SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

BIOGRAPHY,

Memoir of the Life of Elizabeth Fry ; with Extracts from her Journal and Letters.

Edited by Two of her Daughters. In two volumes. Volume I TRAVELS.

Notes from a Journal kept in Italy and Sicily, daring the Years 1944, 1845, 1846. By

J. G. Francis, B.A. With Illustrations Longman and Co. Poway,

Gleams of Thought selected from the Writings of Milton; Sonnets and other Poems•

By Lord Robertson Orr and Co. ; Fraser, Edinburgh. Music, Theory of Musical Composition, treated with a view to a naturally consecutive ar- rangement of topics. By Godfrey Weber, Doctor Honorarius, Knight of the First Class of the Hessian Order of Lewis, Honorary Member of the Royal Swedish Aca- demy in Stockholm, of the Hollandic Union for the Promotion of Music, &c. Translated from the third enlarged and improved German edition, with Notes, by James F. Warner. In two volumes Wiley and Putnam.

THE LIFE OF MRS. FRY.

THE influence of Elizabeth Fry on prison discipline was somewhat analo- gous to that of Father Mathew on Irish temperance. Neither can be said to have started the subject, which was atready moving in the minds of men ; though Mrs. Fry has a greater title to that of originator than Father Mathew. Each, by winning manners, great persuasive powers, and the personal influence they bestow, produced effects that mere reason could never attain : the effects, indeed, were so remarkable that they looked miraculous, and excited the attention of the great and fashionable towards a wonder, which they never would have paid to a sober truth. But though personal qualities chiefly contributed to the success of kith philanthropists, and the beneficial effects were therefore dependent upon their presence, and somewhat too upon novelty, circumstances, and im- pressible minds, it would be very unjust to limit the merit by the per- manence of the miracles. They each made their subject a fashion, and placed it prominently before the world ; so that whatever truth it con- tained was sure to keep its hold and find its way, in pretty exact pro- portion to its importance. Mrs. Fry did a good deal more than this. She moved or shamed authority into looking at shocking abuses, and applying some remedy, though perhaps neither systematic nor very effi- cient; by her private influence and public appeals she contributed to the amelioration of the criminal code and prison management ; and she or- ganized a means of continuing her own visitations not only in Newgate but through the country. If she attributed too much to her system and too little to herself,—if she thought that circumstances and nature could be overcome by rides and hortatives,—if she was probably imposed upon by unscrupulous hypocrisy, or deceived by the temporary emotion of an impressible mind,—it is only what human nature is liable to, es- pecially the nature of philanthropic enthusiasm. The life of such a woman deserves to be written ; although the incidents were comparatively few, and the more striking public portions of it are already recorded in scattered forms. Elizabeth Fry was a member of the well-known Gurney family of Norwich, which settled in those parts about the time of the Conquest. The true spelling of the name, it seems, is Gournay, " derived from the town of Gournay en Brai, in Normandy ; the Norman lords of which place held fiefs in Norfolk as early as the reign of William Rufus." The paternal ancestor of Elizabeth Gurney was a disciple of George Fox ; her mother was a Barclay, of the Bar- clays of Ury, and granddaughter of the apologist for the Quakers : so that Elizabeth was, like Paul, " a Hebrew of the Hebrews." But she had fallen upon evil days. The age—she was born in 1780—was philo- sophical or indifferent, the most religions people not scrupling to associate with avowed infidels. Some of the Gurneys had fallen back to the An- glican Church ; others were only nominal " Friends." The father of Elizabeth appears, at that time, to have belonged to this latter class : a man of a social disposition, courteous in manner, popular in the place, and of unusual liberality of sentiment towards other denominations. Mrs. Gurney was a woman of piety ; but she died when her daughter Elizabeth was only twelve years old. To the unfavourable influences of the times and family example was added that of wealth, and, according to Mrs. Fry's own account, as well as the views of her husband and daughters, she had genial feelings tending to sin. Earlham, the family seat, was the resort of the rich and gay. Prince William, afterwards Duke of Gloucester, was quartered at Norwich, and partook of the hospitalities of Earlham ; and before seventeen, Elizabeth in her journal notes the plea- sure her pride derived from his company. She danced, she sang, she fell into the ways of the world, and flaunted in a scarlet riding-habit. She rates herself for being giddy in speech, given to flirting, apt to touch the faults of others` in conversation, and " mumping" when jealous of her sisters. In this account there is doubtless the usual exaggeration of an enthusiastic mind under self-examination, and testing thoughts and conduct by an ideal abstraction. The reader may judge from a few spe- cimens.

