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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75348 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                                ADDRESS,
+                              DELIVERED IN
+                        CRAIGIE HALL, EDINBURGH,
+                          FEBRUARY 24TH, 1871.
+
+
+                                    BY
+                           JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.
+
+
+     PRINTED, BY REQUEST, FOR _PRIVATE CIRCULATION_ AMONG FRIENDS IN
+                                SCOTLAND.
+
+
+                      PRICE ONE SHILLING PER DOZEN.
+ To be had at the Central Office, 280, South Hill, Park Road, Liverpool.
+
+
+                               MANCHESTER:
+                  A. IRELAND & CO., PRINTERS, PALL MALL.
+                                  1871.
+
+
+
+
+                                ADDRESS.
+
+
+Once when I was in Paris, I saw in a gallery a picture, which taught me
+a lesson. It was a picture of Saint Marguerite, as the representative of
+purity. She was very frail and youthful-looking, but, nevertheless, was
+seen advancing in the attitude of a conqueror, trampling upon a hideous
+dragon. The contrast between the gentle lady, in her pure white dress,
+and the disgusting creature beneath her feet, was striking. The dragon,
+the embodiment of some foul impurity, wickedness, and cruelty, was
+enraged at its conqueror, but terrified too, wallowing on the ground,
+breathing forth fire and venom, as hideous a monster as you can
+conceive. St. Marguerite had no look of fear, nay, not even of disgust,
+on her calm face, which was turned straight heavenward; and her fair
+feet, stepping with a conqueror’s tread on the rough scales of the
+prostrate monster, were not the least soiled by his vileness, but
+remained as white as her heart was pure. This picture carried my
+thoughts away to many a struggle which the world has witnessed between
+good and evil, and it taught me to remember that when God sends forth
+his messengers to combat impurity in its most hideous forms, these
+messengers, weak though they be, need never doubt his power to keep them
+unharmed. There is no evil in the world so great that God cannot raise
+up to meet it a corresponding beauty and glory, which will blaze it out
+of countenance. But mark me, friends, in order to escape unhurt, we must
+oppose and tread upon the evil. If we merely look on at this unclean
+monster, wondering at him, amazed, we shall be the worse for it. It is
+the very pain and vigour, and humble trust in God, induced by
+opposition, which enable us to rise above hurtful influences. It _is_
+possible to rise above all such hurtful influences, above the horror and
+disgust, and to attain to a region in which pure and elevating thoughts
+alone prevail. This is of God’s goodness, who gives us armour fitted for
+the battle.
+
+I was asked this morning when it was that my thoughts were first
+directed to this subject concerning which we are met together. As I am
+here among friends and fellow-workers only, I may answer this question,
+which is personal to myself. It is many years ago that I first became
+acquainted with this system as it existed in Paris. I was one of those
+persons—they were few, I believe—who read that very brief debate in the
+House of Commons in 1866, when Mr. Henley and Mr. Ayrton alone, but
+clearly and boldly, entered their protest. It was in that year that the
+knowledge first broke upon me that this system, which I had so long
+regarded with horror, had actually found a footing in our England. It
+seemed to me as if a dark cloud were hanging on the horizon, threatening
+our land. The depression which took possession of my mind was
+overwhelming. A few days ago I found a record of those days, in an old
+manuscript book long laid aside. In turning over its leaves, I found a
+note of that debate in the house, the date, and a written expression,
+which I had since forgotten, of a presentiment which at that time filled
+my mind, that in some way or other I should be called to meet this evil
+thing face to face—a trembling presentiment, which I could not escape
+from, that, do what I would, I myself must enter into this cloud. I find
+there recorded also a brief prayer, beseeching that if I must descend
+into this darkness, that divine hand, whose touch is health and
+strength, would hold mine fast in the darkness. I can recollect going
+out into the garden, hoping that the sight of the flowers and blue sky
+might banish the mental pain, but it clung too fast for a time for any
+outward impression to remove it; and I envied the sparrows upon the
+garden walk, because they had not minds and souls capable of torment
+like mine. But _now_, when I look back, I see that that prayer has been
+heard—the divine hand has held mine—often when I knew it not. And,
+friends, God can give more than power to bear the pain; there is a
+positive _joy_ in His service, and in any warfare in which He who
+conquered sin and death and hell goes before us, and is our reward.
