Actuated by the same humane intention, although different in object, is the Needlewomen’s Institution, established in 1850, “with the twofold view of affording those who had suffered under the oppression of middle men and slop-sellers, the opportunity of maintaining themselves, by supplying them with regular employment at remunerative prices, in airy work-rooms, and if desired, lodging at a moderate charge.”
Another institution of very recent origin directed to the religious and social improvement of the same unhappy class, is the Young Women’s Christian Association and West London Home, for young women engaged in houses of business. Its objects are twofold, 1st, “to supply a place where young women so employed, can profitably spend their Sundays and week-day evenings,” thus counteracting the evil influence of badly conducted houses of business; and 2nd, “the home is intended to provide a residence for young people coming from the country to seek employment, and for those who are changing their situations, or who from over-work and failing health require rest for a time.” The rooms of the Association are open every evening from seven until ten o’clock, when educational and religious classes are held for the benefit of those attending.
Thus, “where occasional spasms of sympathy, the well-merited castigations of the press, and the voice of popular opinion had unitedly failed to shake the throne of the god of Mammon, erected on skeletons, and cemented with the blood of women and children, it was reserved for a Christian lady to strike out a plan which has already been productive of an immensity of good, and has commended itself to the approval of all who are labouring to promote the welfare of this oppressed and neglected class. The better to appreciate the importance of this noble and truly womanly enterprise, only let the solemn and fearful fact be borne in mind, that in London alone 1,000 poor girls are yearly crushed out of life from over-toil and grinding oppression, while 15,000 are living in a state of semi-starvation. Ah! who can wonder that our streets swarm with the fallen and the lost, when SIN OR STARVE is the dire alternative! Who cannot track the via doloroso between the 15,000 starving and the thrice that number living by sin as a trade!
“Here, then, is an Institution that meets the wants of the case. It not only catches them before they go over the precipice, and lovingly shelters them from the fierce blasts of temptation, beating remorselessly on many a young and shrinking heart, but ensures them a ‘Home,’ where soul and body alike may find rest and peace.”[6]
The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women has lately been called into existence, by the emergencies of the present age, the object of which is to develop and extend the hitherto restricted field of female labour, by the establishment of industrial schools and workshops, where girls may be taught those trades and occupations which are at present exclusively monopolised by men. Those “educated in this school will be capable of becoming clerks, cashiers, railway-ticket sellers, printers,” &c.
These and similar measures which tend to open up resources to women in search of a livelihood, will have the happiest effect in diverting numbers into paths of honest industry, who now labour under strong temptations to abandon themselves to a life of criminal ease and self-indulgence.
The remaining agencies indirectly tending to the prevention of crime, are the Metropolitan Early Closing Association, for abridging the hours of business, so as to afford to assistants time for recreation, and for physical, intellectual, and moral improvement; the Metropolitan Evening Classes for Young Men, for furnishing the means of instruction and self-improvement; and the Young Men’s Christian Association, for promoting the spiritual and mental improvement of young men, “by means of devotional meetings, classes for Biblical instruction, and for literary improvement, the delivery of lectures, the diffusion of Christian literature, and a library for reference and circulation.” This last instrumentality has been widely blessed, and its beneficial influence is now extended, by means of branch associations, to most of the provincial towns.
3. Repressive and Punitive Agencies.
The various instrumentalities falling under this head appear deserving of separate consideration, and cannot therefore be appropriately included under either of the previous divisions, being neither curative in their character, nor preventive to any appreciable extent. They evidently presuppose the existence of crime, and merely seek to diminish its influence, or curtail its power by the application of legal provisions and compulsory measures, intended on the one hand to indemnify society against the infraction of its rights, and on the other to intimidate or restrain the criminal offender. The absolute reformation of the viciously disposed can hardly be expected to result from the use of such means, and belongs properly to another class of agencies. It may indeed be achieved by punitive measures, but in this case reformation of character is rather a startling accident than an essential property of the system pursued. Experience has abundantly established the utility of legal provisions as a “terror to evil doers;” but the statistics of our police-courts will by no means warrant the assumption that penal measures have per se been successful in reclaiming the offender. It is not intended, however, while speaking of repressive and punitive agencies, to include in this category the strictly legal efforts employed by the State to deter and correct the criminal who renders himself amenable to justice. This subject will be found fully and distinctly treated by Mr. Mayhew, in a work now in the press, entitled “Prisons of London, and Scenes of Prison Life.”