sia, Livonia, and Russia. The defective state of the Russian military hospitals attracted a great deal of his attention, and hearing at Moscow of the sickly state of the Russian army on the confines of Turkey, he proceeded to Kherson in Southern Russia, where he died, on 20 Jan. 1790, of camp fever caught while in attendance on a young lady who had been stricken down with the complaint. Howard was buried in a walled field at Dophinovka (now known as Stepanovka), six versts north of Kherson. His funeral was attended by a large concourse of people. A brick pyramid was built over his grave (Clarke, Travels, 1816, ii. 301, 338-49), and a handsome cenotaph of white freestone, with a Russian inscription, was erected to his memory at Kherson (Henderson, Biblical Researches, 1826, p. 284). His death was announced in the 'London Gazette' (1790, p. 174), a unique honour for a civilian, and his statue, executed by Bacon, was erected by public subscription in St. Paul's. It stands on the left side of the choir, and was the first statue admitted to the cathedral (Milman, Annals of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1869, pp. 480-1). The inscription on the pedestal was written by Samuel Whitbread. Another inscription for some other monument to Howard was written by Cowper (Field, Correspondence of John Howard, pp. 202-4). In 1890 a public subscription was opened for the erection of a Howard centenary memorial at Bedford.
Howard was a man of deeply religious feelings, with an observant mind and methodical habits. Though he was not gifted with any brilliant talents, he possessed a powerful will, great pertinacity of purpose, and remarkable powers of endurance. In personal appearance he was short and thin, with a sallow complexion, prominent features, and a resolute expression. He was both a teetotaller and a vegetarian, simple in his tastes, plain and neat in his dress, and retiring in his habits. From the day he entered upon the duties of high sheriff of Bedfordshire he devoted himself entirely to his philanthropic labours. He worked unaided either by the state or by charitable institutions. Constituting himself inspector of prisons at home and abroad, he travelled upwards of fifty thousand miles, notebook in hand, visiting prisons, hospitals, lazarettos, schools, and workhouses, interrogating the authorities, counting the steps, measuring the rooms, taking copies of the regulations, and testing the supplies. He is said to have spent as much as 30,000l. of his own fortune in the work, and to have refused an offer of assistance from the government. Though Carlyle, in his essay on 'Model Prisons,' calls Howard 'the innocent cause … of the Benevolent-Platform Fever' (Collected Works, lib. edit. xix. 79), Howard himself was no sentimentalist, and while he insisted that justice should be blended with humanity, he never forgot to aim at the reformation of the prisoner. The courses of His journeys were frequently erratic, and are difficult to follow. As a writer Howard had little literary ability, and was assisted in the preparation of his two principal works by Richard Densham, Dr. Richard Price, and Dr. Aikin. The almost incredible abuses which were exposed in the 'State of the Prisons' gave the first impulse to a general desire for an improvement in the construction and discipline of our prisons. Though his evangelical opinions were intense, Howard was singularly free from religious bigotry, and though an independent himself, both his wives were churchwomen. His behaviour was at times eccentric, and his stern views of duty frequently prevented him from being a very sociable companion. His theory of family discipline was severe in the extreme, but except during the first eight years of his son's life, Howard had little opportunity of inculcating his notions of filial obedience either harshly or otherwise. The story that Howard, through his cruelty, drove his child into insanity is absolutely untrue, but the charge that he neglected the personal superintendence of his child's education cannot, of course, be denied. The scornful reference to Howard and his 'fancy of dungeons for children' in Lamb's 'Essay on Christ's Hospital Five-and-Thirty Years ago' was probably suggested by an exaggerated report of the Root-House incident, when Howard locked his child up in an outhouse in his garden while he went to see a visitor (an account will be found in the Universal Magazine, lxxxvii. 142-4). Burke's well-known eulogium of Howard will be found in his speech at Bristol, delivered in 1780 (Burke, Works, 1815, iii. 380-1). Howard's son John died, hopelessly insane, on 24 April 1799, aged 34, and was buried at Cardington. On his death the Cardington property passed by his father's will to Samuel Charles Whitbread, the second son of Samuel Whitbread. Various relics and a portrait of Howard are preserved at his old house at Cardington, which remains almost intact, and is in the possession of General Mills. There is a portrait of Howard, by Mather Brown, in the National Portrait Gallery, which has been engraved by E. Scott. It appears, however, that Howard never sat for his portrait during his lifetime, and though two plaster casts were taken of his
