CHAPTER XIV.

HIS LAST JOURNEY.

1789, 1790.

OWARD determined on another expedition

H to foreign fields. His object—not definitely

indicated by himself, but guessed at by intimate friends-seems to have been to explore regions entirely new to him, such as Asiatic Turkey, the land of Egypt, and the coasts of Barbary; and also, by retraversing old ground, to detect aspects of things he had before overlooked, and to gather fresh material for enforcing lessons of improvement. “If to these motives be added the long-formed habitude of pursuing a certain track of inquiry, and an inquietude of mind proceeding from domestic misfortune, no cause will be left to wonder at so speedy a renewal of his toils and dangers."1

It is sometimes given to the children of mortality to detect in the distance a gathering of the death cloud. The dark shadow is discerned moving across the landscape. Howard was one in whom this presentiment was strong. Even in his second book on prisons, when announcing his intention to revisit. Russia and other countries, he remarked he was not

1 Aiken, p. 184.

insensible of the dangers attending the journey, yet he could calmly resign himself to the disposal of unerring Wisdom. "Should it please God," he went on to say, “to cut off my life in the prosecution of this design, let not my conduct be uncandidly imputed to rashness or enthusiasm, but to a serious, deliberate conviction that I am pursuing the path of duty, and to a sincere desire of being made an instrument of more extensive usefulness to my fellow-creatures than could be expected in the narrower circle of a retired life."

The apprehension which he publicly avowed was privately expressed in more touching tones. To one he said, "If we never meet each other more below, I trust we shall meet in heaven";-to another, "You will probably never see me again, but be that as it may, it is a matter of no concern to me whether I lay down my life in Turkey, in Egypt, in Asia Minor, or elsewhere";-to a third, "We shall soon meet in heaven, and the way to heaven from Grand Cairo is as near as from London";-to a fourth, "I am going a very arduous journey. Probably, my friend, we shall never meet any more in this world; but it is the path of duty; and with respect to myself, I am quite resigned to the will of God." It is remarkable that amongst the countries where he anticipated danger, it does not appear that he mentioned Russia.

Before his departure, he made a will specifying certain characteristic bequests. A considerable part of his property, after providing for his son, he left to the poor. It included a donation of five pounds each to ten Cardington cottagers who had not been in an alehouse for twelve months preceding his death; a

like donation to ten poor families who had been most constant in attending Divine worship during the same period; and fifty pounds to the poor of the parish "where he married his last invaluable wife." His servants were all remembered. His body was to be buried wherever he died, and the cost of the funeral was not to exceed ten or fifteen guineas. By a codicil he directed five hundred pounds to be applied for alleviating the miseries of public prisons.1

He gave directions to his friend and pastor, Mr. Smith, as to the text from which he was to preach a funeral sermon, in case of the journey proving fatal. The text is the last verse of the seventeenth psalm. "That text," said he, "is the most appropriate to my feelings of any I know, for I can indeed join with the Psalmist in saying, 'As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.' At the same time he laid a strong embargo on any attempt to hold him up to the admiration of survivors."

There were many leave-takings on the eve of this last journey. Among the letters of Ridley, the martyr, is one written on the eve of his fiery trial, in which he reviews scenes and companions much endeared,

1 "When Mr. Howard was making his will, and had named all his relations, his legal adviser said to him,' Whose name shall we add as your heir, in case all these should die?' Mr. Howard replied, turning to Mr. Whitbread, who had entered the room, 'My friend here; I will leave it to his second son.' Mr. Howard's relations died, and my father, Samuel Charles Whitbread, the second surviving son, inherited Mr. Howard's property at Cardington." I give this interesting anecdote as communicated to me by Miss Whitbread, who resides in the Cardington House.

and by name bids farewell to each. It is unutterably solemn this shaking hands with old friends, and especially with Time itself, the oldest of all, under the shadow of the eternal doorway. Howard seems to have gone about in a very tender, subdued spirit, bidding good-bye to one after another, especially the members of the Whitbread family. He had a loving interview with Mr. Smith, in which he commended to him the oversight of the Cardington schools. The last night he walked round the dear old garden, with Joshua Crockford, and took a parting look at the firs planted by Henrietta, thinking that now at last everything had been arranged as she would have liked. He called at John Prole's cottage and gave the good wife two relics—her lady's miniature, and a little tea-caddy. Such treasures were carefully preserved, and more than sixty years afterwards were publicly exhibited at Bedford in Howard's Chapel, as the meeting-house where he worshipped came to be called. Mention was made of an ivory thimble which Howard had carved in early days and given to Henrietta before her marriage, being found in a work-box after her death. It was bestowed on her

lady's-maid as an heirloom. It remained in the possession of the Prole family.

Howard set out on horseback for London accompanied by the faithful old servant, to whose dame, already enriched with presents, the master gave a guinea in compensation, as he said, for her husband's loss of time. So he rode away-for ever. Arrived

in London, he sent back his trusty domestic, saying, "John, these two horses are yours when you get home"; and to this gift he added a large parcel of

tea and sugar for his wife, who was a favourite with Howard as she had been with his wife.

It is a great mystery,-after reading the accounts by Howard's biographers of Thomasson having been the ruin of the son,-to find in the will, made when all the mischief had been done, and within a year of Howard's death, this same Thomasson named as an annuitant of ten pounds for life. It is even still more strange, to find this man accompanying his master in the last journey abroad, and attending him in his dying moments, apparently without having forfeited his confidence. It would seem, from these circumstances, that the father could not have believed reports about him circulated by fellow-servants and other persons; but the puzzle involved in the affair no one has explained, and we must leave it as it is, amongst the hidden things of this world.

It is, however, to be remembered, that the evidence against Thomasson rested on incidents of misbehaviour and treachery of which his master had no personal cognisance, that Thomasson, before his misconduct, had been a favourite servant, possessed of his master's confidence, that, afterwards, when suspected by people about him, he would cunningly do all he could to retain his master's good-will, that the testimony of other servants against him might be put down to the account of either prejudice or jealousy, and finally, that there was this peculiarity in Howard—he had a high opinion of his own judgment, paid little attention to what other people said, if he did not like it, and made up his mind upon what he saw, or could ascertain by personal investigations.