with some boys, in a quarrel they had with a gentleman who lost his gold-headed cane in a private house in Paris. For this trifling offence, he was sentenced to the galleys for life. After being four or five years in confinement, he procured a bible; and having taught himself to read, he studied the Scriptures very attentively, and convinced himself that the religion there taught was very different from that in which he had been educated. By degrees he rejected the superstition and priestcraft of the Roman Catholic church, and became so completely a Protestant that he publicly renounced his former belief, and avowed and defended his reformed faith upon all occasions. Though considered a heretic for his opinions, he had conducted himself, on all other points, in such an exemplary manner as to secure the esteem of his officers and fellow prisoners. Undaunted and unshaken in his faith, he was humble and modest in his deportment, and made the most favorable impression on his sympathizing visitor, who left him a substantial token of his regard, and brought away with him, as a memorial of this interesting sufferer, some musical pipes which he had turned and tuned, for the purpose of beguiling some hours of a confinement, from which he fully believed that he could only be

released by death. To a man thus situated, how welcome must the messenger of death appear ! He must seem as an angel of glad tidings, unbarring his prison doors, striking off his shackles, and introducing him to a state of existence where there is no more persecution, no more unjust suffering of any kind, but where the secret sighing of such a captive shall be turned to joy unspeakable.

19*

HAVING fully accomplished all that he had proposed at Toulon, prudence required that Mr. Howard should quit France as soon as possible; and having been advised against attempting it by land, he bribed the captain of a vessel, windbound in the harbour, to put to sea with him, in spite of contrary winds, and convey him to Nice. Arrived there, he wrote the following letter to his friend Mr. Smith.

"Sir,

"Nice, January 30, 1786.

"I persuade myself that a line to acquaint you that I am safe and well out of France, will give you pleasure. I had a nice part to act; I travelled as an English doctor, and perhaps among the number of empirics I did as little mischief as most of them; I never dined or supped in public, the secret was only trusted to

the French Protestant ministers. I was five days at Marseilles and four at Toulon; it was thought that I could not get out of France by land, so I forced out a Genoese ship, and have been many days striving against wind and tide, three days. in an almost desolate island over-grown with myrtle, rosemary, and thyme.

"Last Sunday fortnight at the meeting at Toulon, the door locked and curtains drawn, one coming late put the assembly in fear, even to inquiry before the door was opened. I was twice over the arsenal, though there is a strict prohibition to our countrymen. There is a singular slave there who has publicly professed himself a Protestant these thirty-six years, a sensible, good man, with an unexceptionable and even amiable character. The last person who was confined merely for his religion, was released about eight years ago. My friend may think I have taken a final leave of a perfidious, jealous, and ungener

ous nation.

"I am bound this week for Genoa and then to Leghorn, where a lazaretto has been built within these few years. I know, Sir, you will not treat any new scheme as wild and chimerical, yet I must say, it requires a steadiness of purpose not to be shaken to pursue it.

"My best compliments to Mrs. Smith and our Bedford friends, and please to inform John Prole that I am well.

"I write this with my windows open, in full view of an orange grove, though the mountains at a great distance I see covered with snow. 66 "With my best wishes I remain

"Your affectionate friend,

"JOHN HOWARD."

From Nice Mr. Howard proceeded to the south of Italy, visiting all the prisons, hospitals, and lazarettos in the principal cities through which he passed, sometimes pleased by finding old grievances redressed and better regulations instituted, and sometimes pained by seeing the establishments, he had before admired, now changed for the worse. At Florence, there was much to gratify him in the alterations and improvements made in prisons and hospitals, in consequence of the great attention which the Grand Duke had paid to the subject; but highly as he appreciated the conduct of this excellent prince, he refused an invitation to dine with him, because he considered that, without advancing the grand objects of his journey, it would occasion him the loss of three hours which were then peculiarly import