
 may alfo fay, that an opinion of the ad- 
 vantage he might there enjoy of fomc 
 literary afiiftance in the revifion and im- 
 provement of his papers, was a farther 
 motive. To this choice I was indebted 
 for that intimate perfonal acquaintance 
 with him, which I (hall ever efteem one 
 of the moil honourable circumftances of 
 my life, and the lively recollection of 
 which will, I truft, never quit me while 
 memory remains. He refided inWarring- 
 ton during the whole time of printing, 
 and his attention to bufinefs was moft 
 indefatigable. During a very fevere 
 winter he made it his pradice to rife at 
 
 three
 
 three or four in the morning, for the 
 purpofe of collating every word and fi- 
 gure of his daily proof Iheet with the 
 original. 
 
 As I thought it right to mention Mr. 
 Howard's literary deficiencies, it is be- 
 come neceffary to inform the public of 
 the manner in which his works were com- 
 pofed. On his return from his tours he 
 took all his memorandum-books to an 
 old retired friend of his, who afiifted him 
 in methodizing them, and copied out 
 the whole matter in correft language. 
 They were then put into the hands of 
 Dr. Prict 9 from whom they underwent 
 a revifion, and received occafionally con- 
 fiderable alterations. What Mr. Howard 
 himfelf thought of the advantages they 
 derived from his affiftance, will appear 
 
 from
 
 < 65 ) 
 
 from the following pafiages in letters to 
 Dr. Price. " I am afhamed to think 
 " how much I have accumulated your 
 " labours, yet I glory in that afiiftance 
 " to which I owe fo much credit in the 
 ee world, and, under Providence, fuccefs 
 
 " in my endeavours." -" It is from 
 
 " your kind aid and affiftance, my dear 
 " friend, that I derive fo much of my 
 " character and influence. I exult in 
 " declaring it, and mail carry a grate- 
 " ful fenfe of it to the laft hour of my 
 " exiftence." With his papers thus cor- 
 reded, Mr. Howard came to the prefs at 
 Warrington ; and firft he read them all 
 over carefully with me, which perufal 
 was repeated, fheet by meet, as they 
 were printed. As new fafts and ob- 
 fervations were continually fuggefting 
 F themfelves
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 themfelves to his mind, he put the mat- 
 ter of them upon paper as they occurred, 
 and then requefted me to clothe them in 
 fuch expreflions as I thought proper. 
 On thefe occafions, fuch was his diffi- 
 dence, that I found it difficult to make 
 him acquiefce in his own language when, 
 as frequently happened, it was unex- 
 ceptionable. Of this additional matter, 
 fome was interwoven with the text, but 
 the greater part was neceffarily thrown 
 into notes, which, in fome of his vo- 
 lumes, are numerous. 
 
 The title of this firft work is, The State 
 ef the Prifons in England and Wales \ 
 with preliminary Obfervations, and an Ac- 
 count of fome Foreign Prifons. It begins 
 with a general View of Diftrefs in Prifons, 
 fhewing in what refpecls thofe of Eng- 
 land
 
 land are deficient in the articles of food, 
 water, bedding, and frefh air; and that 
 the morals of the prifoners are totally 
 neglected, the moft criminal and aban- 
 doned being fuffered to corrupt the 
 younger and lefs practifed. Notice is 
 alfo taken of the gaol-fever^ a difeafe 
 which has in a peculiar manner infefted 
 the prifons of this country, and has at 
 various times fpread its ravages from 
 them among our courts of judicature, 
 our fleets, and armies. The author's 
 next fection is on Bad Cuftoms in Prifons, 
 under which he takes notice of the de- 
 mand of garnHh, the permiflion of gam- 
 ing, the ufe of irons, the practice of va- 
 rying the towns where the aflizes are 
 held, the local unfrequency of gaol-de- 
 livery, the fees ftill demanded by clerks 
 
 F 2 Of
 
 ( 68 ) 
 
 of afllze and of the peacp, the non-refi- 
 dency of gaolers, the crowding of gaols 
 with the wives and children of prifoners, 
 and the circumftance of fome gaols being 
 private property. From this, arid the 
 foregoing fedion, every one muft be 
 convinced of the dreadful ftate of our 
 police in this important matter, and the 
 abfolute necefllty for a reformation. For 
 proof that the complaints here made in 
 general terms are not unfounded or ex- 
 aggerated, he properly refers to the fub- 
 fequent account of particular gaols, where 
 they are too abundantly verified. He 
 concludes the fecond feclion with an enu- 
 meration of all the prifoners in England 
 and Wales, under their feveral clafies, 
 who, in 1776, amounted to 4084, a 
 number much lefs than fome vague con- 
 jectures
 
 jeclures had ftated, yet fufficiently great 
 to demand the ferious attention of the le- 
 giflature, efpecially when it is confidered 
 that every man in prifon may be reckon- 
 ed to have two dependents on him for 
 fupport. 
 
 Mr. Howard's third feclion offers pro- 
 pofed Improvements in the Strufture and 
 Management ofPrifons. He begins with 
 obfervations on the prifon itfelf, with 
 refpect to its fituation and plan, the lat- 
 ter of which is illuftrated by an engrav- 
 ing. He then proceeds to that moft ef- 
 fential topic, the regulations. Thefe he 
 confiders under the feveral heads of gaol- 
 er, chaplain, furgeon, fees, cleanlinefs, 
 food, bedding, rules and orders, and 
 infpeftor. He much inlifts upon the 
 neceflity of abfolutely taking away the 
 F 3 tap
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 tap from the keepers of prifons, the pof- 
 feflion of which was obvioufly the caufe 
 of promoting intemperance and riot, 
 from the intereft it gave the keeper in 
 fuch irregularities. In lieu of this fource 
 of profit, he propofes a liberal addition to 
 the falaries of this officer, the importance 
 and refpectability of whofe employ he 
 every where inculcates. He makes a fe- 
 parate article of bridewels, the original 
 penitentiary-houfes of the country, and 
 planned with much wifdom, but which, 
 by long neglect and abufe, were become 
 rather a nuifance than an advantage to 
 the police. In many of them, though 
 the perfons confined were fentenced to 
 bard labour, no work of any kind was 
 done ; and this (late of idlenefs, with the 
 company of hardened criminals, proved 
 
 to
 
 ( 7' ) 
 
 to be a moft effectual method of complet- 
 ing the corruption of young and petty of- 
 fenders. Various excellent remarks and 
 fuggeftions are given in the whole of this 
 fection, which contains the ground-work 
 of all improvement in the economy of 
 prifons and houfes of corre5Uon. 
 
 In left. IV. Mr. Howard gives an ac- 
 count of Foreign Prifons ; not of all he 
 had feen, but of fuch only as afforded 
 matter of inftruction; nor in thefe does 
 he notice the frauds and defects he ob- 
 ferved, for he fays, " the redrefs and 
 " inveftigation of foreign abufes was not 
 * f my object." The countries of which 
 the prifons are defcribed arc France, 
 Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and 
 Flanders. In the firft, the fufpicious 
 policy which tben prevailed would have 
 F 4 rendered
 
 ( 7* ) 
 
 rendered it very difficult for him to have 
 obtained accefs to the interior part of the 
 prifons, had he not availed himfelf of a 
 benevolent rule, which permits any per- 
 fon to diflribute alms to the prifoners 
 with his own hands. A fpirit of order 
 and precjfion, tempered with humanity, 
 was obfervable in the conduct of this 
 department, the regulations of which 
 were fixed by a very comprehenfive and 
 judicious code contained in an arret of 
 1717. In Switzerland, the feparation of 
 male and female prifoners, the folitary 
 confinement of felons, and the employ- 
 ment of thofe called galley-flaves, are 
 circumftances deferving notice. The 
 German prifons are regulated in a fimilar 
 manner i and the houfes of correction. 
 $t Mankflm, Hamburgh^ and Bremen , af-r 
 
 fonj
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 ford ufeful examples of order and induf* 
 try. But it is in Holland that the pur* 
 pofe of reforming criminals by a courfe 
 of difcipline is carried into execution with 
 mod care and effect. Few debtors and 
 few atrocious offenders are to be found 
 there-, and the rafp and fpin-houfes con- 
 tain the great body of prifoners. The 
 regulations of thefe are given in detail, 
 and the different employments of the 
 prilbners in different towns are particu- 
 larly noted. Holland appears to be Mr, 
 Howard's great Jchool t to which we fhall 
 fee that he was never wearied in return- 
 ing. The Auftrian Netherlands offer fome 
 of the largeft eftablifhments of the peni- 
 tentiary kind, and prove the poflibility 
 pf managing a great number of criminals 
 fo as to make them ufeful to the flate,
 
 ( 74 ) 
 
 and decent in their behaviour, by the aid 
 of fteady difcipline and feparate confine- 
 ment at night. Mr. Howard faw, what 
 I fuppofe was then deemed an impofii- 
 bility in England, in the houfe of cor- 
 rection at Ghent, near 190 ftout crimi- 
 nals governed with as much apparent 
 cafe as the moft fober and well-difpofed 
 afiembly in civil fociety. The regula- 
 tions of this prifon are defervedly given 
 at fome length. Mr. Howard concludes 
 this feclion with a forcible and manly 
 appeal to his countrymen with refpect to 
 the comparifon he was obliged to exhibit 
 between foreign and Englifh police in 
 this point, fo unfavourable to the latter ; 
 calling upon his reader to judge, from 
 the facts laid before him, " whether a 
 defign of reforming ourprifons be merely 
 
 vifionaryj
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 vifionary-, and whether idlenefs, debau- 
 chery, difeafe, and famine, be thp necef- 
 fery attendants of a prifon, or only con- 
 necled with it in our ideas, for want of 
 a more perfect knowledge and more en- 
 larged views." 
 
 Section V. takes up the greateft part of 
 the book. It contains a particular ac- 
 count of Englifh prifons, arranged ac- 
 cording to the circuits, and comprifmg 
 every county in England and Wales. 
 The mode adopted is very well contrived 
 for the eafy confutation of magiftrates and 
 other perfons concerned. Every principal 
 prifon in London, and every county and 
 city gaol, has the leading facts refpecting 
 it difpofed in a fhort table under the four 
 heads of gaoler, prifoners, chaplain , and 
 furgeon. A brief defcription follows of 
 
 fituation,
 
 fituation, plan, meafurements, &c. with 
 fuch remarks, either of approbation or 
 cenfure, as the circumftances fuggefted. 
 Lifts are given of legacies and bene- 
 factions; and all tables of fees, and rules 
 and orders, are copied verbatim. Next 
 to thefe, are concife accounts of all the 
 county bridewels, and the town gaols 
 and bridewels, with occafional remarks. 
 The work is clofed by fome tables relative 
 to fees and numbers, crimes and punifh- 
 ments of criminals. A fhort conclufion 
 terminates the whole, in which the author 
 apologizes for the language of cenfure 
 he has fo often been compelled to ufe, 
 enumerates the leading objects requiring 
 reform, and promifes, that if fuch a 
 thorough parliamentary enquiry into this 
 great object, as alone can prove effectual 
 
 to
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 to put it upon a proper footing, fhould 
 be undertaken, he would devote his time 
 to a more extenfive foreign journey, for 
 the fake of obtaining new information to 
 lay before the public. 
 
 I cannot difmifs the account of Mr. 
 Howard's firft and great work, without 
 a few reflections, to which the contempla- 
 tion of it gives rife. And firft, we may 
 derive from it a clear idea of the capital 
 objects which the author had at heart re- 
 fpecting prifoners. Thefe were, to alle- 
 viate their miferies, and correft their vices. 
 As to the former purpofe, he confidered 
 that men, partaking a common nature, 
 have certain claims upon their fellow- 
 creatures which nothing can entirely ab- 
 rogate , that even the higheft degree of 
 criminality does not abfolutely exclude 
 
 companion
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 companion towards the perpetrators of* 
 crimes, efpecially when differing under 
 their effects ; that as no man pafles 
 through life without fome deviation from 
 ftrict rectitude, fo none has lived without 
 the performance of fome good actions ; - 
 and that, although human laws mud 
 draw a line between fuch circumftances 
 of conduct as do, or do not, come within 
 their cognizance, yet there is a tribunal 
 before which all mankind muft appear 
 as culprits, only diftinguifhed by the de- 
 gree of delinquency. He further confi- 
 dered, that among the inmates of a prifon 
 there is every pofiible degree of moral 
 demerit, from the mere inconfiderate vio- 
 lation of fome hard, ill-underftood, local 
 law, to the deliberate breach of the moft 
 facred and univerfal rule of action ; and 
 
 that
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 that a great number are, in the eye of 
 the law, innocent perfons, only under a 
 temporary ftate of confinement, till their 
 conduct is properly inveftigated. From 
 thefe different views of the fubject, he 
 convinced himfelf, that it was the duty 
 of every fociety to pay due attention to 
 the health, and, in fome degree, even to 
 the comforts^ of all who are held in a 
 ftate of confinement; that wanton and 
 vmnecefiary rigour fhould be pradtifed 
 upon none -, and that fome were entitled 
 to all the indulgences compatible with 
 their condition. It was, however, by 
 no means his wifh (as fome chofe to re- 
 prcfent it) to render a prifon fo comfort- 
 able an abode, that the lowed order of 
 fociety might find their condition even 
 bettered by admiflion into it. On the 
 4 contrary,
 
 C *o ) 
 
 contrary, the fyftem of difcipKne which 
 he defired to. eilablifh, was fuch as would 
 appear extremely grievous to thofe of an 
 idle and licentious difpofition. For, when- 
 ever imprifonment was made the puni/h- 
 ment of a crime, his idea of reformation 
 became a leading principle in the regula- 
 tion of prifons; and it was that which 
 coft him the chief labour in collecting 
 and applying facts. To accomplifli this 
 end, he fhewed that thefe things were 
 efiential ; ftrict and conftant fuperinten- 
 dence clofe and regular employment 
 religious inftruction rewards for induf- 
 try and good behaviour, and penalties 
 for floth and audacioufnefs diftribution 
 into clafTes and divifions according to 
 age, fex, delinquency, &c. and occa- 
 fional and nocturnal folitude. In laying 
 
 down
 
 down thefe regulations, he might be 
 thought to have given way to a certain 
 aufterity, were it not fo tempered by at- 
 tention to the real demands of human 
 nature, and fanftified by a regard to the 
 beft interefts of offenders themfclves, that 
 the friend of mankind was ever apparent, 
 even in the ftrict difciplinarian. He ex- 
 tremely lamented that the plan of refor- 
 mation feemed, of all parts of his fyftem 
 of improvement, lead entered into or un- 
 derftood in this country. The vulgar 
 idea that our criminals are hardened 
 and abandoned beyond all pofiibility of 
 amendment, appeared to him equally ir- 
 rational and pernicious. He fcorned, 
 through negligence or defpair, to give up 
 the worft cafes of mental corruption ; he 
 fglly believed that proper remedies, duly 
 G adminiftercd,
 
 C S* ) 
 
 adminiftered, would recover a large mare 
 of them ; and he thought it the greateft 
 of cruelties to confign a foul to perdition, 
 without having made every effort for re- 
 trieving it. Merely to get rid of convicts 
 by execution or perpetual banifhment, he 
 regarded as a piece of barbarous policy, 
 equally denoting want of feeling, and 
 deficiency of refource ; and he had not 
 fo much Englifh prejudice about him, as 
 to fuppofe, that a fyftem not adopted in 
 this country was therefore abfurd or im- 
 practicable. 
 
 My fecond topic of reflection is the 
 ftriking proof this work affords of the 
 extenfive benefit, arifing from a free 
 prefs. By its means we fee an individual, 
 enjoying neither royal nor minifterial, 
 patronage, but folely borne up by ardent 
 S zeal
 
 Seal for the public good, and the re- 
 fources of his own mind and fortune, en- 
 abled, not only to lay before the world 
 complete information concerning a moft 
 important and little known fubjeft, but, 
 in fome meafure, alfo to enforce the cor- 
 rection of abufes, by bringing before the 
 bar of the fublic thofe by whofe negli- 
 gence or criminality they had been fof- 
 tered. For as the hiftory of mankind has 
 fhewn, on the one hand, that palpable 
 injuftice and mifmanagement, even in an 
 abfolute government, cannot long (land 
 their ground againft the odium of an en- 
 lightened public ; fo, on the other, it has 
 proved, that even in free conftitutions, 
 notwithftanding all their boafted checks 
 and balances, very grofs abufes may long 
 prevail, unlefs they are placed in open 
 G 2 day,
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 day, and fubmitted to the cenfure of the 
 nation at large. It is fcarcely, I think, 
 to be doubted, that the freedom we enjoy 
 in this country, and the ultimate defeat 
 of every pernicious project, are lefs owing 
 to the mecbanifm of our conftitution, than 
 to the habitual practice (rather afiumed 
 by the fpirit of the people than granted 
 by the laws) of fubje&ing every public 
 meafure to popular difcuffion by means 
 of the prefs. From this ready communi- 
 cation of facls and opinions, it has hap- 
 pened, that many ufeful defigns and im- 
 provements have among us originated 
 from perfons who had neither power nor 
 intereft of their own, but whofe plans 
 were adopted in confequence of the pub- 
 lic conviction. The refpecl paid to Mr. 
 Howard's virtues, abilities, and induftry, 
 
 placed
 
 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 fome 
 meafure, throughout Europe. Though 
 in exercifing the office of a cenfor he was 
 fuperior to the fear of giving offence, 
 yet he ever obferved the utmofl delicacy 
 in marking out individuals as objects of 
 blame. He boldly and forcibly difplay- 
 ed the abufc, but left it to thofe more 
 immediately concerned, to take notice 
 of the delinquent. It cannot be queftion- 
 ed, that numbers looked with an evil eye 
 upon his keen refearches and free de- 
 tections ; but how could they venture, 
 before the public, to confront a man 
 whofe aflertions were correct, whole in- 
 tentions were above all fufpicion, and 
 G 3 whofe
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 whofe life would (land the fevered teft ? 
 May this example animate all future 
 friends of mankind with a noble confi- 
 dence becoming their caufe ! 
 
 The Houfe of Commons now took up, 
 with laudable zeal, the important bufinefsof 
 regulating the prifons; and in the draught 
 of a bill " to punifh by imprisonment and 
 hard labour certain offenders, and to 
 eftablifh proper places for their recep- 
 tion," the plan was formed upon the 
 Rafp and Spin-houfes in Holland. Mr. 
 Howard was now called upon by his 
 promife, 'as well as his inclination, to 
 make a new tour for the purpofe of 
 acquiring frefh and more exacl informa- 
 tion. He, accordingly, in April 1778, 
 went over to Holland, and revifited with 
 the greateft attention the well-con dueled 
 
 eftablifhments
 
 ( 8; ) 
 
 cftablifliments of the penitentiary kind 
 in the United Provinces. Thence he 
 travelled into Germany, taking his courfe 
 through Hanover and Berlin, to Vienna. 
 From this capital he proceeded to Italy 
 by Venice; and, having gone as far fouth 
 as Naples, returned by the weftern fide of 
 that country to Switzerland, Thence he 
 purfued the courfe of the Rhine through 
 Germany ; and, crofling the Low Countries 
 to France, returned to England in Jan. 
 1779. During the fpring and fummer 
 of this year he made another complete 
 tour of England and Wales, and like- 
 wife took a journey through Scotland and 
 Ireland. 
 
