THE EARNEST PHILANTHROPIST. she conquered that timidity and sensitiveness which had hitherto prevented her from becoming a speaker among the Friends, and was soon acknowledged as a most gifted and eloquent minister by the Society : vanquishing her repugnance to appear thus publicly by the belief that she was called, by the Lord, to the work. In November, 1812, Mrs. Fry and her family returned to St. Mildred's Court, to pass the winter. Here the same charity, sun-like, diffused its rays ; and in her alms -giving, liberal but retiring, she did not shrink from trouble or inconvenience which would have deterred many, frequently undertaking a fatiguing search through some of the obscure streets of the city, to investigate the particulars of a case which demanded her aid. But she remarks : "I felt quite in my element, serving the poor ; and although I was much tired, yet it gave me much pleasure : it is an occupation that my nature is so fond of ; I wish not to take credit to myself." At that time, in a quadrangular enclosure within the precincts of Newgate, measuring something less than two hundred superficial yards, three hundred wretched females, with their children, were confined, under the guardianship of a man and a boy. Tried and untried, misdemeanants and felons, without classification of any kind, destitute of the com- monest necessaries of life, in abject rags and dirt, they were huddled together. The portion of the jail allotted to them presented a scene too hideous, 23
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