reader is therefore pressed on to the year 1765, when Mrs. Howard died during her accouchment with an only son; for from this period her widower became publicly devoted to beneficence. Changing his abode again, he bought an estate at Cardington, near Bedford,, and determined to fix himself in that neighbourhood for the future. His new purchase, of course, now occupied much of his time; the patronage of a landlord gave fuller scope and greater weight to the virtues of his disposition, and he was soon looked up to with feelings of extraordinary regard. He gave employment to a number of the poor, he built houses, and apportioned strips of land, to provide a refuge and a support for the old, the infirm, or the destitute; he always distinguished the industrious, and systematically preferred the sober; and by degrees became a moral censor of his estate.

In the year 1773, he was pricked High Sheriff for the county, an office which, to borrow his own words, 'brought the distress of prisoners more immediately under his notice.' Numberless abuses of their condition and egregious evils in the economy of the jail staggered his progress, and burthened the discharge of his duties: he felt the necessity of improvement, but he was utterly ignorant of a remedy, and therefore wisely undertook to explore the matter fundamentally. He set out upon one journey to visit all the county jails of England; he returned to his seat, and condensed his information; he entered upon a second circuit, to inspect all the town prisons throughout the country, returned, and again arranged his matter with a diligence so active as to be able to lay before the House of Commons, during the session of 1774, a body of facts, and a volume of knowledge, such as had never before been presented at the bar. He was examined in support of his representations, and after receiving a vote of thanks for his exemplary exertions, had the greater satisfaction of seeing them triumph in two Bills; the one "for the relief of prisoners in matters of fees," and the other "for preserving the health of prisoners." These he printed at his own expense; and, the better to insure attention to their provisions, circulated gratuitous copies of them amongst all the jailors in the kingdom.

It was also during this year that he joined Mr. Whitbread, his friend, relation, and neighbour in the county, as a candidate for the representation of the borough of Bedford in Parliament.

Bred amongst the dissenters, and always conforming to their communion, he was upon this occasion put forward mainly upon their interest. After a sharp contest, Messrs. Whitbread and Howard were ejected; they petitioned against the return, and obtained a scrutiny, by the effect of which Mr. Whitbread was declared duly elected, but Mr. Howard confirmed in his minority. This failure may be regretted, for the presence of such a man in Parliament must at all times be considered valuable, and could not have failed to be essentially beneficial at a conjuncture, when measures were in agitation, of which it is not merely to be said that they originated solely from him, but that all others derived their only information respecting them from his reports.

All that is gratulatory in applause, or inciting in praise, now concurred to embolden Mr. Howard in the prosecution of his liberal designs. It may be, that virtue so disinterested as his was, and energies so particular, stood in little need of those popular consolations by which other cares are soothed, and the bulk of all great labours are rewarded; but who is there with mortal feelings, who will not tread more buoyantly while the eyes of a favouring multitude attend his motions, and advance more confidently while the echoes of admiration cheer his prosperous footsteps? The higher the tributes lavished upon the merits of his exertions, the deeper he studied to render those exertions salutary. Not content with what he had done at home, he extended his investigations abroad, and made a discriminating tour on the Continent, to explore fresh receptacles of wretchedness and crime. The result of these complicated inquiries was the publication of his "State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with preliminary observations; and an account of some Foreign Prisons." This work was first published in 1777, and it produced all the astonishment which a volume of such uncommon detail was calculated to awaken. The misery of prisoners, the insensibility of jailors, the negligence of magistrates, all the arts of petty tyrants, and the cruelties of brief authority, were here set forth with a real strength, and corroborated by an aggregate of facts, such as had never before been exercised to move the pity or exasperate the abhorrence of mankind. Nor can the effect, however enthusiastic, be now considered extravagant. This was an unprecedented mass of

the most important knowledge, accumulated by a private individual, gathered through a pilgrimage of prodigious labours, and attained at the constant danger of infection and frequent risk of his liberty and life. As the motives which actuated him were voluntary, so were the ends he proposed gratuitous: he did not seek, he did not, he could not, expect title or remuneration - for his trouble or expenditure; 'the direct objects of his charity could only return a blessing for the good he bestowed upon them, and he never once accustomed himself to mix in the circle where services are vainly measured by a ribbon, and talents inaptly gauged by the points of a coronet.

