k notice of one or two of
their fine children, the mothers said that if she could but save
their children from the misery they had gone through in vice, they
would do anything she bid them. And when they saw the change made
in their children by her schooling, they begged to attend
themselves. I could not have conceived that the love of their
children could have remained so strong in hearts in which every
other feeling of virtue had so long been dead. The Vicar of
Wakefield's sermon in prison is, it seems, founded on a deep and
true knowledge of human nature; the spark of good is often
smothered, never wholly extinguished. Mrs. Fry often says an
extempore prayer; but this day she was quite silent; while she
covered her face with her hands for some minutes, the women were
perfectly silent, with their eyes fixed upon her; and when she
said, "You may go," they went away _slowly_. The children sat quite
still the whole time; when one leaned, her mother behind her sat
her upright. Mrs. Fry told us that the dividing the women into
classes, and putting them under monitors, had been of the greatest
advantage. There is some little pecuniary advantage attached to the
office of monitor which makes them emulous to obtain it. We went
through the female wards with Mrs. Fry, and saw the women at
various works, knitting, rug-making, etc. They have done a great
deal of needle-work very neatly, and some very ingenious. When I
expressed my foolish wonder at this to Mrs. Fry's sister, she
replied, "We have to do, recollect, Ma'am, not with fools, but with
rogues."... Far from being disappointed with the sight of what
Mrs. Fry has done, I was delighted.

This _naive_, informal chronicle of a visit to Newgate incidentally lets
out the fact that the gloomy prison was fast becoming attractive to
visitors--indeed, quite a show-place. That Mrs. Fry's labors were
receiving official honor and recognition also, there is plenty of
evidence to prove. In Prussia, her principles and exhortations had made
such headway that the Government was adapting old prisons and building
new, in order to carry out the modern doctrines of classification and
employment. In Denmark, the King had given his sanction to the measures
proposed by the Royal Danish Chancery for adding new buildings to the
prison. As soon as these buildings were comp