ps, the most
intractable fiend that human benevolence can attempt to reform; but even
this difficulty the mild and powerful character of HOWARD
accomplished.

"In one of our Western gaols, he found an unhappy female loaded with
heavy irons: on his appearance she entreated him to obtain for her the
removal of these galling fetters. Upon enquiry, he found that many
endeavours had been made to keep this turbulent offender in proper
subjection without the severity of chains; but, after repeated promises
of amendment on milder treatment, she had obliged the keeper to have
recourse to this extreme by relapsing into the most flagrant and
insufferable contempt of decency and order. Upon this information,
HOWARD said mildly to the unhappy criminal, 'I wish to relieve you, but
you put it out of my power; for I should lose all the little credit I
have, if I exerted it for offenders so hardened and so turbulent.' 'I
know,' replied the intractable delinquent, 'I know that I have a proud
and rebellious spirit; but if I give a promise to so good a man as you
are, I can and I will command it.' On this firm assurance of
reformation, the benevolent HOWARD became a kind of surety for her
future peaceable conduct on the removal of her irons; and he had the
inexpressible delight to find, on his next visit to the prisoners of
this gaol, that the outrageous and ungovernable culprit, for whom he had
ventured to answer, was become the most orderly among them.

"I could wish, for the moral interest of mankind, that it were possible
to obtain a minute account of the services rendered to the calamitous
spirit of many a forsaken individual by the singular charity of HOWARD.
What could be more instructive than to observe how his Beneficence
encreased by its exertion and success; while his desire of befriending
the wretched became, as it were, the vital spirit that gave strength and
duration to his own existence!

"If we contemplate with pleasure the singular re-establishment of bodily
health, which HOWARD derived from his active philanthropy; it may be
still more pleasing to recollect, that it also afforded him an
efficacious medicine for an afflicted mind. Perhaps it was to shew the
full efficacy of this virtue in all its lustre, that Heaven allotted to
this excellent personage a domestic calamity, which appears (to borrow
an expression from a great writer) 'of an unconscionable size to human
strength.'

"That capricious and detestable spirit