 The labours of thefe two years were 
 certainly not lefs productive of ufeful in- 
 formation than his former journies. In 
 G 4 fome
 
 ( 88 ) 
 
 fome refpecls they were more valuable, 
 lince, being now fully mafter of his fub- 
 jecl, and acquainted with the means of 
 procuring the befl intelligence, he purfued 
 his inquiries with greater eafe and effect. 
 He was now, too, a diftinguilhed charac- 
 ter in Europe, and might venture to 
 afiume that kind of authority, to which 
 the collection of facls, interefting to all 
 civilized nations, feemed to entitle him. 
 It is here proper to mention, that although 
 he often found it necefiary, efpecially 
 when treading new ground, to avail him- 
 felf of recommendations to perfons high 
 in rank and office ; yet that he much 
 preferred, when he could practife it, car- 
 rying on his researches as an unknown 
 individual, whofe bufmefs was not fufpeft- 
 
 sd, and who took fuch times and oppor- 
 tunities
 
 ( 89 ) 
 
 tunities of making his vifits, as fecured 
 him againft any thing like difguife or 
 preparation. And it was his general 
 cuftom, after he had once obtained accefs 
 to a prifon by the prefence and interpo- 
 fnion of authority, to ftay fome time in 
 the place, or revifit it, for the purpofe of 
 renewing his enquiries fingle and unex- 
 pected. Thus careful was he to guard 
 againft deception ; and with fuch coolnefs 
 of inveftigation did he execute a defign 
 which it required fo much ardour of mind 
 to conceive ! 
 
 I mall not, however, conceal, that fome 
 fenfible and not uncandid obfervers of 
 his conduct have thought him too apt 
 to be prejudiced by firft impreflions, the 
 effects of which it appeared extremely 
 difficult to remove; and they have alfp 
 
 charged
 
 charged him with fometimes giving un- 
 due credit to perfons of inferior condition, 
 at the places where he was making his 
 inquiries; and likewife with being ap- 
 parently better pleafed with finding oc- 
 cafion to cenfure than to commend. If, 
 in a few inftances, there may have been 
 grounds for thefe imputations (as nothing 
 human is .without its defers), yet I think 
 his works may, on the whole, be confi- 
 dently referred to, as proving,by an im- 
 menfe mafs of allowed and uncontradifted 
 facts, the accuracy of his reprefentations. 
 It is likewife to be confidered, that, as 
 abufes in general proceed from fuperiors, 
 it was not likely that a fair account of 
 them mould be obtained from that quar- 
 ter : and, as his great purpofe was to cor- 
 reft t it ^ natural that his attention mould 
 
 have
 
 have been more drawn to what was wrong 
 than what was right. A Hercules who 
 went about in order to contend with 
 monfters, had little to do with the fair 
 forms of civil life. Yet numerous in- 
 flances of liberal praife may be found in 
 his works, efpecially where he could pro- 
 pofe the object of it as an example pro- 
 per for imitation. 
 
 The tours now before us were like- 
 wife rendered richer in utility by the 
 comprehenfion of another great object, 
 that of bofpitals. To thefe inftitutions 
 of humanity Mr. Howard had long been 
 attached; he had been a promoter of 
 them, and attentive to their improve- 
 ment ; and in his journies through this 
 kingdom, he had feldom failed to vifit 
 the hpfpitals and infirmaries fituated in 
 
 our
 
 our principal towns. He had alib, in his 
 firft publication, taken curfory notice of 
 a few which he faw abroad. But he now 
 mads them an avowed object of his ex- 
 amination; a circumflance, it may be 
 fuppofed, not a little pleafing to his me- 
 dical friends. For, although the know- 
 ledge collected by a profeffional man 
 with fimilar opportunities would, doubt- 
 lefs, have been more applicable to the 
 purpofe of fcience, yet matter of fact, 
 accurately ftated by a fenfible obferver, 
 muft ever have its value. Befides, whefl 
 can we expect to fee the fpirit and quali- 
 ties of a Howard^ united, in one of our 
 profeflion, with his fortune and leifure? 
 
 The fruit of all this refearch appeared 
 in the year 1780, in an Appendix to the 
 State of tbe Prifons in England and Wales \ 
 
 containing
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 containing a further Account of Foreign 
 Prifons and Hofpitah, with additional Re- 
 marks on the Prifons of this Country. It 
 is a quarto volwme of about 200 pages, 
 with feveral plates. The work begins 
 with the foreign prifons and hofpitals; 
 and Holland takes the lead, fince a main 
 object of the journey was a minute ac- 
 count of the excellent regulations of the 
 houfes of correction in that country. 
 .Many of the rules, dietaries, &c. are 
 copied i and on quitting the country, Mr, 
 Howard gives his teftimony to the large 
 eld of information on this fubject that 
 it affords, and fays, that he knows not 
 which moft to admire, " the neatnefs 
 and cleanlinefs appearing in the prifons, 
 the induftry and regular conduct of 
 the prifoners, or the humanity and at- 
 tention
 
 ( 94 ) 
 
 tention of the magiftrates and governors." 
 He takes little notice of the hofpitals for 
 the fick in Holland, not approving their 
 mode of keeping patients fo warm, and 
 excluding the frefh air. At Berlin^ the 
 regularity and ftrictnefs of the police mews 
 the ruling fpirit of the great Frederic. 
 A work-houfe here is conducted in the 
 bed Dutch mode. Vienna affords little 
 to commend in its prifons : on the con- 
 trary, its horrid dungeons feem the 
 abode of the extremeft human mifery. 
 Scarcely any thing in Mr. Howard's de- 
 fcriptions is more touching than the fol- 
 lowing picture : "In one of the dark 
 dungeons, down twenty-four fteps, I 
 thought I had found a perfon with the 
 gaol-fever. He was loaded with heavy 
 irons, and chained to the wall : anguilh 
 
 and
 
 C 95' ) 
 
 and mifery appeared with tears clotted 
 on his face. He was not capable of 
 fpeaking to me ; but, on examining his 
 breaft and feet for pefecbi<e t or fpots, and 
 finding a flrong intermitting pulfe, I was 
 convinced that he was not ill of that dif- 
 order. A prifoner in an oppofite cell 
 told me, that the poor creature had de- 
 fired him to call for afliftance, and he 
 had done it, but was not heard V The 
 
 charities 
 
 * This fcene is the fubje& of the frontifpiece to 
 Mr, Hayley's Qdt to Mr. HiwarJ; and it is better 
 drawn in the following ftanza of that perform- 
 ance. 
 
 Where in the dungeon's loathfome fhade 
 The fpeechlefs captive clanks his chain, 
 With heartlefs hope to raife that aid 
 His feeble cries have call'd in vain : 
 Thine eye his dumb complaint explores ; 
 Thy voice his parting breath reftores ; 
 
 Thy
 
 ( 96 ) 
 
 charities of this city, chiefly founded by 
 the late Emprefs Queen, are much more 
 pleafing fubjects of defcription. 
 
 Mr. Howard entered Italy with high 
 expectations of improvement from its nu- 
 merous charitable inftitutions and pub- 
 lic edifices ; nor does it appear that he 
 was altogether difappointed, as this coun- 
 try affords him a pretty long and intereft- 
 ing article. The governments in which 
 a fpirit of improvement, and attention to 
 public objects, feem moft to prevail, are 
 thofe of Milan and Tufcany. The hof- 
 pitals in Italy afford fome novelties and 
 ufeful hints; but there appears to be a 
 great difference among them as to clean- 
 linefs and good management. Rome and 
 
 Thy cares his ghaftly vifage clear 
 
 From death's chill dew, with many a clotted tear, 
 
 And to his thankful foul returning life endear. 
 
 Milan
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 Milan have well conduced houfes of 
 correction, of which plans and defcriptions 
 are given. In a room of the former is 
 infcribed a fentence, which fo admirably 
 exprefied Mr. Howard's idea concerning 
 the purpofe of civil policy relative to cri- 
 minals, that he would, I believe, almoft 
 have thought it worth while to have tra- 
 velled thither for that alone. PARUM 
 
 EST COERCERE IMPROBOS POENA, NISI 
 PROBOS EFFICIAS DISCIPLINA. If IS 
 
 doing little to rejlrain the bad by funi/h- 
 
 ment> unlefs you render them good by dif- 
 
 cipline. The galleys belonging to various 
 
 ftates in Italy, and ufed for punifhment, 
 
 may be ufefully compared with our hulks. 
 
 The weftern fide of Germany offers 
 
 fome good regulations in its houfes of 
 
 correction ; but in general, the police of 
 
 H this
 
 ( 9* ) 
 
 this country is no objeft of imitation. 
 The dungeons of Liege prefent pictures 
 to the imagination more dreadful, if pof- 
 fible, than thofe of Vienna. " In de- 
 fcending deep below ground ( r ays Mr. 
 Howard) I heard the moans of the mi- 
 ferable wretches in the dark dungeons. 
 The fides and roof were all Hone. In 
 wet feafons, water from the fofies gets 
 into them, and has greatly damaged the 
 
 floors." " The dungeons in the 
 
 new prifon are abodes of mifery flill more 
 fhockingj and confinement in them fo 
 overpowers human nature, as fometimes 
 irrecoverably to take away the fenles. 
 I heard the cries of the dijlrafted, as I went 
 down to them." Surely the Liegois can- 
 not be blamed for endeavouring to place 
 civil authority in different hands from 
 
 thofe
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 thofc who thus outraged the feelings of 
 human nature! 
 
 The additional notices of France are 
 diilinguifhed by an account of the Baf- 
 tilJe, extrafted from a fcarce pamphlet, 
 which Mr. Howard procured, not without 
 hazard, and a tranflation of the whole 
 of which he likewife printed. He had 
 reafon to believe, that this expofure to 
 all Europe of the horrid fecrets of this 
 *' prifon houle," was a caufe that his 
 after-vifits to that country were attended 
 with no fmall danger to his liberty , and 
 it was once not improbable, that Mr. 
 Howard mould have been in the number 
 of thofe victims whom the demolition 
 of that fortrefs of defpotifm reftored to 
 light and freedom. What a triumph 
 mud it have been to him, to have learn- 
 H 2 ed,
 
 ed, that the frowning towers, which could 
 not be approached, or even gazed at, 
 without offence, were levelled to the 
 ground, as the firft facrifice to the re- 
 covered rights of a generous nation ! It 
 is remarkable, that France was of all 
 countries that in which he found in- 
 telligence concerning the prifons, and 
 other government eftablifhments, moft 
 difficult to be obtained ; and this union 
 of the fufpicious rigour of the police 
 with the exterior gaiety and frivolity of 
 the national character, gave him no fmall 
 difguft. It is to be prefumed, that the 
 change in their conftitution will foften 
 this contraft into a defirable harmony be* 
 tween the principles of the adminiftra- 
 tion and the manners of the people. 
 Great Britain being then at war with. 
 
 France,
 
 France, Spain, and America, Mr. How- 
 ard could not be unmindful of that clafs 
 of honourable prifoners to which he him- 
 felf had once belonged. He very atten- 
 tively vifited the Englifh prifoners of war 
 confined in Calais and French Flanders, 
 noting down their complaints, and all the 
 particulars of their treatment. He alfo, 
 as I have been well informed, clothed, 
 at his own expence, feveral who had been 
 ihipwrecked on the French coaft in the 
 dreadful ftorm of December 3 1 , 1778, 
 and were left almoft naked. He like- 
 wife exerted himfelf in diffuacjing the men 
 from enlifting with the French, who were 
 endeavouring to feduce them ; by which 
 he greatly offended the perfons in office 
 there, who could not imagine that he 
 acted in all this as a private man, but 
 H 3 were
 
 ( IP* ) 
 
 were ftrongly perfuaded that he was a 
 fecrct agent or fpy of the Englilh govern- 
 ment. This natural fuppofition may 
 ferve as fome apology for the fufpicion 
 and illiberality with which he was con- 
 ftantly treated in that country. 
 
 On his return to England, with the 
 true fpirit of a citizen of the world, he 
 paid immediate vifits to the French, 
 Spanim, and American prifoners of 
 war in this country ; nor did he forget 
 thofe in Scotland and Ireland. The re- 
 fults of his obfervations, g ven with the 
 mod perfect impartiality, fucceed the 
 account of foreign prifons and hofpitals ; 
 and it cannot be doubted that they had 
 confiderable erTecl in alleviating the un- 
 avoidable hard ill ips of war. 
 
 Mr. Howard next gives a brief account 
 
 of
 
 of what he obferved worthy of notice in 
 his tours through Scotland and Ireland. 
 The former country being governed by 
 a different fyftem of municipal law from 
 that of England, affords fome ufeful re- 
 marks concerning imprifonment for debr, 
 the form of adminiftering an oath, and 
 the mode of conducting executions. Ire- 
 land, has not been at all behindhand 
 with the fifter kingdom in pafiing acts 
 for the liberal improvement of its prifons; 
 but there did not at that time appear an 
 equal attention in magiftrates to put 
 them in execution. Some remarks here 
 introduced, concerning the practice of re- 
 cruiting the army out of the gaols, will 
 be thought important by thofe, who wifh 
 that the clafs of armed citizens mould be 
 H 4 refpectable,
 
 refpectable, in proportion to its confe* 
 quence. 
 
 The next article relates to the Hulks 
 on the Thames. Thefe, at their firfl infti- 
 tution, had been extremely unhealthy, 
 in confequence of faults which Mr. How- 
 ard pointed out in his former work. 
 Their (late was now much mended by 
 means of parliamentary interference ; yet, 
 on the whole, it was not a mode of im- 
 prifonment and employment which met 
 with his approbation. Some further re- 
 marks on the Gaol-fever fucceed ; which, 
 in addition, to the general caufes of want 
 of frefh air and cleanlinefs, he attributes 
 to fuch a fudden change of diet and 
 lodging as breaks the fpirits of convicts. 
 This correfponds with the medical doc- 
 trine
 
 trine of the effect of debilitating caufes, 
 in producing fevers of the typhus kind; 
 yet it feems fuch a caufe as cannot well 
 be avoided. 
 
 The remainder of the book is occupied 
 by a frefh furvey of the prifons in England 
 and Wales, in which fuch changes as had 
 taken place fmce his former publication 
 are noted, with occafional obfervations. 
 The reader will remark with pleafure, 
 that in mod parts of the kingdom, vari- 
 ous ufeful alterations had been made fince 
 the period in which Mr. Howard began 
 his inquiries ; and the great mare he had 
 in occafioning them will be univerfally 
 admitted. 
 
 His condufion expreffes fatisfaftion with 
 
 the refult of his labours ; and mentions, 
 
 that it had been his intention now to re- 
 
 3 tire
 
 ( io6 ) 
 
 tire to the tranquil enjoyment of that 
 compe ence Providence had beftowed 
 on him, but that the earned perfuafions 
 of ti ofe who thought him a proper per- 
 fon to fuperintend one of the great plans 
 be had fo much recommended, had in- 
 duced him ftill to devote his time to the 
 public. Concerning this matter, it is 
 proper to enter into an explanation. I 
 fhall only firft mention, that, together 
 with this Appendix, there was printed a 
 new edition, in octavo, of the State of the 
 Prifons, with which all this additional 
 matter was interwoven. 
 
 An act for eftablifliing Penitentiary 
 Houfes, on which much labour and 
 thought had been beftowed by men of 
 great ability, paffcd in 1779. By this 
 act, three fupervifors were appointed for 
 
 the
 
 ( 107 ) 
 
 the purpofe of fuperintending the execu- 
 tion of the buildings. The whole king- 
 dom would naturally turn its eyes on Mr. 
 Howard, as the firft perfon whofe fervices 
 Ihould be engaged on this occafion; but 
 it was not an eafy tafk to obtain his ac- 
 quiefcence. Among other objections, 
 his extreme delicacy, with refptcl to pe- 
 cuniary emolument, flood in his way; and 
 even the moderate falary annexed to this 
 office, feemed to him fcarcely compatible 
 with the abfolute difintereftednefs of con- 
 duel he had maintained, and was deter- 
 mined to preferve, during the whole of 
 his labours. At length, however, the 
 folicitations of his friends, particularly 
 of the late Sir W. Blackftone, the great 
 promoter of the defign, together with a 
 confcioufnefs of the fervice he might 
 
 render
 
 render the public in this ftation, over- 
 came his reluctance. Having refolved 
 to accept of no falary for himfelf, and 
 having made the afibciation of his highly- 
 refpected friend, Dr. Fothergill, a con- 
 dition of his compliance, he, with the 
 Doctor, and Mr. Whately, treafurer of the 
 Foundling-hofpital, were nominated by 
 his Majefty as the three fupervifors. The 
 firft matter for their determination was, 
 fixing on the fpot where the two peniten- 
 tiary houfes for the metropolis mould be 
 creeled. Various fituations were pro- 
 pofed, and Mr. Howard paid due atten- 
 tion to all the plans, by vifiting the fpots, 
 and maturely confidering all circum- 
 ftances favourable and objectionable. The 
 refult was, that his opinion and that of 
 Dr. Fothergill coincided in giving a pre- 
 ference
 
 ( 109 ) 
 
 ference to Iflington, for reafons which he 
 has flated in his lad publication. Mr. 
 \Vhately preferred the fituation of Lime- 
 houfe. By the death-bed advice of Sir 
 W. Blackitone, the two friends adhered 
 to their opinion; but the matter was made 
 an affair of obftinate contention, and re- 
 mained undecided during the year 1720. 
 At the end of it Dr. Fothergill died; 
 upon which event, Mr. Howard, forefee- 
 ing that the want of the fupport of fuch 
 a colleague would render his future in- 
 terference ufelefs, fent his refignation of 
 the office of fupervifor in January 1781, 
 in a letter to Earl Bathurft, which he has 
 printed. 
 
 Now that Mr. Howard hid freed him- 
 felf from the engagement, which feemed 
 to be the only obftacle between him and 
 
 that
 
 that elegant retreat which fof fo many 
 years he had inhabited, it might naturally 
 be imagined that he would fit down in 
 repofe, for the remainder of his life, fatif- 
 fied with the unparalleled and fuccefsful 
 exertions he had made for the relief of 
 the moft diftreflfed portion of mankind; 
 and thenceforth employ himfelf only in 
 thofe more confined deeds of beneficence 
 which he had ever praclifed. But it was 
 a leading feature in his character, not to 
 be content with any thing fhort of the 
 greateil perfection, which every object of 
 his purfuit was capable of attaining ; and 
 this principle could fcarcely fail of apply- 
 ing itfelf to a fubject fo important as 
 that which had for fome years occupied 
 his attention. Though his refearches in 
 thofe foreign countries which promifed 
 7 moft
 
 ( III ) 
 
 mod information, might have been fup- 
 pofed to have exhaufted that Iburce of 
 improvement, yet, on furveying fo large 
 a tract of Europe as yet unvifited, he 
 could not be fatisfied to remain unac- 
 quainted with the ufeful facls relative to 
 his purpofe, which might poffibly lie 
 there concealed. And he was convinced, 
 that every new vifi't, even to places already 
 examined, would afford new inftruclioo. 
 
