precedent. In this fearch, fcenes of calamity and injuftice ftill opening upon him, he went on, and paid vifits to most of the County Gaols in England. Some peculiarly deplorable objects coming in his view who had been brought from the Bridewells, he was induced to enter upon an examination of thefe places of confinement; for which purpose he travelled again into the counties he had before feen, and into all the reft, vifiting Houfes of Correction, City and Town Gaols. He had carried on thefe inquiries with fo much affiduity, that fo early as March 1774 he was defired to communicate his information to the House of Commons, and received their thanks. As he was then little known, I cannot much wonder that fo extraordinary an inftance of pure and active benevolence was not univerfally comprehended, even by that patriotic body; for a member thought fit to afk him," At whofe expence he travelled?" a question which Mr. Howard could fcarcely answer without fome indignant emotions. Soon after this public teftimony given to the existence of great abuses and defects in our prifons, a very worthy member, Mr. Popham, brought into the House two bills, one for the relief of acquitted prisoners in matter of fees; the other, for preferving the health of prifoners. Thefe falutary acts paffed during the fame feffion, and made a commencement of thofe reforms which have fince been fo much extended. Mr. Howard, aware of the great deficiency of the mode of promulgating laws among us, had these acts printed in a different character, and fent to every keeper of a county gaol in England.' It was Mr. Howard's intention to have published his account of English prifons in fpring 1775; but as he was fenfible, that to point out defects, without at the fame time fuggefting remedies, would be of little advantage, he thought it best to examine with his own eyes what had been actually put in practice with respect to this part of police, in fome of the most enlightened countries on the continent. Accordingly, in that year he visited France, Flanders, Holland, and Germany; and in 1776 repeated his vifit to those countries, and alfo went to Switzerland. In the intervals he made a journey to Scotland and Ireland, and revisited the county gaols and many others in England. Thus furnished with a flock of information greater than had ever before been collected on this fubject; and, indeed, probably greater than any man had, in the fame space of time, ever collected on any fubject that required fimilar pains, he offered it to the public in 1777, in a quarto volume of near 500 pages, dedicated to the Houfe of Commons, by way of grateful acknowledgment for the honour conferred upon him by their thanks, and for the attention they had bestowed on the bufinefs.' So zealous was Mr. Howard to diffuse 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 volume fo low, that, had every copy been fold, he would ftill have prefented the public with all the plates, and great part of the printing. And this practice he followed in all his fubfequent publications; 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 himself even a greater pecuniary benefactor to mankind than can readily be paralleled in any age or country, his proportionate circumftances confidered. Yet how fmall a part was this of the facrifices he made !' The title of this first work is, The State of the Prisons in England and Wales; with preliminary Obfervations, and an Account of fome Foreign Prifons *." The House of Commons now took up, with laudable zeal, the important bufinefs of regulating the prifons; and in the draught of a bill "to punish by imprisonment and hard labour certain offenders, and to establish proper places for their reception," the plan was formed upon the 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 purpose of acquiring fresh and more exact information. He accordingly, in April 1778, went over to Holland, and revifited with the greatest attention the wellconducted establishments of the penitentiary kind in the United Provinces. Thence he travelled into Germany, taking his course through Hanover and Berlin, to Vienna. From this capital he proceeded to Italy by Venice; and, having gone as far fouth as Naples, returned by the western fide of that country to Switzerland. Thence he pursued the courfe of the Rhine through Germany; and, croffing 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 likewife took a journey through Scotland and Ireland. The labours of thefe two years were certainly not lefs productive of useful information than his former journies. In fome refpects they were more valuable, fince, being now fully mafler of his fubject, and acquainted with the means of procuring the best intelligence, he pursued his inquiries with greater eafe and effect. He was now, too, a diftinguished character in Europe, and might venture to affume that kind of authority, to which the collection of facts, interesting to all civilized nations, feemed to entitle him.'— His tours were likewife rendered richer in utility by the comprehenfion of another great object, that of hospitals. To thefe intitutions of humanity Mr. Howard had long been attached; he had been a promoter of them, and attentive to their improvement; and in his journies through this kingdom, he had feldom failed to vifit the hofpitals and infirmaries fituated in our principal towns. He had alfo, in his firft publication, taken curfory notice of a few which he faw abroad. But he now made them an avowed object of his examination; a circumftance, it may be fuppofed, not a little pleafing to his medical friends. For, although the knowledge col *We gave an account of this very interefting publication in the 57th volume of our Review, p. 8. lected lected by a profeffional man with fimilar opportunities would, doubtlefs, 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, where can we expect to fee the spirit and qualities of a Howard, united, in one of our profeffion, with his fortune and leifure? The fruit of all this refearch appeared in the year 1780, in an Appendix to the Prifons in England and Wales; containing a further Account of Foreign Prifons and Hofpitals, with additional Remarks on the Prifons of this Country.' Although his refearches in thofe foreign countries which promifed moft information, might have been fuppofed to have exbaufted that fource of improvement, yet, on furveying fo large a tract of Europe as yet unvifited, he could not be fatished to remain unacquainted with the ufeful facts relative to his purpose, which might poffibly lie there concealed. And he was convinced, that every new vifit, even to places already examined, would afford new inftruation. It was therefore no furprife 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, Ruffia, and Poland, with the further intention of revifiting Holland and part of Germany. From this tour he returned towards the clofe