ut
knowing to whom they belonged, I should have decided was bad; yet
Mrs. Fry assured me that all of 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 sat her upright.
Mrs. Fry told us that the dividing the women into classes has been
of the greatest advantage, and putting them under the care of
monitors. 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 needlework 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
effected, I was delighted. We emerged again from the thick, dark,
silent walls of Newgate to the bustling city, and thence to the
elegant part of the town; and before we had time to arrange our
ideas, and while the mild Quaker face and voice, and wonderful
resolution and successful ex