 It was therefore nofurprife to thofe who 
 intimately knew him, to learn, that in the 
 fummer of 1781 he was fet out on a tour 
 to the capitals of Denmark, Sweden, 
 Rufila, and Poland, with the further in- 
 tention of revifiting Holland and part of 
 Germany. From this tour he returned 
 towards the clofe of the year. I have 
 before me a letter of his to a friend (the 
 
 Re*.
 
 kev. Mr Smith of Bedford), dated 
 Mofcow, September 7, 1781, whence it 
 appears, that thefe parts of the world were 
 lefs fuitable to his mode of living than 
 the countries through Avhich his former 
 travels lay. " I thought (fays he) I 
 could live where any man did live ; but 
 this northern journey, efpecially in Swe- 
 den, has pinched me: no fruit, no gar- 
 den fluff, four bread, four milk : but in 
 this city I find every luxury, even pine- 
 apples and -potatoes" He mentions hav- 
 ing declined every honour that was offer- 
 ed him at Peterfburgh, even that of a 
 foldier to attend him on his journey; 
 and fays, that he will not leave Mofcow 
 till he has made repeated vifits to the 
 prifons and hofpitals, fmce the firft man 
 in the kingdom had allured him, that 
 
 his
 
 his publication would be trandated into 
 Ruffian. 
 
 The year 1782 he employed in ano- 
 ther complete furvey of the prifons in 
 England, and another journey into Scot- 
 land and Ireland. The Irifh Houfe of 
 Commons having appointed a gaol-com- 
 mittee, he reported to it the ftate of feve- 
 ral of the prifons in Dublin. Other ob- 
 jects in that iQand alfo engaged his atten- 
 tion, of which an account will be given 
 hereafter. 
 
 Spain and Portugal yet remained un- 
 touched ground. Confidering how much 
 the fpirit of religious bigotry and civil 
 defpotifm has thrown thefe countries back 
 
 Ik 
 
 in the progrefs of modern improvement, 
 
 much inftruction was not to be expected 
 
 from them ; yet the very circumftance 
 
 I of
 
 C 
 
 of their difference from the reft of Europe 
 made their fyftems of police an object of 
 curiofity. He failed to Lifbon in Fe- 
 bruary 17^3, and proceeded thence by 
 land into Spain, pafllng from Badajos to 
 Madrid, and through Valladolid, Burgos, 
 and Pamplona, to France. From this laft 
 country he returned through Flanders and 
 Holland to England. Travelling in 
 Spain is a fevere trial of patience to thole 
 who have been accuftomed to eafy con- 
 veyance and luxurious indulgences; but 
 Mr. Ploward's wants were eafily fatisfied. 
 " The Spaniards (fays he, in a letter to 
 the fame friend) are very fober, and very 
 honeft ; and if a traveller can live fparing- 
 ly, and lie on the floor, he may pafs 
 tolerably well through their country.'* 
 From Lifbon to Madrid he could feldom 
 
 get
 
 < "5 ) 
 
 get the luxury of milk with his tea* but 
 one morning (he tells his friend) he rob- 
 bed a kid of two cups of its mother's 
 milk. He remained, however, in per- 
 fect health and fpirits ; and received that 
 mark of attention which he moft of all 
 valued, a free accefs to the prifons of all 
 the cities he vifited, by means of letters to 
 the magiftrates from Count Campomanes. 
 
 After a fhort repofe on his return from 
 this tour, he made another journey in the 
 fummer of the fame year into Scotland 
 and Ireland, and again vifited feveral of 
 the Englifh prifons. 
 
 His materials had now once more 
 accumulated to fuch a mafs, as to de- 
 mand communication to the public. 
 During the laft three years his labours 
 had been even greater than in any former 
 I 2 equal
 
 ( "6 ) 
 
 cqral period ; yet it could not be ex- 
 pected, that the matter abfolutely new 
 which he had collected (hould be propor- 
 tionally great. It was, however, enough 
 to employ him very clofely during feve- 
 ral months of the year 1784, in printing 
 an Appendix^ and a new edition of the 
 main work, in which all the additions 
 were comprized. The Appendix contains 
 all the matter of that of 1780, together 
 with what had fince accrued. Of the 
 latter I now proceed to give fome ac- 
 count. 
 
 Several new houfes of correction are 
 defcribed under the head of Holland, the 
 country which Mr. Howard ever found 
 the moft fertile fource of inflruction in 
 this branch of police. The plan of the 
 large new workhoufe of Amfterdain muft 
 7 be
 
 be well worth ftudying, as affording hints 
 for the conftruction of penitentiary houfes. 
 Germany has the addition of the prifons 
 of Hanover and Bremen, a minute ac- 
 count of the great and well regulated 
 workhoufe at Hamburg, and fhort notices 
 concerning Silefia. Of the northern 
 kingdoms which he now firft vifited, it 
 may in general be obferved, that their 
 models, as well with refpect to police, 
 as to mode of living, have been Hol- 
 land 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 cleanlinefs and induflry. The new 
 articles, therefore, of Denmark and Swe- 
 den, though valuable for the information 
 they contain, yet afford little or nothing 
 I of
 
 ( "8 ) 
 
 of inftruclion. The vaft empire of 
 RuJJia, lately emerged from obfcurity to 
 take a commanding ftation in the fyftem 
 of Europe, and governed by unconcroul- 
 cd power, at prefent directed by a fpirit 
 of magnificent improvement, could not 
 but offer in its inftitutions various things 
 worthy of notice. Its police refpecting 
 criminals, its prifons, hofpitais, and places 
 of public education, are briefly mentioned 
 by Mr. Howard j but he has found little 
 to propofe as an example for other coun- 
 tries. The regulations of the great con~ 
 vent at Peterfburg, for the education of 
 female children of the nobility and com- 
 moners, are given in detail, and afford 
 fome falutary rules for the prefervation 
 of the health of young perfons, and for 
 promoting habits of cleanlinefs and tem- 
 perance.
 
 ( "9 ) 
 
 perance. The plan and defcription of a 
 magazine for medicinal herbs at Mofcow, 
 will be a pleafing novelty to mod readers. 
 Mr. Howard had been anticipated in his 
 furvey of the prifons and hofpitals of the 
 northern kingdoms, by that well-informed 
 traveller, Mr. Coxe, who publifhed a 
 pamphlet on the fubject in 1 78 1, here refer- 
 red to with commendation. The fhort head 
 of 'Poland contains little but a teftimony to 
 the neglected and wretched flate of pub- 
 lic inftitutions in that ill-governed coun- 
 try. All travellers have concurred in 
 fimilar reprefentations of the whole fyl- 
 tem of affairs, internal and external, in 
 that unhappy feat of ariftocratical tyran- 
 ny ; fo that it may be prefumed, there 
 docs not exift fo determined an enemy of 
 innovation as not to rejoice in the change 
 I 4 of
 
 C 120 ) 
 
 of conftitution which has lately been 
 effected there, by means of the filent and 
 peaceable progrefs of light and reafon. 
 
 There are various additional articles 
 under Flanders, one of which relates to a 
 great alteration for the worfe in the houfc 
 of correction at Ghent. A once flourifh- 
 ing manufactory carried on in the prifon 
 was at an endj and the allowance of 
 victuals to the prifoners was reduced in 
 quantity and quality. In the account of 
 a very offenfive prifon at Lille, Mr. 
 Howard expreiles his grateful acknow- 
 ledgments to Providence for his recovery 
 from a fever caught there of the fick. 
 
 The account of Portugal is almoft con- 
 fined to the prifons and hofpitals of Lifbon; 
 the ftate of which, upon the whole, does 
 credit to the government. The employ- 
 ment
 
 ( III ) 
 
 ment of about a thoufand vagrant and 
 deferted children in a manufactory, is one 
 of the moft obfervable circumftances. 
 
 Spain, which has been long diftin- 
 guifhed for its charitable eftablifhments, 
 affords likewife in its criminal police 
 many things deferving of attention; 
 though the fpirit of rigour and fc- 
 verity is perhaps too apparent, amidft 
 much laudable order and exaclnefs. The 
 houfe of correction at Madrid, called San 
 Fernando, may vie with fome of the beft 
 regulated inflitutions of this nature j and 
 the Hofpicio, a kind of work-houfe, in 
 which extenfive manufactories are carried 
 on, is a good example of the union of 
 employment with confinement. The ac- 
 count of the charitable fociety of the 
 Hermandad del Rejugio y who patrole the 
 
 flreets
 
 ( "2 ) 
 
 ftreets in the evening, for the purpofe of 
 inviting deftitutc wanderers to a comfort- 
 able fupper and night's lodging, will excite 
 pleafing fenfations in the breaft of every 
 lover of humanity. The prifons of the 
 Jnquifition, thofe objects of horror and 
 deteftation to every proteftant, and now, 
 probably, to moft catholics, excited great 
 curiofity in Mr. Howard, of which, how- 
 ever, all his efforts could only procure a 
 partial gratification. Yet he has been 
 able to communicate enough concerning 
 thofe of Valiadolid to form a ftriking 
 picture of terror. On the whole, the pre- 
 dilection he had long entertained for the 
 Spanilh character, was not diminifhed by 
 his vifit to the country j nor does he feem 
 to have thought his pains in extending 
 his enquiries to it, ill beftowed. The 
 
 additional
 
 ( "3 ) 
 
 additional notices in France chiefly fre- 
 late to the Paris hofpitals. It is needlefs 
 to dwell on thefe, fince a very accurate 
 defcription of them has fince been given 
 in a capital work by M. Tenon. 
 
 To the account of foreign prifons and 
 hofpitals fucceeds a frefh furvey of the 
 prifoners of war. 
 
 The new journies to Scotland, now ex- 
 tended as far as Invernefs, afford little 
 but tenfure for the neglect of the prifons 
 in that country. Under Ireland are in- 
 troduced additional remarks on the faults 
 and abufes flill obfervable in the prifons 
 there, not With (land ing a very fpirited ex- 
 ertion of the legiflature to amend their 
 flate, by framing good acts for their re- 
 gulation. But, " quid leges fine moribus t 
 &c." The horrid effects of that cheap 
 
 poifon,
 
 ( 124 ) 
 
 poifon, whilky, upon the health and mo- 
 rals of the lower clafies in that country, 
 are noticed by Mr. Howard with much 
 indignant difguft. A new object of at- 
 tention occurred to him in the two iaft 
 vifits to Ireland, the Proteftant Charter 
 Schools, a noble foundation, but which he 
 found funk into wretched abufe notwith- 
 ftanding the patronage and fuperintend- 
 ance of the firft perfons in that kingdom. 
 Erroneous accounts of them, publifhed 
 by a committee, and authorized by be- 
 ing annexed to a printed fermon of a 
 prelate in their favour, were detected by 
 Mr. Howard on his vifits to fome of 
 them, and are expofed with his ufual 
 freedom. 
 
 Further accounts of the Hulks follow. 
 TO the remarks on the Gaol-fever, Mr. 
 
 Howard
 
 ( "5 ) 
 
 How a Yd adds the information, that in 1782 
 he did not find one perfon in this kingdom 
 affected with thatdifeafe; but that in 1783 
 he had the mortification to obferve feveral 
 prifons, through original bad conftruc- 
 tion and neglect, relapfing to their for- 
 mer ftate. So eflential is a plan of con- 
 ftant vigilance and infpection, to coun- 
 teract the lamentable tendency to abufe 
 in all public inftitutions ! This principle 
 of corruption and decay in every thing 
 human is fo inceffantly active, that, if not 
 refilled by the timely efforts of reforma- 
 tion, all the contrivances of wifdom 
 againft natural and moral evils, would, 
 like the dykes of Holland, perpetually 
 fapped and worn by the force of the 
 elements, fall into irremediable ruin. 
 The remainder of this volume is taken 
 
 up
 
 ( 126 ) 
 
 up with a review of all the EngKfli pri~ 
 fons, together with particulars of all the 
 alterations which they had undergone 
 fince the laft publication. The reader 
 will be gratified in finding, from the 
 number of new prifons, and new build- 
 ings and conveniences added to the old, 
 that the counties in general had by no 
 mans been deficient in liberal attention 
 to this great object, fince it had been 
 brought forward and aided by Mr. How- 
 ard's indefatigable exertions. At the 
 conclufion, among the Tables, is a fketch 
 of general heads of regulations for peni- 
 tentiary houfes, which will be highly 
 ufeful in fuggefting a complete body of 
 rules and orders for fuch eftabliihments, 
 if ever they fhould again be thought of 
 in this country. 
 
 The
 
 ( 1*7 ) 
 
 The printing of this copious Appendix, 
 together with a complete edition of his 
 State of tbe Prifons, into which all the 
 additions were incorporated, making a 
 large and clofely printed quarto volume, 
 occupied much of Mr. Howard's time 
 in the year 1784. The remainder of 
 that, and the greater part of the next 
 year, do not appear marked with his pub* 
 lie fervices. They were, I believe, chiefly 
 employed in domeftic concerns, of which 
 the choice of a proper place of education; 
 for his fon, now rifmg towards manhood, 
 was one that moft interefted him. But 
 the habitude of carrying on refearches into- 
 an object, which by long pofleflion had 
 acquired deep root in his mind, together 
 with a new idea, collaterally a 1 lied to it, 
 which had ftruck him, at length impelled 
 4 him
 
 ( 148 ) 
 
 him once more to engage in the toils and 
 perils of a foreign journey. 
 
 He had obferved that, notwithftanding 
 the regulations for preferving health in 
 prifons and hofpitals, infectious difeafes 
 continued occafionally to arife and fpread 
 in them : he had alfo in his travels re- 
 marked the great folicitude of feveral 
 trading nations to preferve themfelves 
 from that moft definitive of all contagi- 
 ous diftempers, the Plague \ and, at the 
 fame time, he was well apprized of the 
 rude and neglected ftate in which the 
 police of our own country is left re- 
 fpecting that object. Combining thefe 
 ideas, he thought that a vifit to all the 
 principal Lazarettos, and to countries 
 frequently attacked by the plague, might 
 afford much information as to the means 
 
 of
 
 of preventing contagion in general, as 
 well as particular inftruftion concerning 
 eftablifliments for the purpofe of guard- 
 ing againft peftilential infedion. His 
 intent, therefore, was nothing lefs, than 
 to plunge into the midft of thofe dangers 
 which by other men are fo anxioufly 
 avoided; to fearch out and confront the 
 great foe of human life, for the fake of 
 recognizing his features, and difcovering 
 the moft efficacious barriers againft his 
 aflaults. Who but muft be ftrack with 
 admiration of the firmnefs of courage, 
 and the ardour of benevolence, which 
 could prompt fuch a defign ! As a proof 
 of his own idea of the hazards he was 
 to encounter, it may be mentioned, that 
 he refolved to travel fingle and unat- 
 tended} not thinking it juftifiable to 
 K permit
 
 permit any of his fcrvants to partake of 
 a danger to vrhich they were not called by 
 motives fimilar to his own. 
 
 It was towards the end of 1785 that 
 Mr. Howard fet out upon this tour, taking 
 his way through Holland and Flanders, 
 to the fouth of France. As, from the 
 jealoufy and difpleafure of the French 
 government, he was not able to obtain 
 permifiion to vifit the eftablifhments 
 there, or even to gain affurance of per- 
 fonal fafety, he travelled through the 
 country as an Engliih phyfician, never 
 took his meals in public, and entrufted 
 his fecret only to the proteftant minifters. 
 In a letter from Nice to the friend above- 
 mentioned, dated January 30, 1786, he 
 acquaints him with thefe circumftances, 
 and fays, that he was five days at Mar- 
 
 feillcs
 
 ( IJI ) 
 
 fellies and four at Toulon; and, as it 
 was thought that he could not get out of 
 France by land, he embarked in a Ge- 
 noefe veflel, and was feveral days ftriv- 
 ing againft wind and tide. They who 
 at prefent conduct the government ot 
 France, I am pcrfuaded, will blufh at the 
 idea, that a Howard was obliged to con- 
 ceal his name and purpofe while carry- 
 ing 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 
 iflands of Malta and Zante. He then 
 failed to Smyrna, and thence to Conftan- 
 tinople. I have been favoured with a 
 letter of his to Dr. Price from this metro- 
 polis, dated June 22, 1786, fome ex- 
 it 2 tracts
 
 tracts from which I Ihall prefent to the 
 reader. 
 
 " After viewing the effects of the 
 earthquake in Sicily, I arrived at Malta, 
 where I repeatedly vifited the prifons, 
 hofpitals, poor-houfes, and lazarettos, as 
 1 (laid three weeks. From thence I went 
 to Zant : as they are all Greeks, I wifhed 
 to have fome general idea of their hof- 
 pitals and prifons, before I went into 
 Turkey. From thence, in a foreign Ihip, 
 I got a paffage to Smyrna. Here I 
 boldly vifited the hofpitals and prifons ; 
 but as fome accidents happened, a few 
 dying of the plague, feveral fhrunk at 
 me. I came thence about a fortnight 
 ago. As I was in a miferable Turk's 
 boat, I was lucky in a paffage of fix 
 days and a half. A family arrived juft 
 
 before
 
 ( 133 ) 
 
 before me, had been between t\vo an4 
 three months. 
 
 " I am forry to fay fome die of the 
 plague about us ; one is juft carried be- 
 fore my window ; yet I vifit where none 
 of my conductors will accompany me. 
 In fome hofpitals, as in the lazarettos, 
 and yefterday among the fick flaves, I 
 have a conftant headach, but in about an 
 hour after it always leaves me. Sir Ro- 
 bert Ainflie is very kind; but for the 
 above, and other reafons, I could not 
 lodge in his houfe. I am at a phyfi- 
 cian's, and I keep fome of my vifits a 
 fecret." 
 
