Elizabeth Fry Part 10

The way appears opening with our present Ministers to obtain libraries for all the Coast Guard stations, a matter I have long had at heart. My desire is to do all these things with a single eye to the glory of G.o.d, and the welfare of my fellow mortals; and if they succeed, to pray that He alone who can bless and increase, may prosper the work of my unworthy hands. Upon going to the Custom House, I found Government had at last granted my request, and given 500 for libraries for the stations; this is, I think, cause for thankfulness.

Private subscriptions were sedulously sought, and large sums flowed in; besides these, many large book-sellers, and the chief religious publishing societies gave donations of books. These were valued in the aggregate at about one thousand pounds. The details of the work were left to herself, while the Rev. John W. Cunningham, Captain W.E. Parry, and Captain Bowles selected the books.

The total number of volumes for the stations amounted to 25,896. Each station possessed a library of fifty-two different books, while each _district_, which included the stations in that part of the country, possessed a larger a.s.sortment for reference and exchange. Most of the parcels were sent, carriage free, in Government vessels, by means of the Custom House. This work involved many journeys to London, and much arduous labor. The Rev. Thomas Timpson, a dissenting minister in London, acted most efficiently as secretary, and lightened her labors to a large extent. During the summer of 1835, the work of distributing these volumes was nearly all accomplished; and as during that summer Mr. Fry's business demanded his presence in the south of England, she decided to seize the opportunity of visiting all the Coast Guard stations in that part of the country. In this way she journeyed along the whole south coast, from the Forelands to Land's End, welcomed everywhere with true-hearted veneration and love. She addressed herself princ.i.p.ally to the commanders of the different stations, bespeaking for the books care in treatment and regularity in carrying out the exchanges. These gentlemen manifested the warmest interest in the plan, and promised their most thorough co-operation.

At Portsmouth she visited the Haslar Hospital, and while in Portsea, the female Penitentiary. In the latter inst.i.tution she desired to speak a few words to the inmates, who were, accordingly, a.s.sembled in the parlor for the purpose. Mrs. Fry laid her bonnet on the table, sat down, and made different inquiries about the conduct of the young women, and the rules enforced. It appeared that two of them were pointed out as being peculiarly hardened and refractory. She did not, however, notice this at the time, but delivered a short and affectionate address to all.

Afterwards, on going away, she went up to the two refractory ones, and, extending her hand to them, said to each, most impressively: "I trust I shall hear better things of thee." Both of them burst into unexpected tears, thus acknowledging the might of kindness over such natures.

At Falmouth, during this same excursion, she supplied some of the men-of-war with libraries. Some of the packets partic.i.p.ated in the same boon, so that each ship sailing from that port took out a well-chosen library of about thirty books. These library books were changed on each succeeding voyage, and were highly appreciated by both officers and seamen.

In 1836, the report of the Committee for furnishing the Coast Guard of the United Kingdom with Libraries, appeared. From it, we find that in addition to the 500 kindly granted by the Government at first towards the project, Mr. Spring Rice, a later Chancellor of the Exchequer granted further sums amounting to 460. Thus the undertaking was brought to a successful termination. There were supplied: 498 libraries for the stations on sh.o.r.e, including 25,896 volumes; 74 libraries for districts on sh.o.r.e, including 12,880 volumes; 48 libraries for cruisers, including 1,876 volumes; school books for children of crews, 6,464 volumes; pamphlets, tracts, etc., 5,357 numbers; total, 52,464 volumes and numbers.

These were distributed among 21,000 people on Coast Guard stations, and to the hands on board many ships. Years afterwards, many and very unexpected letters of thanks continued to reach Mrs. Fry from those who had benefited by this good work.

"Instant in season and out of season," this very trip in the south of England produced another good work. She, with her husband and daughter, returned home by way of North Devon, Somerset, and Wiltshire. At Amesbury she tarried long enough to learn something of the mental dest.i.tution of the shepherds employed on Salisbury Plain, and set her fertile brain to contrive a scheme for the supply of the necessary books. She communicated her desires and intentions to the clergyman of the parish, and Sir Edward and Lady Antrobus, who unitedly undertook to furnish a librarian. A short note from this individual, addressed to Mrs. Fry some few months after, proved how well the thing was working.

