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64 back to gaol where they had been confined for months, and locked up again till they should pay various fees to the goaler, clerk of assize, and others. In order to redress this hardship, I applied to the justices of the county for a salary to the gaoler instead of his fees. They were properly affected with the grievance, and willing to grant the relief desired, but they wanted a precedent for charging the county with the expense. I therefore rode into several neighbouring counties in search of a precedent; but I soon learned that the same injustice was practised in them; and looking into the prisons, I beheld scenes of calamity, which I grew daily more and more anxious to alleviate."

We thus perceive that it was from no Quixotic conceit of setting out to redress public disorders, (as has sometimes been unjustly charged upon Howard,) nor was it from any false sympathy with the criminal, that he was led into the remarkable course of benevolent action to which he devoted the remainder of his life; but it was from a simple sense of justice to the oppressed, and in the regular performance of duties into which he was brought by the hand of Providence. And thus has it been with every truly great and good man, whose life and deeds have benefited and adorned the world. Study carefully their biographies, and it will be found that it was seldom from any purpose or planning of their own, but involuntarily and by the leadings of Providence, which they followed step by step, that they were brought into striking situations, or led into peculiar courses of action, in which their hidden virtues and talents were called forth, and by their brilliance and excellence drew the attention and won the admiration of mankind. From which fact,