inasmuch as the work spread among all classes of society. Various
opinions were passed upon her, and on one occasion a serious
misunderstanding with Lord Sidmouth, respecting a case of capital
punishment, severely tried her constancy. Some carping critics found
fault, others were envious, others censorious and shallow; but neither
good report nor evil report moved her very greatly, although possibly at
times they were the subject of much inward struggle.

This question of Prison Reform at last reached Parliament. In June,
1818, the Marquis of Lansdowne moved an address to the Prince Regent,
asking an inquiry into the state of the prisons of the United Kingdom.
He made a remarkable speech, quoting facts relating to the miseries of
the jails, and concluded with a high eulogium on Mrs. Fry's labors among
the criminals of Newgate, giving her the title "Genius of Good." This
step drew public attention still more to the matter and prison-visiting
and prison reform became the order of the day. As public attention had
been aroused, and public sympathy had been gained for the cause, it is
not wonderful that beneficial legislative measures were at last carried.

Meanwhile the ladies continued their good work. It was one of the
cardinal points of their creed, that it was not good for the criminals
to have much intercourse with their friends outside. In past times
unlimited beer had been carried into Newgate; at least the quantity so
disposed of was only limited by the amount of ready cash or credit at
the disposal of the criminals and their friends. This had been stopped
with the happiest results, and now it seemed time to adopt some measures
which should secure some little additional comfort for the prisoners. In
order to effect this a sub-matron, or gate-keeper, was engaged, who
assisted in the duties at the lodge, and kept a small shop "between
gates," where tea, sugar, and other little comforts could be purchased
by the prisoners out of their prison earnings. This step was a
successful one, for with the decrease of temptation from without, came
an increase of comfort from within, provided they earned money and
obeyed rules. Plenty of work could be done, seeing that they all
required more or less clothing, while Botany Bay could take any number
of garments to be utilized for the members of the penal settlement
there.

Two months after Lord Lansdowne's motion was made in Parliament, Mrs.
Fry, together with Joseph John Gurney, his wife, and her own daughter,
Rachel, went into Scotland on a religious and philanthropic tour. The
chief object of this journey seems to have been the visitation of
Friends' Meetings in that part of the kingdom; but the prison enterprise
was by no means forgotten. In her journal she records visits to meetings
of Friends held at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Knowsley.
At the latter place they were guests of the Earl of Derby, and much
enjoyed the palatial hospitality which greeted them. They made a point
of visiting most of the jails and bridewells in the towns through which
they passed, finding in some of them horrors far surpassing anything
that Newgate could have shown them even in its unreformed days. At
Haddington four cells, allotted to prisoners of the tramp and criminal
class, were "very dark, excessively dirty, had clay floors, no
fire-places, straw in one corner for a bed, and in each of them a tub,
the receptacle for all filth." Iron bars were used upon the prisoners so
as to become instruments of torture. In one cell was a poor young man
who was a lunatic--whence nobody knew. He had been subject to the misery
and torture of Haddington jail for eighteen months, without once leaving
his cell for an airing. No clothes were allowed, no medical man attended
those who were incarcerated, and a chaplain never entered there, while
the prison itself was destitute of any airing-yard. The poor debtors,
whether they were few or many, were all confined in one small cell not
nine feet square, where one little bed served for all.

At Kinghorn, Fifeshire, a young laird had languished in a state of
madness for six years in the prison there, and had at last committed
suicide. Poor deranged human nature flew to death as a remedy against
torture. At Forfar, prisoners were chained to the bedstead; at Berwick,
to the walls of their cells; and at Newcastle to a ring in the floor.
The two most objectionable features in Scotch prisons, as appears from
Mr. Gurney's "Notes" of this tour, were the treatment of debtors, and
the cruelties used to lunatics. Both these classes of individuals were
confined as criminals, and treated with the utmost cruelty.

According to Scotch law, the jailer and magistrates who committed the
debtor became responsible for the debt, supposing the prisoner to have
effected his escape. Self-interest, therefore, prompted the adoption of
cruel measures to ensure the detention of the unfortunate debtor; while
helpless lunatics were wholly at the mercy of brutalized keepers who
were responsible to hardly any tribunal. Of the horrors of that dark,
terrible time within those prison-walls, few records appear; few cared
to probe the evil, or to propose a remedy. The archives of Eternity
alone contain the captive's cries, and the lamentations of tortured
lunatics. Only one Eye penetrated the dungeons; one Ear heard. Was not
Elizabeth Fry and her coadjutors doing a god-like work? And when she
raised the clarion cry that _Reformation_, not _Revenge_, was the object
of punishment, she shook these old castles of Giant Despair to their
foundations.