 He defigned to proceed from Con- 
 
 ftantinople over land to Vienna ; but, 
 
 having determined, upon reflection, to 
 
 obtain by perfonal experience the fulleft 
 
 K 3 informa-
 
 ( '34 ) 
 
 information of the mode of performing 
 quarantine, he returned to Smyrna, 
 where the plague then was, for the pur- 
 pofe of going to Venice with a foul bill, 
 that would neceffarily fubject him to the 
 utmoft rigour of the procefs. His voy- 
 age was tedious, and rendered hazardous 
 by equinoctial ftorms - } and in the courfc 
 of it he incurred a danger of another 
 kind, the Ihip in which he was a paffen- 
 ger being attacked by a Tunifian corfair, 
 which, after a fmart fkirmifh, was beaten 
 off by the execution done by a cannon 
 loaded with fpike nails and bits of iron, 
 and pointed by Mr. Howard himfelf. 
 It afterwards appeared to have been the 
 intention of the captain to blow up his 
 veffel, rather than fubmit to be taken into 
 perpetual flavery. It was not till the 
 
 clofe
 
 ( 135 ) 
 
 clofe of 1786 that Mr. Howard left his 
 difagreeable quarters in the lazaretto of 
 Venice, in which his health and fpirits 
 fuffered confiderably. Thence he went 
 by Triefte to Vienna. In this capital 
 he had the honour of a private conference 
 with the Emperor, which was conducted 
 with the utmoft eafe and condefcenfion 
 on the part of Jofeph II. and equal free- 
 dom on the part of the Engliihman. A 
 relation of this inftructive fcene in his 
 own words, will, 1 doubt not, . be agree- 
 able to the reader : " The Emperor de- 
 fired to fee me, and I had the honour of 
 a private audience with him of above an 
 hour and a half. He took me by the 
 hand three times in converfation, and 
 thanked me for the vifit. He after- 
 wards told our AmbafTador, c That his 
 K 4 country-
 
 ( 136 ) 
 
 countryman fpoke well for prifoners; 
 that he ufed no flowers, which others 
 ever do, and mean nothing/ But his 
 greateft favour to me was his immediate 
 alterations for the relief of the pri- 
 foners*." That the late Emperor had 
 an ardent zeal for improvement of every 
 kind, and a ftrong defire of promoting 
 the profperity of his fubjects, will fcarcely 
 be denied, even by thofe who are the 
 fevereft cenfurers of the mode in which 
 he conducted his plans, and his extreme 
 mutability refpecting them. He will 
 alfo be honoured, for the readinefs with 
 which he laid afide the etiquette of his 
 rank, on every occafion where it ob- 
 ftructed him in the acquifition of know- 
 ledge, or the activity of exertion. Mr. 
 
 Letter to Mr. Smith. 
 
 Howard
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 Howard returned through Germany and 
 Holland, and arrived fafe in England 
 early in 1787. 
 
 It was during this tour, and while he 
 was in folitude occupying a cell of the 
 Venice lazaretto, that he received from 
 England two pieces of intelligence, both 
 of which diftrefied and harafled his 
 mind, though the emotion they excited 
 muft apparently have been very different. 
 One of thefe related to the melancholy 
 derangement of mind into which his 
 fon had fallen, and which, after various 
 inftances of ftrange and unaccountable 
 behaviour, terminated at length in de- 
 cided infanity. They who cannot be- 
 lieve that the moft benevolent of man- 
 kind could be a ftern and unnatural 
 
 parent,
 
 parent, will fympathize in the anguifh he 
 muft have felt on hearing (and in fuch 
 a fituation too) of an event which blafted 
 the dcareft hopes of comfort and folace 
 in his declining years. I, who have fre- 
 quently heard him fpeak of this fon, 
 with all the pride and affection of the 
 kind father of an only child, cannot read 
 without ftrong emotions, the exprefllons 
 he ufes in writing to his friend relative 
 to this bitter calamity. When he con- 
 cludes a long letter upon various topics, 
 with the exclamation, " But, O ! my 
 fon, my fon 1" I feem to perceive the 
 efforts of a manly mind, ftriving by the 
 aid of its internal refources to dilpel a 
 gloomy phantom, which was yet ever 
 recurring to his imagination. But in this 
 
 emergency,
 
 ( '39 ) 
 
 emergency, as in all others, the confo- 
 lations of religion were his chief re- 
 fuge*. 
 
 The other caufe of uneafmefs by which 
 his mind was agitated, will, to many, ap- 
 pear a very extraordinary one; fince it 
 arofe from a teftimony of efteem and 
 veneration in his countrymen, which 
 might be imagined to afford balm for 
 his wounded fpirit. During his abfence, 
 
 * To prove that Mr. Howard had kind and ten- 
 der feelings for dtmeftic as \yell as for public occa- 
 fjons, will, I hope, by raoft perfons be deemed a 
 fuperfluous taflc. For thofe who require fuch proof, 
 1 copy the following paffage from one of his letters 
 to Mr. Smith. " My old fervants, John Prole, 
 Thomas Tbomafon, and Jofeph Crockford,have had 
 a fad time. I hear they have been faithful, wife, 
 and prudent. Pleafe to thank them particularly in 
 my name for their conduft. Two of them, I am 
 perfuaded, have afted out of regard to his excellent 
 mother, who, I rejoice, is dead" 
 
 a fcheme
 
 him in a manner almoft unprecedented 
 in this age and country. Without at- 
 tempting to trace it to its origin, it may 
 fuffice to fay, that, in a periodical work of 
 extenlive circulation, the public were 
 called upon to teftify their refpect for 
 Mr. Howard by a fubfcription, for the 
 purpofe of erecting a ftatue, or fomc 
 other monument, to his honour. The 
 authors of this fcheme, though, doubt- 
 lefs, actuated by a pure and laudable ad- 
 miration of illuftrious virtue, yet muft 
 have been totally unacquainted with Mr. 
 Howard's difpofition; otherwife they 
 would never have thought of decorating 
 a man, whofe characteriftic feature had 
 always been a folicitude to Ihun all 
 Botice and diftin&ion, with one of the 
 
 moft
 
 moft glaring and prominent marks of 
 public applaufe, which might put to the 
 blufh modeily of a much lefs delicate 
 texture than his. The Englifh national 
 character (if national character can be 
 faid to belong to fo heterogeneous a 
 people) is by nothing fo ftrongly mark- 
 ed, as by a coynefs and referve which 
 fhrink from obfervation, and even to 
 thofe who are acting for the public, ren- 
 der the gaze of the public eye painful. 
 The love of glory, which is fo active a 
 fentiment to fome of our neighbours, 
 operates feebly upon us: many do not 
 rife to it, and fome go beyond it. That 
 humble Allen," whofe difpofition it 
 was to " do- good by ftealth and blufh to 
 find it fame," was a genuine Engliih phi- 
 lanthropifti and fuch was Mr. Howard, 
 7 "rendered,
 
 rendered, perhaps, ftill more averfe to 
 public praife, by a deep fenfe of religious 
 humility. 
 
 A fimilar want of acquaintance with 
 Mr. Howard's defigns, caufed the pro- 
 pofers of this plan to attribute to him 
 an extravagance of philanthropy, which 
 could not but appear ridiculous to thofe 
 whofe judgment was not dazzled by the 
 ardour of admiration. It was afferted, 
 among real topics of applaufe, that he 
 was now gone abroad with the view of 
 extirpating the plague from Turkey; 
 an idea fcarcely fo rational, the character 
 of that nation confidered, as would be 
 that of a miflion to convert the Grand 
 Seignior to Chriflianity. Mr. Howard 
 meant, undoubtedly, to do all the good 
 which fhould lie within his compafs in 
 3 that,
 
 that, as in all other countries which he 
 vifitcd j but he was never fo romantic as 
 to fuppofe that he could effect that, 
 which would manifeftly require a total 
 change in the religious and political 
 fyftem of a great empire, of all the leaft 
 difpofed to change. 
 
 The project of a ftatue, however, was 
 eagerly adopted ; the fubfcription filled, 
 and was adorned with the names of mi- 
 nifters, nobles, and perfons of diftinftion; 
 and a committee was appointed to de- 
 termine upon the beft mode of fulfilling 
 its purpofe. The confidential friends of 
 Mr. Howard were in a difagreeable di- 
 lemma; for as, on the one hand, they 
 could not but rejoice in the warmth of 
 admiration which his country teftified for 
 his character ; fo, on the other, they well 
 
 knew
 
 ( 144 ) 
 
 knew that its manner of difplay could not 
 fail to give him extreme pain, and, if 
 effected, probably banifh him for ever. 
 On this account, they did not concur 
 in the fcheme, and fome of them ventur- 
 ed publicly to throw out objections to 
 it. Some of its warm promoters, in 
 reply, talked of forcing bis modefty, and 
 feemed determined at all events to put 
 in execution their favourite defign. In 
 the mean while, Mr. Howard was inform* 
 ed of this honourable perfecution that was 
 preparing againft him at home; and the 
 fenfations this intelligence occafioned in 
 his breaft are fhewn in the following ex- 
 preflfions contained in a letter to the in- 
 timate friend who has already furnifhed 
 me with various extracts. " To haften 
 to the other very difireffing affair: oh, 
 
 why
 
 ( '45 ) 
 
 why could not my friends, who know how 
 much I deteft fuch parade, have flopped 
 fuch a hafty meafure ! >As a private 
 man, with fome peculiarities, I wifhed to 
 retire into obfcurity and filence. In- 
 deed, my friend, I cannot bear the 
 thought of being thus dragged out* I 
 immediately wrote, and hope fomething 
 may be done to flop it. My bed friends 
 mufl difapprove it. It deranges and con- 
 founds all my fchemes my exaltation 
 is my fall, my misfortune*." The fame 
 
 * He mentions in the fame letter, as a proof ho\v 
 oppofite his wifties were to monumental honours, 
 that before he fet out on this journey, he had given 
 directions, that in cafe of his death, his funeral ex- 
 pences mould not exceed ten pounds that his tomb 
 mould be a plain flip of marble placed under that 
 of his dear Henrietta in Cardington church, with 
 this infcription; John Howard , died aged My btpe 
 is in Ckriji. 
 
 L fendments
 
 fcntiments on this bufmefs are expreff- 
 ed with equal ftrength in his letters 
 to Dr. Price. Among other things 
 he fays, " My trueft, intimate, and beft 
 friends, have, I fee by the papers, been 
 fo kind as not to fubfcribe to what you 
 fo j idly term a bajfy meafure. Indeed, 
 indeed, if nothing now can be done, I 
 fpeak/hwz my hearty never poor creature 
 was more dragged out in public." 
 
 That in all this there was no affectation, 
 clearly appeared from the letter he fent 
 to the fubfcribersj in which, after ex- 
 prefling his gratitude, he difplayed fo 
 determined a repugnance againfl admit- 
 ting of the propofed honour, deprecating 
 it as the fevereft of punifhments, that 
 nothing could be urged in reply, and the 
 
 bufmefs
 
 ( 147 ) 
 
 bufmefs was dropped. Of the fum fub- 
 fcribed, amounting to upwards of 1 5oo/. 
 Mr. Howard refufed to direct the dif- 
 pofal in any manner, and begged it might 
 no longer be termed the Howardian fun^. 
 A part of it was reclaimed by the fub- 
 fcribers, but a confiderable fhare remain- 
 ed in a flock ; and, fince Mr. Howard's 
 death, it has been refolved to employ it 
 in conferring thofe honours on his me- 
 mory which he would not accept while 
 living. This intention is in every refpect 
 ftrictly proper j and, as the noble edifice 
 of St. Paul's is at length deftined to re- 
 ceive national monuments, no com- 
 mencement can be more aufpicious, than 
 with a name which will ever fland fo 
 diftinguifhed among thofe, 
 
 Qui fui memores alios fecere merendo. 
 
 L 2 To
 
 To refume the narrative of Mr. How- 
 ard's public life: After his return in 
 1787, he took a fhort repofe> and then 
 went over to Ireland, and vifited moft of 
 the county gaols and charter fchools, 
 and came back by Scotland. In 1788 
 he renewed his vifit to Ireland, and com- 
 pleted his furvey of its gaols, hofpitals, 
 and fchools. I fhall lay before the read- 
 er part of a letter to Dr. Price, dated 
 from Dub(lin, March 23, of this year. 
 " My journey into this country was to- 
 make a report of the ftate of the charter 
 fchools, which charity has been long 
 neglected and abufed -, as indeed moft 
 public inftitutions are made private emo- 
 luments, one fheltering himfelf under 
 the name of a bilhop, another under that 
 of a lord; and for electioneering intereft 
 4. breaking
 
 ( H9 ) 
 
 breaking down all barriers of honour and 
 honefty. However, Parliament now feemj 
 determined to know how its grants 
 have been employed. I have, fince my 
 vifits to thefe fchools in 1782, been en- 
 deavouring to excite the attention of 
 Parliament; and fome circumftances be- 
 ing in my favour, a good Lord Lieute- 
 nant, a worthy Secretary (an old ac- 
 quaintance), and the Firft Secretary of 
 State, the Provofl, a fteady friend, I muft 
 Hill purfue iti fo I next week fet out 
 for Connaught and other remote parts of 
 this kingdom, which indeed are more 
 barbarous than Rufila. By my frequent 
 journies my ftrength is fomewhat abated, 
 but not my courage or zeal in the caufe 
 I am engaged in." During thefe two 
 years, he likewife repeated his examina- 
 L 3 lion
 
 ( "50 ) 
 
 tion of all the county gaols, moft of the 
 bridewels, and the infirmaries and hofpi- 
 tals of England, and of the hulks on the 
 Thames, at P or tl mouth and Plymouth*. 
 
 The 
 
 * It was, I believe, during his abfence in fome 
 of the tours of this period, that an incident happened 
 which the reader, 1 hope, will think well worth re- 
 lating. A very refpe&able-looking elderly gentle- 
 man on horfeback, with a fervant, ftopt at the inn 
 neareft Mr. Howard's houfe at Cardington, and en- 
 tered into converfation with the landlord concerning 
 him. He obferved, that characters often appeared 
 very well at a diftance, which could not bear clofe in- 
 fpeclion ; he had therefore come to Mr. Howard's 
 refidence in order to fatisfy himfelf concerning him. 
 The gentleman then, accompanied by the innkeeper, 
 went to the houfe, and looked through it, with the 
 offices and gardens, which he found in perfect order. 
 He next enquired into Mr. Howard''* character as 
 a landlord, which was juftly reprefentedj and fe- 
 veral neat houfes which he had built for his tenants 
 were {hewn him. The gentleman returned to his 
 inn, declaring himfelf now fatisfied with the truth of 
 all he had heard about Howard. This refpedable 
 
 ftranger
 
 ( IJI ) 
 
 The great variety of matter collected 
 in thefe journies was methodized and 
 put to the pr:fs in 1789. It compofe^ a 
 quarto volume, beautifully printed, and 
 decorated with a number of fine plates, 
 which, as ufual, are prefented to the pub- 
 lic j and fo eager were the purchafers 
 of books to partake of the donation, that 
 all the copies were almoft immediately 
 bought up. The title is, An account of 
 the principal Lazarettos in Eurcp , with 
 various papers relative to the Plague j . toge- 
 ther with further obfervations on feme foreign 
 Prifons and Hojpitals j with additional re- 
 marks on the prefent Jlate of thofe in Great 
 
 flranger was no other than Lord Monboddo ; and Mr. 
 Howard was much flattered with the vifit, and 
 praifed his Lordfliip's good fenfe in taking fuch a 
 method of coming at the truth, fince he thought 
 it worth his trouble. 
 
 L 4 Britain
 
 Britain and Ireland. Of this work I ihall 
 proceed to give a brief analyfis. 
 
 The firft fection relates to Lazarettos^ 
 beginning with that of Marfeilles, in 
 which city the horrid ravages of the 
 plague, within the prefent century, have 
 left flrong imprefiions of dread of that 
 deftroyer of mankind. Thofe of Genoa, 
 Leghorn, Malta, Zante, Venice, and 
 Triefte follow; the defcriptions of which 
 are illuftrated by excellent views and 
 plans *. Of the lazarettos of Venice a 
 very particular account is given, com- 
 prifing the mode of reception which he 
 
 * In one of his letters, Mr, Howard mentions 
 having met with a young Frenchman going to the 
 academy at Rome, who for a few fequins thankfully 
 worked under his eye, fo that he can atteft the ac- 
 curacy of his draughts. Several of the plates were 
 engraved in Holland. 
 
 himfelf
 
 himfelf experienced, the regulations of 
 every kind, refpecting officers and their 
 duty, vifitation of fhips, manner of per- 
 forming quarantine, and the expurgation 
 of goods of all clafies, &c. All thefc 
 appear to have been devifed with much 
 judgment and prudence j but Mr. How- 
 ard is obliged to give teftimony to va- 
 rious inftances of abufe and neglect, 
 which greatly impair the utility of this 
 inftitution, as well as of many others 
 in that once celebrated and potent re- 
 public. 
 
 Sefl. II. contains propojed regulations, 
 and a neiv plan for a lazaret to - t followed 
 by obfervations on the importance of 
 fuch an eftablifhment in England. In 
 thefe are introduced two letters on the 
 fubjecl: to Mr. Howard; one, a long and 
 
 argumentative
 
 ( '54 ) 
 
 argumentative one from the Englifh 
 merchants refiding at Smyrna j the other, 
 confirming their opinion, from thofe of 
 Salon ^ a. Thefe commercial paptr^ ap- 
 pear worthy of the moft ferious atten- 
 tion ; and indeed it is wonderful that a 
 nation which boafts of good fenfe and 
 knowledge, fhould fo long have remain- 
 ed patient under a police refpecting this 
 matter, which anfwers no effectual pur- 
 pofe of fecurity, but feems only calcu- 
 lated to difcourage commerce, and pro- 
 duce fees to perfons in office, by the moft 
 barefaced impofitions *. 
 
 Set. III. confifts of papers relative to 
 
 * Such is the negligence and abfurdity refpeding 
 the regulations of the quarantine of ferfons, that I 
 have been allured, a naval officer has been called 
 out of the Opera -houfe, to go on board his Ihip and 
 perform his quarantine. 
 
 the
 
 ( '55 ) 
 
 the plague. They commence with a fct 
 of anfwers, by different medical practi- 
 tioners, to queries with which Mr. Howard 
 was furnilhed by the late Dr. Jebb and 
 myfelf. I muft obferve, however, that all 
 the queries do not appear, fome of thtm 
 having been mifapprehended, or imptr- 
 fe6Uy anfwered, particularly fuch as re- 
 lated to the difcrimination of other fevers 
 of the typhus genus from the plague. 
 Thefe replies will probably be thought 
 to add little to the flock of knowledge 
 we poffefTed refpecYmg this difeafe ; yet 
 it is of fome importance, that the lead- 
 ing fafts on which all modes of preferva- 
 tion muft be founded, viz. that the 
 plague is not known to arife fpontane- 
 oufly any where, but is always to be 
 graced to contagion-, and that the diftance 
 
 to
 
 to which its infection extends through 
 the atmofphere is very fmall, are efta- 
 blifhed in them by general agreement. 
 The " Abftracl: of a curative and pre- 
 fervative method to be obferved in Pef- 
 tilential Contagions/' communicated from 
 the Office of Health in Venice to the 
 court of Rufiia; and the " Abridged Re- 
 lation of the Plague of Spalato in Dal- 
 matia, in 1784" (both extracted from 
 the Italian originals by rnyfelf), are the 
 other papers in this fection. In the 
 latter, the medical reader will be ilruck 
 with the equivocal nature of the fymp- 
 toms fuppofed to difcriminate this dif- 
 eaie, and the very gradual progrefs from 
 fufpicion tp certainty as to its pre- 
 fence. 
 
 Seff. IV. relates to foreign Prifons and 
 
 Hofpitals.
 