+
+In England the aspect of the question before us, which affects most
+strongly the masses of the working-class electors, is the constitutional
+aspect. Even apart from the moral considerations involved, which are by
+far the most important, the working men will wage war to the death
+against this legislation, on account of its unconstitutional character;
+and it is not, you may suppose, as a merely theoretic iniquity which
+these practical men oppose it. It comes home to them very closely; they
+see at once the dangers which threaten their own homes first, and the
+whole commonwealth ultimately, through the admission of a principle into
+our penal legislation which is directly and violently opposed to the
+principles of the English constitution. Their instincts on this subject
+are more keen than are those of the upper classes; this keenness of
+perception arises mainly from the fact that they, not being sheltered by
+rank, position, or wealth, have no guarantee of liberty, and of penal
+justice, except what is found in the bulwarks of that constitution which
+these Acts of Parliament have broken down.
+
+I will presently briefly recount to you the main features of those just
+criminal laws which Englishmen have lived under hitherto. Scotch laws
+differ, I believe, in many respects from English laws; and it may be
+that there is not among Scotch working men that deep attachment to the
+Constitution which I find in the English, though I believe the Scotchman
+has quite as strong a passion for freedom, and would be found to be
+stronger on the moral argument. It is well that we should understand
+clearly the illegal character of the Acts we oppose. I have been the
+more deeply impressed with the importance of this aspect of the matter,
+by reading the almost universal and powerful testimony of our great
+lawyers and historians to the danger of introducing, in any single
+instance, a lax, vicious, or unjust principle into our criminal code,
+and to the moral and social evils which such an introduction necessarily
+involves. Niebuhr, De Tocqueville, Guizot, Hallam, Lieber, Creasy,
+Mackintosh, Blackstone, and a host of others, have again and again
+pointed out that upon the justice and purity of the penal legislation of
+a country the political wellbeing of that country mainly depends. The
+consideration of this subject has induced in me the deep conviction that
+public worship and the teaching of the Bible in a country where laws are
+corrupt, and freedom insecure, will do little more than to keep
+conscience alive in a remnant as it were, a minority of protestors,
+becoming yearly more saddened and more feeble amidst the corruption of
+social life through the sure and subtle teaching of the laws and public
+institutions; it will do little more than create an antagonism in the
+whole of society, between Christianity and the educational influence of
+public law and custom. The purity of our laws, then, is of the very
+highest importance in every aspect, political, social and moral. Again,
+if any great purification of our laws is to be brought about, as I trust
+it is to be brought about, at this anxious crisis of our nation’s
+history, I, for my part, am deeply convinced, it cannot be achieved
+except through a mighty awakening of the conscience of the
+people—through a baptism into fresh spiritual life—through a great
+stirring up of hearts to prayer and to action. Day by day, as I work in
+this cause, it is more deeply impressed on my mind that we need a very
+great reviving from on high. Since I came to Scotland this thought has
+never been absent from my mind for a moment, night or day. My soul
+travails in pain up to this hour, wishing and longing for that
+outpouring of God’s Spirit, that breath of heaven which, my friends, I
+declare to you I believe to be our only hope, in this our day, of
+preventing our country from entering upon the first step towards speedy
+national decline and dissolution; and it is a cause of grief and pain to
+me that I can find no words in which to convey to you the strength of
+that conviction which is laid upon my heart, and of that motive which
+impels me forward as by the force of an internal fire which burns
+without ceasing. I resolved before coming here this evening that I would
+be bold, and that, though some here might perhaps think me fanatical, I
+would tell you frankly out of my heart what I wish for, what I think we
+need, and more—what I believe God will grant us. There is, to my mind, a
+cloud of blessing hanging over our land, which will not long remain a
+_little_ cloud, but will cover the sky. The enemy we have to contend
+with is materialism, productive of a despotic absolutism, in one form or
+other. The evil we are combating has its root in a deep scepticism as to
+the possibility of virtue, and in the denial of eternal principles.
+Therefore it is that we can only combat it, and its manifestations in
+our laws and institutions, by the power and Spirit of God visiting once
+more in an unusual degree this vexed land of ours.
+
+Before pointing out, then, the corrupt tendencies of some of our modern
+legislation, I will sketch to you, in the words of a great legal writer,
+the main characteristics of just criminal jurisprudence, begging you
+never to forget that while the Contagious Diseases Acts have been
+imposed upon us in the name of merely sanitary and economical
+regulations, they are, _in fact_, grave penal enactments—they have
+introduced a great and serious change into our criminal jurisprudence.
