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 HOWARD 19 ability to pay their fees of jail delivery, so shocked him that he proposed to the magis- trates to pay regular salaries to the jailers, in place of the fees collected from the prisoners. The magistrates, unprepared for such an inno- vation, asked for a precedent, and, in his fruit- less exertions to find one, Howard visited every town in England containing a prison. He col- lected a mass of information respecting prison abuses, which he communicated in # report to the house of commons, who gave him a vote of thanks, and in 1774 passed bills "for the re- lief of acquitted prisoners in the matter of fees" and "for preserving the health of pris- oners." At his own expense he caused copies of the new laws to be sent to every jailer in the kingdom. The prominence thus given to his name secured his election from Bedford to the house of commons ; but his sympathy with the American revolution aroused the ministry to oppose liim, and a parliamentary scrutiny un- seated him. He never afterward participated in political life, but gave bis whole time to the philanthropic plans in which he had embarked. He reexamined the principal penal establish- ments of England, and visited those of France, Germany, and the Low Countries ; then made a new tour through England, examining the opera- tion of the new jail act, and relieving much dis- tress among poor debtors, and revisited a large portion of the continent. The result of these researches appeared in his " State of the Prisons in England and "Wales, with Preliminary Ob- servations and an Account of some Foreign Prisons " (4to, 1777). One of the first fruits of this publication was the determination of the ministry to make a trial of the discipline of hard labor in one of the large prisons. But as no building was adapted to the purpose, Howard undertook in 1778 another tour to collect plans and information, in the course of which he visited the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France, and travelled upward of 4,000 miles. In the succeeding year he made another survey of English prisons, and in 1780 published an appendix to his work. A bill, drafted by Sir William Blackstone and Mr. Eden, was now passed for building two peni- tentiaries on the hard labor system, of which Howard was appointed the first supervisor. To escape controversy as to the site of the buildings, he resigned his office, and between 1781 and 1784 travelled through Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Spain, and Portugal, publishing in 1784 a second appendix and a new edition of his work. His labors for a period of more than ten years had left him with impaired pecuniary resources and shat- tered health ; but he embarked upon a second series of philanthropic researches with a zeal surpassing his physical powers, volunteering to procure for the British government informa- tion relating to quarantine establishments. The French government was incensed against him for having published in 1780 a translation of a suppressed French account of the interior of the Bastile, and refused him a passport. He therefore travelled through the country in vari- ous disguises, and, after a series of romantic adventures and several narrow escapes from the police, who were constantly on his track, succeeded in visiting the new lazaretto at Marseilles. He proceeded thence to Malta, Zante, Smyrna, and Constantinople, fearlessly exposing his person in infected places. That ho might speak with authority on the subject of pest houses, he went to Smyrna, sought out a foul ship, and sailed in her for Venice. After a voyage of 60 days, during which he assisted the crew in beating off an attack of pirates, he arrived at his destination and was subjected to a rigorous confinement in the Venetian lazaretto, under which his health suffered severely. He returned to England in February, 1787, after an absence of 16 months, and published his second great work, "An Account of the Principal Lazarettos of Europe, with various Papers relating to the Plague, together with further Observations on some Foreign Prisons and Hospitals, and additional Remarks on the Present State of those in Great Britain and Ireland " (4to, 1789), in the preface to which he announced his intention to pursue his inquiries in the same direction, observing that his conduct was not from rashness or en- thusiasm, but a serious conviction of duty. In the summer of 1789 he started on his last con- tinental tour, meaning to pass through Russia to the East, but was cut off by camp fever which he contracted from a patient at Kher- son, on the Black sea. He expended nearly the whole of his fortune in various benefactions. In his private relations he was pure-minded, pious, and upright. See Hepworth Dixon's " Howard and the Prison World of Europe " (2d ed., London, 1850); also the memoirs by Dr. Aikin, J. B. Brown, the Rev. J. A. Field, and T. Taylor. A marble statue of him was erected in St. Paul's cathedral, London. HOWARD, John Eager, an American revolu- tionary soldier, horn in Baltimore co., Md., June 4, 1752, died Oct. 12, 1827. In 1776 he commanded a company in the flying camp un- der Gen. Mercer, which took part in the bat- tle of White Plains. Upon the disbanding of his corps in 1776, he was commissioned major in the 4th Maryland regiment of the line, with which he took part in the battles of German- town and Monmouth. In 1780, as lieutenant colonel of the 5th Maryland regiment, he fought at Camden under Gates (Aug. 16), and in the latter part of the year joined -the army under Greene. In the battle of Cowpens, Jan. 17, 1781, he displayed great gallantry, and the bayonet charge of the Maryland troops under his command secured victory to the Ameri- cans. At one period of the day he held in his hands the swords of seven officers of the 71st British regiment who had surrendered to him. This was said to have been the first occasion in the war on which the bayonet was effective- ly used by the American troops. For his ser-