What Pride or Fraud may have design'd,

See Reason overbear!

And fleets a port of safety find,
If OGLETHORPE is there.

"The Pious grateful duty owes

To the dear land where he was born;
A glorious debt! which Nature knows
With fairest interest to return.
He merits first his country's praise

Who steers her helm through danger on;
And he deserves the second place,
Who guards her safety with a son.

"'Twas thus the father of my friend
Wisely secured a lasting fame,
Beyond the reach of death to' extend
His public and domestic name.

'Tis single, 'tis imperfect light,

The world, from worth unwedded, shares;

He only shines completely bright,

Who leaves his virtues to his heirs.

"O thus too may his offspring haste
His glory to improve,

And, fired by love to Britain, taste
The bliss of private love!

With joy his summons I attend,
And fly with speed away;
Let but the Patriot condescend

To fix his marriage-day!"

When these beautiful lines met the eye of Oglethorpe, he was engaged in an enterprise of mercy, for which he deserves to be ever had in respectful remembrance, and for which he received the blessings of multitudes who were ready to perish. He was the generous friend of the prisoner; and in the order of time took the precedence of Howard, of Sir Samuel Romilly, and of Sir Fowell Buxton, in zealous attempts to alleviate the misery of those outcasts of society,-the debtor and the felon. The manner in which he was induced to engage in this service, the nature of his efforts, and the results to which they led, are all worthy of special record. Early in the year 1728, an

ingenious architect, of the name of Castel, died in the Fleet prison, where he was confined for debt. He was a friend of Oglethorpe, who used to visit him, doubtless for the purpose of relieving his necessities; and here Oglethorpe received information of the hardships which the unfortunate man endured, and which were said to be the cause of his death. Oglethorpe justly concluded that this was not a solitary case, and therefore moved, in the House of Commons, for a Committee to inquire into the state of the jails in England. The proposal was accepted: a large and efficient Committee was appointed, of which Oglethorpe was made the Chairman.

On entering upon their work, fearful abuses were soon discovered, and appalling scenes of misery were presented to their view. It was found that when insolvent debtors entered the gloomy abodes to which they were destined, keeper after keeper extorted from them sums of money, under the name of fees; that these harpies not unfrequently seized, for their own use, articles of clothing of which they found the prisoners possessed, as well as supplies of food which were provided for them; that the keepers, according to their own caprice, tormented the prisoners by loading them with heavy irons, and inflicting upon them cruel stripes; that in many cases the prisoners had nothing in the shape of a bed to rest upon, but were doomed to sleep, if they could sleep at all, upon the unpaved floors of their several cells; that when any of the prisoners, driven to desperation by hard treatment, committed suicide, their clothes were seized by the keepers, as a perquisite of office; and that some of the most notorious prisoners of the age had effected their escape by means of bribes, which the jailers had accepted as the reward of their infidelity.

The Committee had not long been engaged in their inquiries, before they found occasion to draw up a series of resolutions, which Oglethorpe moved in the House of Commons, where they were unanimously adopted. They embody a specimen of the deeds of darkness which were

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then brought to light, and are to the following effect :"That Thomas Bambridge, acting Warden of the Fleet prison, hath wilfully permitted several debtors to the Crown in great sums of money, as well as debtors to divers of His Majesty's subjects, to escape; that he hath been guilty of the most notorious breaches of trust, great extortion, and the highest crimes and misdemeanors, in the execution of his office; and hath arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed, prisoners for debt, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high violation and contempt of the laws of this kingdom :—That John Huggins, Esq., late Warden of the Fleet prison, did, during his wardenship, wilfully permit many considerable debtors in his custody to escape; and was notoriously guilty of great breaches of trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanors, in the execution of his office, to the great oppression and ruin of many of the subjects of this kingdom :-That James Barnes, William Pindar, John Everett, and Thomas King, were agents of and accomplices with the said Thomas Bambridge, in the commission of the said crimes." It was also agreed to address His Majesty, requesting him to command the Attorney-General to prosecute these offenders; who were ordered to be committed close prisoners to Newgate; and two bills were directed to be brought in: the one, to disable Thomas Bambridge to hold the office of Warden of the Fleet, or exercise any authority relating thereto the other, for the better regulating the Fleet prison, and more effectually preventing and punishing arbitrary and illegal practices in connexion with it.*