+This legal writer says—“The characteristics of a just, fair, and sound
+penal trial (which characteristics are invariable in essence, and hold
+good for all time) are as follows: No intimidation before the trial, no
+attempt by artifice to induce the prisoner to confess, or criminate
+himself; the fullest possible realisation of the principle that every
+man must be held innocent until he is _proved_ to be guilty; bail; a
+total discarding of the principle, that the more heinous the imputed
+crime, the less ought to be the protection of the prisoner, but, on the
+contrary, the adoption of the reverse; a distinct indictment, and the
+acquaintance of the prisoner with it a long enough time beforehand to
+give him time for preparing the defence: the accusatorial process, with
+jury and publicity; counsel and defence for the prisoner; a distinct
+theory of evidence (such as is defined by our statutes); no _hearsay_
+testimony: a verdict upon such evidence alone; the accusation not to be
+made by the _executive_.” Now this definition of a just penal trial has
+hitherto been strictly adhered to in every case of moral and legal guilt
+involving severe penalties. I could point out to you—(but you can see it
+for yourselves)—how in _every one_ of these particulars the Contagious
+Diseases Acts depart from the characteristics of a fair, just, and sound
+penal trial. In the matter of mere economical laws there is no harm in
+the fact of the accusation being made by the executive, indeed it is
+needful—as for instance, when the policeman is the person who accuses a
+cab-driver of driving recklessly; but when it comes to a matter of such
+awful seriousness as that of a woman’s honour, involving loss of
+character, which character is often, to a poor woman, her sole earthly
+property, her only possession and capital; involving, moreover, the
+penalties of personal assault, of a nature inadmissible hitherto in law
+even in the case of proved outrageous guilt; of imprisonment and of
+public registration as an infamous person; when it comes to this, I say,
+it is an awful thing to put the accusation in the power of the
+executive—that executive being the secret police, paid by the State, for
+the sole business of detecting and hunting down suspected or unchaste
+women. Again, the evil is aggravated by the fact that no other witness
+to the guilt of the woman is required, except the government spy, and
+that he, by this law, is not required to bring forward any overt act on
+the part of his prisoner, or one iota of positive proof, but is only
+required to believe and swear that the woman has a certain purpose or
+intention.
+
+If you doubt, read the Act carefully for yourself, and read the accounts
+of proceedings under the Act. Again, and this is all important, the
+denial of jury trial is cardinal to the very existence of these Acts.
+Thus while to male criminals all the safeguards of penal law are
+granted, as indeed they _ought_ to be, women are deprived of every one
+of these safeguards under these Acts. Now even supposing that none but
+the most guilty of the outcast class were brought under the Acts, the
+Acts still remain an extreme injustice, and an aggression upon our
+constitution, fraught with danger to the commonwealth; for, as
+Chancellor Hobart said, “an element of license introduced into our
+criminal code is the first step towards the destruction of the liberty
+for _all_.” I will not dwell on other points, as for instance the
+enforced self-crimination of the women, the dispensing, often, with the
+formality even of a Justice, but will pass on.
+
+My recent inquiries on these matters have made me very sorrowful, as a
+lover of my country, and not only of womankind. There are other Acts of
+Parliament now in force, and several others I fear about to be passed,
+the tendency of which is in every case more or less unconstitutional,
+and more or less demoralising, using these words in a general sense.
+This type of legislation seems to me to flow from _one_ source. I
+scarcely know how to designate that source. It is clumsy and despotic;
+and, though I have no doubt wellintentioned, it tends to the steady
+increase of the criminal class, by the rapid creation of new crimes, new
+offences, followed by new pains and penalties. It tends to bring us back
+to the old pantheistic State worship, to the substitution of the will of
+the State for individual conscience, and to that cruellest of all
+tyrannies which De Tocqueville shadows forth in his pages on the
+despotism of the future, the despotism which may exist with democratic
+institutions. This species of legislation assumes the right to coerce
+human beings to any extent which may seem to minister to a given
+material end, or to be temporarily expedient. It is stringent, punitive,
+and arbitrary. It is unchristian in the sense that it practically denies
+the possibility of moral renovation, and cuts off the means of rising
+from the stage of criminality to that of a reinstated membership of
+society. It deals out more and more punishment, more and more penalties,
+more and more espionage. It, in fact, legislates more and more for
+persons, as if they were “physical facts,” and not “moral agents.” It
+defies the instinct of freedom in man, and ignores the power of renewal
+in human character. The broad principles of our Constitution are so
+glorious in their acknowledgment of the dignity and worth of human
+beings, that wherever this new legislation takes root, it is obliged to
+do so outside of the Constitution, so to speak, or in direct violation
+of its principles. To the class of laws of which I speak belongs the
+Habitual Criminals Bill, which even now has begun to bring forth vicious
+fruit, to fill our streets with spies, and to drive men to despair.
