is because of the pride of their countenances. The apostle declares that Jesus is able to subdue all things to himself. These are but hints; I have not opportunity to enlarge.

I remain, with the sincerest affection,

We have attended our great philanthropist in his labour of love till his return from his first foreign tour in 1777, when he published his State of Prisons, &c. At the conclusion of this piece he pledged himself, if the legislature should seriously engage in the reformation of our prisons, to take another journey through the Prussian and Austrian dominions. Accordingly in 1778, he began his promised tour, and visited the intended countries, taking also the free cities of Germany in his way he likewise extended his journey through Italy, and revisited countries which he had seen before. He returned early in 1779, and in 1780 he republished his State of Prisons. The observations which he had made in his last tour were added, as an appendix, together with some remarks concerning the management of prisoners of war, and of the convicts in the Hulks on the Thames.

In inspecting the prisons at Florence, he was accompanied by Dr. Targioni, who had been appointed by that benevolent prince, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, inspector of the hospitals, with an order to report any beneficial improvements which Mr. Howard thought might be made in them. Indeed, both this prince and Sir Horace Mann, our ambassador at Florence, paid him every attention, and lent him every assistance that was due to one whose sole pursuit was the alleviation of the misery of the most wretched part of mankind.

It was in his return from this tour that he visited Dunkirk, Calais, and Bruges, in order to alleviate the distress of his captive countrymen, and procure redress to their grievances. At the same places he did not neglect the hospitals and prisons, nor forbear to relieve the distresses of the unhappy objects confined in them by sickness, or by the iron hand of law. His conduct, at this time, and that of the French government also, in giving him liberty to do it, present an exhilarating instance of the triumph of Christian benevolence over the cruelties of war, the folly of religious prejudices, and the deep-rooted antipathies of rival nations. If the example of one man had such an influence upon the government of a nation, then in actual warfare with Britain, what would be the effect, if all Christains, like Howard, were to demonstrate that real

religion consists more in doing good to men, than in strenuous contention for any mysterious dogma.

On his return to England in January 1779, we find him laying an account of his poor captive countrymen before the commissioners of the sick and wounded seamen, and soliciting their assistance in his intended visit to French prisoners of war, confined in different parts of this kingdom. From hese gentlemen he readily procured letters, which threw open all the prisons to his inspection, and enabled him to procure whatever information he was desirous to obtain, to ameliorate the horrors of captivity to our enemies.

Thus assisted, our philanthropist proceeded in the prosecution of his benevolent designs; and during the same year examined the prisons in Plymouth, Bristol, Winchester, Horton, Deal, Carlile, Pembroke, Chester, and Liverpool, and in several parts of Scotland, and Ireland. In these visits he did not confine his humanity to mere inquiry into the calamities he was endeavouring to redress: he procured the release of several persons, especially boys, who were confined, after their acquittal by law, for the fees of office. Some of the more humane he prevailed with to compound, to the more inflexible he paid their full demands. Most of these unhappy persons were shivering in filth and nakedness; some were ill with the small pox; others sinking into consumptions, and several had wives and children who were starving around them. The most he could do with clerks of the peace, and other officers concerned, was, as before observed, to persuade them to compound for their demands. With some sheriffs, however, he prevailed to have these children of misery and dispair released without such inhuman demands.

Mr. Howard was as far from being backward in bestowing the assistance of his property as of his labour and his thoughts. He seems hardly ever to have entered the walls of a prison without dispensing pecuniary relief to the objects of distress whom he found immured within its gloomy walls. When at Paris, we find him visiting the prison of the Grand Chatelet on those days when the allowance of the prisoners is most scanty, because, as he said, a small donation of wine, was, on those days, most acceptable. And when in Russia, also, he attended the horrible punishment of the gnoot, his liberality afforded all the consolation of which poor wretches, almost expiring under this cruel discipline, could be sensible.

But to return, the pious labours of the year 1779 were not yet finished by Mr. H. He had previously made much enquiry into the condition and usage of transports; but Mr. Eden's bill for restraints and punishments in lieu of transportation, which passed in the sixteenth of his present majesty, rendered the detail of abuses and cruelties in this. department unnecessary; he therefore suppressed what might have excited indignation, without producing advantage. The wretched convicts, however, were not neglected by this pattern of humanity: he had searched into the needless oppressions and miseries of these unhappy persons, and had caused a parliamentary enquiry and reformation to take place on their behalf in the year 1778; and now, on his return from Ireland, in the month of November, he revisited the

Hulks at Woolwich, to see how far the regulations voted in the senate hau be carried into execution.

same vear an act of parliament was passed for the establishment of Penitentiary Houses . England; and Mr. H. was appointed by his y supervisor of an appointment which he accepted on condition that Dr. Fothill should be his associate; to these was added George Whatley, Esq. treasurer of the Foundling Hospital.Te spot fixed upon by our worthy philanthropist and Dr. F. for the building, was piece of ground at Islington, Lear where Pentonville Chel now stands. In this view, however, they were opposed by Mr. Who insisted that it should be erected on or near the Isle of Dogs. In this state of afs, Mr. H. lost his worthy colleague Dr. Fothergill, and finding, after's death, no prospect of bringing the dispute to the issue he wished, he, in January 1781, resigned his supervisorship, by the following letter to Earl Bathurst, lord president of the privy council:

