o be the fact that the provisions of this Act did not extend to
prisons which were exclusively under local jurisdiction; she therefore
recommends lady visitors and committees to see them enforced as much as
possible. While preserving even-handed justice between criminals and the
country whose laws they have outraged, by suggesting that their
treatment should be sufficiently penal to be humiliating, that their
hair should be cut short, and all personal ornaments forbidden, she
pleads earnestly for proper bedding and firing. She says: "During
inclement weather, diseases are sometimes contracted by the unfortunate
inmates of our jails, which can never afterwards be removed. I believe
it has sometimes happened that poor creatures committed to prison for
trial, have left the place of their confinement, acquitted of crime, and
yet crippled for life."

From the same volume we find that Government had then inaugurated a
wiser, kinder system of dealing with the convicts destined for the
colonies. By the new regulations, females were allowed to take out with
them all children under the age of seven years; while a mother suckling
an infant was not compelled to leave England until the child was old
enough to be weaned. Again, the convicts were not to be manacled in any
way during their removal from the prison to the convict-ship; "but as
the rule is often infringed, it is desirable that ladies of the
committee should be vigilant on the subject, and should represent all
cases to the governor of the prison, and afterwards, if needful, to the
visiting magistrates." Further, the Government, or the boroughs, had to
provide the transports with needful clothing for the voyage; and, at the
end of it, the surgeon's or matron's certificate of good behavior was
sufficient to ensure employment for most of the women. Altogether it
seems certain that a new era for prisoners had dawned, and new ideas
prevailed in regard to them. How much Mrs. Fry's labors had contributed
to this state of things will never be fully known; but her work was
almost accomplished.

This little book, which is a perfect _Vade Mecum_ of prison management,
was written in the interest of lady visitors, and for their use. It is
still interesting, as showing Mrs. Fry's own mode of procedure, and the
principles upon which she acted. The few quotations given in this
chapter will, however, suffice for the general reader. She concludes
with a pregnant sentence: "Let our prison d