THE EARNEST PHILANTHROPIST. was magical in its effects. She was ever sweet and kind in her manner towards them ; yet it was thought " more terrible to be brought up before her than before the Judge." Her soft, musical voice ; her sympathy, her disclaimance of all desire to hold authority over them, had enchained their hearts. On one occasion, being informed that notwith- standing her repeated injunctions, gamblingwas still pursued among the prisoners, she sent for them, and gently and sorrowfully spoke to them ; concluding her mild rebuke by saying that she would esteem it a proof of their regard if those who had cards in their possession would have the " candour and kindness " to bring them to her. Contrary to her most sanguine expectation, one poor creature after another delivered up their cards to her, with expressions of heartfelt penitence, until five packs were collected. The prison had become, in 1818, almost an exhi- bition. Statesmen, city functionaries, men of wit and learning, high -born ladies, foreign travellers, " flocked to see the extraordinary change that had come over the scene" ; and to hear Mrs. Fry address the women, or read to them, in that low, clear, musical voice, was held to be " an intellectual treat." Prior to this wondrous alteration, it had been an invariable custom with the female convicts to tear down, deface, and destroy everything on the eve of their departure for Botany Bay. On their way to Deptford, whither they were conveyed in open 31
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=