In it he said: "Forty-five books are in constant circulation, with the additional magazines. More than fifty poor people read them with attention, return them with thanks, and desire the loan of more, frequently observing that they think it a very kind thing indeed that they should be furnished with so many good books, free of all costs, so entertaining and instructive, these long winter evenings."

About the same period Mrs. Fry formed a Servants' Society for the succor and help of domestic servants. She had known instances wherein so many of this cla.s.s had come to sorrow, in every sense, for the lack of temporary refuge and a.s.sistance, that she alone undertook to found this inst.i.tution. In an entry made in her journal in 1825, we find the following reference to this matter:--

The Servants' Society appears gradually opening as if it would be established according to my desire. No one knows what I go through in forming these inst.i.tutions; it is always in fear, and mostly with many misgivings, wondering at myself for doing it. I believe the original motive is love to my Master and love to my fellow-creatures; but fear is so predominant a feeling in my mind that it makes me suffer, perhaps unnecessarily, from doubts. I felt something like freedom in prayer before making the regulations of the Servants' Society. Sometimes my natural understanding seems enlightened about things of that kind, as if I were helped to see the right and useful thing.

In closing this chapter, some allusion must be made to her latest effort. It dates from 1840, and owed its foundation princ.i.p.ally to her.

It was that of the "Nursing Sisters," an order called into existence by the needs of every-day life. As she visited in sick-chambers, or ministered to the needs of the poor, she felt the want of efficient skilled nurses, and, with the restless energy of a true philanthropist, set about remedying the want. Her own leisure would not admit of training a band of nurses, but her desire was carried into effect by Mrs. Samuel Gurney, her sister-in-law. Under this lady's supervision, and the patronage of the Queen Dowager, Lady Inglis, and other members of the n.o.bility, a number of young women were selected, trained, and taught to fulfil the duties of nurses. They were placed for some time in the largest public hospitals, in order to learn the scientific system of nursing; then, supposing their qualifications and conduct were found to be satisfactory, they were received permanently as Sisters. These Sisters wore a distinctive dress, received an annual stipend of about twenty guineas, and were provided with a home during the intervals of their engagements. There was also a "Superannuation Fund" for the relief of those Sisters who should, after long service, fall into indigence or ill-health. Christian women, of all denominations, were encouraged to join the inst.i.tution; while the services of the Sisters were equally available in the palace and in the cottage. No Sister was permitted to receive presents, directly or indirectly, from the patients nursed by her, seeing that all sums received went to a common fund for the benefit of the Society. These Sisters appear to have worked very much like the modern deaconesses of the Church of England. They rightly earned the t.i.tle of "Sisters of Mercy."

These are but examples of Mrs. Fry's good works,--done "all for love, and none for a reward."

Many other smaller works claimed her thoughts, so that her life was very full of the royal grace of charity. The list might have been still further extended, but to the ordinary student of her life it is already sufficiently long to prove the reality of her religion and her love.

CHAPTER XIV.

EXPANSION OF THE PRISON ENTERPRISE.--HONORS.

It is an old adage that "nothing succeeds like success." Mrs. Fry and her prison labors had become famous; not only famous, but the subjects of talk, both in society and out of it. Kings, queens, statesmen, philanthropists, ladies of fashion, devotees of charity, authors and divines were all looking with more or less interest at the experiments made by the apostles of this new crusade against vice, misery, and crime. Many of them courted acquaintance with the Quakeress who hesitated not to plunge into gloomy prison-cells, nor to penetrate pest-houses decimated with jail fever, in pursuance of her mission. And while they courted her acquaintance, they fervently wished her "G.o.d speed." Two or three communications, still in existence, prove that Hannah More and Maria Edgeworth were of the number of good wishers.