+
+Again, there is the Pedlars Licensing Bill, which forbids a poor man to
+get a license to sell anything who may have been formerly committed for
+a legal offence, and which in fact says to a man, “You have sinned once,
+you shall not henceforward be allowed to pursue an honest trade.”
+Pre-eminent among such legislation stand the Acts against which we are
+contending, in this particular of branding those once fallen, and
+assigning them to the rank of professional and marked criminals.
+
+But I must here point out very emphatically that the Contagious Diseases
+Acts stand alone in one sense, inasmuch as they embody a far deeper
+iniquity than any of these other laws, and directly violate the law of
+God, by offering protection to a vice which in opposition to that law
+they pronounce to be necessary, and inasmuch as, while they cruelly
+brand the class to whom they apply, they at the same time give to the
+awful traffic which this class pursues the dignity of a recognised,
+legitimate, and even protected industry.
+
+It should be one of the aims of wise legislation to throw wide open the
+door of recovery to the lapsed classes; and motives even of
+self-interest should prompt legislators to endeavour to reinstate every
+criminal who has endured his legal punishment. The element, which I have
+tried to indicate, embodied in some of our recent legislation, tends to
+create a large class of criminals and outlaws, of sullen and despairing
+people, lost to self-respect, and for ever hunted by a watchful police.
+We are being hurried into fearful dangers. It has appeared to me at
+times as if we were smitten with a curse, a judicial blindness, which is
+leading a Parliament, nominally the most liberal we have ever had, to
+inaugurate a reign of materialism and despotism. We know the effects of
+the growth of a proletariate class in ancient Rome and in other
+countries. We are rapidly creating at this moment a proletariate class,
+and the creation of such a class ensures sooner or later the smothering
+of a nation in its own mud. I hold in my hand an Act of Parliament,
+called “A Bill for the better protection of infant life,” which to some
+extent illustrates what I have been saying. I do not wish to be
+understood to condemn absolutely all such legislation, but it is
+impossible not to be struck with the fact that this Bill, the “Habitual
+Drunkards Bill,” and others which I have mentioned have not in them one
+particle of _prevention_. These Acts of Parliament assume that we are to
+acquiesce in the present state of England as its normal state; they
+assume that we are to continue to have so many thousands of paupers, so
+many thousands of habitual criminals, of outcast women, of drunkards,
+&c., &c. Measures for dealing with these classes as they now exist may
+be necessary; but, while they are enacted, common sense requires, and
+surely the country will demand, that measures for _preventing_ these
+enormous evils shall at least keep pace with measures for regulating
+them. A measure, for instance, is passed for licensing baby-farming, and
+for punishing infanticide, but nothing is done to increase the
+responsibility of the fathers of illegitimate children, and the seducers
+of girls who are minors are still left unpunished by law. Little or
+nothing has yet been done to lessen the temptations to drunkenness,
+while expensive provision is to be made for those who have become
+confirmed in that vice.
+
+Now the spirit of the teaching of Christ is the very opposite of that
+which animates so much of this legislation. It is said of God, “He
+giveth liberally and upbraideth not;” but man gives grudgingly,
+upbraiding all the time. The Christian religion teaches that we shall
+forgive a fallen brother not once but many times, and that forgiveness
+shall be practically proved by granting an open path to recovery, that
+it shall not be a forgiveness followed by perpetual espionage,
+suspicion, and the ban of society fastened upon the once fallen for the
+rest of their lives. I am not insisting that the Christian rule is to be
+followed out to the letter in penal legislation, but I maintain that
+legislation which violently adopts principles the very opposite of
+Christian comes from an evil source, and will be followed by disastrous
+consequences.
+
+The principle of arbitrary compulsion embodied in some of our _sanatory_
+Acts is fraught with danger. The medical and sanatory measures embodied
+in such Acts may in themselves be excellent, but they are for the most
+part grounded on opinion only—the opinion sometimes of a mere
+clique,—which opinion has none of the authority of those eternal
+principles of right and wrong which are written within the human
+conscience. Wherefore, by the creation of a multitude of technical
+crimes through the multiplication of these compulsory-sanatory and other
+Acts, the criminal class is enormously increased, and to some extent the
+mind is demoralised, while the body may or may not be kept in health.
+The forcible doctoring of the people, whether they will or no, is, as a
+matter of mere policy, a most dangerous experiment. The magisterial
+powers now granted to State doctors, the amount of domiciliary
+visitation already legalised for police and medical men, to which the
+families of the poor have to submit, are not likely to make the people
+in love with the laws, or to induce in them a readiness to help their
+operation; and if the people at large do not cheerfully help the action
+of any law, that law must come to end either by dying a natural death or
+by revolution. Much sullenness and revengefulness are even now being
+bred in the minds of large sections of our working men by the action of
+some of these stringent criminal-making laws; whereas it should be the
+policy of a wise government to secure the co-operation of this vast and
+powerful portion of our population in the maintenance of law and order.
