They have done a great deal of needle-work very neatly, and some very ingenious. When I expressed my foolish wonder at this to Mrs. Fry's sister, she replied, "We have to do, recollect, Ma'am, not with fools, but with rogues.". . . . Far from being disappointed with the sight of what Mrs. Fry has done, I was delighted.
This naïve, informal chronicle of a visit to Newgate incidentally lets out the fact that the gloomy prison was fast becoming attractive to visitors—indeed, quite a show-place. That Mrs. Fry's labours were receiving official honour and recognition also, there is plenty of evidence to prove. In Prussia, her principles and exhortations had made such headway that the Government was adapting old prisons and building new, in order to carry out the modern doctrines of classification and employment. In Denmark, the King had given his sanction to the measures proposed by the Royal Danish Chancery for adding new buildings to the prison. As soon as these buildings were completed the females would be separated from the males, female warders were to be appointed, employment found for all prisoners, and books of information and devotion were to be supplied to each cell; while a chaplain (an unknown official, hitherto) was to be appointed. In Germany, four new penitentiaries were to be constructed; viz. at Berlin, Münster in Westphalia, Ratibor in Silesia, and Königsberg. Two of these Penitentiaries were to be exactly like the Model Prison at Pentonville; separate confinement was to be practically carried out, and the prisoners were to be taught trades under the superintendence of picked teachers. From Düsseldorf came information that all the female prisoners were improving under the new régime; that an asylum for discharged prisoners was effecting a wonderful transformation in the characters and lives of those who sought refuge
