We

matter of surprise and regret that so transitory was the impression which the people themselves received. Their en thusiasm evaporated in vain eulogies of the man who endeavoured to do good; but by whom, without the co-operation of others, a little was all the good that could be done. The call for reform in the business of imprisonment, the universal call which seemed to come up from the whole nation, has not been persevered in; it has long been silenced, or heard so feebly as to have little effect, to give little uneasiness. Notwithstanding all the admiration which the conduct of Howard appeared to have raised, no one has been excited to travel in his steps. Yet the good which might have been done by a series of followers is incalculable. We mean not followers, to the heroic extent to which Howard carried his labours. mean not persons who would traverse the globe, to find out -the dungeoned sufferers of their species, and drag their miseries into light. We mean persons who would have confined their labours to their own country; who would have made it their business to look narrowly into the prisons of this kingdom, and to communicate the result of their observations to the public; to lay open abuses of all sorts and sizes, and suggest whatever they could imagine calculated to remedy them. This would have kept alive the virtuous ardour of the nation; would have rendered universal the knowledge of facts; and it is hard to say to how great a pitch of perfec tion, by this means alone, the state of our prisons might ere this time have been carried.

It is not easy to imagine, after the example was so illustriously set, what can be the reason, that so little has been done since the loss of Howard, to keep the state of the prisons exhibited to the eyes of the people; to make known whatsoever continues to be done that ought not to be, whatsoever continues still to be done that cries aloud for prevention. Many, we are certain, are the individuals in this nation, who possess the time and the means which Howard possessed, and who are full of philanthropy, full of the best dispositions towards their fellow-creatures. What is the reason that none of them comes forth to labour in this vineyard? Can they imagine that it stands no longer in need of labourers? The contrary, alas! is so notorious a truth, that not one of them can be ignorant of it. Manifold and heinous were the abuses, to speak of no other, which Howard brought to light. How feeble and thin are the instances of their eradication! The greater part of the stock of abuses, therefore, which he exhi

bited, still remain, and surely they cannot be too importunately addressed to public attention, till the pressure of public desire shall have operated to their entire removal.

Will it be thought too much, if we should call upon those individuals in the nation, numerous we are sure, who have leisure and means, and hearts to employ their leisure and means for the benefit of their fellow-creatures, to follow, though even to a small extent, the steps of Howard. If among the virtuous men whom the nation contains, some one in each county would but make it his business to look into the state and management of the places of confinement in his own county, and make yearly to the public a faithful report of what he saw and knew, there is no practicable state of perfection in the business of imprisonment at which we might not speedily arrive. The nation would know in that case what is good; they would know where the bad existed; and they would not rest satisfied till they knew the bad was removed, and the good established in its place.

One grand difficulty has hitherto existed in the way of this scheme of philanthropy. It was difficult, if not impossible, for disconnected individuals to give to their efforts an united effect. Scattered reports of the state of this prison, and that prison, published at different times, some in one newspaper, some in another, or some in this magazine, some in that magazine, would have stood but too great a chance of being slightly regarded amid a mass of casual matter; and soon forgot. Even such publications would not have been altoge ther without their use; but the facts, being exhibited in this scattered and mixed manner, must have been deprived of much of their natural power to make an impression on the human mind.

It has occurred to us that this obstacle, fatal to so impor tant an advantage in the cause of humanity, might be entirely removed by means of the PHILANTHROPIST. If it were possible to excite the public spirited and the benevolent indiyiduals, competent to the glorious work, in the different parts of the country, to inspect vigilantly the prisons in every county, and send us from time to time reports of the state of them, they could all find admittance into this Work, where they might be expected to produce a concentrated and powerful effect. It would be in our power to publish them not only regularly as they arrived; but at the end of each year, it should be our business to arrange and systematize the facts brought to light, and present a complete and general view of

the whole. Collections might even be made of these reports at different times; they might be printed separately; and circulated for as wide a diffusion of knowledge as possible. In this manner would the good work of Howard be carried on, would be prevented from slackening its pace, still more from stopping its course; it would be carried on in the very manner in which he carried it on; viz. by personal inspection of the prisons, and by publishing to the world the results of the inspection. It would, thus, be impossible for abuse to lurk any where unseen; and being clearly seen and habitually looked at, it would be equally impossible for it long to preserve its odious existence.

To operate, in this manner, by means of the press, upon the good dispositions of the people, is not only one of the most effectual operations for moulding into the requisite shape the dispositions of the men who have the requisite power; but supposing them to have already the disposition desired, it is difficult to conceive how much the activity and freedom of the press strengthens the hands of a good minister. It is well known how much more difficult it often is for a minister

to carry a good measure than a bad one. It is almost always easier for him to plunge the nation into the most unnecessary and ruinous war than to abolish a sinecure. The reason is, because the mass of powerful individuals gain by the one and lose by the other.

Considering the obstacles which, in this manner, stand in the way of almost every ameliorating measure which a patriotic minister can attempt; considering the resistance which he is sure to experience, and the enmities which he is sure to create, it is unspeakable what assistance he derives from the efforts of a free press, which may have laid naked to the eyes of the people the abuses which it is the intention of his measures to remove, and created a demand for that removal which may brand with more or less of infamy the interested individuals who would oppose it, and would sacrifice the good of the nation to their own private purposes. A free and active press is thus the friend, the grand auxiliary, the forerunner, and the support of a good minister, as it is the scourge and the bane of a bad one. By proceeding in the manner which we have just now pointed out, a small number of individuals have it in their power to render, at no distant day, the grand measure, of a thorough reformation of imprisonment, easy for a good minister, and difficult to be avoided by a bad

one.

