1 over which was inscribed, that the greater excommunication was denounced against all strangers, who presumed to enter. In two other tribunal rooms were the insignia of the Inquisition, which are a cross between a palm and a sword. In a large room, on the floor and shelves, were a number of prohibited books, some of which were English; in another room were multitudes of crosses, beads, and small pictures. The painted cap was also shewn, and the vestments for the unhappy victims. After several consultations he was permitted to go up the private staircase, by which prisoners are brought to the tribunal: but the grand object of his search was prevented, for he was not permitted to go through any of those door-ways into which the passage to this staircase leads. On being told that none but prisoners ever entered these rooms, " I will be confined a month," exclaimed he, "to satisfy my curiosity." But the secretary replied, that none ever came out under three years; and then, not till they had taken the oath of secrecy !!! Thus these awful seats of horror and miseries unknown, which the daring despotism of antichrist, in the height of his blasphemous career, established long ago in the world, are, as yet, kept back from public view. Conscious guilt, in these high priests of Moloch, -the inquisitors-would not permit the benevolence of Howard to inspect the dark abodes of cruelty, nor the instruments of torture with which they had long supported the empire of superstition over the minds of men. We have before noticed the assiduous industry with which Mr. H. exerted himself in the year 1779; but this activity was not peculiar to that period. In 1782 he again revisited all the prisons in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, which he had before inspected in 1779, besides those of Hull, Lincoln, Shrewsbury, Yarmouth, and Old Newgate, in Ireland. In this kingdom he this year reported to the House of Commons, the state of prisons in Dublin; in consequence of which two of the commissioners from that honourable house-which had taken into its consideration the regulation of gaols were appointed to examine with him the state of the New Prison. During these labours in Ireland, the University of Dublin created him Doctor of Laws; but what afforded him much greater satisfaction was, that Mr. Provost Hutchinson brought a bill into the Irish Parliament for discharging the unhappy prisoners who were confined for fees, when he had the happiness to see was well received, and passed. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who was Lord Temple, also took up, very warmly, the case of the unhappy prisoners. It was in this journey to Ireland that he took a more particular account of what he saw amiss in that noble charity, the Protestant Charter Schools, in some of which he had before observed some shametul abuses. This he also reported to a committee of the Irish House of Commons, with a view to a reformation, which, we are happy to say, met with considerable success. For such was the opinion which princes, senates, and magistrates had of the benevolence and judgment of Howard, that his plans were treated with the utmost attention and respect by different nations. Thus did an obscure individual, by his disinterested and persevering conduct, in the cause of humanity, do more good than princes, senates, and magistrates had ever unitedly done before. Notwithstanding it was in the year 1783 that he visited so many countries upon the continent, yet he found time, in that year, to make personal observations on the condition of the prisoners of war, at Falmouth, in Ireland, and other places. In every one of his visits to the innumerable prisons and hospitals which had been subject to his inspection, he constantly entered every room, cell, and dungeon, with a memorandum book in his hand, in which he noted particulars upon the spot: so that when we consider the time necessarily devoted to observation, to travelling, to arranging and preparing for the public eye the information which he had obtained, we shall find that every hour of his life was dedicated to benevolence, and that he pursued his object with more avidity than almost any sensualist ever pursued the meaner pleasures of self-gratification. Nor did the great Howard stop here. Virtue, as well as vice, gets stronger, and becomes bolder by habitual practice. From braving the noxious effluvia of a gaol, our philanthropist became encouraged to face contagion in her wildest shape, and to extend his observations to the ravages of that scourge of mankind, the plague. That he might be enabled to point out the proper means of effectually preventing that dreadful evil from ever entering our country again, and also, that he might be serviceable to those nations that are afflicted with it, he again departed from his native land in 1785, and visited the Lazarettos of Marseilles, Genoa, Spezia, Leghorn, Naples, Malta, Zante, Corfu, and Castle Novo. The Lazarettos at Leghorn are said to be the best conducted of any in Europe: there are three in that city, and Frederigo Barbolania the governor of Leghorn, accompanied Mr. H. to them, and shewed him every respectful attention in his power. After visiting the above, he sailed to Smyrna, and from thence to Constantinople, in order that he might see the plague in all its rage, without the controul of art among the Turks. At this great city, Sir Robert Ainslie, the British Ambassador, kindly invited him to fix his residence at his house. During his stay here, it was his constant practice to visit all the loathsome and infected places, introducing himself, as was his usual custom, in the character of a physician. Nor did he scruple, in the open air, feeling the pulse of such as he knew to be infected: however, he always took the precaution to keep to the windward of them, being of opinion, that the infection (like that near carrion) chiefly lurks to the leeward. In order to investigate more fully the modes of treating the plague at Zante, Smyrna, and other places where it is frequent, he held several conferences with the Greek, Jewish, and European physicians; having, for that purpose, before his departure from England, been furnished by his friends Dr. Aiken, and Dr. Jebb, with a set of queries respecting the plague. During this visit to Constantinople, he not only explored the prisons and hospitals, in hopes of producing general reformation, but was attentive also to the alleviation of individual sorrow. It is said, that among other benevolent exertions, he procured the liberation of an unfortunate lady, a native of England, who had fled to that country, though in a state of pregnancy, in quest of her husband whom she had heard was ill; but had found, on her arrival, that he was dead; and she baving been seized with a temporary delirium at this intelligence, was put into loathsome confinement; and though recovered, was still retained, and in all probabilty would have died in circumstances of horror, had not the active benevolence of Howard discovered her wretchedness and procured her release, and taken care that she was conveyed back to her friends in England. From Constantinople Mr. H. at first, intended to travel by land to Vienna, as the journey might easily be performed in twenty four days, no quarantine being then performed at Semlin, on the confines of the emperor's Hungarian