"January 1797.—My mind is in so dark a state, that I see everything through a black medium.

"April—Why do I wish so much for the Prince to come? Pride, alas! is the cause. Do such feelings hurt my mind? They may not, in this instance; but if given way to, they are difficult to overcome. How am I to overcome them ? • * •

"April 25th.—I feel by experience how much entering into the world hurts me: worldly company, I think, materially injures; it excites a false stimulus, such as a love of pomp, pride, vanity, jealousy, and ambition; it leads to think about dress, and such trifles; and when out of it, we fly to novels and scandal, or some- thing of that kind, for entertainment. I have lately been given up a good deal to worldly passions; by what I have felt I can easily imagine how soon I should be quite led away.

" 29th.—I met the Prince: it showed me the folly of the world; my mind feels very flat after this storm of pleasure.

"May 16th.—There is a sort of luxury in giving way to the feelings ! I love to feel for the sorrows of others, to pour wine and oil into the wounds of the afflicted: there is a luxury in feeling the heap glow, whether it be with joy or sorrow.

"I like to think of everything, to look at mankind; I love to !look through Nature up to-Nature's God.' I have no more religion than that, and in the little I have I am not the least devotional; but when I admire the beauties of nature, I cannot help thinking of the source from whence such beauties flow. I feel it a support: I believe firmly that all is guided for the best by an invisible power; therefore I do not fear the evils of life so much. I love to feel good; I do what I can to be kind to everybody. I have many faults, which I hope m time to over- come.

"July 7th.—I have seen several things in myself and others I never before re- marked; but I have not tried to improve myself: I have given way to my pas- sions, and let them have command over me; I have known my faults, and not corrected them; and now I am determined I will once more try, with redoubled ardour, to overcome my wicked inclinations. I must not flirt; I must not ever be out of temper with the children; I must not contradict without a cause; I must not mump when my sisters are liked and I am not; I must not allow myself to be angry; I must not exaggerate, which I am inclined to do; I must not give way to luxury; I must not be idle in mind; I must try to give way to every good feel- ing and overcome every bad. I will see what I can do; it I had but perseverance, I could do all that I wish: I will try. I have lately been too satirical, so as to hurt sometimes: remember, it is always a fault to hurt others. • • • "6th.—I have a cross tonight. I had very much set my mind on going to the Oratorio: the Prince is to be there; and by all accounts it will be quite a grand sight, and there will be the finest music. But if my father does not like me to go, much as I wish it I will give it up with pleasure, if it be in my power without a murmur. I went to the Oratorio: I enjoyed it, but spoke sadly at random: what

a bad habit! • • "19th.—Idle and relaxed in mind: greatly dissipated by hearing the band, &o. &c. Music has a great effect on me; it at times makes me feel almost beside myself."

It will have been gathered that her religion was at this time rather a sentiment than a principle—a species of Deism, vivified by the remem- brance of her mother's lessons and her own religious nature, rather than anything dogmatic or theological. This was a state in which Elizabeth Gurney could only have remained by being placed in circumstances of continual excitement, with her affections strongly engaged at the same time. Her temperament was too genial and rationally mystic to rest quiet, under the leisure of common life, in scepticism or general reliance- " Safe in the hands of one disposing power, Or in the natal or the mortal hour."

