Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-11-22
JOHN HOWARD.
The Great Philantlrropist.

John Howard was an English phi
lanthropist, who was born in 1926 and
died in 1890.
He was naturally of delicate con-
stitution, and passed his childhood and
youth in the country, receiving toler-
able education, but evincing little in
tellectual brilliancy or ambition. Al
sixteen years of age he was appren-
ticed to a grocer in London; but upon
the death of his father soon after, he
purchased his indentures and departed
on tour of the continent. Returning
to England, he fixed his residence at
Jtoke Newington, and occupied him
self with medical and scientific studies.
At about the age of twenty-five he ex-
perienced a severe attack of illness,
and upon his recovery testified his
gratitude to the woman who had nurs-
ed him, and who was nearly thirty
years his senior, by marrying her. She
died at the end of three years, and
Howard, moved by the accounts of the
horrors of the earthquake at Lisbon,
embarked for that place with aview of
doing something to alleviate the ca
lamity.
On the voyage he was taken prison
er by French privateer and carried
into Brest, where he became witness
of the inhuman treatment to which
prisoners of war were subjected.
Having by his personal exertions pro-
cured the exchange of himself and
his fellow captives, he returned to
England, married second time in 1853,
and settled upon an estate at Cardlng-
ton, Bedfordshire, which he had in
herited from his father. His career of
active philanthropy may be said to
date from this time.
Observing the low moral condition
of the neighborhsod peasantry, he
built schools and model cottages, the
latter the first erected in England, for
their benefit; and being after a while
aided bY the neighboring gentry, among
whom was his friend Samuel Whit
bred, the well-known brewer, he sue
ceeded in efecting such changes in the
habits of the people and in the appear
ance of their residences, that Carding
ton, formerly a wretched and filthy
village, attracted the attention of
strangers by its neatness, the healthful
appearance of its inhabitants, and the
general aspect Of thrift which it pre-
sented.
In 1867 his second wife died, and
for several years he was employed in
his studies and reformatory plans, and
in travelling on the continent. Re-
turning to England in 1773, he accept
ed the office of sheriff of Bedfordshire,
for which he had been named in alb
sence, and upon the opening of the
assizes in Bedford, visited in his Ofic-
ial capacity the town gaol, the same in
which John Bunyan was confined for
twelve years, and where he wrote his
Pilgrim Progress"
The filthy state of this building, and
the wretched condition of the prison
ers, made deep impression upon him.
But the fact that many innocent per-
sons were detained there for months
and sometimes for years, from inabil-
ity to pay their fees of gaol delivery, SO
shocked his notions Of justice that he
instantly proposed to the magistrates
to release such persons. and to provide
against their future detention by pay
| ing regular salaries to the gaolers, in
place of the fees they were accustOm-
ed TO collect from the prisoners.
The magistrates, unprepared for such
an innovation in gaol economy, asked
for precedent, and Howard spent
many months in fruitless exertions tC
find one, in the course of which he
visited every town in England contain
ing prison. He nevertheless collect
ed mass of information respecting
the abuses in the management of pris-
ons. which he communicated in a re-
mort to the house of commons, who
thanked him for his zeal and human
ity: and in June, IVA, passed bills
"for the relief of acquitted prisoners
bin the matter of fees, and for pre-
serving the health of prisoners"
Subsequently, at his own expense, he
caused copies of the new laws to be
sent to every gaoler in the kingdom
The prominence thus given TO hi:
name suggested him as a candidate fOl
the representation Of Bedford in the
house of commons, and at the solicita
ton of his friends he offered himself
with his friend Whitbred, to the elec
tors of that borough.
His sympathy with the American
cause in the controversy between the
colonies and the mother country, which
he was not backward in expressing
aroused the ministry to oppose him
and although he was elected, parlia
mentary scrutiny subsequently unseat-
ed him. He never afterward particl
mated in political life, but, fortunate
fv for the interests of humanity, wal
enabled to give his whole time to th'
philanthropie plans in which he haC
embarked. Following up the subjec
of prison abuse, he re-examined tn,
principal penal establishments of Eng
| land. and then visited those of France
Germany, Holland and Belgium. No
satisfied with the information thus ac
muired. he made q new tour through
England. examining the operation o
the new gaol act and relieving mucl
distress among poor debtors, and revls
tied large portion of the continent
The result of these laboriOus research
es subsequently appeared in his Stat
of the Prisons in England and Wales
with Preliminary Observations and al
Account of some Foreign Prisons
(4to. 1771.) a work of profound inter
est and which caused him, says hi
biographer Akin. to be regarded a
one of the extraordinary character
of the age, and the leader in all plan
of meliorating the condition of tha
wretohed part of the community TO
whom he interested himself. .
One of the first fruits of this publ
cation was the determination OF tn
m;nistry TO make trial of the dlsclp
line of hard labor in one of the larg
prisons But as no building wa
adapted to the purpose, Howard IN
dertook in l77S another tour over tn
continent to collect plans and sue
information as should be necessary,
the course of which he visited HoI
land Belgium, Italy and France, an
travelled upward of 1900 miles. L
the succeeding year he made anothe
survey of English prisons. and in l7e
published an appendix to ms wori
It was in this year that Edmun
: Rurke. in speech to the electors {
: Bristol. thus eloquently summed up Il
public services Of Howard
"He has visited all EurOpe, not
survey the sumptuousness of palace