sable condition, the appointment of a matron, in order
to enforce needful regulations. This epistle was sent with the prayer
that Earl Bathurst would peruse it, and grant the requests of the
writer. It is refreshing to be able to add that red tapeism did not
interfere with the adoption of these suggestions, but that they met with
prompt consideration.

Every year, four, five, or six convict-ships went out to the colonies of
Australia with their burdens of sin, sorrow and guilt. Van Diemen's Land
and New South Wales received annually fresh consignments of the outcast
iniquity of the Old World. Mrs. Fry made a point of visiting each ship
before it sailed, as many times as her numerous duties permitted, and
bade the convicts most affectionate and anxious farewells. These
good-bye visits were always semi-religious ones; without her Bible and
the teaching which pointed to a better life beyond, Mrs. Fry would have
been helpless to cope with the vice and misery which surged up before
her. As it was, her heart sometimes grew faint and weary in the work,
though not by any means weary of it. As an apostle of mercy to the
well-nigh lost, she moved in and out among those sin-stricken companies.

Captain (afterwards Admiral) Young, Principal Resident Agent of
Transports on the river Thames, forwarded the good work by every
possible means. From the pen of one of the members of his family, we
have a vivid picture of one of these leave-takings. It occurred on board
a vessel lying off Woolwich, in 1826. William Wilberforce, of
anti-slavery fame, and several other friends, accompanied the party.
This chronicler writes:--

On board one of them [there were two convict ships lying in the
river] between two and three hundred women were assembled, in order
to listen to the exhortations and prayers of perhaps the two
brightest personifications of Christian philanthropy that the age
could boast. Scarcely could two voices even so distinguished for
beauty and power be imagined united in a more touching engagement;
as, indeed, was testified by the breathless attention, the tears
and suppressed sobs of the gathered listeners. No lapse of time can
ever efface the impression of the 107th Psalm, as read by Mrs. Fry
with such extraordinary emphasis and intonation, that it seemed to
make the simple reading a commentary.

We find in the annals of her life the particulars of another visit to
the _