the course of his visitations he was
astonished to find that the gaolers received no salary, and that they
lived on what they could make out of the prisoners. As a result it
often happened that those who had been acquitted at their trial were
kept in prison long afterwards, because they were unable to pay the
fees which the gaoler demanded.

Horrified at the state in which he found the prison and at the abuses
of justice that prevailed, John Howard determined to find out what
was done in other parts of the kingdom, and visited a number of gaols
throughout the country. And fearful places he found them to be! Boys
who were taken to gaol for the first time were put with old and
hardened criminals; the prisons were dirty and ill-smelling; the
dungeons were dark and unhealthy; and, unless prisoners could afford
to pay for comforts, they were obliged to sleep on cold bare floors,
even delicate women not being exempted from such cruel treatment.

At Exeter he found two sailors in gaol, having been fined one shilling
each for some trifling offence, and owing L1 15s. 8d. for fees to the
gaolers and clerk of the peace. When he visited Cardiff he heard a man
had just died in prison after having been there ten years for a debt
of seven pounds. At Plymouth he found that three men had been shut up
in a little dark room only five and a half feet high, so that they
could neither breathe freely nor stand upright.

Hundreds of cases as bad or worse than these did he discover and bring
before public notice.

He gave evidence before the House of Commons of what he had seen. Then
Acts of Parliament were passed, providing that gaolers should be paid
out of the rates, that prisoners who were found not guilty should be
set at liberty at once, that the prisons should be kept clean and
healthy, and the prisoners properly clothed and attended to.

Determined that these Acts should not remain a dead letter, he went
about the country seeing that what Parliament required was actually
carried out.

Not contented with what he had already done, he travelled abroad,
inspecting the prisons of France, Russia, Holland, Switzerland,
Germany, and other countries, in order to see how they compared with
those in Great Britain.

Strange to say, he discovered that in a number of cases they were in
many ways better; and the prisoners, unlike their fellows in Britain,
were generally employed in some useful manner.

When he was in London on one occasion h