who, in an evil hour, yielding to temptation, had forged a bond in the name of his pupil, the young Earl of Chesterfield, hoping that he might be able to repay its amount before it could be detected. On these occasions it was not unusual to find a strange kind of merriment, blended with the horror. Thus, the hangman's noose was sometimes designated as a "Tyburn Tippet," and the hangman himself, whatever his name might be, was always called "Jack Ketch," from the name of his predecessor in the days of James the Second. Jests flew from mouth to mouth, which it was said had been uttered by the criminals at the point of execution; and other still less pardonable jests proceeded from by-standers. Moreover, some men of fashion in that age, as George Selwyn, and George James, or, as he was called, "Gilly," Williams, had a morbid pleasure in witnessing these melancholy scenes. It appears that whenever Selwyn could not himself attend an execution, he desired to receive a minute account of it from one of the eye-witnesses.* On other

occasions also, as was well known to his friends, he took a strange delight in gazing upon corpses. The first Lord Holland, when upon his death-bed, said to his ser-. vant: "Next time Mr. Selwyn calls, by all means show ❝ him up. If I am alive, I shall be glad to see him, and "if I am dead, he will be glad to see me!"

In the eighteenth century, as in the darker ages, objects of horror were displayed without scruple to the public gaze. It is well known how, in 1746, the heads of the rebel chiefs were affixed on Temple Bar. At that period, Horace Walpole, as he passed under the new "heads," saw "people make a trade of letting spying"glasses at a halfpenny a look!" But on other occasions also, and for other motives, there was a like exhibition to the passers by. Thus, in the case of the murder of John Hayes, in 1726, the head of the murdered man who was then unknown was set forth upon a pole in the church

*See, for instance, Dr. Dodd's execution described by Mr. A. Storer in Selwyn's Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 197. as edited by Mr. Jesse.

† To George Montagu, August 16. 1746. This was before the execution of Lords Balmerino, Kilmarnock, &c.

LIFE AND MANNERS.] JOHN HOWARD.

341

yard of St. Margaret's, Westminster, in hopes that the features might be recognised by some of the spectators, and that by these means a discovery might be made.* The pillory also- a most unjustifiable form of punishment, because not wholly judicial, and since the populace were allowed to take part in it by pelting - continued all through that century, and was undergone by such men as De Foe.

In that century the Prisons of Great Britain were teeming with frightful abuses. The popular suspicion or belief of such may be traced through the satires of the previous age.† In 1729, as I have elsewhere shown, there had been an inquiry by the House of Commons, so far, at least, as London was concerned. But the Committee which then pursued its investigation and presented its Reports served mainly to disclose the evil, and did little to afford a remedy. Thus did both cruelty and peculation continue well nigh uncontrolled till the appearance of John Howard. That remarkable man belonged to the sect of English Dissenters called the Independents. It is supposed rather than known that he was born at Hackney in 1726. Of feeble health and wounded affections-for he was twice a widower before he was forty years of age he had retired to his small patrimony of Cardington, near Bedford. No man was ever less ambitious of fame or seemed less likely to attain it. Besides some slight contributions to the Royal Society on the science of meteorology, and unwearied contributions of another kind to the neighbouring poor, he lived in close retirement. He read his Bible, and he noted his thermometer, and he desired only to pursue the even tenor of his way. But, as it chanced, he was named, in 1773, High Sheriff of his county. As such he was determined to fulfil his appointed duties. As such he

* See the "Tyburn Chronicle," vol. ii. p. 265., as published in 1768.

† Swift's description of the "Morning," written in 1709, has the following lines :

66

66

'The turnkey now his flock returning sees,

Duly let out a nights to steal for fees."

Works, vol. xiv. p. 94. ed. 1814.

See vol. ii. p. 150.

listened attentively to the trials of the prisoners in court; and inspected with the utmost care every part of the county gaol. Its walls were already dignified with the long captivity of Bunyan. And thus from that obscure and petty prison of Bedford- as one of the biographers of Howard has well observed-proceeded two of the noblest and most precious works of man - Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and Howard's labour of charity and love.*

The circumstance that first gave rise to Howard's zeal on behalf of prisoners, was his seeing many who being declared Not Guilty after months perhaps of confinement were dragged back to prison, and locked up again until they should pay their appointed fees to the gaoler. Howard applied to his brother magistrates that the gaoler might henceforth be remunerated by a salary instead of fees. The Bench saw the grievous hardship, and were willing to grant the relief desired. But they wanted a precedent for charging the county with the expense. Forthwith did the High Sheriff mount his horse and ride through the neighbouring counties in search of precedents. But he soon learned that the same injustice was practised in them; and looking into their prisons he beheld scenes of calamity which he grew daily more and more anxious to relieve.