 Hofpitals. The employment of the gaily* 
 flaves in the arfenal of Toulon, is the moft 
 obfervable circumftance relative to the 
 -fouth of France. Under Italy there is a 
 pleafing account of the improvements at 
 Florence, in confequence of the humane 
 attention of the Grand Duke (Leopold, 
 theprefent Emperor). This prince, be- 
 fides other inftances of liberal favour to 
 Mr. Howard's inquiries, caufed a copy of 
 his new code of laws to be prefented to 
 him, of which, on his return, Mr. How- 
 ard had a tranflation printed, and di* 
 tributed among the heads of the law and 
 other perfons, iri and out of parliament. 
 Of the Grand Duke Mr. Howard never 
 fpoke without the warmeft exprefllons of 
 gratitude and refpect, calling him a 
 glorious prince, and declaring that no- 
 thing
 
 ( is* ) 
 
 thing could exceed his attention to what* 
 ever might promote the happinefs and 
 profperity of his people. It is earneftly 
 to be wifhed, that the fame regard to the 
 principles of juftice and humanity may 
 accompany him in the very elevated 
 ftation which is now afiigned him by 
 Providence. 
 
 Malta, that celebrated feat of piracy, 
 dignified by the fpirit of chivalry and de- 
 votion, affords a new and curious article. 
 Its great hofpital, which boafts of lodg- 
 ing the fick in a palace, and ferving 
 them in plate, is here defcribed by one 
 whofe penetrating eye could diftinguifli 
 between parade and comfort ; and it un- 
 dergoes fome fevere cenfure. Mr. Howard 
 vifited it before he delivered his letter of 
 recommendation from Sir W. Hamilton 
 7 to
 
 ( '59 ) 
 
 to the Grand Mailer, as well us frequent- 
 ly aftc rwards. 
 
 The Turki/b dominions, whence all light, 
 liberty, and public fpirit, are moft effec- 
 tually excluded, could not be expect- 
 ed to yield i ftruction in police to Eu- 
 rope. Yet debtors and felons are 
 there confined in feparate prifons, a re- 
 finem nt to which this country is not 
 yet entirely arr'ved. The hofpitals in 
 the great comncrcial city of Smyrna 
 feem all to belong to the Franks, Greeks, 
 and Jews. Even at Conftantinople the 
 Turks have few hofpitals, and thofe in 
 a wretched ftate. The hofpitals for lu- 
 natics there, are, indeed, examples of ad- 
 mirable conduction, but neglected in 
 their management. Yet, amidft this dif- 
 regard of the human fpecies, Mr. How- 
 ard
 
 C 
 
 ard found an afylum for cats. Such arc 
 the contradictions of man ! 
 
 The inftitutions of Vienna fhew that 
 fingular mixture of clemency and rigour, 
 of care and neglect, that might be ex- 
 pected from the indecifive character of 
 the fovereign. The perpetual confine- 
 ment of criminals in dark, damp dun- 
 geons, as a fubflitute for capital punifh- 
 ment, manifeftly appears to be as little 
 an advantage on the fide of lenity, as it 
 is on that of public utility. The much 
 beaten ground of Holland flill affords 
 new obfervations, particularly refpecting 
 the legal procefs for debt, in ufc 
 there. 
 
 Seft. V. relates to Scotland; and what 
 is new chiefly regards the charitable in- 
 ftitutions of Edinburgh. As to the pri- 
 
 fons
 
 fons there, Mr. Howard was obliged to 
 remark to the Lord Provoft, " that the 
 fplendid improvements carrying on in 
 their places of entertainment, ftreets, 
 fquares, bridges, &c. feemed to occupy 
 all the attention of the gentlemen in 
 office, to the total neglect of this efiential 
 branch of the police." This weighty 
 animadverfion deferves ferious notice, as 
 a ftrong confirmation of thofe charges 
 againft the fpirit of luxury, which various 
 modern philofophers have been fond, of 
 turning into ridicule. In fact, a fpirit 
 which increafes perfonal wants and indul- 
 gences, and augments the diftance be- 
 tween the higher and lower orders of 
 fociety, cannot but interfere with the 
 duties, as well of charity, as of juftice, 
 which are owing to our fellow-creatures 
 M of
 
 of every condition. The arts of luxury 
 may promote knowledge, and this may 
 fecondarily be employed with advantage 
 on objects of general utility j but it is 
 not likely that the fame perfons whofe 
 minds are occupied with fchemes of 
 fplendor and elegant amufement, fhould 
 beftow attention on the coarfe and dif- 
 gufting offices annexed to the care of the 
 poor and miferable. 
 
 The fubjea of Set. VI. is the Irijh 
 Prifons and Hofpitals. Mr. Howard ob- 
 ferved a very liberal and humane fpirit 
 with refpect to prifons, prevailing among 
 the gentlemen of that country, difplayed 
 in the erection of many new gaols, the 
 plans of which, however, he could not 
 approve. The evils occafioned by the 
 ufe of fpirituous liquors, particularly ap- 
 parent
 
 parent in Ireland, draw from him much 
 complaint and cenfure. It is a (hocking 
 confideration that the intereft of the re- 
 venue fiiould, in this matter, be fuffcred 
 to prevail over the good of the nation ; 
 and noth.ng can deferve fevcrer animad* 
 verfion, than the conduct of thofe/ervants 
 of the public, the commifiloners of ex- 
 cife, who prefume to grant licences to 
 tippling houfes in villages, contrary to 
 the declared wifh and opinion of gentle- 
 men who refide on the fpot, and are 
 witnefles of their fatal confcquences to 
 the health and morals of the neighbour- 
 hood. This is indeed, reverfing the or- 
 der of civil government, and elevating 
 fubaltern interefts to ruling principles. 
 All the hofpitals in Dublin are noticed 
 by Mr. Howard, with remarks. He then 
 M 2 proceeds
 
 proceeds to a furvey of all the county- 
 gaols and hofpitals in the kingdom. 
 The county hofpitals are in fact na- 
 tional indentions, maintained in great 
 part by the county rates and king's letter, 
 and therefore are not fo exactly fuperin- 
 tended as thofe in England, which de- 
 pend upon private fubfcription for their 
 fupport. The confequence of this is 
 Ihewn in the wretched ftate in which the 
 greater part of them were found, the 
 abodes of filth, hunger, neglect, and every 
 fpecies of abufe. Yet a fpirit of im- 
 provement was beginning to operate 
 among them, to which this free flatement 
 of their defects would, doubtlefs, much 
 contribute. 
 
 Sett. VII. is devoted to an account of 
 the Charter-Jchools in Ireland. The pub- 
 lic
 
 lie detection of mifreprefentations and 
 abufes in this great national object had 
 excited the attention of feveral of the 
 leading men; and Mr. Howard had been 
 defired to lay his obfervations before the 
 committee of fifteen in Dublin, who have 
 the fuperintendance of them. He alfo 
 made a report of their ftate before the 
 Irifh Houfe of Commons i and, having 
 entered heartily into the fubject, he re- 
 folved to give it a thorough inveftigation. 
 He therefore extended his vifits to the 
 whole of them, in number thirty-eight, 
 and to the four provincial nurferies from 
 which they are fupplied. The refult of 
 his obfervations is here given, with free 
 cenfures of defects, and candid acknow- 
 ledgments of improvement. He con- 
 cludes the account with fome general re- 
 M 3 marks
 
 marks on the inftitution, and fome hints 
 for rendering it more ufefisl ; and, after 
 exprefilng a wifh, that the benefits of 
 education were more generally extended 
 over Ireland than they can be by thofe 
 fchools, he difplays the enlarged libe- 
 rality of his mind in the following fen- 
 tence, which contains a maxim worthy 
 of being written in letters of gold. " I 
 hope I fhall not be thought, as a Protef- 
 tant diffenter, indifferent to the Protef- 
 tant caufe, when I exprcfs my wifh, that 
 thefe diftinctions [between Catholic and 
 Proteflant] were lefs regarded in beftow- 
 ing the advantages of education ; and that 
 the increafe of Proteftantifm were chiefly 
 trufted to the diffemination of knowledge 
 and found morals." 
 
 This fection rs concluded, with an ex- 
 ample
 
 ample ilrikingly illuftrative of the eafe with 
 which education may be extended to the 
 whole body of poor, afforded by the truf- 
 tees of the blue-coat-hofpital in Chefter, 
 whofe report of their plan and its fuccefs is 
 here copied : and alfo, with the rules of the 
 Quaker 's-fchool at Ackworth, excellently 
 adapted to promote that decent and regular 
 deportment in youth which Mr. Howard 
 fo much admired. Ireland has reafon to 
 think herfclf peculiarly indebted to him 
 for his laborious invefligations and free 
 remarks on her public inftitutions. No 
 country certainly wanted them more ; 
 and none, I believe, is better difpofed to 
 profit by them. She has not been un- 
 grateful to her benefactor (that was 
 never her character), for in no country is 
 the memory of Mr. Howard more re- 
 M 4 vered.
 
 ( 168 ) 
 
 vered. During his journies there, feve- 
 ral of the principal towns prefented him 
 with their freedom; and the Univerfity 
 of Dublin, with great liberality, con- 
 ferred on him the honorary degree of 
 Doctor of Laws. Mr. Howard's aver- 
 fion to all kinds of diftinction, and the 
 natural diflike of changing his ufual de- 
 fignation at an advanced age, prevented 
 him from publicly afTuming this refpect- 
 able title. 
 
 Seff. VIII. relates to Englijh Prifons 
 and Hofpitals. The prifons are all fpeci- 
 fied in the order of the former works, 
 with fuch remarks as the alterations made 
 in them, and other circumftances, fug- 
 gefted. Many of the defcriptions of 
 hofpitals are new, particularly an account 
 of all the hofpitals for the fick in the 
 
 metropolis.
 
 metropolis. It is probable that few in- 
 ftitutions of the kind in Europe are 
 better conducted than thefe ; yet there 
 are defects, both general and particular, 
 which Mr. Howard has briefly pointed 
 out, and which claim the attention of 
 thofe who are really interefted in the 
 utility of thefe noble charities, and do 
 not confider them merely as fubfervient 
 to private emolument. In a note under 
 the county gaol in Southwark, he men- 
 tions in ftrong terms of pity and in- 
 dignation the ftate of fifty felons, fen- 
 tenced for tranfportation in the courfe of 
 the preceding five years, and kept in the 
 moft wretched condition till an oppor- 
 tunity Ihould offer of putting their fen- 
 tence in execution. This neceffary de- 
 Jay of pnniihment muft ever be a ftrong 
 
 objection
 
 objection to the feheme of diftant banilh' 
 ment, and gives a decided preference, 
 both in juftice and policy, to the plan 
 of penitentiary houfes, fo thoughtlefsly 
 abandoned for the Botany-bay fettlement. 
 The injuftke, indeed, of the interme- 
 diate confinement, is leflened by an aft 
 of 24th Geo. III. which directs, that all 
 tlbe time during which a convidl fhall 
 have continued in gaol under fentence 
 of tranfportation, fliall be deducted out 
 of the term of his tranfportation. Still, 
 however, fuch confinement is a different^ 
 and, in thefe circumftances, a much ivorfe, 
 punifhment, than that to which they are 
 Icntenced. 
 
 The county bridewd at Reading occa- 
 
 fions a note which deferves particular 
 
 attention. Mr. Howard has been fuppofed 
 
 3 the
 
 the peculiar patron of Jolitary confinement^ 
 and his recommendation has caufed it to 
 be adopted in various places, but to a 
 degree beyond his intentions. He well 
 knew, from manifold obfervation, that 
 human nature could not endure, for a 
 long time, confinement in perfect foli- 
 tude, without finking under the burden. 
 He had feen the moft defperate and 
 refractory in foreign countries tamed by 
 itj he therefore propofed in our own 
 prifons a ffmporary treatment of this 
 kind, as the moft effectual, yet lenient, 
 mode of fubduing the ferocity of our 
 criminals : but he never thought of its 
 being made the fentence of offenders 
 during the whole term of their imprifon- 
 mentj fuch being not only extreme and 
 fcarcely juftifiable feverity, but incon-. 
 
 fiftent
 
 Ment with the defign of reclaiming 
 them to habits of induftry by hard la- 
 bour. He> indeed, univerfally approved 
 of noftitrnal Jolitude, as affording an op-" 
 portunity for ferious reflection, and pre- 
 venting thofe plans of mifchief, and 
 mutual encouragements to villainy, which 
 are certain to take place among crimi- 
 nals, when left to herd together, without 
 inflection. 
 
 The employment of convicts in build- 
 ing a new county gaol at Oxford, with 
 their general good behaviour in it, affords 
 an example of the poflibility and proba- 
 ble good effect of occupying them in 
 ufeful labour at home. 
 
 The fever wards of the Chefter infir- 
 mary are very properly nsticed, as a 
 ipirited inftance of extending relief to 
 
 perfons
 
 ( '73 ) 
 
 perfons fuffering under a dangerous and 
 infectious difeafe, and, by proper regula- 
 tions, rendering the contagion harmleis 
 to others. I am perfuaded, that the 
 plague itfelf, thus managed, might be 
 prevented from communicating itfelf 
 even to thofe under the fame roof with it. 
 Mr. Howard was happy to find in thh 
 city a character congenial with his own 
 in the ardour of a&ive benevolence, 
 and diftinguifhed by various fiiccefsful 
 plans for the public good. To the me- 
 dical reader, as well as to many others, 
 it will be unnecefiary to mention the 
 name of Dr. Hay garth. 
 
 A particular account of all the bulks 
 is given at the end of the Englifh gaols. 
 The condition of thefe floating bridewels 
 was improved in feveral refpects fincc 
 
 Mr.
 
 Mr. Howard's, former vifits-, but, if 
 confidered in any other light than as 
 temporary places of confinement till fome 
 better plan is adopted, they are liable to 
 many objections, which are here dated. 
 
 Remarks on Penitentiary Hcufes follow. 
 In thefe the writer ftates his ideas con- 
 cerning their nature and object, gives the 
 reafons which induced Dr. Fothergill and 
 himfelf to fix on the fituation of Ifling- 
 ton, and relates his refignation of the 
 office of Supervifor, as formerly men- 
 tioned. The general beads of regulations 
 propofed for fuch houfes in the laft Ap- 
 pendix, are here reprinted ; and a plate 
 is added explanatory of the plan of build- 
 ing he approves. It is on every account 
 to be lamented, that Mr. Howard fliotild 
 not have had the fatisfaction of feeing 
 
 one
 
 C '75 ) 
 
 one of his favourite-defigns, the fubjeft of 
 his mod laborious refearch and matured 
 reflection, carried into execution. The 
 objection of expence was furely unworthy 
 of a country like this, whofe profperity 
 and refources are fo magnificently dit- 
 played, when the provinces of Holland, 
 petty ftates of Germany, and cantons of 
 Switzerland, have not been afraid of ia- 
 curring it. Whether the preferred fchetnc 
 of colonizing with convifls at tbt Aati- 
 podes> has the advantage of it in this re* 
 fpect, the public are now pretty well able 
 to determine. 
 
 In the remarks on the gaol- j "ever \ re- 
 peated with a little variation from the 
 lall publication, we are informed, ihtt 
 fince 1782, when the prifons of this king- 
 dom were entirely free from this difeafe, 
 
 fcveral
 
 ( 17* ) 
 
 feveral fatal and alarming inftances of it 
 had occurred. Its appearance and fre- 
 quency will probably much depend upon 
 the epidemic conftitution of the year, as 
 long as its occafional caufes continue to 
 fubfift ; but that proper care and regula- 
 tions in prifons might almoft entirely ex- 
 tirpate thefe caufes, there feems no reafon 
 to doubt. 
 
 The condufion exprefies the writer's 
 fatisfaction in that humane and liberal 
 fpirit which has fo much alleviated the 
 diftrefs of prifoners^ bur laments, that 
 here its exertions feem to flop, and that 
 little or nothing is done towards that moft 
 important objecl, the reformation of of- 
 fenders. From clofe obfervation he is 
 convinced, that the vice of drunkennefs is 
 the root of all the diforders of our prifons, 
 
 and
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 and that fome effectual means to eradicate 
 it are neceffary, if we mean to preferve 
 the health and amend the morals of pri- 
 foners. Mr. Howard therefore fubjoins, 
 as his final legacy towards the improve- 
 ment of this branch of police, the draught 
 of a bill for the better regulation of gaols, 
 and the prevention of drunkennefs and 
 rioting in them. Of this, the leading 
 claufes are framed for the purpofe of ab- 
 folutely prohibiting the entrance of any 
 liquor into a gaol, except ntilk, whey* but- 
 termilk, and water^ unlefs in cafe of fick- 
 nefs and medical prefcription. He was 
 fully fenfible that, in this free living coun- 
 try, the denial of even fmall beer would 
 be deemed a fpecies of cruelty-, and he 
 doubted not that it would go far to lofe 
 him, in the popular efttmation, the title 
 N of
 
 of the Prifoner^s Friend : but as attain- 
 ing a popularity of that kind was not his 
 original object, fo he could bear to 
 forfeit it, while confcious of flill purfuing 
 the real good of thofe unhappy people. 
 Being convinced from experience, that 
 there was no medium in this matter, and 
 that if ftrong liquors were at all admitted 
 into prifons, no bounds could be fet to 
 their ufe, he thought it right to deny an 
 indulgence to a few, for the fake of the 
 effential advantage of the many. Debt- 
 ors, then, while the fame place of con- 
 finement ferves for them and felons, mufl 
 be fubje&ed to the fame reftraints. And, 
 to take off the objection of the hardfhip 
 this would impofe upon innocent debtors* 
 it was greatly his wifh, that fuch altera- 
 tions fhould take place in our law for 
 
 debt,
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 debt, that none but fraudulent delton 
 Ihould be liable to imprifonment, who, 
 he juftly oblerves, are really criminals. 
 He fuppofes that the gentlemen of the 
 faculty will condemn the total rejection 
 of fermented liquors from the diet of 
 prifoners, under the notion of their being 
 ufeful as antifeptics ; and I confefs I was 
 one who pleaded with him on this fub- 
 jecl : but he anfwered me with arguments 
 which he has here ftated, and they are 
 worthy of confideration. After all, many 
 will fuppofe, that in his feelings, both 
 with refpect to thefe privations, and to 
 his propofed indulgences of tea, and other 
 vegetable articles, he was in fome mea- 
 fure under the influence of his own pecu- 
 liar habits of life; fo natural is ic for our 
 judgment of particulars to be warped, 
 N 2 when
 
 when our general principles remain fixed 
 and unaltered. The draught of a bill 
 will, I prefume, appear in moft refpe&s 
 excellent ; and the great purpofe of pre- 
 ferving fobriety in gaols, cannot, furely, 
 be too much infilled on. 
 
