The Consideration of the causes of the progress and increase of Crimes pursued.—The condition of the unhappy Females, who support themselves by Prostitution—Their pitiable Case.—The progress from Innocence to Profligacy explained.—The morals of Youth corrupted by the multitudes of Prostitutes in the streets.—These temptations excite desires which suggest undue means of obtaining money.—Apprentices and Clerks are seduced—Masters are robbed—Parents are afflicted.—The miserable consequences of Prostitution explained.—The impossibility of preventing its existence in a great Metropolis.—The propriety of lessening the Evil:—By stripping it of its indecency and much of its immoral tendency.—The shocking indecency which has lately been suffered by Prostitutes at the Theatres.—The number of Prostitutes in the Metropolis estimated—Suggestions for rendering the consequences arising from Female Prostitution less noxious to Society.—The advantages of the measure in reducing the mass of turpitude.—Reasons offered why the interests of Morality and Religion will be promoted by prescribing Rules with respect to Prostitutes.—The example of Holland, Italy, and the East Indies quoted.—Strictures on the offensive manners of the Company who frequent Public Gardens:—Imputable to the want of a proper Police.—Tea Gardens under a proper Police might be rendered beneficial to the State.—The Ballad Singers might also be rendered instruments in giving a right turn to the minds of the Vulgar.—Crimes generated by immoral Books and Songs.—Responsibility as it relates to the execution of the Laws rests no where at present.—The nature and advantages of the Police System explained.
IN addition to the prominent causes, which contribute to the origin and the increase of crimes, which have been developed in the [preceding Chapter], there are other sources of a minor nature still to be traced, from which infinite evils to the Community spring.
Among these the most important is, the state and condition of the unhappy Females, who support themselves by Prostitution in this great Metropolis.
In contemplating their case, it is impossible to avoid dropping a tear of pity.—Many of them perhaps originally seduced from a state of innocence, while they were the joy and comfort of their unhappy parents. Many of them born and educated to expect a better fate, until deceived by falsehood and villainy, they see their error when it is too late to recede. In this situation, abandoned by their relations and friends; deserted by their seducers, and at large upon the world; loathed and avoided by those who formerly held them in estimation, what are they to do? In the present unhappy state of things they seem to have no alternative, but to become the miserable instruments of promoting and practising that species of seduction and immorality, of which they themselves were the victims.[92] And what is the result?—It is pitiable to relate.—They are compelled of necessity to mingle with the abandoned herd, who have long been practised in the walks of infamy, and they too become speedily polluted and depraved.—Oaths, imprecations, and obscene language, by degrees, become familiar to their ears, and necessity compels them to indure, and at length to imitate, and practise in their turn, upon the unwary youth, who too easily falls into the snare.
Thus it is from the multitudes of those unhappy Females, that assemble now in all parts of the Town, that the morals of the youth are corrupted. That unnecessary expences are incurred; and undue, and too often criminal, means are resorted to, for the purpose of gratifying passions, which but for these temptations, which constantly assail them in almost every street in the Metropolis, would not have been thought of. Through this medium Apprentices, Clerks and other persons in trust are seduced from the paths of honesty—Masters are plundered, and Parents are afflicted; while many a youth, who might have become the pride of his family—a comfort to the declining years of his Parents, and an ornament to Society, exchanges a life of Virtue and Industry, for the pursuits of the Gambler, the Swindler, and the Vagabond. Nor is the lot of these poor deluded females less deplorable. Although some few of them may obtain settlements, while others bask for a while in the temporary sun-shine of ease and splendour, the major part end a short life in misery and wretchedness.
What has become of the multitudes of unfortunate females, elegant in their persons, and sumptuous in their attire, who were seen in the streets of the Metropolis, and at places of public Amusement twenty years ago? Alas! Could their progress be developed, and their ultimate situations or exit from the world disclosed, it would lay open a catalogue of sufferings and affliction, beyond what the most romantic fancy could depict or exhibit to the feeling mind.
Exposed to the rude insults of the inebriated and the vulgar:—the impositions of brutal officers and watchmen, and to the chilling blasts of the night, during the most inclement weather, in thin apparel, partly in compliance with the fashion of the day, but more frequently from the pawnbroker's shop rendering their necessary garments inaccessible—diseases, where their unhappy vocation does not produce them, are generated. No pitying hand appears to help them in such situations. The feeling parent or relation is far off. An abandoned monster of the same sex, inured in the practice of infamy and seduction, instead of the consolation which sickness requires, threatens to turn the unhappy victim out of doors, when the means of subsistence are cut off, and the premium for shelter is no longer forth-coming; or perhaps the unfeeling landlord of a miserable half-furnished lodging afflicts the poor unhappy female, by declarations equally hostile to the feelings of humanity, till at length turned out into the streets, she languishes and ends her miserable days in an hospital or a workhouse, or perhaps perishes in some inhospitable hovel alone, without a friend to console her, or a fellow-mortal to close her eyes in the pangs of dissolution.
If no other argument could be adduced in favour of some arrangements, calculated to stop the progress of Female Prostitution, Compassion for the sufferings of the unhappy victims would be sufficient; but other reasons occur equally powerful, why this evil should be controlled.