CHAPTER VIII.
FRANCE.—HISTORY FROM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY.
Exile of Prostitutes.—Measures of Louis XIV.—Laws of 1684 and 1713.—Police Regulations.—Ordinance of 1778.—Republican Legislation.—Frightful state of Paris.—Efforts to pass a general Law.—The Court.—Louis XIII.—The Medicis.—Louis XIV.—La Vallière.—Montespan.—Maintenon.—Literature of the Day.—Feudal Rights.—The Regency.—Duchess of Berri.—Claudine du Tencin.—Louis XV.—Madame de Pompadour.—Dubarry.—Pare aux Cerfs.—Louis XVI.—Philippe Egalité.—Subsequent Sovereigns.—Literature.—Lewd Novels and Pictures.—Tendency of Philosophy.—The Church.
We have thus sketched the history of prostitution in France from the commencement of the French nation to the reign of Louis XIII. This chapter will complete the subject to the present day.
The ordinance of 1560, prohibiting prostitution in any shape, and granting twenty-four hours only to prostitutes and their accomplices to evacuate Paris, remained in force till late in the eighteenth century. Though, so far as the general traffic went, it was a dead letter, it enabled the police authorities to imprison or exile unruly prostitutes from time to time, and was the basis of the high-handed measure by which the colonists of Canada were first supplied with wives direct from the Paris stews. It also enabled noblemen and officials connected with government to avenge themselves upon unfaithful mistresses, and to exercise a convenient sort of tyranny over the pretty lingères and sewing-girls of the metropolis.
In 1684 Louis XIV. made some alteration in the laws governing prostitution. He provided prisons for the detention of prostitutes, and armed the lieutenant of police with authority to correct them; and he drew a broad line of distinction between dissolute women who were not actually upon the town and the class of prostitutes proper.
A farther police regulation on the subject was made in 1713. By that measure a sort of regularity was introduced into the procedure against courtesans and lewd women. They were definitely divided into two classes: women who led dissolute lives without being precisely prostitutes, and prostitutes proper. The police were authorized to interfere against both on complaint of any person who charged them with outraging public decency. In the case of prostitutes the proceeding was summary. The culprit was summoned, condemned on slight evidence, and sentenced either to exile, imprisonment, or, more rarely, to a whipping or the loss of her hair. With regard to dissolute women who were not regular prostitutes, the authorities proceeded more cautiously. They were entitled to all the privileges of other accused persons, sentences rendered against them being subject to appeal; and, when found guilty, the penalty inflicted was usually a fine. Occasionally, the houses where they had carried on their calling were closed, the furniture was thrown out of the window, and a crier proclaimed their disgrace throughout the city.
Monsieur Parent-Duchatelet, who had the patience to read all the records of proceedings against prostitutes in the city of Paris from 1724 to 1788, infers the law from these instances of its application, and concludes: (1.) That, notwithstanding the ordinance of 1560, brothels were licensed by the police. (2.) That prostitutes were never troubled except on complaint of a responsible person. (3.) That brothels were disorderly; that riots, rows, and murders not unfrequently occurred within their walls or in their neighborhood. (4.) That the punishment was left to the discretion of the magistrate. (5.) That the penalties inflicted were lighter toward the close of the period examined. (6.) That certain streets in Paris were wholly occupied by prostitutes.[196]