 Mr. Howard'* leading ideas on this 
 fubjecl: were formed fome years before. 
 In May 1787, the Lord Chancellor, in 
 an excellent fpeech on a propofed In- 
 folvent Bill, after difcuffing the point of 
 imprifonment for debt, and the nature 
 of fuch bills, proceeded to fome confider- 
 ations refpedting the management and 
 difcipline of our prifons. He faid, " he 
 had lately had the honour of a conver- 
 fation upon the fubjecl:, with a gentleman 
 who was, of all others, the bcft qualified 
 to treat of it he meant, Mr. Howard, 
 
 whofc
 
 whofe humanity, great as it was, was at 
 leaft equalled by his wifdom j for a more 
 judicious, or a more fenfible reafoner 
 upon the topic, he never had converfed 
 with. His own ideas had been turned 
 to folitary imprifonment and a drift re- 
 gimen, as a punifhment for debt; and 
 that notion had exactly correfponded with 
 Mr. Howard's, who had agreed with him, 
 that the great object ought to be, when it 
 became neceflary to feclude a man from 
 fociety, and imprifon him for debt, to 
 take care that he came out of prifon no 
 worle a man in point of health and mo- 
 rals than he went in." His Lordfhip 
 afterwards recited a ftory which Mr.' 
 Howard had told him, in proof of ths 
 corruption and licentioufnefs of our pri- 
 fons. A Quaker, he faid, caUed upon 
 N 3 him
 
 f( 182 ) 
 
 him to go with him and witnefs a fcene 
 which, if he were to go fingly, would, 
 he feared, be too much for his feelings : 
 it was, to vifit a friend in diftrefs a 
 perfon who had lately gone into the 
 King's-bench prifon. When they ar- 
 rived, they found the man half-drunk, 
 playing at fives. Though greatly mocked 
 at the circumftance, they afked him to 
 go with them to the coffee-room, and take 
 a glafs of wine. He refufed, faying he 
 had drank fo much punch, that he could 
 not drink wine- however, he would call 
 in upon them before they went away. 
 Mr. Howard and his friend returned, with 
 ftelings very different from thofe with 
 which they entered the place, but not lefs 
 painful. 
 
 The volume concludes with feveral 
 
 curious
 
 curious and valuable tables, which will 
 probably be ufed for reference at future 
 diftant periods. The enumeration of 
 all the prifoners in England at his vifits in 
 1787 and 1788, (hews an alarming in- 
 creafe, though in fome meafure to be ac- 
 counted for, from a long fufpenfion of 
 the ufual tranfportation. They amount 
 to 7482. 
 
 Mr. Howard remained but a mort time 
 at home after the printing of this work. 
 In the conclufion of it he had declared 
 his intention " again to quit his native 
 country, for the purpofe of revifiting 
 Rufiia, Turkey, and fome other coun- 
 tries, and extending his tour in the 
 eaft." The reafon he has affigned for 
 this determination, is, " a ferious deli- 
 berate conviction that he was purfuing 
 N 4 the
 
 the path of his duty ," and it cannot be 
 doubted, that this confideration was now, 
 as it ever had been, his leading principle 
 of action. But if it be afked, what was 
 his more peculiar object in this new 
 journey, no decifive anfwer, I believe, 
 can be given by thofe who enjoyed the 
 moft of his confidence. I had various 
 converfations with him on the fubject ; 
 and I found rather a wilh to have objects 
 of enquiry pointed out to him by 
 others, than any fpecific views prefent 
 to his own mind. As, indeed, his pur- 
 pofe was to explore regions entirely new 
 to him, and of which the police refpect- 
 ing his former objects was very imper- 
 fectly known to Europe (for the Turkifh 
 dominions in Afia, Egypt, and the Bar- 
 fcary ceaft, were in his plan of travels), 
 
 he
 
 ( '85 ) 
 
 he could not doubt that important fub- 
 jecls for obfervation would offer them- 
 felves unfought. With refpect to that 
 part of his tour in which he was to go 
 over ground he had already trodden, I 
 conceive that he expected to do good in 
 that cenforial character, which his repeated 
 publications, known and attended to all 
 over Europe, gave him a right to affume j 
 and which he had before exercifed to the 
 great relief of the miferable in various 
 countries. If to thefe motives be added 
 the long formed habitude of purfuing a 
 certain track of enquiry, and an inquie- 
 tude of mind proceeding from domeftic 
 misfortune, no caufe will be left to won- 
 der at fo fpeedy a renewal of his toils 
 and dangers, 
 
 He had refolved to go this journey too, 
 
 without
 
 ( 186 ) 
 
 without an attendant} and it was not till 
 after the moft urgent and affectionate en- 
 treaties, that his fervant obtained permif- 
 iion to accompany him. Before he fet 
 out, he and his very intimate and highly 
 reflected friend, Dr. Price, took a moft 
 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 fhould never 
 meet again in this world; and their fare-* 
 well correfponded with the folemnity of 
 fuch an occafion. The reader's mind 
 will paufe upon the parting embrace of 
 two fuch men; and revere the mixture 
 of cordial affection, tender regret, phi- 
 Jofophic firranefs, and chriflian refigna- 
 
 tion,
 
 .tion, which their minds muft have dif- 
 played. 
 
 - It was in the beginning of July 1789 
 that he arrived in Holland. Thence he 
 proceeded through the north of Germany, 
 Prufiia, Courland, and Livonia, to St. 
 Peterfburgh. From this capital he went 
 to Mofcow. Some extracts or a letter to 
 Dr. Price dated from this city, September 
 22, 1789, will, I doubt not, be accept- 
 able, as one of the lateft records of hij 
 career of benevolence. 
 
 " When I left England, I firft flopped 
 at Amfterdam, and proceeded to Ofna- 
 burgh, Hanover, Brunfwick, and Berlin ; 
 then to Konigfberg, Riga, and Peterf- 
 burgh j at all which places I vifited the 
 prifons and hofpitals, which were all 
 flung open to me, and in fome, the bur- 
 
 gomafters
 
 gomafters accompanied me into the dun- 
 geons, as well as into the other rooms of 
 confinement. I arrived a few days ago 
 in this city, and have begun my rounds. 
 The hofpitals are in a fad ftate. Upwards 
 of feventy thoufand failors and recruits 
 died in them laft year. I labour to con- 
 vey the torch of philanthropy into thefe 
 
 diftant regions. 1 am quite well the 
 
 weather clear-^-the mornings frefh ther- 
 mometer 48, but fires not yet begun, 
 I wifh for a mild winter, and then fhall 
 make fome progrefs in my European ex- 
 pedition. My medical acquaintance give 
 me but little hope of efcaping the plague 
 in Turkey. I do not look back, but 
 would readily endure any hardfhips, and 
 encounter any dangers, to be an honour 
 to my Chriftian profefiion." 
 
 From
 
 From Mofcow he took his courfc t6 
 the very extremity of European Ruflia, 
 extended as it now is to the fhores of 
 the Black-fea, where long dreary trafts 
 of defert are terminated by fome of thofe 
 new eftablifhments, which have coft fuch 
 immenfe profufion of blood and treafure 
 to two vaft empires, now become neigh- 
 bours and perpetual foes. Here, at the 
 diftance of 1,500 miles from his native 
 Jand, he fell a victim to difeafe, the 
 ravages of which, among unpitied mul- 
 titudes, he was exerting every effort to 
 reftrain. Finis vif* nobis luffucfas, amicis 
 triftiS) extraneis etiam ignotifque non Jine 
 fur a! 
 
 From the faithful and intelligent fer- 
 vant who accompanied him (Mr. Tho- 
 mas Thomafon), I have been favoured 
 
 with
 
 f 196 ) 
 
 an account of various particulars re- 
 Jative to his laft illnefs, which I fhaH 
 give to the reader in the form in which 
 I received it. 
 
 " The winter being far advanced on 
 the taking of Bender, the commander of 
 the Ruffian army at that place gave per- 
 miffion to many of the officers to vifit 
 their friends at Cherfon, as the feverity of 
 the feafon would not admit of a continu- 
 ance of hoililities againft the Turks. 
 Cherfon, in confequence, became much 
 crowded ; and the inhabitants teftified their 
 joy for the fuccefs of the Ruffians by 
 balls and mafquerades. Several of the 
 officers, of the inhabitants of Cherfon, and 
 of the gentry in the neighbourhood, who 
 attended thefe balls, were almoft imme- 
 diately afterwards attacked with fevers; 
 
 and
 
 ( '9' ) 
 
 and it was Mr. Howard's idea, that the 
 infection had been brought by the officers 
 from Bender. Amongft the number who 
 caught this contagion was a young lady 
 ivho refided about fixteen miles from 
 Cherfon. When fhe had been ill fomc 
 little time, Mr. Howard was earneftly re- 
 quefted to vifit her. He faw her firft or* 
 Sunday, December 27. He vifited her 
 again in the middle of the week, and a 
 third time on the Sunday following, Ja- 
 nuary 3. On that day he found her 
 fweating very profufely ; and, being un- 
 willing to check this by uncovering her 
 arm, he palled his under the bed-clothes 
 to feel her pulfe. While he was doing 
 this, the effluvia from her body were very 
 offenfive to him, and it was always his 
 own opinion that he then caught the fever. 
 4 She
 
 C . 
 
 She died on the following day. Mr. How* 
 ard was much affeded by her death, as 
 he had flattered himfelf with hopes of her 
 amendment. From January gd to the 
 8th he fcarcely went out* ; but on that 
 day he went to dine with Admiral Mont- 
 gwinoff, who lived about a mile and a 
 half from his lodgings. He flaid later 
 than ufual ; and when he returned, found 
 himfelf unwell, and thought he had fome- 
 thing of the gout flying about him. He 
 immediately took fome Sal Volatile in 
 a little tea, and thought himfelf better 
 till three or four on Saturday morning, 
 when feeling not fo well, he repeated the 
 Sal Volatile. He got up in the morning, 
 
 * There feems fome miftake here, as there is a 
 full report in his memorandums, of a vifit to the 
 Joofpitals in Cherfon, dated January 6. 
 
 and
 
 ( '93 ) 
 
 and walked out - t but, finding himfelf 
 worfe, foon returned and took an emetic. 
 On the following night he had a violent 
 attack of fever, when he had recourfe to 
 his favourite remedy, James's powder, 
 which he regularly took every two or 
 four hours till Sunday the i7th. For 
 though Prince Potemkin fent his own phy- 
 fician to him, immediately on being ac- 
 quainted with his illnefs, yet his own pre- 
 fcriptions were never interfered with during 
 this time. On the i2th he had a kind 
 of fit, in which he fuddenly fell down, 
 his face became black, his breathing dif- 
 ficult, and he remained infenfible for half 
 an hour. On the I7th he had another 
 fimilar fit. On the i8th he was feize'd 
 with hiccuping, which continued on 
 the next day, when he took fome mufk 
 O draughts
 
 ( 194 ) 
 
 draughts by dire<5lion of the phyfician. 
 About feven o'clock on Wednefday morn- 
 ing, the 2oth of January, he had ano- 
 ther fit, and died in about an hour after. 
 He was perfectly fenfible during his ill- 
 nefs, 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 faid, that he had no other wifh for 
 life than as it gave him the means of re- 
 lieving his fellow- creatures. 
 
 During his illnefs he received a letter 
 from a friend, who mentioned having 
 lately feen his fon at Leicefter, and ex- 
 prefled his hopes that Mr. Howard would 
 find him better on his return to England. 
 When this account was read to him, it 
 affected him much. His expreffions of 
 pleafure were particularly ftrong, and he 
 
 often
 
 often defired his fervant, if ever by the 
 blefling of God, his fon was reftored, to 
 tell him how much he prayed for his 
 happinefs. He made a will* on the 
 Thurfday before he died ; and was buried, 
 at his own requeft, at the villa of M. 
 Dauphine, about eight miles from Cher- 
 fon, where a monument is erected over 
 his grave. He made the obfervation, 
 that he mould here be at the fame dif- 
 tance from heaven, as if brought back to 
 England. While in Cherfon, he faw the 
 accounts of the demolition of the Baftille, 
 which feemed to afford him a very par- 
 ticular pleafure; and he thought it pof- 
 fible, the account he had himfelf pub- 
 
 * This muft probably have been only fome di 
 reftions to his executors, as his will is dated in 
 1787. 
 
 O 2 limed
 
 lillied of it, might have contributed to 
 this event." 
 
 On this relation, the general exadnefs 
 of which may, I doubt not, be fully re- 
 lied on, I mall only make a medical re- 
 mark or two. Notwithftanding Mr. 
 Howard's conviction of having caught 
 the contagion from the young lady, I 
 think the diftance of time between his 
 Jaft vifit to her and his own feizure, 
 makes the fact dubious. Contagion thus 
 fenfibly received, ufually, I believe, ope- 
 rates in a lefs period than five days *. 
 Perhaps his vifit to the hofpitals on the 
 6th, or his late return from the Admi- 
 ral's on the 8th, in a cold feafon and 
 
 * According to Dr. Z*W, its effects, fhivering 
 and ficknefs, are inftantaneous. See Differt. en Fe- 
 vers and Infeftion. Chap. ii. feel. I. 
 
 unwholefome
 
 ( '97 ) 
 
 unwholefome climate, will better account 
 for it. The nature of his complaint. is 
 not very clear, for it is very uncommon 
 for the fenfes to remain entire till the lad, 
 in a fever of the low or putrid kind; 
 nor are fits, refembling epileptic attacks, 
 among the ufual fymptoms of fuch a dif- 
 eafe. That a wandering gout might 
 make part of his indifpofition, is not very 
 improbable, as it was a diforder to which 
 he was conftitutionally liable, though his 
 mode of living prevented any fcvere pa- 
 roxyfms of it. At any rate, his difcafe 
 was certainly attended with debility of 
 the vital powers, and therefore the long 
 and frequent ufe of James's powders muft 
 have been prejudicial. And I think it 
 highly probable, that Mr. Howard's name 
 may be added to the numerous lift of 
 O 3 thofe,
 
 thofe, whofe lives have been facrificed-td 
 the empirical uie of a medicine of great 
 activity, and therefore capable of doing 
 much harm as well as good. 
 
 It was Mr. Howard's written requeft, 
 that his papers Ihould be corrected and 
 fitted for publication by Dr. Price and 
 myfelf. The declining ftate of health 
 of Dr. Price*, has caufed the bufinefs to 
 
 devolve 
 
 * Whilft I am engaged in this work, Dr. PRICE 
 has followed his friend to the grave. A character 
 fo illufhious will, doubtlefs, have all juftice done it 
 by fome pen qualified to difplay its various merits. 
 May I be permitted, however, to take this occafion 
 of mingling my regrets with thofe of his other 
 friends and admirers, and offering a fmall tribute to 
 the memory of one of the moft excellent of men ! 
 Though during life the advanced ftation he oc- 
 cupied in political controverfy rendered his name 
 as obnoxious to fome, as it was cherifhed and re- 
 vered by others, yet now he is gone to that place; 
 
 where 
 
 7
 
 ( *99 ) 
 
 devolve folely on me, and I have executed 
 it to the beft of my power. Little was 
 requifite to be done to the greateft part, 
 which he had himfelf copied out fair. 
 The reft was with fome difficulty to bs 
 compiled out of detached and broken 
 memorandums ; but in thefe his own. 
 words are as .much as pofiible preferved. 
 
 where all worldly differences are at an end, it may 
 be hoped, that the liberal of all denominations will 
 concur, in refpe&ing a long courfe of years fpent in 
 the unremitted application of eminent abilities and 
 acquirements, to the promotion of what he regarded 
 as the greateft good of his fellow-creatures. A 
 chara&er in which were combined Cmplicity of 
 heart, with depth of under Handing, ardent love 
 of truth, with true Chriftian charity and humility ; 
 high zeal for the public interests, with perfecl 
 freedom from all private views ; cannot be ulti- 
 mately injured by the petulance of wit, or the in- 
 veftives of eloquence. Dr. Price's reputation as 2 
 moralift, philofopher, and politician, may fafely be 
 committed to impartial pofterity. 
 
 04 Of
 
 ( 200 ) 
 
 Of this Supplement I fhall give a general 
 account, as I have done of the former parts 
 of his works. 
 
 The order and regularity of Holland 
 flill afford ufeful defcriptions, and fpme 
 of the abufes which even there had crept 
 in, feem to have been corrected fince Mr. 
 Howard's vifits. The friend to huma- 
 nity has yet, however, to lament the 
 continued ufe of tjie torture there, to 
 force confeflion. The ftate of theprifons 
 in Ofnaburgh, Hanover, and Brunfwick, is 
 again dwelt upon with fome minutenefs, 
 obvioufly becaufe the writer thought 
 there was fome probability of his attract- 
 ing, in a more peculiar manner, the no- 
 tice of thofe who have the power of re- 
 medying their defects. Who will not fym- 
 pathize with him in the difappointment 
 
 he
 
 ( 201 ) 
 
 fce expreflcs in this inftance, and bewail 
 the ftrange fatality by which the utmoft 
 barbarity of the torture is retained in the 
 dominions of a mild and enlightened 
 Sovereign, whofe interpofition could not 
 but be efficacious in fupprefiing it ! 
 
 At Berlin and Spandau the inftitutions 
 appear to preferve the good order in 
 which they were left by the Great Fre- 
 deric. Konigfberg feems to fhew the 
 neglect incident to places diftant from the 
 feat of government. In a note under 
 this place, Mr. Howard makes an ac- 
 knowledgment of the attention with 
 which his remarks have been honoured 
 in various foreign countries, and proper- 
 ly adduces it as a reafon for his adoption 
 at cenforial manner of noting abufes, 
 
 which,
 
 ( 202 ) 
 
 which, in his later journies, he has not 
 fcrupled freely to employ. 
 
 At St. Peterjburgb he had the pleafure 
 to obferve feveral improvements in the 
 hofpitals, probably in great part owing 
 to his own fuggeftions. .Under Cronftadt 
 he finds occafion, however, to animad- 
 vert upon an alteration in the plan of 
 diet, generally adopted throughout the 
 marine and military hofpitals of Ruflia, 
 which, in his opinion, is highly preju- 
 dicial. This alteration confifts in chang- 
 ing milk, and various other articles, con- 
 flituting the ufual liquid and middle 
 diet of the ftck, for the ftropger and lefs 
 digeftible food of men in health. The 
 prifons at Mofcow feem greatly neglected 
 by thofe whofe office it is to fuperintend 
 them; but the charity difplayed by in- 
 dividuals
 
 .( 203 ) 
 
 dividuals towards the poor wretches con- 
 fined in them, gave Mr. Howard a fa- 
 vourable idea of the humane difpofuion 
 of the nation, confirmed by what he faw 
 of their manners in his travels. 
 
 He now haftened to thofe fcenes, where 
 a deftru&ive war, co-operating with an 
 unwholefome climate, produced fuch 
 evils, aggravated by neglect and inhu- 
 manity, that they gave him no other oc- 
 cupation than to lament and complain. 
 After all the allowances that candour de- 
 mands, for inevitable wants and hardfhips 
 in the diftant pofts of a newly poflcfied 
 country, and during the heighth of widely 
 extended military operations, the Ruf- 
 fian commanders cannot be vindicated 
 from an inattention to the lives and com- 
 forts of their foldiers, greater, as Mr. 
 
