of the poor women themselves.  Kindred spirits were being drawn around her, ready to participate in her labors of love.  In one place she wrote almost deprecatingly of the publicity which those labors had won; she feared notoriety, and would, had it been possible, have worked on alone and unheralded.  But perhaps it was as well that others should learn to cooeperate; the task was far too mighty for one frail pair of hands, while the increased knowledge and interest among the upper classes of society assisted in procuring the “sinews of war.”  For this was a work which could not be successfully carried on without pounds, shillings and pence.  Clothing, books, teachers, and even officers had to be paid for out of benevolent funds, for not an idea of the necessity for such funds had ever crossed the civic mind.

A very cheering item, in April, 1817, was the formation of a ladies’ society under the title of “An Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate.”  Eleven Quakeresses and one clergyman’s wife were then banded together.  We cannot find the names of these good women recorded anywhere in Mrs. Fry’s journal.  The object of this association was:  “To provide for the clothing, instruction, and employment of the women; to introduce them to a knowledge of the Scriptures, and to form in them, as much as possible, those habits of sobriety, order and industry, which may render them docile and peaceable whilst in prison, and respectable when they leave it.”  Thus, stone by stone the edifice was being reared, step by step was gained, and everything was steadily advancing towards success.  The magistrates and corporation of the city were favorable, and even hopeful; the jail officials were not unwilling to cooeperate, and ladies were anxious to take up the work.  The last thing which remained was to get the assent and willing submission of the prisoners themselves to the rules which must be enforced, were any lasting benefit to be conferred; and to this last step Mrs. Fry was equal.

On a Sunday afternoon, quickly following the formation of the association, a new and strange meeting was convened inside the old prison walls.  There were present the sheriffs, the ordinary, the governor, the ladies and the women.  Doubtless they looked at each other with a mixture of wonder, incredulity, and surprise.  The gloomy precincts of Newgate had never witnessed such a spectacle before; the Samaritans of the great city no longer “passed by on the other side,” but, at last, had come to grapple with its vice and degradation.

Mrs. Fry read out several rules by which she desired the women to abide; explaining to them the necessity for their adherence to these rules, and the extent to which she invited cooeperation and assistance in their enforcement.  Unanimously and willingly the prisoners engaged to be bound by them, as well as to assist each other in obedience.  It will interest the reader to know what these rules were.  They were:—­