CHAPTER VIII.

THE GALLOWS AND ENGLISH LAWS.


About this period the subject of Capital Punishment largely attracted
Mrs. Fry's attention. The attitude of Quakers generally towards the
punishment of death, except for murder in the highest degree, was
hostile; but Mrs. Fry's constant intercourse with inmates in the
condemned cell fixed her attention in a very painful manner upon the
subject. For venial crimes, men and women, clinging fondly to life, were
swung off into eternity; and neither the white lips of the
philanthropist, nor the official ones of the appointed chaplain, could
comfort the dying. Among these dying ones were many women, who were
executed for simply passing forged Bank of England notes; but as the
bank had plenary powers to arrange to screen certain persons who were
not to die, these were allowed to get off with a lighter punishment by
pleading "Guilty to the minor count." The condemned cell was never,
however, without its occupant, nor the gallows destitute of its prey. So
Draconian were the laws of humane and Christian England, at this date,
that had they been strictly carried out, at least four executions daily,
exclusive of Sundays, would have taken place in this realm.

According to Hepworth Dixon, and contemporary authorities, the
sanguinary measures of the English Government for the punishment of
crimes dated from about the time of the Jacobite rebellion, in 1745.
Prior to that time, adventurers of every grade, the idle, vicious, and
unemployed, had found an outlet for their turbulence and their energies
in warfare--engaging on behalf of the Jacobites, or the Government,
according as it suited their fancy. But when the House of Hanover
conquered, and the trade of war became spoiled within the limits of
Great Britain, troops of these discharged soldiers took to a marauding
life; the high roads became infested with robbers, and crimes of
violence were frequent. Alarmed at the license displayed by these
Ishmaelites, the Government of the day arrayed its might against them,
enacting such sanguinary measures that at first sight it seemed as if
the deliberate intent were to literally cut them off and root them out
from the land. That era was indeed a bloodthirsty one in English
jurisprudence.

Enactments were passed in the reign of the second George, whereby it
was made a capital crime to rob the mail, or any post-office; to kill,
steal, or drive away any sheep or cattle, with intention to steal, or to
be accessory to the crime. The "Black Act," first passed in the reign of
George I., and enlarged by George II., punished by hanging, the hunting,
killing, stealing, or wounding any deer in any park or forest; maiming
or killing any cattle, destroying any fish or fish-pond, cutting down or
killing any tree planted in any garden or orchard, or cutting any
hop-bands in hop plantations. Forgery, smuggling, coining, passing bad
coin, or forged notes, and shop-lifting; all were punishable by death.
From a table published by Janssen, and quoted from Hepworth Dixon, we
find that in twenty-three years, from 1749 to 1771, eleven hundred and
twenty-one persons were condemned to death in London alone. The offenses
for which these poor wretches received sentence included those named
above, in addition to seventy-two cases of murder, two cases of riot,
one of sacrilege, thirty-one of returning from transportation, and four
of enlisting for foreign service. Of the total number condemned, six
hundred and seventy-eight were actually hanged, while the remainder
either died in prison, were transported, or pardoned. As four hundred
and one persons were transported, a very small number indeed obtained
deliverance either by death or pardon. In fact, scarcely any extenuating
circumstances were allowed; so that in some cases cruelty seemed
actually to have banished justice. It is recorded, as one of these
cases, that a young woman with a babe at the breast, was hanged for
stealing from a shop a piece of cloth of the value of five shillings.
The poor woman was the destitute wife of a young man whom the press-gang
had captured and carried off to sea, leaving her and her babe to the
mercy of the world. Utterly homeless and starving, she stole to buy
food; but a grateful country requited the services of the sailor-husband
by hanging the wife.

The _certainty_ of punishment became nullified by the _severity_ of the
laws. Humane individuals hesitated to prosecute, especially for forgery;
while juries seized upon every pretext to return verdicts of "Not
guilty." Reprieves were frequent, for the lives of many were
supplicated, and successfully; so that the death-penalty was commuted
into transportation. Caricaturists, writers, philanthropists,
divines--all united in the chorus of condemnation against the bloody
enactments which secured such a crop for the gallows. Men, women, girls,
lads and idiots, all served as food for it. Jack Ketch had a merry time
of it, while society looked on well pleased, for the most part. Those
appointed to sit in the seat of justice sometimes defended this state of
things. One of the worthies of the "good old times"--Judge
Heath--notorious because of his partiality for hanging, is reported to
have said: "If you imprison at home, the criminal is soon thrown back
upon you hardened in guilt. If you transport you corrupt infant
societies, and sow the seeds of atrocious crimes over the habitable
globe. There is no regenerating a felon in this life. And, for his own
sake, as well as for the sake of society, I think it better to hang."

