Part 65 (1/2)
”That such deputation be instructed to urge upon her majesty's government the following measures, whereby it is believed that the evil complained of may be effectually controlled:
”Firstly, the enforcement, upon a systematic plan and by means of a department of the police specially appointed and instructed for that purpose, of the provisions of the 2d and 3d of Victoria, cap. 47, in reference to street prost.i.tution, which provisions have in certain localities been heretofore carried out with the best effect, and in others have been ineffectual only because acted upon partially, and not upon any uniform system.
”And, secondly, the pa.s.sing an act for licensing and placing under proper regulations, as to supervision and hours of closing, all houses of entertainment, or for the supply of refreshments, intended to be opened to the public after a certain fixed hour, it being matter of public notoriety that the houses of this description popularly known as night-houses have, by becoming the places of resort of crowds of prost.i.tutes and other idle and disorderly persons at all hours of the night, greatly contributed to the present disgraceful exhibition of street prost.i.tution.
”That the attention of the government be also directed to the number of foreign prost.i.tutes systematically imported into this country, and to the means of controlling this evil.”
The substance of one of the addresses made on the subject was as follows:
The speaker ”begged to remind the meeting that a change had already been effected through the action of the police in the aspect of the Haymarket and Regent Street, heretofore so much complained of. The sense that the public eye was upon their cla.s.s had caused a corresponding amendment in the dress and demeanor of the females frequenting those streets; and the objects of this a.s.sociation were, so far, in good train. Strongly oppressive, or, as some delicately said, repressive measures could only be carried out by an extent of police interference inconsistent with the prejudices of English people, who were indisposed to deny a large extent of personal freedom to persons of even the most disorderly cla.s.ses who had not absolutely forfeited their civil rights. If the a.s.sociation went the length of advocating that the act of prost.i.tution should involve such forfeiture, and the entire riddance of London streets from the presence of prost.i.tutes, they would soon find their hands over full.
Unless they thought it possible to exterminate the vice altogether, they would find that its wholesale clearance from the streets would necessitate registration, licensing, and confinement in certain authorized quarters or streets, as prevailed abroad; but such restrictions would entail a more ample recognition and legalization than had hitherto obtained, and so ample, indeed, as to be very distasteful to what was called the religious public. It would be obviously unjust to exempt from pressure the lady-like prosperous harlot, while a miserable, vulgar, painted outcast was consignable, because she stood out from the picture somewhat broadly, to the police cell and the bridewell. The meeting must be aware that there was already abroad among the lower half million of Londoners an impression that the police was already strict enough--and that this opinion was shared by numbers of intelligent men, neither paupers nor criminals.
They must remember that many a gentleman of character had pa.s.sed a night in a police cell for interfering in the defense of prost.i.tutes against the police. And this sentiment would deepen very dangerously if the police pressure were put on double, or, as some would have it, tenfold. The very policemen, too--men sprung from the same cla.s.s of society as those female offenders--were as likely as any one else to be fainthearted in the work of relieving the eyes and ears of gentility from the presence of those whose situation they were not slow to trace to the schemes and desires of the genteel cla.s.s. He did not think that the power of discrimination could be safely intrusted to the ill-paid constables of the Metropolitan Police, and the a.s.sociation of certain rate-payers with the police as witnesses, as hinted at by one of the delegates, would soon, if established, fall into desuetude. With the view of checking the evil in a satisfactory manner, he would recommend the inst.i.tution of a special service of street orderlies or regulators in uniform, a well-paid, superior, temperate, and discreet cla.s.s of men, if possible, whose functions should be to observe, not to spy upon all prost.i.tutes, especially those of the street-walking order, and whose circulation, as opposed to loitering and haunting particular spots, they should insist upon.
They should work, not by threats, but by entreaty, advice, suggestion; but in case of contumacy, should have the right to call in the regular force. He believed that the right of entry and inspection of all places of ill fame should be vested in the Home Secretary and his delegates, and this would be attained least oppressively by a proper system of licensing. Forced concentration would not be tolerated here; but concentration was valuable, as bringing immorality more under control. Parochial crusades, though _prima facie_ a public blessing, had often the effect of spreading corruption. It was recollected at Cambridge that when a certain proctor made very frequent descents upon the hamlet of Barnwall, where much of the parasitical vices of that University had taken root, the people in question, far from cure or conversion, merely extended their radius into more rural villages.