 Howard
 
 Howard obferveSj than he had feen in 
 any other country. Ignorance, abufe, 
 mifmanagement, and deficiency, feem at 
 their very fummit in the military hofpi- 
 tals ofCberfcm, Witowka^ and St. Nicholas. 
 The lively pictures he has drawn of the 
 diftrefies he here witnefled, and his pa- 
 thetic defcription of the fufferings of the 
 poor recruits, marched from their diflant 
 homes to thefe melancholy regions, muft 
 awaken in every feeling bread a warm 
 indignation againft the fchemes of am- 
 bitious defpotifm, however varnifhed over 
 with the colouring of glory, or even of 
 national utility. No leflbn ought to be 
 more forcibly imprefled on mankind, 
 than, that uncontrouled power in one or 
 few, notwithftanding it may occafionally 
 be exercifed in fplendid and even benefi- 
 cent
 
 Cent defigns, is on the whole abfolutfy 
 inconfiftent with the happinefs of a peo- 
 ple*. The Emprefs of Ruffia's unjuft 
 feizure of Letter and Criin Tartary, hss 
 been the caufe of miferies not to be cal- 
 culated, to her own fubjefts and thofe of 
 Turkey, and has endangered the tranquil- 
 lity of all Europe. 
 
 I ihall conclude this review of the 
 works and public fervices of Mr. Howard 
 with brief annals of his more than Her- 
 culean labours, during the laft feventeen 
 years of his life. 
 
 1773. High-fheriffof Bedfordfliire. Vi- 
 fhed many county and town 
 gaols. 
 
 * Scilicet ut Turno contingat regia conjunx, 
 Nos, animae viles, inbumata infleCaque turba. 
 Sternaraur campis. JEn. xi. 
 
 1774-
 
 ( 206 ) 
 
 1774. Completed his furvey of Englifh 
 
 gaols. Stood candidate to repre- 
 prefent the town of Bedford. 
 
 1775. Travelled to Scotland, Ireland, 
 
 France, Holland, Flanders, and 
 Germany. 
 
 1776. Repeated his vifit to the above 
 
 countries, and to Switzerland. 
 During thefe two years revifited 
 all the Englifh gaols* 
 
 1777. Printed his ftate of prifons. 
 
 1778. Travelled through Holland, Flan- 
 
 ders, Germany, Italy, Switzer- 
 land, and part of France. 
 
 1779. Revifited all the counties of Eng- 
 
 land and Wales, and travelled 
 into Scotland and Ireland. Acled 
 as Supervifor of the Penitentiary 
 Houfes. 
 
 1780.
 
 1780. Printed his firft Appendix. 
 
 1781. Travelled into Denmark, Sweden, 
 
 Ruflia, Poland, Germany, and 
 Holland. 
 
 1782. Again furveyed all the Englifh pri- 
 
 fons, and went into Scotland and 
 Ireland. 
 
 1783. Vifited Portugal, Spain, France, 
 
 Flanders, and Holland : alfo, 
 Scotland and Ireland ; and view- 
 ed feveral Englifh prifons. 
 
 1784. Printed the fecond Appendix, and a 
 
 new edition of the whole works. 
 'From the clofe of the firft of 
 thefe years, to the beginning 
 
 1785. of the laft, on his tour through 
 I786X Holland, France, Italy, Malta, 
 1787. Turkey, and Germany. After- 
 wards, went to Scotland and 
 Ireland.
 
 ( 208 ) 
 
 . Revifited Ireland ; and during this 
 and the former year, travelled 
 over all England. 
 
 1789. Printed his work on Lazarettos, 
 
 &c. Travelled through Holland, 
 Germany, Prufiia, and Livonia, 
 to Ruffia and LefTer Tartary. 
 
 1790. January 20* Died at Cherfori. 
 
 Having thus traced the fdotfteps of 
 this great philanthropift from the cradle 
 to the grave, and followed them with 
 clofe infpeclion in that part of his courfe 
 which comprehends his more public life, 
 it only remains, to aflemble thofe features 
 of character which have been difplayed in 
 his actions, and to form them, in con- 
 junction with fuch minuter ftrokes as ftu- 
 dious obfervation may have enabled me 
 
 to
 
 to draw, into a faithful portraiture of the 
 man. 
 
 The firft thing that ftruck an obferver 
 on acquaintance with Mr. Howard, was 
 a (lamp of extraordinary vigour and 
 energy on all his movements and ex- 
 preffions. An eye lively and penetrating, 
 ftrong and prominent features, quick gait, 
 and animated geftures, gave promifc of 
 ardour in forming, and vivacity in exe- 
 cuting his defigns*. At no time cf his 
 
 life, 
 
 * Mr, Howard, though frequently rcqueftcd, 
 would never fit for his picture ; it is therefore no 
 wonder that the portraits of him, given in various 
 works, fliould be all totally unlike. The mofl 
 refembling likenefs, by much, is a head fketched by 
 an artilt in London, engraved in Dublin, and copied 
 for this work. It is fomewhat of a caricature, 
 but has very exactly the expreffiort of his counte- 
 nance when in a very ferious attentive mood. After 
 his death, Prince Pottmkin had two plafter cafta 
 P taken
 
 ( 210 ) 
 
 life, I believe, was he without fome ob- 
 ject of warm purfuit ; and in every thing 
 he purfued, he was indefatigable in aim- 
 ing at perfection. Give him a hint of 
 any thing he had left mort, or any new 
 acquifmon to be made, and while you 
 might fuppofe he was deliberating about 
 it, you were furprifed with finding // 
 was done. Not Casfar himfelf could 
 better exemplify the poet's 
 
 Nil aftum credens, dum quid fupereflet agendum. 
 
 I remember that, having accidentally 
 remarked to him that amongft the Lon- 
 don prifons he had omitted the 'Tower, he 
 was fo ftruck with the deficiency (though 
 
 taken from his face, one for himfelf, the other for 
 the fervant of Mr. Howard. 
 
 4 Of
 
 f iit ) 
 
 bf trifling confcquence, fmce confinement 
 there is fo rare), that at his very firffc 
 leiflire he ran to London, and fupplied it. 
 Nor was it only during a fhort period of 
 ardour that his exertions were thus 
 awakened. He had the dill rarer quality 
 of being able, for any length of time, to 
 bend all the powers and faculties of his 
 mind to one point, unfeduced by every 
 allurement which curiofity or any other 
 affection might throw in his way, and 
 unfufceptible of that fatiety and difgufl 
 which are fo apt to fteal upon a protract- 
 ed purfuit. Though by his early travels 
 he had (hewn himfelf not indifferent to 
 thofe objects of tafle and information 
 which ftrike the cultivated mind in a 
 foreign country, yet in the tours exprc-ff- 
 ly made for the purpofe of examining 
 P 2 prifons
 
 ( 212 ) 
 
 prifons and hofpitals, he appears to have 
 had eyes and ears for nothing elfe , at 
 Jeaft he fuffered no other object to detain 
 him or draw him afide *. Imprefied with 
 the idea of the importance of his defigns, 
 and the uncertainty of human life, he was 
 impatient to get as much done as pof- 
 fible within the allotted limits. And 
 in this difpofition confided that entbu- 
 Jiafm by which the public fuppofed him 
 actuated ; for ctherwife, his cool and 
 fteady temper gave no idea of the cha- 
 racter ufually diftinguifhed by that ap- 
 pellation. He followed his plans, in- 
 deed, with wonderful vigour and con- 
 
 * He mentioned being once prevailed upon in 
 Italy, to go and hear fome extraordinarily fine mufic ; 
 but, finding his thoughts too much occupied by it, 
 he would never repeat the indulgence. 
 
 ftancy,
 
 ( "3 ) 
 
 ftancy, but by no menrs with th-u l^eat 
 and eagernefs, that inflamed and exalted 
 imagination, which denote the enthufiaft. 
 Hence, he was not liable to catch at ^ar- 
 tial reprefentations, to view facts through 
 fallacious mediums, and to fall into thofe 
 miftakes which are fo frequent in the 
 refearches of the man of fancy and warm 
 feeling. Some perfons, who only knew 
 him by his extraordinary actions, were 
 ready enough to beftow upon him that 
 fneer of contempt, which men of cold 
 hearts and felfifh difpofitions are fo apt 
 to apply to whatever has the fhew 
 of high fenfibility. While others, who 
 had a flight acquaintance with him, 
 and faw occafional features of phlegm, 
 and perhaps harfhnefs, were difpofed to 
 queftion his feeling altogether, and to 
 ? attribute
 
 ( 214 ) 
 
 attribute his exertions either merely to a, 
 fenfe of duty, or to habit and humour, 
 But both thefe were erroneous conclu- 
 fions. He felt as. a man fhould feel; but 
 not fo as to miflead him, either in the 
 eftimate he formed of objects of utility, 
 or in his reafonings concerning the means 
 by which they were to be brought into 
 effect. The reformation of abufes, and 
 the relief of mifery, were the two great 
 purpofes which he kept in view in all 
 his undertakings j and I have equally 
 feen the tear of fenfibility ftart into his 
 eyes on recalling fome of the diftrefsful 
 fcenes to which he had been witnefs, and 
 the fpirit of indignation flam from them 
 on relating inftances of bafenefs and op- 
 preftion. Still, however, his conftancy 
 of mind and felf-collection never delerted 
 
 him,
 
 ( 215 ) 
 
 him. He was never agitated, never off 
 his guard ; and the unfpeakable advan- 
 tages of fuch a temper in the fcenes in 
 which he was engaged, need not be dwelt 
 upon. 
 
 His whole courfe of adlion was fuch a 
 trial of intrepidity and fortitude, that it 
 may feem altogether fuperfluous to fpeak 
 of his pofleflion of thefe qualities. He 
 had them, indeed, both from nature and 
 principle. His nerves were firm ; and 
 his conviclion of marching in the path 
 of duty made him fearlefs of confequences. 
 Nor was it only on great cccafions that 
 this flrength of mind was mown. It 
 raifed him above falfe.lhame, and that 
 awe which makes a coward of many a 
 brave man in the prefence of a fupe- 
 rior. No one ever lefs " feared the face 
 V 4 of
 
 C 216 ) 
 
 of man," than he. No one hefitated lefs 
 in fpeaking bold truths, or avowing ob- 
 noxious opinions. His courage was 
 equally pafiive and active. He was pre- 
 pared to make every facrifke that a re- 
 gard to drift veracity, or rigorous duty, 
 could enjoin ; and it cannot be doubted, 
 that, had he lived in an age when aflerting 
 his civil and religious rights would have 
 fubjecled him to martyrdom, not a more 
 willing martyr would ever have afcended 
 the fcaffold, or embraced the (lake. 
 
 The refolute temper of Mr. Howard 
 difplayed itfelf in a certain peremptorinefs, 
 which, when he had once determined, 
 rendered him unyielding to perfuafion 
 or difiuafion, and urged him on to the 
 accomplifhment of his purpofe, regard- 
 lefs of obftacles. He expected prompt 
 
 obedience
 
 obedience in thofe from whom he had a 
 right to require it, and was not a man to 
 be treated with negligence and inatten- 
 tion. He was, however, extremely con- 
 fiderate, and fufficiently indulgent to 
 human frailties , and a good-will to 
 pleafe him could fcarcely fail of its effect. 
 That his commands were reafonable, and 
 his expectations moderate, may be infer- 
 red from the long continuance of moft of 
 his fervants with him, and his fteady at- 
 tachment to many of thofe whom he em- 
 ployed. His means of enforcing com- 
 pliance were chiefly rewards; and the 
 withholding them was his method of 
 ihowing difpleafure*. 
 
 The 
 
 The following charafteriftic anecdote was con 
 municated to me by a gentleman who travelled in a 
 
 chaife
 
 The fpirit of independence by which he 
 was ever diftinguifhed, had in him the 
 only foundation to be relied on, moderate 
 
 defires. 
 
 ehaife with him from Lancafhire to London in 1777. 
 Mr. Howard obferved, that he had found few things 
 more difficult to manage than poft-chaife drivers, 
 who would feldom comply with his wifhes of going 
 flow or faft, till he adopted the following method, 
 .At the end of a ftage, whep the driver had been 
 perverfe, he defired the landlord to fend for fome 
 poor induftrious widow, or other proper objedl of 
 charity, and to introduce fuch perfon and the driver 
 together. He then paid the latter his fare, and 
 told him> that as he had not thought proper to at- 
 tend to his repeated requefts as to the manner of 
 being driven, he mould not make him any prefent ; 
 but, to mow him that he did not withhold it out of 
 a principle of parfimony, he would give the poor 
 perfon prefent double the Aim ufually given to a 
 poftillion. This he did, and difmiffcd the parties. 
 He had not long pralifed this mode, he faid, before 
 he experienced the good effefts of it on all the roads, 
 
 he was known. 
 
 A more extraordinary inftance of his determined 
 
 fpirit
 
 ( 2*9 ) 
 
 deftres, Perfectly contented with the 
 competence which Providence had be- 
 ftowed on him, he never had a thought of 
 increafing itj and, even when in a fitua- 
 tion to expect a family, he made it a 
 
 fpirit has been related to me. Travelling once in the 
 king of Pruffia's dominions, he came to a very nar-, 
 row piece of road, admitting only one carriage, 
 where it was enjoined on all poilillions entering at 
 each end, to blow their horns by way of notice. 
 His did fo ; but, after proceeding a good way, they 
 met a courier travelling on the king's bufinefs, who 
 had neglefted this precaution. The courier ordered 
 Mr. Howards poftilUon to turn back ; but Mr.Ho-tvard 
 remonftrated, that he had complied with the rule, 
 while the other had violated it; and therefore that 
 he fhould infift on going forwards. The courier, 
 relying on an authority, to which, in that country, 
 every thing muft give way, made ufe of hijjh 
 words, but in vain. As neither was difpofed to 
 yield, they fat ftill a long time in their refpeftive 
 carriages : at length the courier gave up the point 
 to the fturdy Englilhman, who would on no accow^ 
 renounce bn rights. 
 
 rule
 
 ( 220 ) 
 
 rule with himfelf to lay up no part of 
 his annual income, but to expend in 
 fome ufeful or benevolent fcheme the 
 fuperfluity of the year. Left this fhould 
 be converted into a charge of careleflhefs 
 in providing for his own, it may be pro- 
 per to mention, that he had the beft- 
 
 grounded expectations, that any children 
 
 
 
 he might have, would largely partake of 
 the wealth of their relations. Thus he 
 prefer ved his heart from that contami- 
 nation, which (taking in the whole of 
 life) is perhaps the xJileafe moft fre- 
 quently attendant on a ftate of profperity, 
 tie lujl of growing rich ; a paflion, 
 which is too often found to fwallow up 
 liberality, public fpirit, and, at laft, that 
 independency, which it is the beft ufe of 
 wealth to fecure. By this temper of 
 
 mind
 
 mind he was elevated to an immeafur- 
 ablc diftance above every thing mean and 
 fordid; and in all his tranfaftions he dtf- 
 played a fpirit of honour and generofity, 
 that might become the " blood of the 
 Howards" when flowing in its nobleft 
 channels. 
 
 Had Mr. Howard been lefs provided 
 with the goods of fortune, his indepen- 
 dency would have found a refource in the 
 fewnefs of bis wants ; and it was an inef- 
 timable advantage which he brought to 
 his great work, an advantage perhaps 
 more uncommon in this country than 
 any of thofe already mentioned, that be - 
 pofiefled a command over all corporeal 
 appetites and habitudes, not lefs perfect 
 than that of any ancient philofopher, or 
 modern afcetic. The ftrid regimen of 
 
 7
 
 ( 222 ) 
 
 diet which he had adopted early in life 
 from motives of health, he afterwards 
 perievered in through choice, and even 
 extended its rigour, fo as to reject all 
 thofe indulgences which even the mod 
 temperate confider as necefiary /or the 
 prefer vation of their flrength and vigour 
 Animal foods, and fermented and fpiritu- 
 ous drinks, he utterly difcarded from 
 his diet. Water and the plainefl vege- 
 tables fufficed him* Milk, tea, butter, 
 and fruit, were his luxuries ; and he was 
 equally fparing in the quantity of food^ 
 and indifferent as to the ftated times of 
 taking it. Thus he found his wants 
 fupplied in almoft every place where 
 man exifted, and was as well provided in 
 the pofadas of Spain and caravanferas 
 of Turkey, as in the inns and hotels 
 3 of
 
 t 223 ) 
 
 df England and France. Water was one 
 of his principal necefiaries, for he was a 
 very Muflulman in his ablutions; and if 
 nicety or delicacy had place with him in, 
 any refpect, it was in the perfect cleanli- 
 nefs of his whole perfon. He was equally- 
 tolerant of heat, cold, and all the vicifli- 
 tudes of climate; and, what is more won- 
 derful, not even fieep feemed neceflary 
 to him, at lead at thofe returns and in 
 thofe proportions in which mankind in 
 general expect it. How well he was ca- 
 pable of enduring fatigue, the amazing 
 journies he took by all modes of convey- 
 ance, without any intervals of what might 
 be called repofe (fince his only baking 
 places were his proper fcenes of action), 
 abundantly teftify. In fhort, no human 
 bpdy was probably ever more perfectly 
 
 the
 
 224 ) 
 
 the fervant of the mind by which it was 
 actuated j and all the efforts of the ftrong- 
 eft conftitution, not inured to habits of 
 felf-denial, and moral as well as cor- 
 poreal exercife, would have been unequal 
 to his exertions *. 
 
 With 
 
 * The following account of his mode of travel- 
 ling, communicated to me by a gentleman in Dub- 
 lin, who had much free converfation with him, and 
 the fubftance of which I well recoiled to have heard 
 from himfelf, will, I doubt not, prove interefting* 
 " When he travelled in England or Ireland, it was 
 generally on horfeback, and he rode about forty 
 Englifh miles a day. He was never at a lofs for 
 an inn. When in Ireland, or the Highlands of Scot- 
 land, he ufed to flop at one of the poor cabins that 
 Hick up a rag by way of fign, and get a little milk. 
 When he came to the town he was to fleep at, he 
 befpoke a fupper, with wine and beer, like ano- 
 ther traveller, but made his man attend him, and 
 take it away, whilft he was preparing his bread and 
 milk. He always paid the waiters, poftillions, &c. 
 liberally, becaufe he would have no difcontent or 
 
 difpute,
 
 ( 225 ) 
 
 With refpect to the chara&er of his 
 underftanding, that, too, was as happily 
 adapted to the great bufinefs in which he 
 engaged. He had not, in a high de- 
 gree, that extenfive comprehenfion, that 
 faculty of generalizing, which is faid to 
 
 difpute, nor fuffer his fpirits to be agitated for fuch 
 a matter ; faying, that in a journey that might coft 
 three or four hundred pounds, fifteen or twenty 
 pounds addition was not worth thinking about. 
 When he travelled on the continent, he ufually went 
 poll in his own chaife, which was a German one 
 that he bought for the purpofe. He never Hopped 
 till he came to the town he meant to vifit, but tra- 
 velled all night, if neceflary ; and from habit could 
 fleep very well in the chaife for feveral nights to- 
 gether. In the lafl tour but one he travelled twenty 
 days and nights together without going to bed, and 
 found no inconvenience from it. He ufed to carry 
 with him a fmall tea-kettle, fome cups, a little pot 
 of fweetmeats, and a few loaves. At the poft-houfe 
 he could get his water boiled, fend out for milk, and 
 make his repaft, while his man went to the MJcrgv." 
 
 diftinguifh
 
 ( 226 ) 
 
 diftinguifh the man of genius, but which, 
 without a previous collection of authentic 
 materials, is ever apt to lead into errone- 
 ous fpeculations. He was rather a man of 
 detail ; of laborious accuracy and minute 
 examination; and therefore he had the 
 proper qualities for one who was to lead 
 the way in refearches where all was igno- 
 rance, confufion, and local cuftom. Who 
 but fuch a man could have collected a 
 body of information, which has made 
 even profefiional men acquainted with 
 interefting facts that they never before 
 knew j and has given the Englifh read- 
 er a more exact knowledge of practices 
 followed in Ruffia and Spain, than he 
 before had of thofe in his own country ? 
 This minutenefs of detail was what he 
 ever regarded as his peculiar province. 
 