As a caricaturist George Cruikshank entered the field, and waged battle
on behalf of the poor wretches who swung at the gallows for passing
forged Bank of England notes. He drew a note resembling the genuine one,
and entitled it "Bank note, _not_ to be imitated." A copy of this
caricature now lies before us. It bears on its face a representation of
a large gallows, from which eleven criminals, three of whom are women,
are dangling, dead. In the upper left hand corner, Britannia is
represented as surrounded by starving, wailing creatures, and surmounted
by a hideous death's head. Underneath is a rope coiled around the
portraits of twelve felons who have suffered; while, running down, to
form a border, are fetters arranged in zig-zag fashion. Across the note
run these words, "_Ad lib., ad lib._, I promise to perform during the
issue of Bank notes easily imitated, and until the resumption of cash
payments, or the abolition of the punishment of death, for the Governors
and Company of the Bank of England.--J. KETCH." The note is a unique
production, and must have created an enormous sensation. Cruikshank's
own story, writing in 1876, is this:--

Fifty-eight years back from this date there were one-pound Bank of
England notes in circulation, and, unfortunately, many forged notes
were in circulation also, or being passed, the punishment for which
offense was in some cases transportation, in others DEATH. At this
period, having to go early to the Royal Exchange one morning, I
passed Newgate jail, and saw several persons suspended from the
gibbet; _two_ of these were women who had been executed for passing
one-pound forged notes.

I determined, if possible, to put a stop to such terrible
punishments for such a crime, and made a sketch of the above note,
and then an etching of it.

Mr. Hone published it, and it created a sensation. The Directors of
the Bank of England were exceedingly wroth. The crowd around Hone's
shop in Ludgate Hill was so great that the Lord Mayor had to send
the police to clear the street. The notes were in such demand that
they could not be printed fast enough, and I had to sit up all one
night to etch another plate. Mr. Hone realized above L700, and I
had the satisfaction of knowing that no man or woman was ever
hanged after this for passing one-pound Bank of England notes.

The issue of my "Bank Note note not to be Imitated" not only put a
stop to the issue of any more Bank of England one-pound notes, but
also put a stop to the punishment of death for such an offense--not
only for that, but likewise for forgery--and then the late Sir
Robert Peel revised the penal code; so that the final effect of my
note was to stop hanging for all minor offenses, and has thus been
the means of saving thousands of men and women from being hanged.

It may be that the great caricaturist claims almost too much when he
says that the publication of his note eventually stopped hanging for all
minor offenses; but certainly there is no denying that this publication
was an important factor in the agitation.

It is said that George III. kept a register of all the cases of capital
punishment, that he entered in it all names of felons sentenced to
death, with dates and particulars of convictions, together with remarks
upon the reasons which induced him to sign the warrants. It is also said
that he frequently rose from his couch at night to peruse this fatal
list, and that he shut himself up closely in his private apartments
during the hours appointed for the execution of criminals condemned to
death.

Tyburn ceased to be the place of execution for London in 1783; from that
year Newgate witnessed most of these horrors.

Philanthropists of every class were, at the period of Mrs. Fry's career
now under review, considering this matter of capital punishment, and
taking steps to restrain the infliction of the death penalty. The Gurney
family among Quakers, William Wilberforce, Sir James Mackintosh, Sir
Samuel Romilly, and others, were all working hard to this end. In 1819
William Wilberforce presented a petition from the Society of Friends to
Parliament against death punishment for crimes other than murder.
Writing at later dates upon this subject, Joseph John Gurney says: "I
cannot say that my spirit greatly revolts against life for life, though
capital punishment for anything short of this appears to me to be
execrable." And, again, "I cannot in conscience take any step towards
destroying the life of a fellow-creature whose crime against society
affects my property only. I am in possession, like other men, of the
feelings of common humanity, and to aid and abet in procuring the
destruction of any man living would be to me extremely distressing and
horrible." As a banker, Mr. Gurney felt that the punishment for forgery
should be heavy and sharp, but less than death. In the Houses of
Parliament various efforts were made to obtain the commutation of the
death penalty, and when in 1810 the Peers rejected Sir Samuel Romilly's
bill to remove the penalty for shop-lifting, the Dukes of Sussex and
Gloucester joined some of the Peers in signing a protest against the
law. The time appeared to be ripe for agitation; all classes of society
reverenced human life more than of old, and desired to see it held less
cheap by the ministers of justice.

