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, 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 narrower circle of a retired life." 1

Some doubt has been expressed as to the exact object with which this tour in the East was to be made. Dr. Aikin had several conversations with Howard on the subject, which left on his mind the impression that he was influenced by a "wish to have objects of inquiry pointed out to him" rather than by "any specific views present to his own mind." 2 Much of the ground over which he proposed to travel was new to him, for the plan of his travels included Asiatic Turkey, Egypt, and the coast of Barbary. Here he was sure to find much to interest him. But, besides such more general objects, it is clear that he had a specific one. He realised that the mystery of the plague was not yet solved, and was anxious to investigate it still further, and obtain on the spot all possible information as to the nature and causes of the disease, the way in which it spread, the best 2 Aikin's View, etc., p. 184.

1 Lazarettos, P. 235.

method of treatment, and the means for its cure and prevention. He was well aware of the risks that he ran, and never expected to live to return to England. He, therefore, spent some time at Cardington, with his usual thoughtfulness and precision setting his affairs in the most perfect order; and made a round of farewell visits to many of his friends, whom he never expected to see again upon earth. "We shall soon meet in heaven," he said to one of them on parting, and added, "The way to heaven from Grand Cairo is as near as from London."

It was early in July that he set forth, taking with him his servant Thomasson, who had accompanied him on many of his previous journeys, and who cannot have lost his confidence. His route lay through Holland and Germany to Russia, where, after a visit to St. Petersburg, some time was spent in Moscow. From this city he wrote an account of his movements and plans to his friend, Dr. Price.

John Howard to Dr. Price.

"Moscow, September 22, 1789.

"MY DEAR FRIEND.-Your kind desire of hearing from me engages me to write. When I left Eng

1 See Brown's Life, p. 564, and cf. Field's Correspondence of John Howard, p. 163. "I hope to investigate and ascertain with precision the cause of the plague." Letter to Mr. Whitbread, August 16, 1789.

land, I first stopped at Amsterdam. I proceeded to Osnaburg, Hanover, Brunswick, and Berlin: then to Koningsbergh, Riga, and Petersburgh, at all which places I visited the prisons and hospitals, which were all flung open to me, and in some the burgomasters accompanied me into the dungeons, as well as into the other rooms of confinement.

"I arrived a few days ago in this city, and have begun my rounds. The hospitals are in a sad state; upwards of seventy thousand sailors and recruits died in them last year. I labour to convey the torch of philanthropy into these distant regions, as in God's hand no instrument is weak, and in whose presence no flesh must glory.

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"I go through Poland into Hungary. I hope to have a few nights of this moon in my journey to Warsaw, which is about a thousand miles. I am pure well; the weather clear; the mornings fresh ; thermometer 48°, but have not yet begun fires. I wish for a mild winter, and shall then make some progress in my European expedition.

"My medical acquaintance give me but little hopes of escaping the plague in Turkey, but my spirits do not at all fail me; and, indeed, I do not look back, but would readily endure any hardships, and encounter any dangers, to be an honour to my Christian profession.

"I long to hear from my friend, yet I know not where he can direct to me, unless at Sir Robert Ainslie's, Constantinople. I will hope all things. Remember me to sisters, nieces, and Mr. Morgan. I am, my much esteemed friend, most affectionately and sincerely yours, JOHN HOWARD.

"Rev. Dr. PRICE."

Shortly after this letter was written his plans underwent a change. Russia and Turkey were at this time at war; and the condition of the military hospitals was exactly the kind of subject in which Howard would take the keenest interest. Reports had reached him of the wretched state of the sick and wounded soldiers of the Russian army; and accordingly he determined to proceed to the seat of war, in the hope that he might "do some good," and "fairly try " his favourite remedy, in which he believed intensely, " the powders of Dr. James." 1 He hoped also to find at Sebastopol or elsewhere some neutral ship which might carry him to Constantinople and so enable him to reach Turkey. His adventures on the journey from Moscow to Cherson (a port on the Dnieper in what was then known as Russian Tartary) are described in a letter to Mr. Whitbread, to which a special interest attaches, as it is his last extant letter.

1 Field's Correspondence of John Howard, p. 171. Readers of Boswell's Life of Johnson will remember the various allusions to Dr. James (Johnson's "poor Jamey ") in that immortal work. He was an old schoolfellow of Johnson's, who helped him in his Medicinal Dictionary "writing the proposals for the dictionary and also a little in the dictionary itself." Howard, however, believed in the efficacy of his medicines a good deal more than did the illustrious doctor, who writes of them thus: "I never thought well of Dr. James's compounded medicines; his ingredients appear to me sometimes inefficacious and trifling, and sometimes heterogeneous and destructive of each other."

John Howard to Samuel Whitbread, Esq., M.P.

"CHERSON, in TARTARY, Nov, 14th, 1789.

"DEAR SIR,-I wrote to you on my arrival at Moscow, on the first, and, permit me to say, constant impression of your kindness. I also wrote to you about a fortnight after, informing you of my intention to visit the army and navy hospitals towards the Black Sea. I was somewhat sensible of the dangers I had to encounter and the hardships I had to endure in a journey 1300 or 1400 miles, with only my servant. I went on pretty well till on the borders of Tartary, when, as I depended on my patent chain, my great trunk and hat-box were cut off from behind my chaise. It was midnight, and both of us, having travelled four nights, were fast asleep. However, we soon discovered it, and, having recovered the shock, I went back directly to the suspected house, and ran in among ten or twelve of the banditti. At break of day I had some secured, and search made. My hat-box was found, but my great trunk I almost despaired of, though I stayed before the door in my chaise two days. Providentially, the fourth day it was found by a peasant. The brass nails glistened in a part where the oilskin was worn. His oxen would not go on; he beat them, but they would not go on; he then saw something, but durst not approach till another peasant came up, when, after signing themselves with the cross, they went up to it, and carried it directly to the