With these impressions, they had the boldness to declare, that if a committee could be found who would share the labour, and a matron who would engage never to leave the prison, day or night, they would undertake to try the experiment; that is, they would find employment for the women, procure the necessary money, till the city could be induced to relieve them from the expense, and be answerable for the safety of the property committed into the hands of the prisoners. This committee immediately presented itself; it consisted of the wife of a clergyman, and eleven members of the Society of Friends. They professed their willingness to suspend every other engagement and avocation, and to devote themselves to Newgate; and, in truth, they have performed their promise. With no interval of relaxation, and with but few intermissions from the call of other and more imperious duties, they have lived amongst the prisoners. At first, every day in the week, and every hour in the day, some of them were to be found at their post, joining in the employments, or engaged in the instruction of their pupils; and at this very period, when the necessity of such close attendance is much abated, the matron assures me, that, with only one short exception, she does not recollect the day on which some of the ladies have not visited the prison; that very often they have been with her by the time the prisoners were dressed; have spent the whole day with them, sharing her meals, or passing on without any; and have only left the school long after the close of day.' p. 121–125. Even this astonishing progress could not correct the infidelity of men of benevolence and knowledge of the world. The Reverend Ordinary, though filled with admiration for the exertions of this intrepid and devoted band, fairly told Mrs F. that her designs, like many others for the improvement of that wretched mansion, would inevitably fail. The Governor encouraged her to go on-but confessed to his friends, that he could not see even the possibility of her success. But the wisdom of this world is foolishness, and its fears but snares to entangle our feet in the career of our duty. Mrs F. saw with other eyes, and felt with another heart. She went again to the Sheriffs and the Governor;-near one hundred of the women were brought before them, and, with much solemnity and earnestness, engaged to give the strictest obedience to all the regulations of their heroic benefactress. A set of rules was accordingly promulgated, which we have not room here to transcribe; but they imported the sacrifice of all their darling and much cherished vices;-drinking, gaming, card-playing, novel reading, were entirely prohibited-and regular application to work engaged for in every quarter. For the space of one month these benevolent women laboured in private in the midst of their unhappy flock; at the end of that time they invited the Corporation of London to satisfy themselves, by inspection of the effect of their pious exertions. In compliance with this appointment, the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, and several of the Aldermen attended. The prisoners were assembled together; and it being requested that no alteration in their usual practice might take place, one of the ladies read a chapter in the Bible, and then the females proceeded to their various avocations. Their attention during the time of reading; their orderly and sober deportment, their decent dress, the absence of every thing like tumult, noise, or contention, the obedience, and the respect shown by them, and the cheerfulness visible in their countenances and manners, conspired to excite the astonishment and admiration of their visitors. Many of these knew Newgate, had visited it a few months before, and had not forgotten the painful impressions made by a scene, exhibiting, perhaps, the very utmost limits of misery and guilt.They now saw, what, without exaggeration, may be called a transformation. Riot, licentiousness, and filth, exchanged for order, sobriety, and comparative neatness in the chamber, the apparel, and the persons of the prisoners. They saw no more an assemblage of abandoned and shameless creatures, half naked and half drunk, rather demanding, than requesting charity. The prison no more resounded with obscenity, and imprecations, and licentious songs; and, to use the coarse, but the just, expression of one who knew the prison well," this hell upon earth" exhibited the appearance of an industrious manufactory, or a well regulated family. The magistrates, to evince their sense of the importance of the alterations which had been effected, immediately adopted the whole plan as a part of the system of Newgate, empowered the ladies to punish the refractory by short confinement, undertook part of the expense of the matron, and loaded the ladies with thanks and benedictions. p. 130, 131. We can add nothing to this touching and elevating statement. The story of a glorious victory gives us a less powerful or proud emotion-and thanks and benedictions appear to us never to have been so richly deserved. A year, says Mr B., has now elapsed since the operation in Newgate began; and those most competent to judge, the late Lord Mayor and the present, the late Sheriffs and the present, the late Governor and the present, various Grand Juries, the Chairman of the Police Committee, the Ordinary, and the officers of the prison, have all declared their satisfaction, mixed with astonishment, at the alteration which has taken place in the conduct of the females, It is true, and the Ladies' Committee are anxious that it should not be concealed, that some of the rules have been occasionally broken. Spirits, they fear, have more than once been introduced; and it was discovered at one period, when many of the ladies were absent, that card playing had been resumed. But, though truth compels them to acknowledge these deviations, they have been of a very limited extent. I could find but one lady who had heard an oath, and there had not been above half a dozen instances of intoxication; and the ladies feel justified in stating, that the rules have generally been observed. The ladies themselves have been treated with uniform respect and gratitude.' p. 132, 133. At the close of a Session, many of the reformed prisoners were dismissed, and many new ones were received-and, under their auspices, cardplaying was again introduced. One of the ladies went among them alone, and earnestly and affectionately explained to them the pernicious consequences of this practice; and represented to them how much she would be gratified, if, even from regard to her, they would agree to renounce it. Soon after she retired to the ladies' room, one of the prisoners came to her, and expressed, in a manner which indicated real feeling, her sorrow for having broken the rules of so kind a friend, and gave