According to Mrs. Fry's experience, the punishment of death tended
neither to the security of the people, the reformation of any prisoner,
nor the diminution of crime. Felons who suffered death for light
offenses looked upon themselves as martyrs--martyrs to a cruel law--and
believed that they had but to meet death with fortitude to secure a
blissful hereafter. This fearful opiate carried many through the
terrible ordeal outwardly calm and resigned.

Among the condemned ones was Harriet Skelton, a woman who had been
detected passing forged Bank of England notes. She was described as
prepossessing, "open, confiding, expressing strong feelings on her
countenance, but neither hardened in depravity nor capable of cunning."
Her behavior in prison was exceptionally good; so good, indeed, that
some of the depraved inmates of Newgate supposed her to have been
condemned to death because of her fitness for death. She had evidently
been more sinned against than sinning; the man whom she lived with, and
who was ardently loved by her, had used her as his instrument for
passing these false notes. Thus she had been lured to destruction.

After the decision had been received from the Lords of the Council,
Skelton was taken into the condemned cell to await her doom. To this
cell came numerous visitors, attracted by compassion for the poor
unfortunate who tenanted it, and each one eager to obtain the
commutation of the cruel sentence. It was one thing to read of one or
another being sentenced to death, but quite another to behold a woman,
strong in possession of, and desire for life, fated to be swung into
eternity before many days because of circulating a false note at the
behest of a paramour. Mrs. Fry needed not the many persuasions she
received to induce her to put forth the most unremitting exertions on
behalf of Skelton. She obtained an audience of the Duke of Gloucester,
and urged every circumstance which could be urged in extenuation of the
crime, entreating for the woman's life. The royal duke remembered the
old days at Norwich, when Elizabeth had been know in fashionable society
and had figured somewhat as a belle, and he bent a willing ear to her
request. He visited Newgate, escorted by Mrs. Fry, and saw for himself
the agony in that condemned cell. Then he accompanied her to the bank
directors, and applied to Lord Sidmouth personally, but all in vain. It
was not blood for blood, nor life for life, but blood for "filthy
lucre;" so the poor woman was hung in obedience to the inexorable
ferocity of the law and its administrators.

On this occasion Mrs. Fry was seriously distressed in mind. She had
vehemently entreated for the poor creature's life, stating that she had
had the offer of pleading guilty only to the minor count, but had
foolishly rejected it in hope of obtaining a pardon. The question at
issue on this occasion was the power of the bank directors to virtually
decide as to the doom of the accused ones. Mrs. Fry made assertions and
gave instances which Lord Sidmouth assumed to doubt. Further than this,
he was seriously annoyed at the noise this question of capital
punishment was making in the land, and though not necessarily a cruel or
blood-thirsty man, the Home Secretary shrank from meddling too much with
the criminal code of England. This misunderstanding was a source of deep
pain to the philanthropist, and, accompanied by Lady Harcourt, she
endeavored to remove Lord Sidmouth's false impressions, but in vain.
While smarting under this wound, received in the interests of humanity,
she had to go to the Mansion House by command of Her Majesty Queen
Charlotte, to be presented. Thus, very strangely, and against her will,
she was thrust forward into the very foremost places of public
observation and repute. She recorded the matter in her journal, in her
own characteristic way:--

"Yesterday I had a day of ups and downs, as far as the opinions of
man are concerned, in a remarkable degree. I found that there was a
grievous misunderstanding between Lord Sidmouth and myself, and
that some things I had done had tried him exceedingly; indeed, I
see that I have mistaken my conduct in some particulars respecting
the case of poor Skelton, and in the efforts made to save her life,
I too incautiously spoke of some in power. When under great
humiliation in consequence of this, Lady Harcourt, who most kindly
interested herself in the subject, took me with her to the Mansion
House, rather against my will, to meet many of the royal family at
the examination of some large schools. Among the rest, the Queen
was there. There was quite a buzz when I went into the Egyptian
Hall, where one or two thousand people were collected; and when the
Queen came to speak to me, which she did very kindly, I am told
that there was a general clapp. I think I may say this hardly
raised me at all; I was so very low from what had occurred
before.... My mind has not recovered this affair of Lord Sidmouth,
and finding that the bank directors are also affronted with me
added to my trouble, more particularly as there was an appearance
of evil in my conduct; but, I trust, no greater fault in reality
than a want of prudence in that which I expressed."

The Society of Friends had always been opposed to capital punishment.
Ten years previously, Sir Samuel Romilly had determined to attack these
sanguinary enactments, one by one, in order to ensure success. He began,
therefore, with the Act of Queen Elizabeth, "which made it a capital
offense to steal privately from the person of another." William Alien
records in the same year, 1808, the formation of a "Society for
Diffusing Information on the Subject of Punishment by Death." This
little band worked with Sir Samuel until his painful death in 1818;
while Dr. Parr, Jeremy Bentham, and Dugald Stewart aided the enterprise
by words of encouragement, both in public and in private. In Joseph John
Gurney's Memoirs, it is stated that Dr. Lushington declared his opinion
that the poor criminal was thus hurried out of life and into eternity by
means of the perpetration of another crime far greater, for the most
part, than any which the sufferer had committed.

