“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 prostitution, 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 passing 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 prostitutes and other idle and disorderly persons at all hours of the night, greatly contributed to the present disgraceful exhibition of street prostitution.
“That the attention of the government be also directed to the number of foreign prostitutes 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 class had caused a corresponding amendment in the dress and demeanor of the females frequenting those streets; and the objects of this association 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 classes who had not absolutely forfeited their civil rights. If the association went the length of advocating that the act of prostitution should involve such forfeiture, and the entire riddance of London streets from the presence of prostitutes, 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 passed a night in a police cell for interfering in the defense of prostitutes 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 class 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 class. He did not think that the power of discrimination could be safely intrusted to the ill-paid constables of the Metropolitan Police, and the association 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 institution of a special service of street orderlies or regulators in uniform, a well-paid, superior, temperate, and discreet class of men, if possible, whose functions should be to observe, not to spy upon all prostitutes, 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 prostitutes 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 shifted 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 associating themselves together for the purpose of dealing in some degree with the notorious evil of street prostitution. 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 prostitution. 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 principally 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 associates 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 prostitution 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 pass 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 prostitution, 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 analogous 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 prostitution. 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 prostitutes 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.