nan, restored several of these umappy creatures to liberty. "Some," he tells us, "had children dying with the smallpox, others had hardly rags to cover them. But this distress had no more effect on the clerk of the crown, sheriffs, and gaolers, than to engage them to give up half their fees." 1 In one matter prison discipline in Ireland was distinctly in advance of that in England, for Howard found, not without some surprise, that no liquors were permitted to be sold by gaolers in any of the prisons that he there visited; and on inquiry learnt that an Act of the Irish Parliament had been passed against it some years before. The good effects of the Act unfortunately were not so great as they might have been, for spirituous liquors were freely introduced by others. Thus, at the city Marshalsea in Dublin, "the wives and children of the debtors, living with them, bring in spirits, and this makes most of the lower rooms gin shops." 2 In other matters there was no improvement, and the want of cleanliness may be imagined from the following note :-"The only building designed for a bath, which I saw in the gaols in Ireland, was in the court yard at Trim, June 17, 1782. I looked into it, and found it was the gaoler's pigsty." 3

CHAPTER VI

OREIGN PRISONS AS HOWARD FOUND THEM

ce of Gaol Fever in Foreign Prisons-Better State of ings generally than in England - Good Rules in witzerland and Holland-Less Drunkenness than in ngland-Abuses-Horrid Dungeons at Vienna-The ucking-stool-Torture.

- OWARD'S researches into the condition of - foreign prisons were made, it must be mbered, not primarily for the sake of dragging ht such abuses as might be found in them, ather with the object of discovering what t be learnt from them by way of example, for eform of prisons at home. Consequently, he lways on the look-out for good points, and ch things as might seem worthy of imitation. thing which impressed him greatly was the ace of gaol fever. This scourge of our English ns was almost if not quite unknown on the nent. It is strange that it should have so, for in many places the dirt and filth as bad as in England, and the neglect at home. In Denmark the Stock-house at Copenhagen was in a shocking state. "Dirty beyond description" is Howard's note; and he adds that "the offensiveness of this prison always gave me a headache, such as I suffered at my first visits to English prisons." 1 In Sweden the prisons were "as dirty and offensive as those in Denmark," and when Howard attended at the trials in the Court of Justice at Stockholm, "the want of fresh air, in consequence of the windows being shut," affected him "so much as to make him ill a considerable time afterwards." 2 At Lille, where there were small and dark dungeons fifteen steps underground, he actually caught fever from visiting the sick; but of the gaol fever proper he found no traces anywhere. In Germany he testifies that the Germans were well aware of the necessity of cleanliness in prisons, and that care was generally taken to build their gaols and houses of correction in suitable situations. An exception is noted in the case of the house of correction at Brunswick, where, although the person who conducted Howard over carried a pan of charcoal through the rooms, "his fumigation could not overcome the offensiveness of this dirty

e had not heard of its being anywhere but in gland."2 In Italy Howard thought that from heat of the climate the gaol fever would be y likely to prevail, but notes that he did not it in any of the prisons.3 Russia was entirely e from it, and he saw no symptoms of it in scow, or in any part of the country.4 At nna, where were many "horrid dungeons," ward thought that he had succeeded in covering a case. In one of the dark dungeons, wn twenty-four steps, was a poor wretch loaded h heavy irons and chained to the wall; nguish and misery appeared with clotted tears his face. He was not capable of speaking to " It seemed a clear case at first. "But on

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mining his breast and feet for petechiæ, or spots, - finding that he had a strong intermitting pulse, as convinced that he was not ill of that diser." 5

There can be no doubt that at this time England ; behind rather than before many other ntries, and that right principles of prison ipline were far better understood in several prison for juvenile criminals at San Michele, 1 Rome, that Howard drew the motto from Cicer which he prefixed to his book; as over the do of this house he found inscribed what he just calls "the following admirable sentence, in whic the grand purpose of all civil policy relative t criminals is expressed" :-Parum est improb coercere poena nisi probos efficias disciplina.1

The wretched custom of demanding "garnish from newcomers was almost peculiar to England at any rate it was "not common in foreig prisons." 2 In France it was strictly prohibite