The feeling grew, and in place of the indifference and scorn of human
life which had formerly characterized society, there sprang up an eager
desire to save life, except for the crime of murder. In May, 1821, Sir
James Mackintosh introduced a bill for "Mitigating the Severity of
Punishment in Certain Cases of Forgery, and Crimes connected
therewith." Buxton, in advocating this measure, says truly:

The people have made enormous strides in all that tends to civilize
and soften mankind, while the laws have contracted a ferocity which
did not belong to them in the most savage period of our history;
and, to such extremes of distress have they proceeded that I do
believe there never was a law so harsh as British law, or so
merciful and humane a people as the British people. And yet to this
mild and merciful people is left the execution of that rigid and
cruel law.

This measure was defeated, but the numbers of votes were so nearly
equal, that the defeat was actually a victory.

Time went on. In 1831, Sir Robert Peel took up the gauntlet against
capital punishment, and endeavored to induce Parliament to abolish the
death-penalty for forgery; the House of Commons voted its abolition, but
the Lords restored the clauses retaining the penalty. One thousand
bankers signed a petition praying that the vote of the Commons might be
sustained, but in vain; still, in deference to public opinion, after
this the death-penalty was not inflicted upon a forger. Nevertheless,
there remained plenty of food for the gallows. An incendiary, as well as
a sheep-stealer, was liable to capital punishment; and so severely was
the law strained upon these points, that he who set fire to a rick in a
field, as well as he who found a half-dead sheep and carried it home,
was condemned without mercy. But the advocates of mercy continued their
good work until, finally, the gallows became the penalty for only those
offenses which concerned human life and high treason.




CHAPTER IX.

CONVICT SHIPS AND CONVICT SETTLEMENTS.


More work opened before the indefatigable worker. Frequently batches of
female convicts were despatched to New South Wales, and, according to
the custom at Newgate, departure was preceded by total disregard of
order. Windows, furniture, clothing, all were wantonly destroyed; while
the procession from the prison to the convict ship was one of brutal,
debasing riot. The convicts were conveyed to Deptford, in open wagons,
accompanied by the rabble and scum of the populace. These crowds
followed the wagons, shouting to the prisoners, defying all regulations,
and inciting them to more defiance of rules. Some of the convicts were
laden with irons; others were chained together by twos. Mrs. Fry
addressed herself first to the manner of departure, and, rightly judging
that the open wagons conduced to much disorder, prevailed on the
governor of Newgate to engage hackney-coaches for the occasion. Further,
she promised the women that, provided they would behave in an orderly
manner, she, together with a few other ladies, would accompany them to
the ship. Faithful to her promise, her carriage closed the line of
hackney-coaches; three or four ladies were with her, and thus, in a
fashion at once strangely quiet and novel, the transports reached the
place of embarkation.

There were one hundred and twenty-eight convicts that day; no small
number upon which to experimentalize. As soon as they reached the ship
they were herded together below decks like so many cattle, with nothing
to do but to curse, swear, fight, recount past crimes, relate foul
stories, or plot future evil. True, there was some attempt at order and
classification, for they were divided into messes of six each, and Mrs.
Fry eagerly seized upon this arrangement to form a basis of control. She
proposed to the convicts that they should be arranged in classes of
twelve, according to ages and criminality; to this they assented. A
class thus furnished two messes, while over each class was placed one of
the most steady convicts, in order to enforce the rules as much as
possible. She provided in this way for superintendence.

The next arrangement concerned work for the women, and instruction for
the children. "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do;"
accordingly the ladies looked about for plans and methods whereby the
enforced weariness of a long voyage should be counteracted. They had
heard that patch-work and fancy-work found a ready sale in New South
Wales, so they hit upon a scheme which should ensure success in more
ways than one. Having made known their dilemma, and their desires, they
were cheered by receiving from some wholesale houses in London
sufficient remnants of cotton print and materials for knitting to
furnish all the convicts with work. There was ample time to perfect all
arrangements, seeing that the ship lay at Deptford about five weeks; as
the result of Mrs. Fry's journeys to and fro, every woman had given to
her the chance of benefiting herself. In this way they were informed
that if they chose to devote the leisure of the voyage to making up the
materials thus placed in their hands, they would be allowed upon arrival
at the colony to dispose of the articles for their own profit.