"MY LORD,

"WHEN Sir William Blackstone prevailed upon me to act as a supervisor of the buildings intended for the confinement of certain` criminals, I was persuaded to think that my observations on similar institutions in foreign countries would, in some degree, qualify me to assist in the execution of the statute of the nineteenth year of his present majesty. With this hope, and the prospect of being associated with my late worthy friend, Dr Fothergill, whose wishes and desires upon this subject 1 new entirely corresponded with my own, I chearfully accepted his majesty's appointment, and have since earnestly endeavoured to answer the purpose of it; but at the end of two years I have the mortification to find that not even a preliminary has been settled. The situation of the building has been made a matter of obstinate contention, and is, at this moment, undecided. Judging, therefore, from what is passed, that the further sacrifice of my time is not likely to contribute to the success of the plan, and being now deprived, by the death of Dr. Fothergill, of the assistance of a worthy colleague, I beg leave to signify to your lordship my determination to resign all further concern in the business; and to desire that your lordship will be so good as to lay be.ore the king my humble request, that his majesty would be graciously ple wed to accept my resignation, and to appoint some other gentleman to the office of supervisor in my place. I have the honour to be,

"My lord, &c."

When Mr. Howard resigned his supervisorship, he did by no means abate his zeal in the cause of humanity. He seemed, indeed, to consider his efforts to alleviate the miseries of criminals, and to better their moral characters, as a kind of mission from heaven, for which some have blamed him, and charged him with enthusiasm; but doth not every good gift come from above, from the Father of lights? And are not our opportunities, as well as abilities, to do good, afforded us from the same source? And also, are not our supports in doing good, derived

1

from divine influence! Where then is the enthusiasm of Howard? To me it seems highly rational, that, engaged in such a work-with such a devotedness to it-with such opportunities for its execution-that he should, through the habitual piety of his heart, ascribe the whole to the special direction of the Almighty. If those who charge him with enthusiasm, only mean thereby that warmth and energy of soul which is necessary for every man, to enable him to perform great and noble actions, then their charge is admitted; we do not even seek to qualify it; nay, it was an excellency in the character of Howard that he eminently possessed it.

That the direction and blessing of Providence were with him in his work, seems to have been an habitual persuasion of his mind; and we may justly doubt whether, without this consolatory idea, he could have supported his trials, and continued his exertions as he did.

On the death of his sister, he found himself possessed of all her property, consisting of a considerable sum of money, with a good house in Great Ormond Street. As for his son, he had long ago made every decent provision for that unhappy youth, which his melancholy case admitted of. He henceforth seemed to consider all that he possessed as forming a fund for the relief of the wretched objects who had so long been the sub ect of his attention. He therefore, so far from remitting in his labours, devoted himself more entirely to his work.

Wishing still to acquire some further knowledge of his subject, in 1781, he revisited Holland, and some cities in Germany. He also extended his tour to the capitals of Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Poland; and in 1783 he traversed Portugal and Spain, and returned through France, Flanders, and Holland. The substance of all these travels was afterwards thrown into one narrative, which was published in 1784. He also published a curious Account of the Bastile, in octavo, that dungeon of despotism, which is now no more.

In 1782 and the following year, he also repeated his visits to the Hulks at Woolwich. On the last of these visits, finding some sickly felons, he immediately revisited the county gaol in Southwark, and others, whence they had been drafted; these, he found, had relapsed into their former state of loathsome negligence; and he had all his pains for their reformation to repeat.

CANDIDUS ON THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

CANDIDUS perceives that Sophronius does not yet understand him, which probably may be owing to his not having been sufficiently careful in the choice of words to express his meaning; though he thought he had avoided all ambiguity; but he suspects he was mistaken in this therefore he begs leave once more to address his friendly antagonist.

TO SOPHRONIUS

SIR,

γου are perfectly right in asserting that the being of God must ever remain invisible to creatures; in this I agree with you: and suppose that we can know nothing of him, but as he reveals himself in some medium adapted to our capacities. I also conceive that he hath revealed nothing to us concerning his abstract being, except that he exists and cannot be seen; but that all the manifestations which he hath afforded of himself have relation to creatures. Upon these points I know not that I have any controversy with you.

When I asked, "Is it impossible for the invisible God visibly to manifest himself?" I had no reference to his making the modus of his existence, or his abstract being, visible; but to his plainly revealing his relative character and designs, which I suppose could not have been made visible to the eyes of our understanding, but by divine revelation. I admit that the term visible is, when applied to the divine manifestations, to be taken figuratively.

When I asked the question, "Doth not all the fulness of the godhead dwell bodily in Christ?" I certainly did not use the words in the sense in which you have taken them; I had in view all the fulness of the divine spirit dwelling, substantially, in the man whom God hath made strong for himself.

I

grant that all the works of God are images of his wisdom, power, and goodness, and that Adam, when placed at the head of the creatures, was an image of him as the governor of the world; but surely you will admit that none of the divine works, not even Adam, ever was so perfect an image of the Deity as his son Jesus Christ is.

Having explained what I understand by the fulness of the godhead dwelling bodily in Christ, perhaps you will admit that it dwells there that it may be manifested, or become visible to creatures, using the term visible figuratively.

See U. M. vol. ii. p. 266.