dominions, where, formerly, travellers used to be detained for that purpose. ว But, on further consideration, he determined to seek an opportunity of performing quarantine himself. With this view, he submitted to the inconveniences of a sea voyage to Venice, where Lazarettos were first established: in order, therefore, to obtain the best information, by performing the strictest qurantine, he returned from Constantinople to Smyrna, and took his passage in a ship with a foul bill; thus running himself into the very jaws of danger, that he might deliver others from it! What a striking imitation was this of the blessed Jesus! He, because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, likewise took part of the same. He subjected himself to all the miseries attendant on frail humanity, that so he might learn experience by the things which he suffered: hence arises his ability to succour them that are tempted because himself has suffered, being tempted in all things, like unto his brethren. But to return. This voyage from Smyrna to Venice, was both tedious and dangerous.. It lasted sixty days, part of which time was consumed by the avaricious delays of the captain, who lost the fair wind, by improperly tarrying at the isle of Melita, near Dalmatia, and other places for the purposes of traffic, and by these means exposed his vessel to all the fury of the contrary winds and tempests. Nor did the damage terminate here; for a few days after leaving Modon, the vessel was attacked by a Tunisian corsair, and a very smart engagement ensued. As the consequence of being taken would be either immediate death, or perpetual slavery, the captain determined that, he would rather blow up the ship than surrender. But from this dreadful fate they were rescued; for one of their cannons charged with spike-nails, having accidently done great execution, the corsair immediately hoisted sail, and made off: a circumstance which the piety of Howard did not fail to ascribe to the interposition of divine providence.20 1961 199 BE CONTINUED y LETTERS FROM THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. DEAR SIR, AVING sometime ago had the misfortune to lose by death a person who had the care of my younger children; and a letter having come to my hands a few days after her internent from a relation, who formerly lived with the deceased in my family, but who then residing at a distance from Bath, had not been informed of her friend's death-the singularity of the circumstance very forcibly struck my mind, and produced a train of pleasingly solemn reflections, which led me to personate the deceased, and to answer the letter which had been addressed to her which answer, together with the following letter in continuation, I herewith transmit for insertion in your valuable Micellany, provided the subject be deemed admissible, and that more interesting communication do not claim the privilege of occupying all the space allotted for friendly corfespondence. No doubt but it will excite your surprise to find that ere your letter could reach me, I had become an inhabitant of the world of spirits, and that all that you had ever seen of me had been wrapped in a shrowd, screwed up in a coffin, and deposited in the silent grave, upon the remains of my dear little boy, in Bathwick Churchyard. But why, my friend, should you be at all surprised? Is it any thing so extraordinary for you mortals to be deprived of those friends who shared your esteem and affection, and to lament the interception of those social intercourses which death has destroyed? When you enter the mortal state of existence, are you not launched on a sea of uncertainties, and frequently the sport of adverse winds? Do you not behold those frightful waves which swallowed up so many of your acquaintances, ready to burst on you, and overwhelm your own little bark? But methinks by this time you are anxious to know by what means my spirit obtained releasement from its prison; and, throwing away the fetters of mortality, and rising above the prejudices of imperfect education and the tyranny of established custom, became acquainted with a new order of things, and a fellow-citizen with the saints. You know, when you and I lived together under the same roof, that my poor body was much afflicted, and that an asthmatic complaint caused me to lead a life of suffering and pain; I was rather more afflicted than usual about a fortnight before the dissolution of nature took place; however, Mrs. W. and her youngest child were at that time extremely unwell, and I held up as well as I could till the Sunday before last, when I took to my bed, and in spite pite of the tender solicitudes of Mr. and Mrs. W. and the skill of the doctor, I quitted my earthly tabernacle on the Saturday following; and it gave me no small satisfaction that my requests were complied with, and my remains decently interred in the place I before mentioned, on Wednesday last; for you must know, that it is a very mistaken idea which some of you mortals entertain, that the disembodied spirit is quite regardless of what happens in your world; on the contrary, permitted as we are to visit our old habitations, and to hover about our old friends although we do not feel that anxiety and solicitude which you are subject to in your state of imperfection-yet we cannot avoid being somewhat interested in what we see doing among our old companions and friends. No doubt but you would gladly be made acquainted with many particulars respecting my new life and state, suffice it then for the present to say, that I am quite happy, and enjoy the sweet society of many friends and relations, who obtained releasement from the body before me. My dear husband, and my much loved child, have here new charms: here I have been in company with your uncle Joseph, who is now all life and activity, and meets with nothing to interrupt his felicity: he is continually contemplating the most sublime subjects, delighting in the unbounded goodness and mercy of God, and rejoicing in the riches of his grace, and the wonders he has wrought, both in the celestial and terrestrial regions. He frequently indulges himself in the anticipation of the compleat triumph of insulted liberty, the perfect improvement of the human intellect, the approximating downfal of papal and Mahometan superstitions, the overthrow of all antichristian hierarchies, the expected establishment of the kingdom of peace, and the universal and uninterrupted reign of the mighty and merciful Jesus. Here, too, I have embraced dear little Thomas W., who is not now that babe he seemed to be when nursed by you and me, he is now, since no longer under the restraint of fleshly confinement, all intelligence, and arrived to the stature of a perfect man, and capable of attaining that supreme felicity which none but happy immortals can enjoy. How false are the conceptions, and how erroneous the ideas, which the generality of mortals form of the invisible world! Tis, my friend, for you, but just to close your eyes upon sublunary objects, and you are immediately in the world of spirits. And then, Oh, then! what delightfully unbounded prospects open to the astonished sight I However, as I may have said quite enough at present, I shall reserve for a future opportunity the business of acquainting you with some further particulars of your immortal friend, i { G. M. |