There was thus a new stimulus to exertion as well as a collateral good.
Hitherto, no refuge, home, or building of any description had existed
for the housing of the women when landed at the port of disembarkation.
There was "not so much as a hut in which they could take refuge, so that
they were literally driven to vice, or left to lie in the streets." The
system of convict-management at that date was one of compulsory labor,
or mostly so. This plan tended to produce tyranny, insubordination,
deception, vice, and "the social evil." In the case of men, Captain
Mackonochie testified that they were sullen, lazy, insubordinate and
vicious; the women, if not engaged quickly in respectable domestic
service, and desirous of being kept respectable, become curses to the
colony. But by the means adopted by Mrs. Fry each woman was enabled to
earn sufficient money to provide for board and lodging until some
opening for a decent maintenance presented itself. They thus obtained a
fair start.

Provision was also made for instruction of both women and children on
board ship. It may be asked how children came there? Generally they were
of tender years and the offspring of vice; the authorities could do
nothing with them; so, perforce, they were allowed to accompany their
mothers. Out of the batch on board this transport-vessel, fourteen were
found to be of an age capable of instruction. A small space was,
therefore, set apart in the stern of the vessel for a school-room, and
there, daily, under the tuition of one of the women better taught than
the rest, these waifs of humanity learned to read, knit and sew. This
slender stock of learning was better than none, wherewith to commence
life at the Antipodes.

Almost daily, for five weeks, Mrs. Fry and her coadjutors visited the
vessel, laboring to these good ends. Ultimately, however, the _Maria_
had to sail, and many were the doubts and fears as to whether the good
work begun would be carried on when away from English shores. No matron
was there to superintend and to direct the women: if they continued in
the path marked out for them, their poor human nature could not be so
fallen after all. Mrs. Fry had a kind of religious service with the
convicts the last time she visited them. She occupied a position near
the door of the cabin, with the women facing her, and ranged on the
quarter-deck, while the sailors occupied different positions in the
rigging and on other vantage points. As Mrs. Fry read in a solemn voice
some passages from her pocket-Bible, the sailors on board the other
ships leaned over to hear the sacred words. After the reading was done,
she knelt down, and commended the party of soon-to-be exiles to God's
mercy, while those for whom she prayed sobbed bitterly that they should
see her face no more. Does it not recall the parting of Paul with the
elders at Miletus? Doubtless the memory of that simple service was in
after days often the only link between some of these women and goodness.

As time went on, many anxious remembrances and hopes were cast after
the convicts who had been shipped to New South Wales. To her sorrow, she
found, from the most reliable testimony, that once the poor lost
wretches were landed in the colony, they were placed in circumstances
that absolutely nullified all the benevolent work which had gone before,
and were literally driven by force of circumstances to their
destruction. The female convicts, from the time of their landing, were
"without shelter, without resources, and without protection. Rations, or
a small amount of provision, sufficient to maintain life, they certainly
had allotted to them daily; but a place to sleep in, or money to obtain
shelter or necessary clothing for themselves, and, when mothers, for
their children, they were absolutely without." An interesting but sad
letter was received by Mrs. Fry from the Rev. Samuel Marsden, chaplain
at Paramatta, New South Wales, and although long, it affords so much
information on this question, that no apology is required for
introducing it here. As the testimony of an eyewitness it is valuable:--

HONORED MADAM,

Having learned from the public papers, as well as from my friends
in England, the lively interest you have taken in promoting the
temporal and eternal welfare of those unhappy females who fall
under the sentence of the law, I am induced to address a few lines
to you respecting such as visit our distant shores. It may be
gratifying to you, Madam, to hear that I meet with those wretched
exiles, who have shared your attentions, and who mention your
maternal care with gratitude and affection. From the measures you
have adopted, and the lively interest you have excited in the
public feeling, on the behalf of these miserable victims of vice
and woe, I now hope the period is not very distant when their
miseries will be in some degree alleviated. I have been striving
for more than twenty years to obtain for them some relief, but
hitherto have done them little good. It has not been in my power to
move those in authority to pay much attention to their wants and
miseries. I have often been urged in my own mind, to make an appeal
to the British nation, and to lay their case before the public.