These were so soon corrupted that representations were addressed to the University by the parochial clergy, praying that the plague of Barnwall should be confined to its old bounds, and not let loose upon their simpler parishes. It was notorious that the same kind of thing followed on a very large scale the expulsion of prost.i.tutes from Brussels, and it could not be supposed that the attempt to strangle the growth of immorality by broadcasting its seeds, which was found impracticable under the powerful discipline of the English University and the Belgian capital, could answer among this enormous, and when roused, unmanageable population. The evicted of Norton Street, in the parish of All Souls, had settled quietly down in the next parish.
Incompressible as water, the vice had but s.h.i.+fted its ground, and from a really moral point of view, more harm than good had accrued from the change.”
These remarks do not call for any amplification. A few days after the meeting a leading article appeared in the London _Times_. It must be remembered that for many years the settled policy of the conductors of that journal has been to make it rather the exponent than the leader of public opinion, and the importance generally attached to it arises from a knowledge of this fact. We give the article almost entire.
”There is a very disagreeable subject which we are compelled to bring, although most reluctantly, before the notice of the public, because it has become necessary to bring public opinion to bear upon it. Many clergymen and gentlemen are now a.s.sociating themselves together for the purpose of dealing in some degree with the notorious evil of street prost.i.tution. It is our earnest desire to give them all the support in our power, so long as they confine themselves to reasonable measures of discouragement and repression. Let us not nourish any visionary expectations; it would be simply idle to suppose that the evil against which we are now directing our efforts, can be put down by the strong hand of power. It is with moral as with physical disease--there is no use in looking for an entirely satisfactory result from the treatment of symptoms; there may be alleviation, there may be diminution of the disorder, but there will be no perfect cure.
_Whatever tends to raise the standard of public morality will also tend to diminish prost.i.tution._ In such a case we are dealing with two parties: the tempter, let us say, and the tempted; with the man and with the woman. It is probably with the first of the two that we should princ.i.p.ally concern ourselves if we would bring about any serious result. It is on the sacred action of family life, with the thousand influences it brings to bear upon the minds and conduct of men, that we must chiefly depend if we would see any notable diminution in the numbers of those unfortunate creatures who now parade our streets. Let it be once understood that even among a man's fellows and a.s.sociates immorality is a thing to be ashamed of, and at least we should get rid of the contagion of vice. Time was, and the time is not a very remote one, when a British gentleman--we speak of all three home divisions of the empire--would nightly stagger or be carried up to his bed fuddled, if not absolutely drunk. A man who should thus expose himself in our own days would be set down as a beast, and his society would be avoided by all who set store on their own good name. In this respect there has been a palpable improvement in the manners of the age. Surely public opinion can be brought to bear against one vice as well as another. The time may come when a man may shrink from presenting himself in the sacred circle of his mother, his sisters, and his other female relatives, reeking from secret immorality. Conscience can turn on a bull's eye as well as a policeman, and the culprit may stand self-convicted, although no one has been there to convict him save himself.
”The influences, however, of which we speak are of slow growth, and can not be much quickened by the hand of power. It has become necessary to deal at once with certain results. Now we say it with much shame, that in no capital city of Europe is there daily and nightly such a shameless display of prost.i.tution as in London. At Paris, at Vienna, at Berlin, as every one knows, there is plenty of vice; but, at least, it is not allowed to parade the streets, to tempt the weak, to offend and disgust all rightly-thinking persons. If any one would see the evil of which we speak in its full development, let him pa.s.s along the Haymarket and its neighborhood at night, when the night-houses and the oyster-shops are open. It is not an easy matter to make your way along without molestation. In Regent Street, in the Strand, in Fleet Street, the same nuisance, but in a less degree, prevails. Now we are well aware that, if all the unfortunate creatures who parade these localities were swept away to-morrow, if the night-houses and oyster-shops were closed by the police, we should not have really suppressed immorality. We should, however, have removed the evil from the sight of those who are disgusted and annoyed by its display; and, still more, we should have removed it from the sight of those who, probably, had they not been tempted by the sight of these opportunities, would not have fallen.