of the year.' The year 1782 he employed in another complete furvey of the prifons in England, and another journey into Scotland and Ireland. The Irish Houfe of Commons having appointed a gaol committee, he reported to it the ftate of feveral of the prifons in Dublin. Other objects in that ifland alfo engaged his attention, of which an account will be given hereafter. Spain and Portugal yet remained untouched ground. Confidering how much the fpirit of religious bigotry and civil defpotifm has thrown these countries back in the progrefs of modern improvement, much inftruction was not to be expected from them; yet the very circumftance of their difference from the rest of Europe made their fyftems of police an object of curiofity. He failed to Lisbon in February 1783, and proceeded thence by land into Spain, paffing from Badajos to Madrid, and through Valladolid, Burgos, and Pamplona, to France. From this last country he returned through Flanders and Holland. Travelling in Spain is a fevere trial of patience to those who have been accustomed to easy conveyance and luxurious indulgences; but Mr. Howard's wants were eafily fatisfied. "The Spaniards (fays he, in a letter to a friend) are very fober, and very honeft; and if a traveller can live fparingly, and lie on the floor, he may pafs tolerably well through their country." From Lisbon to Madrid he could feldom get the luxury of milk with his tea; but one morning (he tells his friend) he robbed a kid of two cups of its mother's milk. He remained, however, in perfect health and fpirits; and received that mark of attention which he most of all valued, a free access to the prifons of all the cities he vifited, by means of letters to the magiftrates from Count Campomanes. • After 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 English prifons. His materials had now once more accumulated to fuch a mafs, as to demand communication to the public. During the last three years his labours had been even greater than in any former equal period yet it could not be expected, that the matter abfolutely new which he had collected fhould be proportionally great. It was, however, enough to employ him very closely during several months of the year 1784, in printing an Appendix, and a new edition of the main work, in which all the additions were comprized. The Appendix contains all the matter of that of 1780, together with what had fince accrued.' The remainder of that, and the greater part of the next year, do not appear marked with his public fervices. They were, I believe, chiefly employed in domeftic concerns, of which the choice of a proper place of education for his fon, now rifing towards manhood, was one that most interested him. But the habitude of carrying on researches into an object, which by long poffeffion had acquired deep root in his mind, together with a new idea, collaterally allied to it, which had ftruck him, at length impelled him once more to engage in the toils and perils of a foreign journey. He had obferved that, notwithstanding 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 remarked the great folicitude of feveral trading nations to preferve themselves from that most deftructive of all contagious 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 refpecting 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 preventing contagion in general, as well as particular inftruction concerning eftablishments for the purpose of guarding against peftilential infection. His intent, therefore, was nothing less, than to plunge into the midst of those dangers which by other men are fo anxiously avoided; to fearch out and confront the great foe of human life, for the fake of recognizing his features, and difcovering the most efficacious barriers against his af faults. Who but must be ftruck with admiration of the firmness 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 unattended; not thinking it juftifiable to permit any of his fervants to partake of a danger to which 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 South of France. As, from the jealoufy and difpleafare of the French government, he was not able to obtain permiffion to vifit the establishments there, or even to gain affurance of perfonal fafety, fafety, he travelled through the country as an English physician, never took his meals in public, and entrusted his fecret only to the Proteftant minifters. In a letter from Nice to the friend abovementioned, dated January 30, 1786, he acquaints him with these circumstances, and fays, that he was five days at Marseilles and four at Toulon; and, as it was thought that he could not get out of France by land, he embarked in a Genoefe veffel, and was feveral days ftriving against wind and tide. They who at prefent conduct the government of France, will blush at the idea, that a Howard was obliged to conceal his name and purpose while carrying on in their country inquiries which had no other aim than the good of mankind! From Nice, Mr. Howard went to Genoa, Leghorn, and Naples, and to the islands of Malta and Zante. He then failed to Smyrna, and thence to Conftantinople.' He defigned to proceed from Conftantinople over land to Vienna; but having determined, upon reflection, to obtain by perfonal experience the fulleft information of the mode of performing quarantine, he returned to Smyrna, where the plague thenwas, for the purpofe of going to Venice with a foul bill, that would neceffarily fubject him to the utmoft rigour of the procefs. His voyage was tedious, and rendered hazardous by equinoctial storms; and in the courfe of it he incurred a danger of another kind, the fhip in which he was a paffenger being attacked by a Tunisian cor fair, which, after a fmart skirmish, was beaten off by the execution done by a cannon loaded with spike nails and bits of iron, and pointed by Mr. Howard himself. It afterwards appeared to have been the intention of the captain to blow up his veffel, rather than fubmit to be taken into perpetual flavery. It was not till the 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 utmost ease and condefcenfion on the part of Jofeph II. and equal freedom on the part of the Englishman. A relation of this inftructive fcene in his own words, will, I doubt not, be agreeable to the reader: "The Emperor defired 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 afterwards told our ambasfador, That his countryman fpoke well for prifoners; that he ufed no flowers, which others ever do, and mean nothing.' But his greatest favour to me was his immediate alterations for the relief of the prifoners." 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 those who are the feverest cenfurers of the mode in which he conducted his plans, and his extreme mutability refpe&ting them. He will also be honoured, for the readiness with which he laid afide the eti REV. JULY 1792. * Letter to Mr. Smith.' quette |