These achievements of this Parliamentary Committee, in behalf of the oppressed, filled the mind of Oglethorpe's poetic friend with thankfulness and admiration; and hence, one of the finest productions of Samuel Wesley's genius is entitled, "THE PRISONS OPENED: a Poem, occasioned by the GLORIOUS PROCEEDINGS of the Committee of the House

* Salmon's Chronological Historian, vol. ii., p. 210, edit. 1747.

of Commons, appointed to inquied and bare, Jails of this kingdom, in the year 17 wear: the more valuable because of the intimacy`ight, between the author and Oglethorpe; so that the stirring facts which it describes may be fairly assumed to have been derived from that benevolent and energetic man, with whose kind feelings the poet cherished a deep sympathy. The poem is dedicated to Oglethorpe, with the other members of the Committee, and must have produced a thrilling interest at the time of its first appearance; the public mind not being then so familiar with subjects of this kind as it has been since the press was brought into greater requisition. A few brief extracts from this admirable composition, which evidently flowed from the writer's heart, will not be deemed irrelevant in this place.

"What various paths unhappy mortals tread, Which down to dungeons and to tortures lead! In jail a few secure their ill-got store;

By vices many fall, by folly more.

The flatter'd heir in short-lived pomp behold,

How flush'd with youth, and wine, and love, and gold!
All arts, all baits, unnumber'd tempters try,
Friendship's endearing form, and Beauty's eye.
Manors are lost, though petty stakes are won,
And garter'd sharpers urge his ruin on.
By pity some (a glorious fault!) have fail'd,
A friend supported, or a father bail'd :
Some perish void of error and offence,
Cast headlong by resistless Providence :
Orphans, who frauds of guardians cannot shun;
Clients, by legal labyrinths undone ;
The trader, strictly just, yet overthrown
By others' crimes, and losses not his own.
Nor more redress the breaking merchant finds
From Spanish seizures, than from adverse winds.
Lo! countless swarms the dire abode receives,
Thick as in autumn drop the sapless leaves,
Whom State deceit and South-Sea plunder drain'd,
Which like a general deluge swept the land;
Whom public faith could no protection lend,
Seeming, and only seeming, to defend.

then brought to light,pp'd of Fortune's gifts, repair
"That Thomas Brison-gates, with sleepless eyes,
e of temporal despair,
prison, hath wing, never-sated Avarice;

To him the' admitted fine for being poor,
And ope with gold the' inhospitable door;
Compell'd, since laws and jailers so ordain,
Το pay for misery, and to bribe for pain:
To gain the' asylum of the Fleet they strive,
The privilege to be entomb'd alive.

So, as the Pagan fabling poets tell,

Was Charon fee'd for wafting souls to hell:
To pass the lake thick-thronging ghosts desire,
To torments most condemn'd, and penal fire;
As if Alecto's snakes they long'd to feel,
Or Tityus' vulture, or Ixion's wheel.

"The jail (sad emblem of flagitious times,
Revenging virtues, and rewarding crimes,)
Sees only villains thrive, by ruin great,

Who owe to guilt the splendour of their state;
Who, placed by fraud and wealth from justice free,
In ease or pomp enjoy captivity;

Who sure escape by massy gold can force,
While wardens share the wealth of creditors;
Or those who basely join to' afflict the good,
Comrades of theft, and instruments of blood;

Whose well-feign'd worth the merchant's trust deceives,
And stocks with monthly spoils the den of thieves;

Who, as superiors dictate, witness bear,
To riot, murder, nay, to treason, swear;
Who aid to worst barbarities afford,

Relentless hell-hounds, worthy of their lord;
Who drink to burning Fever's thirst deny,
And see the famish'd swoon with stony eye;
Permit not prisoners even on alms to feed,

But snatch from starving mouths the scanty bread.

"The Fleet's stern king, circled with guards like these, Each helpless subject robs, and strips, and fleas;

Incarnate fiends for torturing shackles call,
Except the captive yields them--more than all:
In prison within prison staked he lies,
And keepers under keepers tyrannize :
With weighty fetters gall'd, the sufferers groan,
Or close-screw'd rivets crack the solid bone;