In the year 1807, I returned to Europe. Shortly after my arrival in
London, I stated in a memorial to His Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury the miserable situation of the female convicts, to His
Majesty's Government at the Colonial Office, and to several members
of the House of Commons. From the assurances that were then made,
that barracks should be built for the accommodation of the female
convicts, I entertained no doubt but that the Government would have
given instructions to the Governor to make some provisions for
them. On my return to the colony, in 1810, I found things in the
same state I left them; five years after my again arriving in the
colony, I took the liberty to speak to the Governor, as opportunity
afforded, on the subject in question, and was surprised to learn
that no instructions had been communicated to His Excellency from
His Majesty's Government, after what had passed between me and
those in authority at home, relative to the state of the female
convicts. At length I resolved to make an official statement of
their miserable situation to the Governor, and, if the Governor did
not feel himself authorized to build a barrack for them, to
transmit my memorial to my friends in England, with His
Excellency's answer, as a ground for them to renew my former
application to Government for some relief. Accordingly, I forwarded
my memorial, with a copy of the Governor's answer, home to more
than one of my friends. I have never been convinced that no
instructions were given by His Majesty's Government to provide
barracks for the female convicts; on the contrary, my mind is
strongly impressed in that instructions were given; if they were
not, I can only say that this was a great omission, after the
promises that were made. I was not ignorant that the sending home
of my letter to the Governor and his answer, would subject me to
the censure as well as the displeasure of my superiors. I informed
some of my friends in England, as well as in the colony, that if no
attention was paid to the female convicts, I was determined to lay
their case before the British nation; and then I was certain, from
the moral and religious feeling which pervades all ranks, that
redress would be obtained. However, nothing has been done yet to
remedy the evils of which I complain. For the last five and twenty
years many of the convict women have been driven to vice to obtain
a loaf of bread, or a bed to lie upon. To this day there never has
been a place to put the female convicts in when they land from the
ships. Many of the women have told me with tears their distress of
mind on this account; some would have been glad to have returned to
the paths of virtue if they could have found a hut to live in
without forming improper connections. Some of these women, when
they have been brought before the magistrate, and I have
remonstrated with them for their crime, have replied, "I have no
other means of living; I am compelled to give my weekly allowance
of provisions for my lodgings, and I must starve or live in vice."
I was well aware that this statement was correct, and was often at
a loss what to answer. It is not only the calamities that these
wretched women and their children suffer that are to be regretted,
but the general corruption of morals that such a system establishes
in this rising colony, and the ruin their example spreads through
all the settlements. The male convicts in the service of the Crown,
or in that of individuals, are tempted to rob and plunder
continually, to supply the urgent necessities of those women.

All the female convicts have not run the same lengths in vice. All
are not equally hardened in crime, and it is most dreadful that all
should alike, on their arrival here, be liable and exposed to the
same dangerous temptations, without any remedy. I rejoice, Madam,
that you reside near the seat of Government, and may have it in
your power to call the attention of His Majesty's Ministers to this
important subject--a subject in which the entire welfare of these
settlements is involved. If proper care be taken of the women, the
colony will prosper, and the expenses of the mother-country will be
reduced. On the contrary, if the morals of the female convicts are
wholly neglected, as they have been hitherto, the colony will be
only a nursery for crime....

Your good intentions and benevolent labors will all be abortive if
the exiled females, on their arrival in the colony, are plunged
into every ruinous temptation and sort of vice--which will ever be
the case till some barrack is provided for them. Great evils in a
state cannot soon be remedied.... I believe the Governor has got
instructions from home to provide accommodation for the female
convicts, and I hope in two or three years to see them lodged in a
comfortable barrack; so that none shall be lost for want of a hut
to lie in. If a communication be kept up on a regular plan between
this colony and London, much good may be done for the poor female
convicts. It was the custom for some years, when a ship with female
convicts arrived, soldiers, convicts, and settlers were allowed to
go on board and take their choice; this custom does not now openly
obtain countenance and sanction, but when they are landed they have
no friend, nor any accommodation, and therefore are glad to live
with anyone who can give them protection; so the real moral state
of these females is little improved from what it always has been,
nor will it be the least improved till they can be provided with a
barrack. The neglect of the female convicts in this country is a
disgrace to our national character, as well as a national sin. Many
do not live out half their days, from their habits of vice. When I
am called to visit them on their dying beds, my mind is greatly
pained, my mouth is shut; I know not what to say to them.... To
tell them of their crimes is to upbraid them with misfortune; they
will say, "Sir, you know how I was situated. I do not wish to lead
the life I have done; I know and lament my sins, but necessity
compelled me to do what my conscience condemned."... Many, again,
I meet with who think these things no crime, because they believe
their necessities compel them to live in their sins. Hence their
consciences are so hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, that
death itself gives them little concern....

I have the honor to be, Madam,
Your most obedient humble servant,
SAMUEL MARSDEN.