In a short note written from Barley Wood, in 1826, Hannah More thus expressed her appreciation of Mrs. Fry's character:--

Any request of yours, if within my very limited power, cannot fail to be immediately complied with. In your kind note, I wish you had mentioned something of your own health and that of your family. I look back with no small pleasure to the too short visits with which you once indulged me; a repet.i.tion of it would be no little gratification to me. Whether Divine Providence may grant it or not, I trust through Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us, that we may hereafter meet in that blessed country where there is neither sin, sorrow, nor separation.

Many years previous to this, Hannah More had presented Mrs. Fry with a copy of her _Practical Piety_, writing this inscription on the fly-leaf:--

TO MRS. FRY. Presented by Hannah More, as a token of veneration of her heroic zeal, Christian charity, and persevering kindness to the most forlorn of human beings. They were naked, and she clothed them, in prison, and she visited them; ignorant, and she taught them, for _His_ sake, in _His_ name, and by _His_ word, who went about doing good.

No words can add to the beauty of this inscription.

During one of Maria Edgeworth's London visits, the name and fame of Mrs.

Fry, and Newgate as civilized by her, formed such an attraction that the lively Irish auth.o.r.ess must needs go to see for herself. In her picturesque style she thus affords us an account of her visit:--

Yesterday we went, the moment we had swallowed our breakfast, by appointment to Newgate. The private door opened at sight of our tickets, and the great doors, and the little doors, and the thick doors, and doors of all sorts, were unbolted and unlocked, and on we went, through dreary but clean pa.s.sages, till we came to a room where rows of empty benches fronted us, and a table, on which lay a large Bible. Several ladies and gentlemen entered, and took their seats on benches, at either side of the table, in silence.

Enter Mrs. Fry, in a drab-colored silk cloak, and plain, borderless Quaker cap; a most benevolent countenance; Guido Madonna face, calm, benign. "I must make an inquiry; is Maria Edgeworth here? And where?" I went forward; she bade us come and sit beside her. Her first smile, as she looked upon me, I can never forget. The prisoners came in, and in an orderly manner ranged themselves on the benches. All quite clean faces, hair, caps and hands. On a very low bench in front, little children were seated, and watched by their mothers. Almost all these women, about thirty, were under sentence of transportation; some few only were for imprisonment.

One who did not appear was under sentence of death; frequently women, when sentenced to death, become ill, and unable to attend Mrs. Fry; the others come regularly and voluntarily.

She opened the Bible, and read in the most sweetly solemn, sedate voice I ever heard, slowly and distinctly, without anything in the manner that could distract attention from the matter. Sometimes she paused to explain; which she did with great judgment, addressing the convicts--"_We_ have felt! _We_ are convinced!" They were very attentive, unexpectedly interested, I thought, in all she said, and touched by her manner. There was nothing put on in their countenances; not any appearance of hypocrisy. I studied their countenances carefully, but I could not see any which, without knowing to whom they belonged, I should have decided was bad; yet Mrs. Fry a.s.sured me that all those women had been of the worst sort. She confirmed what we have read and heard--that it was by their love of their children that she first obtained influence over these abandoned women. When she first took 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 cla.s.ses, 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 _nave_, 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 cla.s.sification 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 completed the females would be separated from the males, female warders were to be appointed, employment found for all prisoners, and books of information and devotion were to be supplied to each cell; while a chaplain (an unknown official, hitherto) was to be appointed. In Germany, four new penitentiaries were to be constructed; viz., at Berlin, Munster in Westphalia, Ratibor in Silesia, and Konigsberg. Two of these penitentiaries were to be exactly like the Model Prison at Pentonville; separate confinement was to be practically carried out, and the prisoners were to be taught trades under the superintendence of picked teachers. From Dusseldorf came information that all the female prisoners were improving under the new _regime_; that an asylum for discharged prisoners was effecting a wonderful transformation in the characters and lives of those who sought refuge there; and that the inmates only left its shelter to secure situations in service. In addition to these cheering items she had the satisfaction of holding communications with many princely, n.o.ble and royal personages on the Continent, respecting the progress of her favorite work, and the new regulations and buildings then adopted.

