greater part of her jewels, and applied the money to the formation of a fund, for the relief of the sick and destitute of the village.

The house at Cardington was now rebuilt and enlarged; the gardens and grounds laid out afresh. But the attention of the newly-married couple was not confined to their own comfort. Howard had formed a plan for improving the dwellings of the poor on his estate. He did not believe that the wealth he had inherited from his parent, was altogether his own. He looked upon it as a deposit which God had given into his hands for the common benefit of mankind. His assistance was always available to those in pain. or want; his sympathy was as warm as his munificence was wide; but improvement, not charity, was in every case his object. Cardington, when he went to reside there, was one of the most miserable villages in England. With characteristic energy he set to work to improve the state of the people, both in a worldly and spiritual sense. His first step was to make the homes of his four tenants fit for self-respecting men to live in. He pulled down the mud huts, and built a number of superior cottages in their stead, which he let out on the same terms as the wretched hovels. His next step was to establish a number of schools in the vicinity. In a few years, from being one of the worst, Cardington became one of the most orderly and prosperous hamlets in the kingdom. The cottages were neat, clean, and comfortable; the poor themselves honest, sober, industrious, well in

formed, and religious. All this was the work of one benevolent man, seconded by the endeavours of his truly charitable wife. But this happy life, in so sweet a retreat, so rich in blessing to all around them, came suddenly to a sad and unexpected end. Mrs Howard, after giving birth to a son, their first and only child, died on 31st March 1765. As she was supposed to be on the road to recovery, the blow was utterly unforeseen. Indescribable was the grief of the bereaved husband. Henceforth the sunniest side of his life was blank and dark. But religion, which had always been the vital principle of his life, now came to his aid, and enabled him to bow with resignation to the stroke that laid his dearest enjoyments in the dust. His love for his wife had been a passion; and to the latest hour of his existence he cherished her memory with a mixture of fond regret and melancholy pleasure. Mrs Howard was a Churchwoman. In the morning, therefore, her husband was in the habit of attending divine worship with her at the parish church, though he remained a Nonconformist all his life. In the care of his infant son, in his devotions, in the management of his estates, and of his schools, and in attending to the welfare of the people, he strove, at first, to find some antidotes to his affliction. But towards the close of 1766, his health was so bad that his physicians ordered immediate change of air and scene. He visited Bath and London, and next year made a short tour in Holland. He then returned to Cardington, and resumed his exertions there; but he could not

endure the melancholy associations of the past, and again resolved to travel-this time to Italy. From the notes made during this journey, which have been preserved, he appears at that period to have dedicated his soul in a more formal and solemn manner to God, and to have devoted his active energies, to his fellowcreatures. His piety had been fervent from his youth. Chastened by affliction, it now burned up with a new and brighter flame, and his whole being assumed a loftier and serener aspect.

He travelled through France, Italy, Germany, and Holland; but on his return to England, his health again declined. Neither were the wounds of his mind thoroughly healed, but he busied himself more than ever, with his schools and cottage building, leading, as usual, a life of active benevolence. In 1773 he was nominated to the office of high sheriff of Bedfordshire. As the Test Act was then in force, he was, as a dissenter, disqualified for this office, on the ground of non-communion with the Established Church. He had no choice between a refusal of the proffered post on conscientious grounds, or its acceptance without complying with the ordinary forms, thus braving the law, and taking the consequences at his personal peril. He chose the latter course-a bold proceeding, as the penalties to which he was liable were very severe; for as he became high sheriff, without previously receiving the Holy Communion at church, any mercenary individual might have sued him before the courts for a penalty of £500, besides disqualifying

him from holding any office in church or state, from suing any person whatsoever, however grievously he might be injured, from prosecuting the most just demands, and from holding at any time the office of guardian or executor. Howard's determination was a bold one; but he was not the man to shrink from personal peril, where a principle was at stake. Having accepted the office, Howard at once set about the discharge of its serious and responsible duties. He prepared to superintend in person the administration of justice. The criminal world was new to him. During the intervals of his attendance at court, he visited and inspected the prison with great minuteness. Not a cell was overlooked, every abuse was brought to light.

To one of Howard's creed, Bedford gaol was almost a sacred spot, for here John Bunyan had been confined, and composed his immortal "Pilgrim's Progress." Here his investigations in prisons began, and with them a new chapter in the social history of our country, was opened. In his introduction to his great work on the state of prisons, he observes-" The circumstance which excited me to activity in the prisoner's behalf, was the seeing some who, by the verdict of juries, were declared not guilty, . . . after having been confined for months, dragged back to gaol, and locked up again until they should pay sundry fees to the gaoler, the clerk of assize, etc. In order to redress this hardship, I applied to the justices of the county for a salary to the gaoler, in lieu of his fees. The

bench..

was willing to grant the relief desired, but they wanted a precedent for charging the county with the expense. I therefore rode into several neighbouring counties in search of a precedent, but I soon learned that the same injustice was practised in them; and looking into the prisons I beheld scenes of calamity which I grew daily more and more anxious to alleviate." Such was the commencement of that grand and noble work which has made the name of John Howard famous throughout the world as the prince of philanthropists. In Bedford gaol the dungeons for felons were eleven feet below the ground; and the inmates had to sleep on the wet floor. A person who, in those days, was imprisoned for debt, after he had settled with his creditor, could not obtain his release till he could fee the gaoler 15s. 4d. and the turnkey 2s., and he was thrust back into his dungeon literally to rot, for in those days that expression had the naked and terrible significance of truth. The same course was adopted with persons accused of crime, if declared not guilty. For being innocent, a poor man might be imprisoned for life!

Some good people had now and then been horrorstruck by the reports of sufferings endured in gaols. A committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge had, in 1701, been nominated to visit Newgate (where the disorders were notorious), and other gaols. Dr Bray, who was at the head of this inspection, gave the most deplorable accounts of all they had seen. Every prison in the land, from the