This appeal was not disregarded: in due time official apathy and
inertness fled before the national cry for reform. Meanwhile, Mrs. Fry
continued her efforts on behalf of the convicts on board the transports,
ever urging upon those in power the imperative necessity for placing the
women under the charge of matrons. They still continued on the old plan,
and were wholly in the power of the sailors, except for such supervision
as the Naval Surgeon Superintendent could afford. Some little
improvements had taken place, since that first trip to the Maria
convict-ship, but very much still remained to be done. To these floating
prisons, frequently detained for weeks in the Thames, Mrs. Fry paid
numerous visits, arranging for the instruction, employment, and
cleanliness of the women. A worthy fellow-helper, Mrs. Pryor, was her
companion, on most of these journeys, frequently enduring exposure to
weather, rough seas, and accidents. On one occasion the two sisters of
mercy ran the risk of drowning, but were fortunately rescued by a
passing vessel. Very fortunate, indeed, was it, that a deliverer was at
hand, or the little boat, toiling up the river, contending against tide,
wind and weather, might have been lost. That voyage to Gravesend was
only one among many destined to work a revolution in female convict
life.

Alterations, which were not always improvements, began to take place in
the manner of receiving these women on board ship. The vessels were
moored at Woolwich, and group by group the miserable complement of
passengers arrived; in each case, however, controlled by male warders.
Sometimes, a turnkey would bring his party on the outside of a
stage-coach; another might bring a contingent in a smack, or coasting
vessel; while yet a third marched up a band of heavily-ironed women,
whose dialects told from which districts they came. Sometimes their
infants were left behind, and, in such a case, one of the ladies would
go to Whitehall to obtain the necessary order to enable the unfortunate
nursling to accompany its mother; but generally speaking, the children
accompanied and shared the parents' fortunes.

Cruelties were inseparable from the customs which prevailed. In 1822,
Mrs. Pryor discovered that prisoners from Lancaster Castle arrived, not
merely handcuffed, but with heavy irons on their legs, which had
occasioned considerable swelling, and in one instance serious
inflammation. _The Brothers_ sailed in 1823, with its freight of human
misery on board, and the suffering which resulted from the mode of
ironing, was so great, that Mrs. Fry took down the names id particulars,
in order to make representations to the Government. Twelve women
arrived on board the vessel, handcuffed; eleven others had iron hoops
round their legs and arms, and were chained to each other. The
complaints of these women were mournful; they were not allowed to get up
or down from the coach, without the whole party being dragged together;
some of them had children to carry, but they received no help, no
alleviation to their sufferings. One woman from Wales must have had a
bitter experience of irons. She came to the ship with a hoop around her
ankle, and when the sub-matron insisted on having it removed, the
operation was so painful that the poor wretch fainted. She told Mrs. Fry
that she had worn, for some time, an iron hoop around her waist; from
that, a chain connected with hoops round her legs above the knee; from
these, another chain was fastened to irons round her ankles. Not content
with this, her hands were confined _every night_ to the hoop which went
round her waist, while she lay like a log on her bed of straw. Such
tales remind one of the tortures of the Inquisition.

The "Newgate women" were especially noticeable for good conduct on the
voyage out. Their conduct was reported to be "exemplary" by the Surgeon
Superintendent, and their industry was most pleasing. Their patchwork
was highly prized by many, and indeed treasured up by some of them for
many years after. Officers in the British navy assisted in the good work
by word and deed; in fact, Captain Young, of Deptford Dockyard, first
suggested the making of patchwork as an employment on board ship. From
some correspondence which passed between Mrs. Fry and the Controller of
the Navy, in 1820, we find that the building for the women in New South
Wales was begun; while in a letter written about this time to a member
of the Government, she explains her desires and plans relative to the
female convicts after their arrival at Hobart Town, Tasmania.

This letter is full of interesting points. After noticing the fact of
the building at Hobart Town being imperatively needed, she goes on to
suggest that a respectable and judicious matron should be stationed in
that building, responsible, under the Governor and magistrates, for the
order of the inmates; that part of the building should be devoted to
school purposes; that immediately on the arrival of a ship, a Government
Inspector should visit the vessel and report; that the Surgeon
Superintendent should have a description of each woman's offense,
character, and capability, so that her disposal in the colony might be
made in a little less hap-hazard fashion than hitherto; that the best
behaved should be taken into domestic service by such of the residents
of the colony as chose to cooeperate, while the others should remain at
the Home, under prison rules, until they have earned the privilege of
going to service; and that a sufficient supply of serviceable clothing
should be provided. She further recommended the adoption of a uniform
dress for the convicts, as conducive to order and discipline, and, as a
last and indispensable condition, the appointment of a matron, in order
to enforce needful regulations. This epistle was sent with the prayer
that Earl Bathurst would peruse it, and grant the requests of the
writer. It is refreshing to be able to add that red tapeism did not
interfere with the adoption of these suggestions, but that they met with