To return to her home-work and its ramifications will only be to prove how far the great principles which she had taught were bearing fruit.

The Government Inspectors were working hard upon the lines laid down by Mrs. Fry; and if at times they found anything which clashed with their own pre-conceived ideas of what a prison should be, they were always ready to make allowance for the difficulties of pioneer work, such as this lady and her coadjutors had to do at Newgate. At Paramatta, New South Wales, where, according to a letter from the Rev. Samuel Marsden in an earlier part of this work, the condition of female convicts had been scandalous to the Government which shipped them out there, and deplorable in the extreme for the poor creatures themselves, a large factory had been erected, designed for the reception of the convicts upon their landing. It served its purpose well, being commodious enough to receive not only the new importations, but the refractory women also, who were returned from their situations. It was well managed; the inmates being divided into three cla.s.ses, and treated with more or less kindness accordingly. True, at one time, even after the erection of this factory, from the management being entrusted to inefficient hands, a scene of disorder and misrule had prevailed; but that had been promptly and firmly repressed. Hard labor and strict discipline had succeeded in reducing the temporary confusion to something like order, and made residence there the dread of returning evil-doers, whilst it afforded a refuge for new-comers. Sir Richard Bourke, and Sir Ralph and Lady Darling, used every endeavor to make the place a success; while, at home, Lord Glenelg and Sir George Grey gave the matter, on behalf of the Government, every needful and possible aid. A good superintendent and matron were appointed from England, and supplied with every requisite for the instruction and occupation of the convicts at the factory.

This cordial co-operation of the Colonial Office in her schemes of improvement for the female convicts at Paramatta, encouraged her to attempt the same good work for the convicts at Hobart Town, Tasmania. It happened that by 1843 the transportation of females to New South Wales had ceased, the younger establishment at Hobart Town receiving all the female convicts; but, like the hydra of cla.s.sic lore, the evil sprang up there as fresh and as vigorous as if it had not been conquered at Paramatta. Lady Franklin and other ladies communicated with Mrs. Fry, showing her the great need that still existed for her benevolent exertions in that quarter. From these communications it seemed that the a.s.signment of women into domestic slavery still continued, in all its dire forms. When a convict ship arrived from England, employers of all grades became candidates for the services of the convicts. With the exception of publicans, and ticket-of-leave men, who were not allowed to employ convicts, anybody and everybody might engage the poor banished prisoners without any guarantee whatsoever as to the future conduct of the employer toward the servant, or specification as to the kind of work to be performed. Those convicts who have behaved themselves best on the voyage out were a.s.signed to the best cla.s.ses of society, while the others fell to the refuse of the employers' cla.s.s. As it was a fact that a large proportion of the tradesmen applying for servants were convicts who had fully served their time, it may be imagined how lacking in civilization and integrity such employers often were. But if the condition of the convicts was hopeless after their a.s.signment to places of service, it was, if possible, more hopeless still in the home, or "factory," in which they were first received. Some of the letters before referred to cast a flood of terrible light upon the condition of the poor wretches who had quitted their country "for that country's good,"

even when under supposed discipline and restraint. A pa.s.sage from one of these letters reads like an ugly story of "the good old times!"

The Cascade Factory is a receiving-house for the women on their first arrival (if not a.s.signed from the ship), or on their transition from one place to another, and also a house of correction for faults committed in domestic service; but with no pretension to be a place of reformatory discipline, and seldom failing to turn out the women worse than they entered it.

Religious instruction there was none, except that occasionally on the Sabbath the superintendent of the prison read prayers, and sometimes divine service was performed by a chaplain, who also had an extensive parish to attend to.

