expressed no uneasiness that Mr. Buxton had published their proceedings; they manifested no concern at Mr. Gurney's proposed publication of their labours; their only uneasiness was at the publication of the account" as coming "from them;" for not only these very words, but even the italics are Mr. Gurney's. There is something so calculating, so sly, so truly quaker like in this distinction, that it calls to mind the observations which have been reported to us, of some Quaker gentlemen upon the subject of our Review of their principles; who, after expressing their perfect horror at its contents, agreed to think it would be very desirable that the same should be answered-provided the answer were one not implicating their body in the contest-provided, in fact, it were an answer not "as coming from them." Having now, as we think, brought home the case to the perfect satisfaction, we may hope, of our friend J. F., we cannot avoid noticing some of the lower manoeuvres-the lesser arts-by which this party have sought to arrest the attention, and catch the admiration of the thoughtless and the ignorant. Friend Gurney's Notes on Prisons, though a very small, was also a very dear book, and as such inaccessible to the poor; there was, therefore, issued by the party about this time, a little tract, price sixpence, entitled "AN HOUR IN NEWGATE." This little tract is, in every way, to our purpose; for not only did its contents present an artful, and but too successful an endeavour at puffing the Newgate reformers; but there was actually given in the title page, an admirably executed, and truly characteristic wood cut of Mrs. Fry and her sisterhood, exhibiting their "silent and unassuming endeavours" in Newgate, before the Sheriff of London, and a numerous company of visiters. We have been so much amused with this little cut, and it so clearly evidences the objects of the parties whom it re-. presents, that we have engaged an eminent artist to take a copy of the same upon a scale suited to our work. Look at the picture, gentle reader-look at the picture! Yes! there is Mrs. Fry, and an admirable likeness it is; there is Mrs. Fry, performing her part before her Newgate auditory; and there are the likenesses of two gentlemen, who were present on the occasion, and who ought to have been present on the occasion-the one to record her piety, and the other to enforce her cant. Assuredly those whom it most concerns cannot but own themselves indebted to us, for thus contributing in their own way, to extend their celebrity. This little book then, adorned with this little cut, was got up by Mrs. Fry's party; it was published by a Quaker publisher, (E. Fry, of portentous name); it was sold by Quaker booksellers, one of whom informed us he had sold 1700 copies; it is, as we are assured, on Quaker authority," an authentic report" of what took place on the occasion; its profits, as appears from the title page, are to go to the Quaker fund" For the Relief of Female Prisoners;" and the public are therein invited to send "their contributions" towards this pious work to the Quaker bankers, "Messrs. Fry and Chapman, Mildred's Court." Now not to notice the inconsistency of the Friends in engaging the arts in their cause, when they deem the arts to be mere vanities· we may dwell perhaps with some advantage on the contents of their little book. The "Hour "in Newgate," then professes to be, as it really is, the report of a visit paid by the writer and his family to that prison, to witness "the serious admonitions which report asserted were given, and produced great and good effect on the female prisoners." This report is understood to be from the pen of a gentleman who has perhaps contributed more than any other of his day and generation, to the cant with which this canting age abounds. But as the worthy gentleman appears in this particular instance desirous of sheltering himself from public fame, and of hiding his good deeds under the modest veil of a single initial, it is not our intention to draw him from the retreat he has so unostentatiously taken. It may suffice to remark that Mrs. Fry's Newgate reporter is an active, business-like, sagacious sort of person, well known in the commercial and religious world as the inventor of various schemes of improvement and reform, with which he has, from time to time, favoured the public; and as, notwithstanding his pragmatical habits and love of display, he is really not deficient in intelligence, he forcibly reminds us of the character of Mr. Faddy, the retired citizen of "Bracebridge Hall," who is pourtrayed as one of those sensible, useful, prosing, troublesome, "intolerable old gentlemen, that go about wearying and worrying society with perpetual plans of public utility." But not only is the gentleman a very religious, but he is also a very loyal man; and though his loyalty is supposed to have run the highest during the war, when the shipping interest, with which he is said to be connected, was in the full tide of success, yet in the cause of religion-the religion of the day-he continues, "brim full of zeal," and in the 66 race of pious folly he is found to distance most competitors. Indeed as the earth has not proved wide enough for the range of his evangelical career, he has, some time since, commenced operations on the water; not, indeed, like St. Anthony, who preached to the fishes, but with the equally hopeful task of converting our sailors. Indeed, if we mistake not, the worthy gentleman was the originator of the project-the farcical, hypocritical project-of proselyting our seamen, not excepting indeed those in the king's service. How such men, frequently engaged in the work of human destruction under its most brutal forms, can act upon the precepts of a religion which enjoins the forgiveness of injuries, and love to our enemies-which refers wars and fightings to the lusts that war in our members-and whose great Teacher declared that "he that taketh up the sword shall perish by the sword," it is not for us to determine. Nor ought it to be forgotten that the spiritual concerns of the navy are already provided for by the state: every king's ship has its chaplain, and we are confident that a chaplain-a drunken chaplain-is more to the sailors taste than a canting saint; and most assuredly will the former produce less mischief to the service than the latter. From a desire, however, to "shoot folly as it flies," we attended at one of the grand gala days, held by the party who profess to take so deep an interest in the sailor's salvation; and certainly the franciscan saint himself, surrounded by his finny auditory, all, as ancient legends say, erect upon their tails, could not have felt more self-satisfaction than was evinced by the worthy gentleman now described, when leading up to the hustings a string of sailors, dressed up for the occasion, and apparently ignorant of the object for which they were exhibited-as specimens of the society's conversions. And there was Mr. Wilberforce, canting in the chair; and Rowland Hill, grinning his pious approbation; and Sir Claudius Stephen Hunter, overflowing with heavenly joy. Never did we behold the rough, honest faces of our tars to such advantage as when exposed to such a contrast! * "Now then who could so well record the triumphs of the *There is a character on the town, a lower practitioner in the same line, the Reverend something Smith, of Penzance, whom we by no means wish to confound with the chief doctor above alluded to: this Smith follows the sailors' soul-saving line as a regular trade; he has organized a system for besetting the poor fellows as soon as they come on shore, and is known as a common nuisance on board the steam pleasure packets. |