without being called upon to defray any fees claimed by the jailer or
sheriff; while the second bill authorized justices of the peace to see
to the maintenance of cleanliness in the prisons. The first set at
liberty hundreds of innocent persons who were still bound because they
could not meet the ruinous fees demanded from them; while the second
undoubtedly saved the lives of hundreds more. These were instalments of
reform.

Thus it will easily be understood that whatever the condition of
Newgate and other English prisons was, at the date of Mrs. Fry's labors,
they were far better than in previous years. Some attempts had been made
to render these pest-houses less horrible; but for lack of wise,
intelligent management, and occupation for the prisoners, the wards
still presented pictures of Pandemonium. It needed a second reformer to
take up the work where Howard left it, and to labor on behalf of the
convicts; for in too many cases they were looked upon as possessing
neither right nor place on God's earth. In the olden days, some judges
had publicly declared their preference for hanging, because the criminal
would then trouble neither State nor society any further. But in spite
of Tyburn horrors, each week society furnished fresh wretches for the
gallows; whilst those who were in custody were almost regarded as
"fore-doomed and fore-damned."

During the interval which elapsed between Mrs. Fry's short visits to
Newgate in 1813, and the resumption of those visits in 1817, together
with the inauguration of her special work among the convicts, she was
placed in the crucible of trial. Death claimed several relatives; she
suffered long-continued illness, and experienced considerable losses of
property. All these things refined the gold of her character and
discovered its sterling worth. Some natures grow hard and sullen under