The officers of the establishment consisted, at that time, of only five persons--a porter, the superintendent, and matron, and two a.s.sistants. The number of persons in the factory, when first visited by Miss Hayter, was five hundred and fifty. It followed, of course, that nothing like prison discipline could be enforced, or even attempted. In short, so congenial to its inmates was this place of custody (it would be unfair to call it a place of punishment) that they returned to it again and again when they wished to change their place of servitude; and they were known to commit offences on purpose to be sent into it, preparatory to their rea.s.signment elsewhere.

Yet, after visiting the factory, and hearing everybody speak of its unhappy inmates, I could not but feel that they were far more to be pitied than blamed. No one has ever attempted any measure to ameliorate their degraded condition. I felt that had they had the opportunity of religious instruction, some at least might be rescued. I wish I could express to you all I feel and think upon the subject, and how completely I am overwhelmed with the awful sin of allowing so many wretched beings to perish for lack of instruction. Even in the hospital of the factory the unhappy creatures are as much neglected, in spiritual things, as if they were in a heathen land. There are no Bibles, and no Christians to tell them of a Saviour's dying love.

Mrs. Fry laid these communications before the Colonial Secretary without delay, praying him to alter this terrible state of things. She was at once listened to. The building was altered, by orders from England; the convicts were divided into cla.s.ses; employment and discipline were provided; daily instruction, both secular and religious, was imparted; so that, by degrees, the establishment became what it should have been from the first--a house of detention, discipline, and refuge. In addition, a large vessel called the _Anson_ was fitted up as a temporary prison, sent out to Hobart Town, and moored in the river. This vessel received the new shipments of transports from England, and afforded, by its staff of officers, opportunity for a six months' training of the convicts, who then were not permitted to enter the service of the colonists until after this period had expired. By these different means Mrs. Fry had the satisfaction of knowing that the convicts had yet another opportunity of amendment granted them after leaving the prisons of their native land. It has already been observed that in most of the prisons of the United Kingdom female warders were employed, while matrons were appointed on the out-going convict ships. Contrary to the lot of many reformers, Mrs. Fry was spared to see most of the reforms which she had recommended, become law.

After Mrs. Fry's death an interesting report was issued by the Inspector-General of Prisons in Ireland, relating to the Grange Gorman Lane Female Prison, Dublin. Mrs. Fry had taken special interest in this prison, it having been the first erected _exclusively for women_ in the United Kingdom, and intended, if found successful, to serve as a sort of model for other places. The experiment had proved entirely successful and satisfactory; matron, warders and chaplain all united in one chorus of praise. Major Cottingham, the Inspector-General, wrote:--

Although I made my annual inspection of this prison on February 18th, 1847, as a date upon which to form my report, yet I have had very many opportunities of seeing it during past and former years, in my duties connected with my superintendence of the convict department. The visitors may see many changes in the faces and persons of the prisoners, but no surprise can ever find a difference in the high and superior order with which this prison is conducted. The matron, Mrs. Rawlins, upon whom the entire responsibility of the interior management devolves, was selected some years since, and sent over to this country by the benevolent and philanthropic Mrs. Fry, whose exertions in the cause of female prison reformation were extended to all parts of the British Empire, and who, although lately summoned to the presence of her Divine Master, has nowhere left a more valuable instance of her sound judgment and high discriminating powers than in the selection of Mrs. Rawlins to be placed at the head of this experimental prison, occupied alone by females; and so successful has the experiment been, that I understand several other prisons solely for females have been lately opened in Scotland, and even in Australia. In this prison is to be seen an uninterrupted system of reformatory discipline in every cla.s.s, such as is to be found in no other prison that I am aware of.

The matron alluded to in the above extracts gratefully acknowledged that Mrs. Fry's plan had completely succeeded in every respect, while she was equally grateful in owning that to her instructions and wise maternal counsel she herself owed her own fitness for that special branch of the work.

