I dare say that few things contribute so much to the spread of immorality as the sale of indecent and obscene prints and books, which were until lately so widely disseminated over the country by book-hawkers and the filthy traders of Holywell Street. Even now this trade is not entirely suppressed, although the police restrictions are rigorous, and the punishments awarded severe.
Selling obscene prints and exposing for sale:—
| In the | year | 1850 | 1 |
| „ | „ | 1851 | 4 |
| „ | „ | 1852 | 0 |
| „ | „ | 1853 | 0 |
| „ | „ | 1854 | 1 |
| „ | „ | 1855 | 0 |
| „ | „ | 1856 | 5 |
| „ | „ | 1857 | 4 |
| „ | „ | 1858 | 0 |
| „ | „ | 1859 | 3 |
| „ | „ | 1860 | 4 |
| 22 | |||
Recently a man called Dugdale, who has grown grey in this disgusting occupation, was brought before a magistrate for selling obscene prints, and also sending some to customers in the country. The magistrate committed him for trial, when he was sent to prison for two years.
It is always more or less interesting to know the extent of instruction among criminals, and with that idea in view I have put together the annexed table, in which I have included all the offences that bear directly and remotely upon the subject I am treating.
As regards the man Dugdale, and the sale of immoral publications, obscene prints, &c., a long account of the prisoner’s antecedents was given in the newspaper reports. He had been engaged in this infamous and diabolical traffic nearly forty years, and had spent a great number of them in prison at various times; tons weight of obscene books, pictures, and plates had been seized upon his premises, and he was well known to be the principal instrument for the dissemination of this sort of pollution all over the country. The prosecution was instituted by the meritorious Society for the Suppression of Vice. The judge made a few brief but impressive observations upon the inconceivable enormity of the prisoner’s offence, and the whole course of his life, which he said had been one of vice, wickedness, infamy, and villainy, the real extent of which words would fail to describe. From the records of public proceedings for years past the Court had a knowledge of the prisoner’s previous history, and it would be a waste of words and the public time to say any thing further to such a person. He was liable to three years’ hard-labour, but, considering his age, the Court would refrain from going to extremity, but in the discharge of their duty to society and the rising generation they felt bound to pass upon him a severe sentence, which was that he be kept to hard labour for two years.
TABLE showing the degree of Instruction of the Persons taken into Custody during a period of Ten Years—1850 to 1860.
| OFFENCES. | Years. | Total. | Neither Read nor Write. | Read only, or Read and Write imperfectly. | Read and Write well. | Superior Instruction. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concealing births of their infants | From 1850 to 1860. | 167 | 28 | 124 | 15 | .. |
| Feloniously attempting to procure abortion | 9 | .. | 3 | 4 | 2 | |
| Rape | 324 | 44 | 226 | 97 | 1 | |
| Disorderly Prostitutes | 41,914 | 10,134 | 30,921 | 784 | 75 | |
| Indecently exposing the person | 1,155 | 129 | 785 | 212 | 26 | |
| Keeping common Brothels | 143 | 22 | 81 | 40 | .. | |
| Selling and exposing obscene prints for sale | 22 | .. | 16 | 6 | .. |
Whilst I am dilating upon statistics it may not be inappropriate to refer to certain figures and facts relating to the Midnight Meeting movement.
By the courtesy of Mr. Theophilus Smith, secretary to the Midnight Meeting movement, I have been furnished with the general statistical results.