322 



HOWARD. 



that ofthc people, of Guinea com, boiled like burgoo, 

 and eaten with goat's milk, to which, in the case of 

 their majesties, is added the luxury of a little butter. 

 See Park's Travels and Appendix ; Adams' Narrative ; 

 and TOMBUCTOO. (9) 



HOWARD, JOHN, the celebrated philanthropist, was 

 born at Enfield, about the year 1727. His father was 

 originally an upholsterer in Long-lane, Smithfield ; but, 

 having acquired a handsome fortune, had retired from 

 business several years before his death. He was a 

 strict Protestant dissenter ; and, wishing that his son 

 should be educated in the same principles, placed him 

 under a preceptor at some distance from London, who 

 seems to have been more distinguished by his religious 

 character than literary qualifications. Under the tui- 

 tion of this person, young Howard continued for the 

 space of seven years, without being thoroughly in- 

 structed in any one branch of knowledge ; and, though 

 he was afterwards removed to the academy of Mr 

 Eames, he never surmounted the deficiencies of his 

 early education. He was not able to write his native 

 language with grammatical correctness ; and, excepting 

 the French, his acquaintance with other languages was 

 very superficial. His father died when he was young, 

 and directed, in his will, that his son should not come 

 to the possession of his property till the twenty-fifth 

 year of his age. In conformity, also, it is supposed, to 

 the wishes of his parent, he was bound apprentice to a 

 wholesale grocer in the city ; but he found this employ- 

 ment extremely irksome; and, as soon as he came of 

 age, bought up the remainder of his time, and set out 

 on his travels to France and Italy. Upon his return 

 to England, he lived in the style of other young men 

 of fortune ; but had acquired a taste for the arts, and 

 an attachment to the study of nature. The delicacy 

 of his bodily health required him to take lodgings in 

 the country, and to follow a rigorous regimen of diet, 

 which laid the foundation of his future extraordinary 

 abstemiousness. About the 25th year of his age, he 

 married Mrs Sarah Lardeau, as a return of gratitude 

 for her kind attention during his invalid state while he 

 lodged in her house at Stoke-Newington ; but she was 

 twice as old as himself, as well as of a sickly habit, and 

 died at the end of three years after their marriage, in 

 the year 1756. After the death of his wife, he set out 

 upon another tour, which he designed to have com- 

 menced with a visit to Lisbon, which had been recent- 

 ly overthrown by an earthquake ; but the packet, in 

 which he sailed, was taken by a French privateer, and 

 he endured for some time all the hardships of a pri- 

 soner of war in France. The sufferings of his country- 

 men in the same situation made a strong impression on 

 his mind, and first directed his attention to the condi- 

 tion of those unhappy persons who are doomed to in- 

 habit the cells of a prison. Having remained abroad 

 only a few months, he fixed his residence, after his re- 

 turn, on his estate at Cardington, near Bedford ; and, 

 in 1758, was united in marriage to the eldest daugh- 

 ter of Edward Leeds, Esq. of Croxton in Cambridge- 

 shire. In {this connexion and situation he spent the 

 most tranquil and happy years of his life, occupying his 

 leisure and his wealth in executing plans of beneficence 

 for the more indigent part of mankind. But his do- 

 mestic felicity was fatally interrupted by the death of 

 his wife in the year 1765, soon after the birth of her 

 only child ; and, for many years afterwards, he che- 

 rished her memory with the most affectionate sorrow. 

 For some time he was attached to his home, by an 

 anxious attention to the education of his son ; but the 



child was sent to school at an early age, and Mr How- Howard. 

 ard began to assume a more public character. In 1773 s "" "Y"" 

 he was nominated High-Sheriff of the county of I'ul- 

 ford; and entered upon his office with a resolution to 

 perform its duties with his accustomed punctuality. 

 In the inspection of the prisons within his jurisdiction, 

 his humanity became deeply engaged by the distresses 

 which he witnessed ; and, in the progress of his enqui- 

 ries, he was led to extend his investigation to all the 

 places of confinement and houses of correction through- 

 out the kingdom. He pursued his object with so much 

 assiduity, that, in the beginning of 1774, he was de- 

 sired to communicate his information to the House of 

 Commons ; and, in consequence of his representations, 

 two bills were brought forward for the relief and health 

 of prisoners. Being desirous, before he should publish 

 his account of English prisons, to suggest remedies, as 

 well as to point out defects, he resolved to examine 

 personally the practice of the continental kingdoms in 

 this branch of police. For this purpose, in 1775, he 

 visited France, Flanders, Holland, and Germany ; re- 

 peated his visit in 1776, extending his tour to Swit- 

 zerland ; and, during the intervals of these travels, 

 made a journey to Scotland and Ireland, and most of 

 the comities of England. In 1 777, he published the 

 information which he had collected with so much risk, 

 toil, and expence, and dedicated his work to the House 

 of Commons. Anxious to diffuse the knowledge of 

 facts so interesting to humanity ; and, at the same time, 

 desirous to obviate any suspicion of his wishing to re- 

 pay his benevolent labours by the profits of book- 

 making, he not only presented copies of his work to 

 the principal persons in the kingdom, and his particu- 

 lar friends, but insisted upon fixing the price of the 

 volume at a lower rate than the original expence of 

 publication. In the conclusion of the work, he pledged 

 himself, if a thorough parliamentary enquiry were in- 

 stituted for the improvement of prisons, to undertake a 

 more extensive journey into foreign countries, for the 

 purpose of obtaining additional information. The House 

 of Commons having zealously entered upon the busi- 

 ness of regulating places of confinement, Mr Howard, 

 agreeably to his promise, which he was well inclined 

 to fulfil, began a new tour in 1778. In his progress, 

 he revisited the establishments of a penitentiary kind 

 in Holland ; directed his course through Hanover and 

 Berlin to Vienna ; went to Italy by way of Venice ; 

 proceeded as far south as Naples, returning by the 

 western coast to Switzerland ; pursued the course of 

 the Rhine through Germany .: and, crossing the Low 

 Countries, returned to England in the beginning of the 

 year 1779- During the spring and summer of the 

 same year, he made another complete tour of England 

 and Wales, besides taking a journey through Scotland 

 and Ireland. In the year 1780, he published the re- 

 sults of this extensive research, as an appendix to his 

 former work ; and also a new edition of that publica- 

 tion, in which all this additional matter was incorpora- 

 ted. Still intent upon the farther improvement of his 

 plans, he resolved to explore those countries of Europe 

 which he had not yet visited ; and, in 1731, he set out 

 on a tour to Denmark, Sweden, Russia and Poland, 

 from which he returned about the end of the year. In 

 the year following, he made another complete survey 

 of the prisons in England, and another journey into 

 Scotland and Ireland. In 1783, he examined the pri- 

 sons of Spain and Portugal, and returned through 

 France, Flanders, and Holland. In the summer of 

 the same year, he again travelled into Scotland and 