her a pack of cards: four others did the same. Having burnt the cards in their presence, she felt bound to renumerate them for their value, and to mark her sense of their ready obedience by some small present. A few days afterwards she called the first to her, and telling her intention, produced a neat muslin handkerchief. To her surprise, the girl looked disappointed; and, on being asked the reason, Confessed she had hoped that Mrs would have given her a Bible, with her own name written in it, which she should value beyond any thing else, and always keep and read. Such a request, made in such a manner, could not be refused; and the lady assures me, that she never gave a Bible in her life, which was received with so much interest and satisfaction, or one, which she thinks more likely to do good. It is remarkable, that this girl, from her conduct in her preceding prison, and in court, came to Newgate with the worst of characters. p. 134. The change, indeed, pervaded every department of the female division. Those who were marched off for transportation, instead of breaking the windows and furniture, and going off, according to immemorial usage, with drunken songs and intolerable disorder, took a serious and tender leave of their companions, and expressed the utmost gratitude to their benefactors, from whom they parted with tears. Stealing has also been entirely suppressed; and, while upwards of twenty thousand articles of dress have been manufactured, not one has been lost or purloined within the precincts of the prison. We have nothing more to say; and would not willingly weaken the effect of this impressive statement by any observations of ours. Let us hear no more of the difficulty of regulating provincial prisons, when the prostitute felons of London have been thus easily reformed and converted. Let us never again be told of the impossibility of repressing drunkenness and profligacy, or introducing habits of industry in small establishments, when this great crater of vice and corruption has been thus stilled and purified. And, above all, let there be an end of the pitiful apology of the want of funds, or means, or agents, to effect those easier improvements, when women from the middle ranks of life-when quiet unassuming matrons, unaccustomed to business, or to any but domestic exertion, have, without funds, without agents, without aid or encouragement of any description, trusted themselves within the very centre of infection and despair, and, by opening their hearts only, and not their purses, have effected, by the mere force of kindness, gentleness and compassion, a labour, the like to which does not remain to be performed, and which has smoothed the way and ensured success to all similar labours. We cannot envy the happiness which Mrs Fry must enjoy from the consciousness of her own great achievements;-but there is no happiness or honour of which we should be so proud to be partakers: And we seem to relieve our own hearts of their share of national gratitude, in thus placing on her simple and modest brow that truly Civic Crown, which far outshines the laurels of conquest, or the coronals of power-and can only be outshone itself by those wreaths of imperishable glory which await the champions of Faith and Charity in a higher state of existence. ART. X. The Speech of HENRY BROUGHAM Esq., M. P. in the 1818, on the Education of the Ridgeway, 1818. N OBODY can have forgotten the murmurs and dissonant clamours with which the first proposal for communicating the blessings of Education to the great body of the people was lately received. Already, however, that disgraceful opposition is extinct; and in no instance, perhaps, could a more remarkable proof be produced, of the present rapid progress of the public mind, than the short space of time which has sufficed to discredit the objections to which we have alluded ;—and that so completely, that Mr Brougham could say, with perfect truth, in the opening of the Speech before us, that the prejudices and fancies by which we were assured, that if we taught ploughmen and mechanics to read, they would disdain to work, have now entirely died away. During this and the two last sessions, in all the discussions that have taken place, both in the House, in the Committee, and in the Country, I have never heard a single whisper hostile to the universal diffusion of knowledge. Every thing like opposition to the measure itself, is anxiously disclaimed by all. The only question enter'tained is touching the best, that is, the surest and the most economical, method of carrying it into effect.' This, no doubt, is encouraging in the highest degree; and when so much has been so rapidly attained, we have good reason to conclude, that perseverance in the measures so happily begun, will, in no great time, be crowned with that success to which so many important consequences are indissolubly attached. It is necessary, however, for the security of this great object, that the eye of the public should be kept steadily on the whole progress of the measure-both that they may know by what steps it has been most effectually advanced, and by what lurking hostility its triumphs may still be retarded. In the Session of Parliament 1816, Mr Brougham began to mature the subject, by moving for a Committee to inquire into the state of education among the lower orders in the metropo→ lis. Already the progress of opinion was such, that the motion was not opposed: And Mr Brougham devoted to the inquiry so great a portion of his time and his thoughts, as called forth the applause even of ministers themselves, who, little as they might wish to strengthen the fame of a formidable antagonist, were yet compelled to honour exertions, of which they knew that the public estimation would be exceedingly high. The information obtained by the labours of this Committee, and printed by the House in a voluminous Report, is of the highest importance: and of this the public may judge, when they are told, that the great body of facts and experience which it displays, extends to the six following heads, on all of which they shed a strong and satisfactory light.-1. The number, or rather the proportion, of the children of the poor who remain uneducated, and destitute of the means of education: -2. The deplorable state in which the morals of these children are found, who are deprived of the means of education: 3. The admirable effects which education is found by experience to produce:-4. The circumstances, in the actual state of the country, which are favourable to education:-5. The circumstances, in the actual state of the country, which are unfavourable to education:-6. The methods which ought to be pursued for promoting education:-7. The funds, mostly of a charitable kind, which are now applicable to the purposes of education. In the last Session of Parliament, in 1818, the Education |