e her baby, and the very health which is being restored to her
produces irritation of mind.

This last entry furnishes, incidentally, proof of the barbarity of the
laws of Christian England at that time. Human life was of no account
compared with the robbery of a few shillings, or the cutting down of a
tree. This matter of capital punishment, in its turn, attracted the
attention of the Quaker community, together with other philanthropic
individuals, and the statute book was in time freed from many of the
sanguinary enactments which had, prior to that period, disgraced it.

By this time notoriety began to attend Mrs. Fry's labors, and she was
complimented and stared at according to the world's most approved
fashion. The newspapers noticed her work; the people at Court talked
about it; and London citizens began to realize that in this quiet
Quakeress there dwelt a power for good. Given an unusual method of doing
good, noticed by the high in place and power, together with praise or
criticism by the papers, and, like Lord Byron, the worker wakes some
morning to find himself or herself famous. But growing fame did not
agree with Elizabeth Fry's moral or spiritual nature. She possessed far
too noble a soul to be pleased with it; her responsibility and her
success, except so far as they affected the waifs she desired to bless,
were matters for her own conscience, and her God. She mentioned in her
journal her fears whether or not this publicity, and the evident respect
paid her by the people in power in the city, might not develop worldly
pride of self-exaltation in her. Highly-toned and pure as her spirit
was, it shrank from any strain of self-seeking or pride. Only such a
spirit could have conceived such a work of usefulness; only such an one
could endure the inevitable repulsion which attends such work among the
degraded, and conquer.

CHAPTER VII.

EVIDENCE BEFORE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Public attention was so far aroused on the subject of prison discipline,
and the condition of criminals, that a Committee of the House of Commons
was appointed to examine into evidence respecting the prisons of the
metropolis. On the 27th of February, 1818, Mrs. Fry was examined by this
Committee, relative to her personal experiences of this work, and her
own labors in connection with it. The clear, calm statements made by her
before this Committee cast considerable light upon her doings, and the
principles upon which she a