nd
instruction under the jail roof, so that on the discharge of prisoners
they might be fitted to earn their own maintenance in that world which
formerly they had cursed with their evil deeds. But it was not so in the
era of John Howard, nor of Elizabeth Fry. Then, justice made short work
with criminals and debtors. The former it hanged in droves, and left the
latter to literally "rot" in prison. Two systems of transportation have
been tried: the one previous to Howard's day succeeded in pouring into
the American plantations the crime and vice of England; whilst the
other, which succeeded him, did the same for Australia. After the breach
between the American colonies and the mother-country, the system of
transportation to the Transatlantic plantations ceased; it was in the
succeeding years that the foul holes called prisons, killed their
thousands, and "jail-fever" its tens of thousands.

Yet, in spite of hanging felons faster than any other nation in Europe,
in spite of killing them off slowly by the miseries of these holes,
crime multiplied more than ever. Gigantic social corruptions festered in
the midst of the nation, until it seemed as if a war which carried off a
few thousands or tens of thousands of the lower classes, were almost a
blessing. Alongside the horrible evils for which Government was
responsible, grew up multitudes of other evils against which it fought,
or over which it exercised a strong and somewhat tyrannical upper-hand.
In society there was a constant war going on between law and crime.
Extirpation--not reform--was the end aimed at; the prison officials of
that time looked upon a criminal as a helpless wretch, presenting fair
game for plunder, torture and tyranny. The records in Howard's journals,
and the annals of Mrs. Fry's labors, amply enlighten us as to the result
of this state of things.

In Bedford jail the dungeons for felons were eleven feet below the
ground, always wet and slimy, and upon these floors the inmates had to
sleep. At Nottingham the jail stood on the side of a hill, while the
dungeons were cut in the solid rock; these dungeons could only be
entered after descending more than thirty steps. At Gloucester there was
but one court for all prisoners, and, while fever was decimating them,
only one day-room. At Salisbury the prisoners were chained together at
Christmas time and sent in couples to beg. In some of the jails, open
sewers ran through corridors and cells, so that the poo