She wanted something more definite, more sensuous, than a philosophical opinion; and a Quaker missionary or itinerant preacher from America converted her to the plainest and perhaps the most spirituel of Christian denominations, where an apparent equality sustains the Scriptural in- junctions and at the same time flatters the pride of mortal man, while peculiarities of speech and dress give a distinction as marked as a Uniform or a badge of knighthood. She did not, however, fall into her new creed without a struggle.

" My mind," she writes on the 6th February 1798, two days after the day of grace, which is marked as the 4th, "has by degrees flown from religion. I rode to Norwich, [she was a capital horsewoman,) and had a very serious ride there; but meeting, and being looked at with apparent admiration by some officers, brought on vanity; and I came home as full of the world as I went to town full of heaven."

Finery in dress still held sway, and was indeed but gradually abandoned. She had struggles about dancing, music, and singing. As she advanced more towards Quakerism, she was strongly tempted on the substitution of "thee" for " you" : but that word gave way like the enchanted forms of old romance before the knight who was bold enough to advance against them. Once making up her mind to say it, she was surprised at the easiness with which "thee" was said. Giving utterance to what the spirit moved in " meetings " was a more anxious affair; but by the close of 1799 she had become a complete Friend. She ceased to date by the heathen names of the months, and "wore the cap and close handkerchief." In 1800 she accepted a proposal of marriage from Mr. Fry ; and as his family were Quakers of a much straiter sect than her own, she soon adopted all the starched peculiarities of Quakerism, as far as her genial and catholic nature would allow her.

With this stage of Elizabeth Fry's career one source of the interest of the book ceases. The journal no longer furnishes the struggles of a mind and the well-marked delineation of a character; but consists in the main of mere outpourings. Family incidents and domestic feelings—the birth of children, their illness or death, and that of friends, with similar topics—vary and relieve, the monotony of mere reverie, or somewhat generalized phrasing in prayer ; but much is felt to be matterleas and tedious. Her public preaching and praying seem to have induced a rather vague diffuseness in place of the terseness of her early style. Sec- tarian expectation among the Friends, and the feelings of her own family, explain the length to which the extracts from Mrs. Fry's journal have been carried ; but the editors would have exercised a sounder discretion and produced a more generally interesting book had they been more chary of quotations that contain no facts, and given more of narrative in their own agreeable, close, and natural style. In dealing with private papers, such as this volume in great part consists of, it should ever be borne in mind that strangers do not and cannot take the same interest in them as acquaintances : nor do the documents when allusive and expressive of feeling upon events, rather thandfscriptive of the events themselves, con- vey the same information, or pe'rhaps any information at all. To the family, knowing all the particulars of which hints alone are given, and remembering the sentiments and discourse of the dead, the words however vague call up the things ; but strangers are not in such a position, and cannot be. In such cases, a narrative by the survivors is not only more interesting, but more informing than original papers : and such a narra- tive the present editors are fully capable of giving, as is evinced by what they have done. It is too late now to touch the second volume ; but is the case of a new edition a very thorough pruning would be a great im- provement. So little did Mrs. Fry often deal with facts in her private record, that the events which made her a public character—her introduction to New- gate, and the steps by which she was led on to the reform of prisoners— are only indicated in her journals. In 1811, the Friends acknowledged Elizabeth Fry as a minister ; a recognition apparently somewhat similar in effect to ordination in the Episcopal churches or a " call " in other communions : at least it endows the persons so acknowledged with more ministerial authority than belongs to a simple Quaker. It is customary for such persons, having obtained the consent of the " Meeting," to go about on missionary objects; or, as it is phrased, to " travel in the work of the ministry." In 1813, Mrs. Fry and some coadjutors visited Newgate in their ministerial capacity. The following entry is the only record of these first visits.

