cted. There is no exaggeration, no
braggadocio, no flourish of philanthropy,--simply a straightforward
story of quiet but persistent endeavors to lessen the human misery
within the walls of the prison at Newgate; for, hitherto, her efforts
had been confined to that jail.

"_Query_. You applied to the Committee of the Court of Aldermen?"

"_Ans_. Not at first; I thought it better to try the experiment for a
month, and then to ask them whether they would second us, and adopt our
measures as their own; we, therefore, assembled our women, read over our
rules, brought them work, knitting, and other things, and our
institution commenced; it has now been about ten months. Our rules have
certainly been occasionally broken, but very seldom; order has generally
been observed. I think I may say we have full power among them, for one
of them said it was more terrible to be brought up before me than before
the judge, though we use nothing but kindness. I have never punished a
woman during the whole time, or even proposed a punishment to them; and
yet I think it is impossible in a well-ordered house to have rules more
strictly attended to than they are, as far as I order them, or our
friends in general. With regard to our work, they have made nearly
twenty thousand articles of wearing apparel, the generality of which is
supplied by the slop-shops, which pay very little. Excepting three out
of this number that were missing, which we really do not think owing to
the women, we have never lost a single article. They knit from about
sixty to a hundred pairs of stockings and socks every month; they spin a
little. The earnings of work, we think, average about eighteenpence per
week for each person. This is generally spent in assisting them to live,
and helps to clothe them. For this purpose they subscribe out of their
small earnings of work about four pounds a month, and we subscribe about
eight, which keeps them covered and decent. Another very important point
is the excellent effects we have found to result from religious
education; our habit is constantly to read the Scriptures to them twice
a day. Many of them are taught, and some of them have been enabled to
read a little themselves; it has had an astonishing effect. I never saw
the Scriptures received in the same way, and to many of them they have
been entirely new, both the great system of religion and morality
contained in them; and it has been very satisfactory to observe the
effe