 As
 
 ( 227 ) 
 
 As he was of all men the moft modeft 
 eftimator of his own abilities, he was ufed 
 to fay, " I am the $lodder t who goes 
 about to collect materials for men of 
 genius to make ufe of." Let thofe who 
 look with faftidioufnefs upon long tables 
 of rules and orders, and meafurements of 
 cells and work-rooms, given in feet and 
 inches, confider, that when a fcheme is 
 brought into practice, thefe fmall cir- 
 cumftances muft have their place j and 
 that the moft ingenious plans often fail 
 in their execution for want of adjuft- 
 ment in the nicer parts. Perhaps even 
 the great Frederic of Pruflia was more 
 indebted for fuccefs to the exaftnefs of 
 his difpofitions in every minute particu- 
 lar connected with practice, than to deep 
 i 
 
 and fublime views of general principles. 
 
 From
 
 From a fimilar call of mind, Mr, 
 Howard was a friend to fubordination, 
 and all the decorums of regular fociety ; 
 nor did he diflike vigorous exertions of 
 civil authority, when directed to laudable 
 purpofes. He interfered little in dif- 
 putes relative to the theory of govern- 
 ment 3 but was contented to take fyftems 
 6f fovereignty as he found them efta- 
 blifhed in various parts of the world, 
 fatisfied with prompting fuch an applica- 
 tion of their powers as might promote 
 the welfare of the refpective communi- 
 ties. A ftate of imprifonment being 
 that in which the rights of men are, in 
 great part, at leaft, fufpended, it was na- 
 tural that his thoughts fhould be more 
 converfant with a people as the fubjefts, 
 than as the fource, of authority. Yet 
 
 he
 
 ( "9 ) 
 
 he well knew, and properly valued, the 
 ineftimable blefiings of political freedom, 
 as oppofed to defpotifm ; and, among the 
 nations of Europe, he confidered the 
 JDutch and Swifs as affording the beft 
 examples of a ftrid and fteady pDlice, 
 conducted upon principles of equity and 
 humanity. TO the character of t!.e 
 J>utch he was, indeed, peculiarly par- 
 tial ; and frequently aflcrted, that he 
 fhould prefer Holland for his place of 
 refidence, to any other foreign country. 
 I can add, from undoubted authority, 
 that Mr. Howard was one of thofe who 
 {in the language of the great Lord Cha- 
 tham) " rejoiced that America had re- 
 fifted," and triumphed in her final fuc- 
 cefs; that he was principally attached 
 to the popular part of our conftitution ; 
 
 and
 
 ( 230 ) 
 
 and that in his own county he diftin- 
 guifhed himfelf by a fpirited oppofition 
 to ariftocratical influence. 
 
 His peculiar habits of life, and the ex- 
 clufive attention he bellowed in his later 
 years on a few objects, caufed him to 
 appear more averfe to fociety than I 
 think he really was;, and it has been 
 mentioned as an unfortunate circum- 
 ftance, that his fhynefs and refer ve fre- 
 quently kept him out of the way of per- 
 fons from whom he might have de- 
 rived much ufeful information. But it 
 is vain to defire things incompatible. 
 Mr. Howard can fcarcely be denied to 
 have chofen the beft way, upon the whole, 
 of conducting his enquiries , and if he 
 had been a more companionable man, more 
 ready to indulge his own curiofity, and 
 
 gratify
 
 gratify that of others, he would no longer 
 have poflefied one of the chief advan- 
 tages he brought to his great work. 
 Yet while he afiiduoufly fliunned all en- 
 gagements which would have involved 
 him in the forms and difllpation of foci- 
 ety, he was by no means difinclined to 
 enter into converfations on his particu- 
 lar topics j on the contrary, he was often 
 extremely communicative, and would 
 enliven a fmall circle with the moft 
 entertaining relations of his travels and 
 adventures. 
 
 Mr. Howard had in a high degree 
 that refpedtful attention to the female 
 fex which fo much charaflerifcs the gen- 
 tleman. Perhaps, indeed, I may here 
 be referring to rules of politenefs which 
 no longer exift. But he was as thorough-
 
 ly impreffed with the maxim of place, 
 aux dames as any Frenchman, though 
 without the ftrain of light and compli- 
 mentary gallantry which has accom- 
 pained it in the individuals of that na- 
 tion. His was a more ferious fentiment, 
 connected with the uniform practice of 
 giving up his own eafe and accommoda- 
 tion, for the fake of doing a real kind- 
 nefs to any female of decent character. 
 It is excellently illuftrated by an anec- 
 dote related in a magazine, by a perfon 
 who chanced to fail with him in the 
 packet from Holyhead to Dublin, when, 
 the veflel being much crowded, Mr. 
 Howard refigned his bed to a fervant- 
 maid, and took up with the cabin floor 
 for himfelf. It is likewife difplayed 
 throughout his works, by the warmth with 
 
 which
 
 which he always cenfures the practice of 
 putting female prifoners in irons, and ex- 
 pofing them to any harfh and indelicate 
 treatment. He was fond of nothing fo 
 much as the converfadon of women of 
 education and cultivated manners, and 
 ftudied to attach them by little elcgan; 
 prefents, and other marks of attention. 
 Indeed, his foft tones of voice and gen- 
 tlenefs of demeanour might be thought 
 to approach fomewhat to the effeminate, 
 and would furpriie thofe who had known 
 him only by the energy of his exertions. 
 In his judgment of female character, it 
 was manifcft that the idea of his loft 
 Harriet was the Aandard of excellence j 
 and, if ever he had married again, a 
 refemblance to her would have been the 
 principal motive of his choice. I recol-r
 
 ( 234 ) 
 
 led: to this purpofe a fingular anecdote, 
 which he related to us on his return from 
 one of his tours. In going from one 
 town in Holland to another in the com- 
 mon paflage boat, he was placed near 
 an elderly gentleman, who had in com- 
 pany a young lady of a moft engaging 
 manner and appearance, which very 
 ftrongly reminded him of his Harriet. 
 He was fo much ftruck with her, that, 
 on arriving at the place of deftination, 
 he caufed his fcrvant to follow them, 
 and get intelligence who they were. It 
 was not without fome difappointment 
 that he learned, that the old gentleman 
 was an eminent merchant, and the young 
 lady, bis wife. 
 
 Mr. Howard's predilection for female 
 fociety, was in part a confluence of 
 
 his
 
 his abhorrence of every thing grofs and 
 licentious. His own language and man- 
 ners were invariably pure and delicate j 
 and the freedoms which pafs uncenfured 
 or even applauded in the promifcuous 
 companies of men, would have affected 
 him with fenfations of difguit. For a 
 perfon poflefled of fuch feelings, to have 
 brought himfelf to fubmit to fuch fre- 
 quent communication with the moft 
 abandoned of mankind, was perhaps a 
 greater triumph of duty over inclina- 
 tion than any other he obtained in the 
 profecution of his defigns. Yet the na- 
 ture of his errand to prifons probably 
 infpired awe and refpect in the moft dif- 
 folute j and I think he has recorded, that 
 he never met with a fmgle infult from 
 
 the
 
 the prifoners in any of the gaols he 
 vifited. 
 
 As Mr. Howard was fo eminently a 
 religious character, it may be expected that 
 ibmewhat more fhould be faid of the 
 peculiar tenets he adopted. But, befides 
 that this was a topic which did not enter 
 into our converfations, I confefs, I do 
 not perceive how his general plan of 
 conduct was likely to be influenced by 
 any peculiarity of that kind. The prin- 
 ciple of religious duty, which is nearly 
 the fame in all fyftems, and differs ra- 
 ther in ftrength than in kind in different 
 perfons, is furely fufficient to account 
 for all that he did and underwent in 
 promoting the good of mankind, by 
 modes which Providence feemed to 
 
 place
 
 ( 237 ) 
 
 place before him. It has been fuggefted, 
 that he was much under the influence of 
 the doctrine of fredeftination j and I 
 know not what of fternncfs has been at- 
 tributed to him as its natural confe- 
 quence. For my own part, I am not 
 able to difcover in what thofe notions of 
 Providence, general and particular, which 
 make part of the profefllon of all religions, 
 differ effentially from the opinions of the 
 predeftinarians ; and, from manifold ob- 
 fervation, I am certain, that the recep- 
 tion of the doctrine of predeftination, 
 as an article of belief, does not necef- 
 farily imply thofe practical confequences 
 which might feem deducible from it. 
 The language, at leaft, of our lower clafles 
 of people is almoft univerfally found- 
 ed upon itj but when one of them dies 
 
 of
 
 of an infectious difeafe, notwithstanding 
 the byftanders all fpeak of the event as 
 fated 'and inevitable, yet each, for him- 
 felf, does not the lefs avoid the infection, 
 or the lefs recur to medical aid if at- 
 tacked by it. With refped to Mr. How- 
 ard, he never feemed to adopt the idea 
 that he was moved by an irrefiftible 
 impulfe to his defigns ; for they were the 
 fubjed of much thought and difcufiion : 
 nor did he confront dangers becaufe he 
 had a perfuafion that he fhould be pre- 
 ferved from their natural confequences, 
 but becaufe he was elevated above them. 
 This fentiment he has himfelf more than 
 once expreffed in print ; and furely none 
 could be either more rational, or more 
 adequate to the effects produced. <c Be- 
 ing in the way of my duty (fays he), 
 - 7 I fear
 
 ( 239 ) 
 
 1 fear no evil." I may venture to 
 affirm, that thofe of the medical profef- 
 fion, whofe fearleflhefs is not merely the 
 refult of habit, muft reafon upon the 
 fame principle, when they calmly expofe 
 themfelves to fimilar hazards. They, for 
 the moft part, ufe no precautions againft 
 contagion : Mr. Howard did ufe fome ; 
 though their effects were probably trifling 
 compared with that of his habitual tem- 
 perance and cleanlinefs, and his untrou- 
 bled ferenity of mind. On the whole, 
 his religious confidence does not appear 
 to have been of a nature different from 
 that of other pious men; but to be fo 
 fteadily and uniformly under its in- 
 fluence, and to be elevated by it to fuch 
 a fuperiority to all worldly confiderations, 
 can be the lot of none but thofe who 
 % . have
 
 have formed early habits of referring every 
 thing to the divine will, and of fixing all 
 their views on futurity. 
 
 From Mr. Howard's connections with 
 thofe fects who have ever fhewn a par- 
 ticular abhorrence of the frauds and fu- 
 perftitions of popery, it might be fup- 
 pofed, that he would look with a pre- 
 judiced eye on the profeffors and minif- 
 ters of that perfuafioru But fuch 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 con- 
 verfation, he ever dwelt with great com- 
 placency on the pure zeal for the good 
 
 
 
 of mankind, and genuine Chriftian cha- 
 nty, which he frequently difcovered 
 6 among
 
 ( 
 
 among the Roman Catholic clergy, both 
 regular and fecular. He was no friend 
 to "that hafty diflblution of convents and 
 monafteries which formed part of the 
 multifarious reforms of the late Em- 
 peror of Germany. He pitied the aged 
 inmates, male and female, of thefe quiet 
 abodes, who were driven from their be- 
 loved retreats into the wide world, with 
 a very (lender and often ill-paid pittance 
 for their fupport. < Why might not 
 they (he would fay) be fuffered gradu- 
 ally to die away, and be tranfplanrcd 
 from one religious houfe to another as 
 their numbers lefiened ?" Thofe orders 
 which make it the great duty of their 
 profefiion to attend with the kindeft af- 
 fiduity upon the fick and imprifoned, 
 and who therefore came continually with- 
 '* R in
 
 ( 242 ) 
 
 in his notice, feemed to conciliate his 
 good-will to the whole fraternity ; and 
 the virtues of order, decency, fobriety, 
 and charity, fo much akin to his "own, 
 naturally inclined him to a kind of fel- 
 lowfhip with them. He rigoroufly, how- 
 ever, abftained from any compliances 
 with their worlhip which he thought un- 
 lawful; and gave them his efteem as 
 men, without the leaft difpofition to 
 concur with them as theologians. 
 
 Such were the great lines of Mr. 
 Howard's character lines ftrongly mark- 
 ed, and fufficient to difcriminate him 
 from any of thofe who have appeared in 
 a part fomewhat fimilar to his own on 
 the theatre of the world. The union of 
 qualities which fo peculiarly fitted him 
 for the poll he undertook, is not likely, 
 5 in
 
 m our age, again to take place ; yet dif- 
 ferent combinations may be employed to 
 effect the fame purpofes ; and, with re- 
 fpect to the objects of police and huma- 
 nity concerning which he occupied him- 
 felf, the information he has collected will 
 render the repetition of labours like his 
 unnecefiary. To propofe as a model, a 
 character marked with fuch fingularities, 
 and, no doubt, with fome foibles, would 
 be equally vain and injudicious j but his 
 firm attachment to principle, high fenfe 
 of honour, pure benevolence, unlhaken 
 conftancy, and indefatigable perfcve- 
 rance, may properly be held up to the 
 view of all perfons occupying important 
 ftations, or engaged in ufeful enterprifes, 
 as qualities not lefs to be imitated, than 
 admired. 
 
 R 2 I ihall
 
 ( 244 ) 
 
 I lhall conclude with fome account of 
 the literary honours which Mr. Howard has 
 received from his countrymen. It would, 
 indeed, have been extraordinary, if, while 
 fenatcs and courts of judicature offered 
 him their tribute of applaufe, poetry and 
 eloquence fliould have fhewn an infenfi- 
 bility to his merits. Befides the acknow- 
 ledgments paid him in every publication 
 upon topics fimilar to his own, he be- 
 came the theme of the elegant mufc of 
 Mr. Hay ley y who addrefled to him a A 
 ode in the year 1780, to which reference 
 has already been made. In the fucceed- 
 ing year, Mr. Burke, adverting, in a 
 fpeech to the freemen of Briftol, to a 
 fac"b in Mr. Howard's book, ftruck out, 
 with the enthufiafm of genius, into a pa- 
 negyrical digrefiion on his plans and 
 
 afbions,
 
 actions, decorated with his peculiar (train 
 of glowing imagery. This fpeech was 
 afterwards printed, and the pafiage con- 
 cerning Mr. Howard was copied into va- 
 rious periodical writings, and read with 
 tmiverfal approbation. His character 
 was even exhibited on the ftage; for a 
 comedy of Mrs. Incbbald's, entitled Sucb 
 Things Are, contained a part evidently 
 modelled upon his peculiar caft of be- 
 nevolence, which for a time rendered the 
 piece popular. 
 
 Dr. Darwin's very beautiful poem of 
 the Botanic Garden, printed in 1789, 
 amidft an unexpected variety of fubjects, 
 prefents an eulogium of Mr. Howard, fo 
 appropriate and poetical, that I am furc 
 no reader of tafte will require an apology 
 from me for inferting it. 
 
 And
 
 And now, BENEVOLENCE ! thy rays divine 
 Dart round the globe from Zembla to the Line ; 
 O'er each dark prifon plays the cheering light, 
 Like northern luftres o'er the vault of night. 
 From realm to realm, with crofs or creicent crovvn'd, 
 Where'er mankind and mifery are found, 
 O'er burning fands, deep waves, or wilds of frrow, 
 Thy HOWARD journeying feeks the houfe of woe. 
 Down many a winding ftep to dungeons dank, 
 Where anguifh wails aloud, and fetters clank ; 
 To caves beftrew'd with many a mouldering bone, 
 And jells, whofe echoes only learn to groan ; 
 Where no kind bars a whifpering friend difclofe, 
 No funbcam enters, and no zephyr blowi, 
 He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth, 
 Profufe of toil, and prodigal of health ; 
 With foft affuafive eloquence expaads 
 Power's rigid heart, and opes his clenching hands; 
 'Leads ftern-eye'd juftice to the dark domains, 
 Jf not to fever, to relax the chains ; 
 Or guides awaken' d mercy through the gloom, 
 And mews the prifon, filter to the tomb ! 
 Gives to her babes the felf-devoted wife, 
 To her fond hufband liberty and life ! 
 The fpirits of the good, who bend from high 
 "Wide o'er thefe earthly fcenes their partial eye, 
 When fir ft, array M in VIRTUE'S pureft robe, 
 They favv her HOWARD traverftng the globe; 
 
 Saw
 
 Saw round his brows her fun-like glory blaze 
 
 In arrowy circles of unwearied rays ; 
 
 Miftook a mortal for an angel -gueft, 
 
 And afk'd what feraph-foot the earth impreft. 
 
 Onward he moves! Difeafe and death retire, 
 
 And murmuring demons hate him, and admire. 
 
 After thefe lines, I cannot be prompt- 
 ed by vanity in tranfcribing fome greatly 
 inferior ones, which, too, have already 
 been offered to the public. But, as 
 they were written under the influence 
 of heartfelt emotions, and refer to the 
 leading principle of his actions, I hope 
 they will not be thought milplaced as 
 the clofe of a volume, the purpofe of 
 which is to reprefent his character in 
 (Irong and faithful colours.
 
 ON THE DEATH OF MR. HOWARD. ' 
 
 HOWARD, thy ta& is done ! thy Mafter calls, 
 And fummons thee from Cherfon's diftant walls. 
 " Come, well-approv'd ! my faithful fervant ! come; 
 " No more a wand'rer, feek thy deiiin'd home. 
 * Long have I mark'd thee with o'er-ruling eye, 
 " And fent admiring angels from on high, 
 " To walk the paths of danger by thy fide, 
 *' From death to Ihield thee, and thro' fnares to guide. 
 " My mlniftr of good, I've fped thy way, 
 " And (hot thro' dungeon glooms a leading ray, 
 To cheer, by thee, with kind unhoped relief, 
 ' My creatures loft and whelm'd in guilt and grief. 
 ' I've led thee, ardent, on thro' wond'ring climes, 
 To combat human woes and human crimes. 
 * But 'tis enough ! thy great commijfiorf 's o'er; 
 " I prove thy faith, thy love, thy zeal, no more. 
 ' Nor droop, that far from country, kindred, friends, 
 " Thy life, to duty long devoted, ends; 
 *' What boots it where the high reward, is giv'n, 
 *' Or w&aff the foul triumphant fprings to heav'n?" 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 Page 9, 1. 13, /or where read when.
 
 
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