Plymouth, that "multitudes, whose hearts revolt at the dreadful necessity of continued prostitution, are, nevertheless, constrained to pursue it for their daily support." In answer to which, he says, "there is no necessity for any one woman, however desperate her character, to continue in prostitution a single hour for her daily support;" and informs us, that a workhouse is an appropriate resort for one whose heart is smitten with remorse, and who has, perhaps, at one period of her life, moved in a sphere of life far above mediocrity; and who, however she may deplore her way of life, would look with horror on such an asylum, if she should happen to be acquainted with the circumstance that she could gain prompt admission upon her application, and confession of the degraded habits and contemptible necessities to which she had been accustomed. And when admitted an inmate of

this general receptacle of the miserable, the vicious, and the destitute, to whom could she unbosom her feelings, or the painful sense of her past errors, and receive that instruction which, being mingled with tenderness, might serve to regulate her future conduct? And above all, to whom could she look for that religious instruction so necessary to correct the immoral habits she had acquired, and fortify her mind, when once more cast upon the world, against the allurements of vice and the corruptions of her own heart, or to give her that peace of mind which the principles and doctrines of Christianity can alone impart? I think, had the author directed his inquiries through all the streets of this great metropolis, in search of a fit receptacle for the unfortunate woman, he could not have selected a plan more unappropriate for the object he has in view, when we consider the ignorance and ne

cessary qualifications of those persons who are generally intrusted with the internal management of a poorhouse, together with the insults and taunts to which the unhappy penitent would be subjected from her fellow inmates, a description of the human species whose feelings are blunted to every sentiment of Christian compassion or humanity; and, farther, the difficulties the overseers of the parish would have to contend with in procuring her a situation suited to her former habits and present circumstances. I appeal to the candour of the reader, to judge of the fitness of Mr. Hale's method of counteracting the deplorable effects of this vicious disease.

I should have felt myself much indebted to the censor of the principles upon which the London Female Penitentiary is established, (whose great knowledge and experience in parochial affairs

are universally admitted,) if he had, in defence of his system, given one or more instances of any unfortunate women admitted into a workhouse for the reformation of her manners, who afterward left it convinced of the impropriety of her former habits, and by her future conduct gave undoubted testimony to the sincerity of her professions. I have made minute inquiry, and cannot find a solitary instance of one unfortunate girl that ever requested to be admitted into a workhouse from the horror she felt at her way of life; but have learned that hundreds have fled there through disease of body and distress of circumstances, as a refuge from the pangs of misery and the terrors of death. It must either be admitted that none of these pitiable objects repent of their enormous. crimes and profligacy from principle, or that a workhouse, as a purgatory, does not accord with the state of their minds,

under such impressions as might lead them to abandon their wretched calling, could any suitable occupation be found for them.

But I turn with pleasure from the cheerless waste, where no salutary good has sprung forth to relieve the mind, weary of this dreary heath of human wretchedness, to a soil which promises an abun dant harvest of usefulness and consolation. Though the recent establishment of this mischievous Asylum precludes the possibility of the managers as yet giving to the public a long detail of amended characters, returned to their friends, or the public, to fill honourable and useful stations of life, I have it from authority to state, that there are numbers on the Institution who have manifested the greatest remorse at their former conduct, and demean themselves with the greatest pro