”Now, as one practical measure for the discouragement of prost.i.tution, all these night-houses and others might be placed under the surveillance of the police. Licenses for opening them and keeping them open might be given only in the cases of persons who offered some guarantees of their respectability. They might be compelled to close at certain hours; in point of fact, the community could tolerate well-nigh any degree of inconvenience inflicted upon their frequenters. In two other a.n.a.logous cases similar evils have been dealt with in this way, and with the happiest results: we speak of gaming-houses and betting-offices. It is quite certain that persons who are firmly resolved to play and to bet will effect their purpose even now, but at least the sum of the evils resulting from these two vices has been greatly diminished since the community has resolved to withdraw from them its recognition. England should not grant her _exequatur_ to prost.i.tution. This is one thing which might be tried; another would be to give increased force to clauses which, as we believe, already exist in police acts, by which the police are empowered to stop the solicitation and gathering together of prost.i.tutes in the public streets. In such a case we must trample down definitions and exceptional cases with an elephant's foot, and go straight for results. The rule in all such cases is to give the power, and to leave it in the discretion of the authorities only to employ it on proper occasions. We have ample guarantees nowadays that such discretion can not be abused.
”Here, then, are two things which may be done without opening any visionary trenches. The police may be directed to deal with prost.i.tutes as they do with mendicants, and the centres of pollution may be brought under proper regulation.
”We know well enough that in such a capital as London it is hopeless to expect that vice of this description can be expunged altogether from the catalogue of our national sins, but at least let as many difficulties as possible be thrown in its way. Again: the benevolent persons who have taken it in hand to deal with this monstrous evil a.s.sert that the introduction of foreign prost.i.tutes, or, what is still worse, of girls yet uncontaminated, for the purposes of prost.i.tution, might be discouraged much more than it is, perhaps well-nigh totally prevented. Undoubtedly England does not desire free trade in prost.i.tution. Preventive measures upon this subject are surrounded with difficulties; but that is no reason for despair, but one for additional exertion. Very numerous and influential meetings have been held upon this subject, and we augur well of their success. There was no display of ultra-Puritanic rigor, no attempt to deal with impossibilities. The speakers in the main contended that the public exhibition of prost.i.tution might be successfully dealt with, even if the vice were beyond their reach. Our streets, at least, can be purged of the public scandal, the disgraceful night-houses may be deprived of their powers of corruption, the keepers of brothels may be brought under the lash of the law, and the importation of foreign prost.i.tutes may be diminished, if not put down altogether, if the public will take the subject up in earnest. Such were the princ.i.p.al points on which the speakers insisted; at least their views deserve a trial.”
This plan is calculated to restrict prost.i.tution by placing it under _surveillance_. It requires no additional licensing system, as every public house, wine-shop, or cigar-shop in London, whether kept open at day or night, whether of a respectable or immoral cla.s.s, requires a license under the excise laws. The proposals just quoted urge that the permission to keep these places of entertainment should be limited, and ”given only in the cases of persons who offered some guarantees of their respectability.” It will be necessary for the reader to bear in mind that ”night-houses” are not houses of prost.i.tution, but merely resorts for prost.i.tutes, as already mentioned, as, in default of this, a natural construction would be that the _Times_ proposed to license brothels. The two are as distinct as possible, and it would be as consistent to style some of the fas.h.i.+onable oyster-saloons and restaurants of New York houses of ill fame because abandoned women resort to them, as to cla.s.s the ”night-houses” of London in that catalogue. They are simply places for public refreshment in the neighborhoods of theatres, markets, etc., which are permitted to continue open all night in deference to a supposed public requirement, and though, from the character of their visitants, they can not be considered schools of morality or decency, yet no prost.i.tution takes place in them. The interests of the proprietors guard against this, as it would immediately cause the licenses to be revoked, and consequently close the place entirely.
