The labors of Oglethorpe and his associates to correct prison abuses, were warmly acknowledged by their country, and were the grateful theme of the poet. They were alluded to by THOMSON in the following strain: "And here can I forget the generous hand Who, touched with human woe, redressive searched Into the horrors of the gloomy jail? Where misery moans unpitied and unheard, Where sickness pines, where thirst and hunger burn, And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice? * * * * * "Ye sons of mercy! yet resume the search, Drag forth the legal monsters into light; Wrench from their hands oppression's iron rod And bid the cruel feel the pains they give!" [_Winter_, l. 359-388.] "The wretched condition of confined debtors, and the extortions and oppressions to which they were subjected by gaolers, thus came to be known to persons in high stations, and this excited the compassion of several gentlemen to think of some method of relieving the poor from that distress in which they were often involved without any fault of their own, but by some conduct which deserved pity rather than punishment." VI. RELEASE TO INSOLVENT DEBTORS, FROM PRISON. In a very excellent publication entitled "_Reasons for establishing the Colony of_ GEORGIA, _with regard to the trade of Great Britain, the increase of our people, and the employment and support it will afford to great numbers of our own poor, as well as foreign Protestants_," by BENJAMIN MARTIN, Esq. _Lond_. 1733; are some remarks in reference to the release of insolvent debtors from gaol, which I deem it proper to extract and annex here; and the rather, because the work is exceedingly rare.