In four counties the illegitimate births were fifty-eight in a thousand, and the concealments thirteen in a thousand illegitimates.
In fifteen counties there were fifty-three illegitimates in every thousand births, and twenty-seven concealments to every thousand illegitimates.
With the largest proportion of illegitimates there are the fewest concealments; namely, with seventy-nine illegitimates out of a thousand births, there were only twelve concealments to a thousand illegitimates.
It is absolutely impossible to ascertain the number of prostitutes in London with any degree of certainty, and even a satisfactory approximation is exceedingly difficult; nevertheless, it is most important to attain as nearly as possible to the actual facts, because without this knowledge no adequate idea can be formed of the vast seed-bed of disease and corruption in constant action in a great capital city, shedding forth and disseminating its pernicious growth on every side, through channels unknown and unsuspected.
Mr. Colquhoun, a magistrate of the British metropolis toward the close of the last century (1796), made an arbitrary enumeration, fixing the number of prostitutes in London at fifty thousand. Drs. Ryan, Campbell, Mr. Talbot, and others, carry their estimate in 1840 to eighty thousand!
Mr. Mayne (now Sir Richard Mayne), chief commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 1840, made an estimate of the number of regular London prostitutes, which he considers were then eight thousand and upward. The seemingly irreconcilable discrepancy of these numbers is no doubt to be found in the loose terminology of the one party, and the technicality of the other. The term “prostitute” would seem to be best applied to those unhappy females who make prostitution their sole calling, and may therefore be styled “regular” prostitutes, while the larger estimate includes all shades, both “regular” and “occasional” or “irregular,” by which is understood those females with whom prostitution is auxiliary to some reputable calling.
We can not find that any reliable or detailed returns have been made on this branch of public life by the London police, although they must possess peculiar and exclusive powers of preparing them. As long back as 1837 the following rough calculation was made.
| 1st Class. | 2d Class. | 3d Class. | Total. | |
| Well-dressed prostitutes in brothels | 813 | 62 | 20 | 895 |
| Well-dressed prostitutes walking the streets | 1460 | 79 | 73 | 1612 |
| Prostitutes infesting low neighborhoods | 3533 | 147 | 184 | 3864 |
| 5806 | 288 | 277 | 6371 |
On this return Mr. Mayne very probably based his estimate of 1840.[310]
Mr. Talbot, the secretary of the Society for the Protection of Young Females, made the subject one of special inquiry, both personally and with the aid of the local police of the different cities; and although his details are very meagre, he professes to have satisfied himself of the general accuracy of the following figures, showing the regular prostitutes in various cities.