for the purpose of hearing a portion of the Sacred Scriptures read to them, either by the matron or by one of the ladies’ committee—­which last is far preferable.  They assemble when the bell rings, as near nine o’clock as possible, following their monitors or wardswomen to the forms which are placed in order to receive them.  I think I can never forget the impression made upon my feelings at this sight.  Women from every part of Great Britain, of every age and condition below the lower middle rank, were assembled in mute silence, except when the interrupted breathing of their sucking infants informed us of the unhealthy state of these innocent partakers in their parents’ punishments.  The matron read; I could not refrain from tears.  The women wept also; several were under the sentence of death.  Swain, who had just received her respite, sat next me; and on my left hand sat Lawrence, alias Woodman, surrounded by her four children, and only waiting the birth of another, which she hourly expects, to pay the forfeit of her life, as her husband has done for the same crime a short time before.

Such various, such acute, and such new feelings passed through my mind that I could hardly support the reflection that what I saw was only to be compared to an atom in the abyss of vice, and consequently misery, of this vast metropolis.  The hope of doing the least lasting good seemed to vanish, and to leave me in fearful apathy.  The prisoners left the room in order.  Each monitor took charge of the work in her class on retiring.  We proceeded to other wards, some containing forgers, coiners, and thieves; and almost all these vices were engrafted on the most deplorable root of sinful dissipation.  Many of the women are married; their families are in some instances permitted to be with them, if very young; their husbands, the partners of their crimes, are often found to be on the men’s side of the prison, or on their way to Botany Bay....

They appear to be aware of the true value of character, to know what is right, and to forsake it in action.  Finding these feelings yet alive, if properly purified and directed it may become a foundation on which a degree of reformation can be built.  Thus they conduct themselves more calmly and decently to each other, they are more orderly and quiet, refrain from bad language, chew tobacco more cautiously, surrender the use of the fireplace, permit doors and windows to be opened and shut to air or warm the prison, reprove their children with less violence, borrow and lend useful articles to each other kindly, put on their attire with modesty, and abstain from slanderous and reproachful words.

None among them was so shocking as an old woman, a clipper of the coin of the realm, whose daughter was by her side, with her infant in her arms, which infant had been born in Bridewell; the grandfather was already transported with several branches of his family, as being coiners.