therto been beyond our most sanguine
expectations, as to the improved state of our prisons, female
convict-ships, and the convicts in New South Wales."

CHAPTER X.

VISITS TO CONTINENTAL PRISONS.

Contrary to the general practice of mankind in matters of pure
benevolence, Mrs. Fry looked around for new worlds to conquer, in the
shape of yet unfathomed prison miseries. Many, if not most people, would
have rested upon the laurels already won, and have been contented with
the measures of good already achieved. Not so with the philanthropist
whose work we sketch. Like an ever-widening stream, her life rolled on,
full of acts of mercy, growing wider and broader in its channel of
operations and its schemes of mercy. In pursuance of these schemes she
visited prisons at Nottingham, Lincoln, Wakefield, Leeds, Doncaster,
Sheffield, York, Durham, Newcastle, Carlisle, Lancaster, Liverpool, and
most other towns of any size in England. She extended these journeys, at
different times, into Scotland and Ireland, examining into the condition
of prisons and prisoners with the deepest interest. It was her usual
custom to form ladies' prison-visiting societies, wherever practicable,
and to communicate to the authorities subsequently her views and
suggestions in letters, dealing with these matters in detail.

But her fame was not confined within the limits of the British Isles.
Communications reached her from St. Petersburg, from Hamburg, from
Brussels, from Baden, from Paris, Berlin, and Potsdam; all tending to
show that enquiry was abroad, that nations and governments as well as
individuals were waking up to a sense of their responsibilities. Both
rulers and legislators were beginning to see that _preventing_ crime was
wiser than _punishing_ it, that the reformation of the criminal classes
was the great end of punitive measures. This conviction reached, it was
comparatively easy for the philanthropists to work.

Before proceeding to the Continent, however, we find notes of one or two
very interesting visits to the Channel Isles. Her first visit was made
in 1833, and, to her surprise, she found that the islands had most
thoroughly ignored the prison teachings and improvements which had been
gaining so much ground in the United Kingdom. The reason of this was not
far to seek. Acts of Parliament passed in England had no power in the
Channel Isles; as part of the old Duchy of Normandy, they were governed
by their own laws and cus