The testimonies to her success not only came in from official quarters, but from the prisoners themselves. This chronicle would scarcely be complete without a specimen or two of the many communications she received from prisoners at home and from convicts abroad. True, on one or two occasions the women at Newgate had behaved in a somewhat refractory manner, for their poor degraded human nature could not conceive of pure disinterested Christian love working for their good without fee or reward; but even at these times their better nature very soon rea.s.serted itself, and penitence and tears took the place of insubordination. To those who had sinned against and had been forgiven by her, Mrs. Fry's memory was something almost too holy for earth. No orthodoxly canonized saint of the Catholic Church ever received truer reverence, or performed such miracles of moral healing.

The following communication reached her from some of the prisoners at Newgate:--

HONORED MADAM,--Influenced by grat.i.tude to our general benefactress and friend, we humbly venture to address you. It is with sorrow we say that we had not the pleasure of seeing you at the accustomed time, which we have always been taught to look for--we mean Friday last. We are fearful that your health was the cause of our being deprived of that heartfelt joy which your presence always diffuses through the prison; but we hope, through the mercies of G.o.d, we shall be able personally to return you the grateful acknowledgments of our hearts, before we leave our country forever, for all the past and present favors so benevolently bestowed upon what has been termed the "most unfortunate of society," until cheered by your benevolence, kindness and charity: and hoping that your health, which is so dear to such a number of unfortunates, will be fully re-established before we go, so that after our departure from our native land, those who are so unfortunate as to fall into our situation may enjoy the same blessing, both temporally and spiritually, that we have done before them. And may our minds be impressed with a due sense of the many comforts we have enjoyed whilst under your kind protection. Honored and worthy Madam, we hope we shall be pardoned for our presumption in addressing you at this time, but our fears of not seeing you before the time of our departure induce us to entreat your acceptance of our prayers for your restoration to your family; and may the prayers and supplications of the unfortunate prisoners ascend to Heaven for the prolonging of that life which is so dear to the most wretched of the English nation. Honored Madam, we beg leave to subscribe ourselves, with humble respect, your most grateful and devoted,

THE PRISONERS OF NEWGATE.

The following letter was from a convict at Paramatta, New South Wales, some time after her banishment to that colony:--

HONORED MADAM,--The duty I owe to you, likewise to the benevolent society to which you have the honor to belong, compels me to take up my pen to return you my most sincere thanks for the heavenly instruction I derived from you, and the dear friends, during my confinement in Newgate.

In the month of April, 1817, that blessed prayer of yours sank deep into my heart; and as you said, so I have found it, that when no eyes see and no ears hear, G.o.d both sees and hears, and then it was that the arrow of conviction entered my hard heart; in Newgate it was that poor Harriet, like the Prodigal Son, came to herself, and took with her words, and sought the Lord. Truly I can say with David, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have learned Thy ways, O Lord."... Believe me, my dear Madam, I bless the day that brought me inside Newgate walls, for then it was that the ways of Divine truth shone into my dark mind.'... Believe me, my dear Madam, although I am a poor captive in a distant land, I would not give up having communion with G.o.d one single day for my liberty; for what is the liberty of the body compared with the liberty of the soul? Soon will the time come when death will release me from all the earthly fetters that hold me now, for I trust to be with Christ, who bought me with His precious blood. And now, my dear Madam, these few sincere sentiments of mine I wish you to make known to the world, that the world may see that your labor in Newgate has not been in vain in the Lord. Please give my love to the dear friends; the keeper of Newgate, and all the afflicted prisoners; and although we may never meet on earth again, I hope we shall all meet in the realms of bliss, never to part again.

Believe me to remain your humble servant, HARRIET S----.

In addition to the grateful acknowledgments of "those who were ready to perish," Mrs. Fry won an unusual meed of honorable esteem from the n.o.ble and great. Sovereigns and rulers, statesmen and cabinet councillors, all owned the worth of goodness, and rendered to the Quaker lady the homage of both tongue and heart. Beside that notable visit to the Mansion House to be presented to Queen Charlotte, in 1818, Mrs. Fry had many interviews with royalty--these royal and n.o.ble personages conferring honor upon themselves more than upon her by their kindly interest in her work.