A great change in the habits of the prisoners was obvious to all who approached them. It had been the practice of those who were sentenced to transportation, on the night before their departure, to pull down and break everything within their reach, to destroy their seats and fire-places, and go off shouting with the most shameless effrontery. Now, to the surprise of the oldest turnkeys, and other officers and inmates of the prison, no noise was heard, no injury done, not a window broken. The departing ones took an affectionate leave of their companions, expressed graiitude to their benefactress and her coadjutors, and entered the conveyances that had been provided for them, in the most quiet and orderly manner.
Mrs. Fry, and the benevolent ladies associated with her, visit the convict-ships while they remain in the river, and kindly present them with such articles as may conduce to their comfort, giving to each one a bag for holding her clothes, another for her work, another containing a small supply of haberdashery, materials for knitting and for patch-work, combs, scissors, and thimbles, spectacles to such as need them, useful books, religious tracts, and a copy of the New Testament, with the Psalms appended. Rules for their observance during the voyage are read to them, and while they are assembled to receive their gifts, kind words of admonition are addressed to them, mingled with passages from the Scriptures. Compressed in the narrow space which for four or five