By placing the resorts of London prost.i.tutes under this restriction much would be gained, so far as the public decency of the streets and the transit of pa.s.sengers are concerned, but no possible check would be imposed on the ravages of disease. The proposition at the meeting to license the brothels would do this, but, as was antic.i.p.ated by the speaker, ”it would be very distasteful to the religious public,” and the act of recognition would be immediately construed as an act of approval, or at least of sanction. That it would not merit this censure must be evident. The only approval or sanction given to the vice would, in fact, consist in saying to the keepers of houses of ill fame: We shall not attempt to close your doors, for we know that would be impossible, but we shall claim the right of entry at any moment to watch your proceedings.
It has ever been an unquestioned policy to choose the least of two evils when you must take one, and if the British government should ever license brothels, they will certainly adopt the theory. To the population of London less danger would inure from this toleration than from the unknown, unwatched courtesans who haunt their streets. Many an apparently respectable man will follow a woman into a house of prost.i.tution when it is conducted quietly and furtively, who would hesitate before he accompanied her into a known and licensed brothel, while many a stranger who may date his physical ruin, and possibly the loss of character and honor, from the hour when he entered a private house of prost.i.tution, would be saved many a bitter memory had an official recognition of its true character met him on its threshold, and intimated that it was the resort of the abandoned and vicious. In London, as in New York, we do not believe that illicit s.e.xual intercourse can be carried to any greater extent than it is now; so no danger of an increase of vice need be apprehended there from any measures calculated to remove some of the ulterior and fatal effects of dissipation.
In contrast to the public display of immorality in the streets of London, is the following description of prost.i.tution in Paris. It is extracted from the foreign correspondence of a New York journal:
”Paris, Thursday, May 27, 1858.
”In a late letter on the subject of the 'turning-boxes' of the Foundling Hospitals I spoke of the repugnance of Protestant communities to any official compromise with one sin in order even to destroy a greater; for, that the secret reception of illegitimate children by the state does contribute enormously to the extinction of the crime of infanticide, while it does not generally increase the number of these unfortunate children, is too well shown by statistics to remain longer a question for discussion. But we have another and a more striking example of this repugnance to a collusion with one evil in order to smother out another and a greater in the want of legislation in Protestant countries on the subject of prost.i.tution.
”For many months, as you know, the munic.i.p.ality officers, the church-wardens, and the journals of London have been excited over this very question of prost.i.tution; and no wonder. One need but to leave Paris and fall suddenly in the streets of London at an advanced hour of the evening to comprehend the excitement of its citizens on this subject. To the Frenchman, crossing the Channel is like crossing the River Styx; he falls suddenly into a pandemonium of street disorder and drunken licentiousness for which he is not prepared. He recalls Mery's terrible picture in 'Nezim,' and does not find it overdrawn. He sees nothing like this in his own city, and he is surprised beyond measure, for he has been taught to believe in the Puritanism of Protestant countries.
”When an American or an Englishman, habituated to the revolting night-scenes of New York or London, first arrives in Paris, he is astonished at the absolute absence of similar scenes in our streets.
He has, perhaps, arrived here with the impression--most foreigners do--that prost.i.tution, and revelry, and drunken debauchery stalk forth in the day and render hideous the night. But he forgets that he has arrived in a city where there are laws and a police to execute them--in a city where refinement and the proprieties of life are carried to their extreme perfection, and where such license and debauchery as prevails in English and American cities would be an absolute contradiction to the spirit and habits of the people. The reader will please observe that I do not speak of the morals of the people, but of their ideas of decorum and of the proprieties of life; of what is due to decency and an ordinary respect for appearances.
”This extreme attention to appearances is, in fact, one of the princ.i.p.al attractions of a residence in Paris. The city is not only maintained free of inanimate filth, but of animate filth as well; at least, you are not forced to see it if you do not wish to. In London no lady dare walk out unattended after 8 o'clock in the evening, and after 11 o'clock she will have her eyes and ears insulted, no matter how well attended, while in Paris she may remain in the streets to any hour of the night, and neither have her eyes offended nor her ears insulted.