Volume 1

The state of the prisons in England and Wales, with preliminary observations, and an account of some foreign prisons / [John Howard].

  • John Howard
Date:
1777
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The state of the prisons in England and Wales, with preliminary observations, and an account of some foreign prisons / [John Howard]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/540 page 4
    Tue great honour done me by the Houfe has excited-the curiofity of fome to inquire what facts I had colle@ted. This is one reafon of the prefent publication: but it is not the only, nor the: principal one. There are ftill remaining | many diforders that ought to be rectified: prifoners fuffer great hardfhips, from which I am defirous to fet them free’: the gaol-fever is not, as I am perfuaded it may be, totally eradicated. Thefe are my motives for ‘printing this book. I think it will thew plainly, that much is yet to be done for the regulation of prifons; and I am-not without hope, that the prefent Parliament will finifh what-was fo laudably. begun by the laft. | I was called to the firft part of my tafk by my office. To the purfuit of it I was prompted’ by the forrows of the {ufferers, and love to my country. The work grew upon me infenfibly. I could not enjoy my eafe and leifure in the negle&t of an opportunity offered me- by Providence of at- tempting the relief of the miferable. The attention of Par- liament to the fubject, led me to conclude that fome addi- tional labour would not be loft; and I extended my plan. The difficulty I found in fearching out evidence of fraud and cruelty in various articles, together with other fources of diftrefs, obliged me to repeat my vifits, and travel over the kingdom more than once; and after all, I fufpect that many frauds have been.concealed from me; and that fome- times the intereft of my informants prevailed over their ve- racity.
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