From that hour the zeal of Howard never slackened. In the fine language of the Psalmist, his heart yearned to such as sit in darkness and the shadow of death, being fast bound in misery and iron. Before the close of 1774 he had visited almost every prison-house in England. In almost all he found grievous though varying faults of management; and in some it may be said no management at all. Three from the many scores of his reports must here suffice as samples of the rest. And first as to the Plymouth Town-Gaol: :- "There are three rooms "for felons; the one about five feet and a half high, with 66 a wicket in the door seven inches by five, to admit light "and air. To this, as I was informed, three men who 66 were confined near two months under sentence of trans"portation, came by turns for breath. The door had not

* Life by Hepworth Dixon, p. 140.

LIFE AND MANNERS.]

COUNTY GAOLS.

343

"been opened for five weeks when I with difficulty "entered to see a pale inhabitant. He had been there "ten weeks under sentence of transportation, and said he "had much rather have been hanged than confined in "that noisome cell. The whole is dirty and has "not been white-washed for many years. No court, no "water. The gaolers live distant; they are the three sergeants at Mace."

66

66

Come we next to the County Gaol at Salisbury: "Just outside the prison-gate was a round staple fixed "in the wall; through it was put a chain, at each end of "which a common-side debtor padlocked by the leg stood offering to those who pass by nets, laces, purses, and so "forth made in the prison. At Christmas felons chained together are permitted to go about; one of them carry"ing a sack or basket for food: another a box for money. "207. a year of the Chaplain's salary (which in all is 401.) "is paid by Lord Weymouth by a bequest of Thomas Thynne, Esq. Lord Pembroke pays a legacy of 51. a year out of the manor of Swallow Cliff in this county; part to the Chaplain himself, namely a guinea for a "hat; the remainder to be by him distributed among the "prisoners."

66

66

66

Gloucester Castle may stand last. Here the nightroom (or main) for men felons, though up a number of steps, was found to be close and dark, and the floor so ruinous that it could not be washed. Only one sewer and no bath. The gaol-fever always prevalent and often mortal. No separation enforced between the sexes; giving rise to much licentious intercourse and to many illegitimate children born within the gaol. The keeper had no salary the debtors no allowance of food. The first lived on extortion and the latter on charity. Yet amidst all these flagitious abuses of Gloucester Castle it is pleasing here again to trace the benevolent hand of the founder of Sunday Schools. Thus continues Howard: "In September the felons were very pitiable objects "indeed; half-naked and almost famished. But in "December their appearance was much altered. Mr. "Raikes and other gentlemen took pity on them, and "generously contributed towards the feeding and clothing

"them. Mr. Raikes continues his unremitting attention "to the prisoners.” *

The exertions of Howard were not long in bearing their good fruit. Early in 1774, he was examined at the Bar of the House of Commons, and received the thanks of the House for his "interesting observations." Before the close of that Session, two Bills were passed for the better regulation of prisons. By the first—which Mr. Popham, member for Taunton, had introduced in the preceding Session, but then without success the fees of gaolers were abolished, and a fixed remuneration was assigned them payable from the County rates. By the second, the Justices were authorised and required to provide for the white-washing and cleansing of prisons, the establishment of infirmaries, and the proper care of prisoners.

The object that gave Howard his first impulse was now fulfilled. But his labours had meanwhile assumed a

wider scope, a more universal design. In the first place, he determined to revisit the gaols which he had already examined, in order to satisfy himself that the new Acts were duly and fairly enforced. Next, in his zeal for a much larger measure of improvement, he not only completed his examination of the gaols in the remaining English shires, but journeyed, on the same benevolent errand, through Scotland, through Ireland, and through most other European countries. In 1777, by which time he had travelled upwards of thirteen thousand miles, he published his great work "On Prisons." In this he gave not merely the results of his experience a vast mass of observations in divers places - but also the general rules and principles which he had deduced from them. It is not too much to say, that this work has formed the textbook of all subsequent writers on the subject. It is not too much to say, that as Adam Smith was the true founder of Political Economy, so was his contemporary Howard the true founder of Prison Discipline.

In the years that followed his first publications, Howard was far from relaxing in his labours. He continued his vigilant inspection both of dungeons and hospitals, both at home and abroad; and in 1789, he

*See Howard's State of Prisons, pp. 363. 376. 389. ed. 1784.