In further pursuance of this design, it is our intention, in some pages of the present and succeeding numbers, to renew the memory of what was done by Howard; in the hopes of renewing some of that enthusiasm, which the thought of his philanthropic exertions used to excite, and of renewing in other hands some of those exertions which, had he lived, he would have never ceased to make. Had he lived, the work of reform in the business of imprisonment would not have gone on so slowly, as unhappily it has been seen to do.

In performing this task we have the permission of Dr. Aiken, the respectable biographer and friend of Mr. Howard, to avail ourselves in any manner we think proper, of what he has already performed in the account which he has rendered of the life of Howard; and of this indulgence we shall avail ourselves amply.

The common facts belonging to the biography of Howard, have been so often published, and are so universally known, that a mere recapitulation of them is all that we shall deem

necessary.

He was born about the year 1727.

Perfect exactness on this point, his biographer was not able to attain.

He was born in that rank of life, in which the men most able and willing to benefit their species are usually born, the middle rank; and in that portion of it which borders rather on the inferior than the superior rank. His father was a London tradesman; an upholsterer and carpet warehouseman, in Long-lane, Smithfield. In this occupation he acquired wealth, and after providing for a daughter, left more than a moderate fortune to his only son.

The education of Mr. Howard was not fortunate, Dr. Aiken informs us, that

"As Mr. Howard's father was a strict protestant dissenter, it was natural for him to educate his son under a preceptor of the same principles. But his choice for this purpose was the source of a lasting misfortune, which, as it has been too frequent an occurrence, deserves particular notice. There was at that time a school-master at some distance from London, who, in consequence of his moral and religious character, had been intrusted with the education of the children of most of the opulent dissenters in the metropolis, though extremely deficient in the qualifications requisite for such an office.* That persons whose own education and habits of life have rendered them very inadequate judges of the talents necessary for an instructor of youth, should easily fall into this error, is not to be wondered at; but the evil is a real one, though its cause be excusable; and, as small

* I find it asserted in some memoirs of Mr. Howard in the Universal Magazine, that this person (whose name is there mentioned) was a man of considerable learning, and author of a translation of the New Testament and of a Latin grammar. Without inquiring how far this may set aside the charge of his being deficient as an instructor, I think it proper to say, that my only foundation for that charge is Mr. Howard's own authority.

communities with strong party attachments are peculiarly liable to this misplaced confidence, it is right that they should in a particular manner be put on their guard against it. They who know the dissenters will acknowledge, that none appear more sensible of the importance of a good education, or less sparing in their endeavours to procure it for their children; nor, upon the whole, can it be said that they are unsuccessful in their attempts. Indeed, the very confined system of instruction adopted in the public schools of this kingdom, renders it no difficult task to vie with them in the attainment of objects of real utility. But if it be made a leading purpose to train up youth in a certain set of opinions, and for this end it be thought essential that the master should be exclusively chosen from among those who are the most closely attached to them, it is obvious that a small community must lie under great comparative disadvantages,

"The event with respect to Mr. Howard was (as he has assured me, with greater indignation than I have heard him express upon many subjects,) that, after a continuance of seven years at this school, he left it not fully taught any one thing. The loss of this period was irreparable; he felt it all his life after, and it was but too obvious to those who conversed with him. From this school he was removed to Mr. Eames's academy; but his continuance there must, I conceive, have been of short duration; and, whatever might be his acquisitions in that place, he certainly did not supply the deficiencies of his earlier education. As some of the accounts published concerning him, might inculcate the idea that he had attained considerable proficiency in letters, I feel myself obliged, from my own knowledge, to assert, that he was never able to speak or write his native language with grammatical correctness, and that his acquaintance with other languages (the French, perhaps, excepted) was slight and superficial. In estimating the powers of his mind, it rather adds to the account, that he had this additional difficulty to combat in his pursuit 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, considerable fortunes. He directed in his will, that bis son should not come to the possession of his property till his twenty-fifth year.

"It was, probably, in consequence of the father's direction that he was bound apprentice to a wholesale grocer in the city. This will appear a singular step in the education of a young man of fortune; but, at that period, inuring youth to habits of method and industry, and giving them a prudent regard to money, with a knowledge of the modes of employing it to advantage, were by many con sidered as the most important points in every condition of life. Mr. Howard was probably indebted to this part of his education for some of that spirit of order, and knowledge of common affairs, which he possessed; but he did not in this situation contract any of that love of aggrandisement which is the basis of all commercial exertions; and so irksome was the employment to him, that, on coming of age, he bought out the remainder of his time, and immediately set out on his travels to France and Italy."

We must

On this important passage in the life of Mr. Howard, a crowd of interesting reflections press upon us. confine ourselves, however, to a very limited number,

In the first place, how cheering is the consideration that the business of education has improved so rapidly during the short period which has elapsed since the time of the educa tion of Howard! At this period, in its best state, it was not, it seems, among the dissenters, competent to train ordinary pupils even to speak and write their own language with