This unabated zeal was again seconded by the Parliament; a Bill was passed for the institution of houses of correction according to plans suggested by Mr. Howard, and he immediately set forth on a journey to inspect the hospitals and bridewells, as well on the Continent as throughout the United Kingdom. He took notes of the regulations, and obtained draughts of the structure, of every establishment which présented any marked promises of utility; and was thus enabled to publish a valuable appendix to his great work during the year 1780. About the same period he became one of three supervisors for the foundation of penitentiaries; but some differences occurred respecting the construction of the very first building that was determined upon, and he resigned the office before a year had expired.

This partial disappointment, however, occasioned no relaxation of his humane efforts; indeed, he appears to have been a man incapable of repose while his mind suggested an end which could interest or promote the cause he had espoused. The investigations to which he latterly devoted his time, had induced him to remark the nature and progress of contagious disorders in hospitals, prisons, &c. &c., and he now turned his inquiries to discover a preventive treatment for the plague. Such were the bold intentions with which he resolved to examine all the lazarettos of Europe. Unwilling to involve a second life in the dangers of this pilgrimage, he travelled alone through the sea-ports of France, Italy, and Zante, and sojourned at Smyrna and Constantinople. Hearing that a new infection had broken out in Smyrna, he repaired there a second time; and, after observing the ravages of the disorder, proceeded to Venice with a foul bill,"

that he might become personally conversant with the treatment to which patients were subjected in the lazarettos of that celebrated city.

Such an unwearied spirit of enterprise, and so intense a heroism in suffering, roused the most vivid feelings of admiration throughout all Europe. At home, subscriptions for a public monument to perpetuate his name were proposed, and liberally tendered, but the entreaties of his own modesty intercepted the fulfilment of the honour. "Have I not one friend in England,' he asked, 'who would save me from the pain of such a proceeding?' The design was therefore deferentially abandoned, but the money collected was laid at his own disposal for charitable purposes.

announcement.

Returning home soon after, he devoted two more years to ascertain the extent of improvement which had taken place in the various prisons, bridewells, hospitals, hulks, &c. &c., throughout the kingdom. The first part of the year 1789 he spent in methodising and printing his "Account of the principal lazarettos in Europe, with various papers relative to the plague, and further observations on prisons and hospitals." In this volume he communicated an intention of again leaving his country, for the purpose of revisiting Russia and Turkey; and, as soon as the contents were laid before the public, he proceeded to fulfil the As this was his last voyage, the view which he took of it himself may not prove uninteresting to the reader, for whom his words are here extracted. "I am not insensible," he observed, "of the dangers that must attend such a journey. Trusting, however, in the protection of that kind Providence which has hitherto preserved me, I calmly and cheerfully commit myself to the disposal of unerring wisdom. Should it please God 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 and 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 narrow circle of retired life."

If we connect the solemnity of this passage, with the fatality that ensued, we shall feel almost justified in asserting that a presentiment of the future was impressed upon his mind when he

wrote it. For the result he looked forward to with so much solicitude, speedily took place. Prompted by that benevolence which always urged him into the most hazardous extremes, he penetrated as far as Cherson, a new settlement in Russia, which had proved fatal to thousands. At this remote spot, he engaged, with the activity of youth, in a series of experiments to counteract the insalubrity which afflicted the inhabitants; and amongst others, was induced to visit a young lady, who lay ill of an epidemic fever. But in his endeavours to recover her, he caught the distemper himself, and, after years of exposure, fell a martyr to his own humanity. Prince Potemkin, the favourite minister of the great Catherine, no sooner heard of his indisposition, than he despatched his private physician to his relief. All attentions, however, proved vain; the measure of his labours was numbered ; and he expired on the twelfth day of his confinement. His body was interred in the garden of a French gentleman in the neighbourhood, and the grateful admiration of the Russian empire has since honoured the spot with a handsome tomb. In England, the event was announced in the Gazette, a compliment which had never before been conferred on a private individual; and all ranks concurred in sincere expressions of regard for the memory of a man, who, in the most essential points, usurps the praise of having been an ornament to human nature.

John Howard, the philanthropist, was unquestionably one of the most extraordinary characters who figure upon the voluminous pages of universal biography. He travelled thrice throughFrance, four times through Germany, five times through Holland, twice through Italy, once through Spain and Portugal, and paid different visits to Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and Turkey. The cause of humanity has certainly been more benefited by others, and at greater sacrifices, but never upon terms more surprising, or a dearer price. He was admirably fitted for his labours; never indulging in the use of spirituous liquors, sparingly conversant with social pleasures, and ever habituated to a system of rigorous temperance, he lived in the poorest countries with content, and passed through the most necessitous emergencies without irksomeness. With him the mind With him the mind appears to have ever been absolute master of the body, and thus he submitted to all hardships with alacrity, and underwent every mortification without