courses are open to English statesmen. They may of disorder,
Mr. Bruce goes, we fear, too far for his end. either repeal the Acts and wait for a change of opinion, Nothing is gained to morality by hunting prostitutes from or they may appeal to the people on their behalf, place to place, and a great deal is lost by that excessive diffu- argue the whole matter out as frankly and fully as sion and dispersion of the evil which the clause, if successful, they would a tariff bill, and at last convince the electorate would produce. If Mr. Bruce will inquire, he may find that they are in the wrong. The second course would have been he is abolishing a strong incentive to virtue among the waver- the more manly one, but considering how completely English ing class of women, namely, their dread of being robbed of society is built upon obscurantism, how violent the contest their gains, and not a stimulant to disorderly life. If the lessees still is in the medical profession, and how utterly unfit the of such houses were all hanged nobody would pity them much, majority of English orators and English audiences are to deal but that does not prove that it is expedient to hang them with such a subject, the Ministry have, we believe, chosen before the country has resolved to put prostitution down. And the wiser and it may be even the better course of action. thirdly, he proposes that all women who come under the Only imagine Mr. Bruce stumping England on behalf of the Vagrant Act should be detained in hospital till they receive Acts, and the discussion thereupon in every household in a medical certificate of health, an unobjectionable rule, Great Britain ! It will not do. Any other course than repeal or open only to Mr. Jacob Bright's objection, that men ought would have made the treatment of prostitution the crucial to be kept in detention also, an objection certain to be raised question of the General Election, a contingency from which as strongly as the objection to the original Acts. There is the more experienced a politician is the more apprehensively not much in it, the difference being that the men are not he will shrink. In the present state of opinion, morals, and making a trade of diffusing disease ; but it will, we suspect, knowledge among us, not even Mr. Gladstone could evolve be found to raise a storm of opposition, and revive all the
anything but mischief from such a discussion. evils of the existing agitation. The men and women who are
The Acts being abandoned, the point was to do as much guiding that mean the Acts to be abolished, not renewed good as public opinion would allow, and Mr. Bruce has under another form. Taken as a whole, however, the Bill, directed his efforts carefully to three objects, with which the with some precautions and limitations which the House is mass of the population will, we believe, heartily sympathize. certain to introduce, seems a reasonable attempt, not indeed His means may sometimes be a little rash or violent, but his to suppress a great social evil which has never been suppressed ends are not in hopeless advance of popular opinion. He anywhere, and appears to survive laws as it survives Christian first of all prohibits juvenile prostitution altogether, making precepts, but to bring it within some sort of moderate re- it under fourteen years of age a felony punishable with ten straint. It may be found when discussed by men of the world to go a little further than it is safe to venture, without some radical reforms of our present system of criminal pro- cedure ; but limitations are easily introduced, and its direct effects, the total suppression of juvenile prostitution and the restriction of importunity in the streets, must be unqualified benefits to the community. years' penal servitude, not for the girl, bat for her paramour. He will have for that measure nearly unanimous support, and indeed might go farther, and make the age fifteen, with- out risking the safety of the clause. Under that age there exists no moral right of consent, as Mr Brace admits when he punishes the "harbouring" of prostitutes under sixteen. Beyond this it would be difficult, if not impossible, to go,
pauperism that would be caused by an effectual redaction of without the danger of an opposition which would do fright- the preventible class of deaths. ful mischief,—a danger which is not quite absent from a proposal which Mr. Bruce super-added. It may refer only to those cases of personation, which are really rapes, and if THE UNPLEASANT SUBJECT. so, he is right ; but we fancy from his speech he intends some-
courses are open to English statesmen. They may of disorder, Mr. Bruce goes, we fear, too far for his end. either repeal the Acts and wait for a change of opinion, Nothing is gained to morality by hunting prostitutes from or they may appeal to the people on their behalf, place to place, and a great deal is lost by that excessive diffu- argue the whole matter out as frankly and fully as sion and dispersion of the evil which the clause, if successful, they would a tariff bill, and at last convince the electorate would produce. If Mr. Bruce will inquire, he may find that they are in the wrong. The second course would have been he is abolishing a strong incentive to virtue among the waver- the more manly one, but considering how completely English ing class of women, namely, their dread of being robbed of society is built upon obscurantism, how violent the contest their gains, and not a stimulant to disorderly life. If the lessees still is in the medical profession, and how utterly unfit the of such houses were all hanged nobody would pity them much, majority of English orators and English audiences are to deal but that does not prove that it is expedient to hang them with such a subject, the Ministry have, we believe, chosen before the country has resolved to put prostitution down. And the wiser and it may be even the better course of action. thirdly, he proposes that all women who come under the Only imagine Mr. Bruce stumping England on behalf of the Vagrant Act should be detained in hospital till they receive Acts, and the discussion thereupon in every household in a medical certificate of health, an unobjectionable rule, Great Britain ! It will not do. Any other course than repeal or open only to Mr. Jacob Bright's objection, that men ought would have made the treatment of prostitution the crucial to be kept in detention also, an objection certain to be raised question of the General Election, a contingency from which as strongly as the objection to the original Acts. There is the more experienced a politician is the more apprehensively not much in it, the difference being that the men are not he will shrink. In the present state of opinion, morals, and making a trade of diffusing disease ; but it will, we suspect, knowledge among us, not even Mr. Gladstone could evolve be found to raise a storm of opposition, and revive all the
anything but mischief from such a discussion. evils of the existing agitation. The men and women who are
The Acts being abandoned, the point was to do as much guiding that mean the Acts to be abolished, not renewed good as public opinion would allow, and Mr. Bruce has under another form. Taken as a whole, however, the Bill, directed his efforts carefully to three objects, with which the with some precautions and limitations which the House is mass of the population will, we believe, heartily sympathize. certain to introduce, seems a reasonable attempt, not indeed His means may sometimes be a little rash or violent, but his to suppress a great social evil which has never been suppressed ends are not in hopeless advance of popular opinion. He anywhere, and appears to survive laws as it survives Christian first of all prohibits juvenile prostitution altogether, making precepts, but to bring it within some sort of moderate re- it under fourteen years of age a felony punishable with ten straint. It may be found when discussed by men of the world to go a little further than it is safe to venture, without some radical reforms of our present system of criminal pro- cedure ; but limitations are easily introduced, and its direct effects, the total suppression of juvenile prostitution and the restriction of importunity in the streets, must be unqualified benefits to the community.
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