"16th.—Yesterday we were some hours at Newgate with the poor female felons, attending to their outward necessities: we had been twice previously. Before we went away, dear Anna Buxton uttered a few words in supplication, and, very un- expectedly to myself, I did also. I heard weeping, and I thought they appeared much tendered: a very solemn quiet was observed: it was a striking scene, the poor people on their knees around us, in their deplorable condition."

Family matters and other engagements prevented her from giving further attendance in Newgate for some years, though the subject is said to have been frequently in her thoughts. In 1817, she appears to have begun by establishing a school, for the children of the female prisoners, which was extended to some of the prisoners themselves ; and thus the way was gradually opened to the system of voluntary discipline under the encouragement of the authorities, which made Newgate for some years a fashionable show-place, and Mrs. Fry one of the celebrities of the day. The story, up to 1825, in which year the volume closes, is very well told ; though some of the matter is not new, having been drawn from "blue books" and other printed sources. There is also a good deal of interest attached to it. The reader is carried back to the good old days, when criminals were hung up by half-dozens at a time, and the pious wisdom of Lord Eldon refused to admit the slightest alter- ation in a criminal code which enlisted the sympathies of the kindest hearts and the strictest moralists in favour of the felon, often giving him the character of a martyr to cruelty rather than of a victim to justice. We have glimpses, too, of the doings or no-doings of the Colonial Office, in the utter neglect, year after year, of the body and souls of the female convicts, and in the merest matters of decency and discipline. Mr. Marsden, the Chaplain of New South Wales, having first privately and then officially addressed the various authorities,—having come to Eng- land and memorialized the Government, through the Archbishop of Can- terbury,—and having received promises, that never were kept, for the erection of some place for the reception of the female convicts,—in 1820 addressed himself to Mrs. Fry, as a person who would take that interest in the subject which Government did not.

"I informed some of my friends in England, as well as in the colony, that if SO attention was paid to the female convicts, I was determined to lay their case before the British nation; and then I was certain, from the moral and religious feeling which pervades all ranks, that redress would be obtained. However, no- thing has been done yet to remedy the evils of which I complain. For the last five-and-twenty years, many of the convict women have been driven to vice to obtain a loaf of bread or a bed to lie upon. To this day, there never has been a place to put the female convicts in when they land from the ships. Many of these women have told me with tears their distress of mind on this account: some would have been glad to have returned to the paths of virtue, if they could have found a but to live in without forming improper connexions. Some of these women, when they have been brought before me as a magistrate, and I have re- monstrated with them for their crimes, have replied, have no other means of living: I am compelled to give my weekly allowance of provisions for my lodgings; and I must starve, or live in vice.' I was well aware that this statement was correct, and was often at a loss what to answer. It is not only the calamities that these wretched women and their children suffer that is to be regretted; but the general corruption of morals that such a system establishes in this rising colony, and the ruin their example spreads through all the settlements. The male convicts in the service of the Crown, or in that of individuals, are tempted to rob and plunder continually to supply the urgent necessities of these women. "All the female convicts have not run the same lengths in vice. All are not equally hardened in crime. And it is most dreadful that all should alike, on their arrival here, be liable and exposed to the same dangerous temptations, with- out any remedy. I rejoice, madam, that you reside near the seat of government, and may have it in your power to Call the attention of his Majesty's Ministers to this important subject—a subject on which the entire welfare of these settlements are involved. If proper care is taken of the women, the colony will prosper, and the expenses to the mother-country will be reduced. On the contrary, if the morals of the female convicts are wholly neglected, as they have been hitherto, the colony will be only a nursery for crime; and mothers will continue, as they now do, to abandon their daughters at an early age to every kind of evil, for the sake of gain; and the burdens of these settlements will incre*se with the increasing num- ber of persons who live in vice, idleness, and debauchery."

Various other topics in connexion with Newgate thirty years since, and the troubles of Mrs. Fry as a celebrity, or her conduct as a philan- thropist, attract us ; but this notice has already run its full length, and we must stop.