+
+There is another evil incidental to the enforcement of these multiplied
+enactments which are now so rapidly following one another. All these
+laws are administered by the central authority, which, from London,
+stretches its hand over the vast populations of our great cities. This
+gradually increasing centralisation overrides municipal authority,
+represses corporate freedom, and tends to deaden and stupefy the
+political life and self-governing power of our great provincial
+capitals. The local self-government of our country has ever been the
+object of the admiration of thoughtful foreigners, who attribute to it
+much of the manly character, the respect for law, and the readiness of
+resource in emergencies which characterise our countrymen. But all these
+things are struck at by this threatening imperialism, which works the
+ruin of corporate freedom as much as that of individual virtue and
+liberty, by treating the subject as a mere child or chattel, and
+imposing a uniform rule upon all alike.
+
+The new forthcoming Sanatory Bill is one which ought to be jealously
+watched by the people. It seems likely to involve uniformity of
+prescription in matters where such uniformity is least wise, and where
+the power of self-regulation is most wholesome, as well as to increase
+the magisterial powers of State doctors to an extent hitherto unknown.
+
+The influence of women and their faith in the recoverability of human
+nature are needed in these legislative matters. Our male legislators are
+apt to ride rough-shod over us in matters of domestic detail. Their
+heavy-handed legislation is applied now not only to matters of imperial
+interest, but to everything which most nearly concerns our conscience
+and feelings. It seems to me that we women shall soon have to fight for
+the last inch of ground left us;—not for our civil rights only, but for
+our hearths, our homes, our beds, our babies, our very persons. The
+crudeness of intellect of some of our young male legislators needs to be
+corrected by the wisdom of the thoughtful matrons of England. A young
+M.P. said to me lately, “We shall do no good at all until we make
+poverty a crime; disease is already made a crime in some cases, and
+poverty ought to be so also.” I did not answer him, but in my heart I
+said, “Thou fool!”
+
+Such are some of the dangers before us. It has lately been suggested by
+several gentlemen who are alive to this subject, that it may be
+desirable and necessary to form some sort of a Covenant or League, of a
+wide and national character, for the protection of freedom and virtue as
+its general object, and in particular to observe vigilantly, and examine
+strictly, every proposal and act of the legislature, especially such as
+emanate from certain favoured cliques or professions, and to secure that
+nothing passes into law which has not the sanction of the whole nation,
+marked by open debate in Parliament, and by a majority of votes in a
+House where there is more than a mere fraction of members present. It
+has been suggested that no penal measures, involving extensive
+interference with the liberty of the subject, or measures sanctioning
+the erection of new tribunals for the assigning of grave and terrible
+penalties, shall in future be enacted except where two-thirds, or at
+least some reasonably large proportion of the House are present. It is a
+rule, in many private and public associations, that no grave or
+important changes or measures shall be made or enacted except in the
+presence of a very large proportion of the members, constituting a
+quorum. It would surely be a very right and natural demand on the part
+of the people of England (with the warning they have now before their
+eyes of the secret passing of the Contagious Diseases Acts) that
+Parliament should never again make any great change in our penal code,
+or infringe upon constitutional principles, in the name of sanitary
+improvements, medical necessities, or any other thing, except by means
+of such a parliamentary quorum as would satisfy the nation.
+
+Any national league, such as has been suggested, for the defence of the
+constitution, of liberty, and of morality, would of course be composed
+both of men and women. Women are becoming rapidly educated in all these
+matters, and their vigilance would naturally exceed even that of men,
+for most of these threatening tyrannies fall _first_, if not
+exclusively, on women and children.
+
+I know not what work God may have in store for us, dear friends, but
+this I know, that it is not for any small end that He has called our
+Association together, a mighty band throughout the kingdom, united with
+one heart in the presence of a common danger. He has not called up all
+these rapidly-formed and grave friendships, this loving co-operation and
+powerful mutual help, for any end or aim inadequate to so great an
+instrument. I believe that the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act,
+which is our immediate object, is only a small part of the work He has
+designed for us. I know not what that work may be; but this is sure,
+that God knows and that he is guiding us. I believe that the materialism
+of the day and the principle which opposes that materialism are about to
+meet and to try their strength in a deadly encounter, and that we have a
+great and holy work before us. We must be filled with high courage,
+hope, and stern resolve. Think what a machinery we have now for work!
+Our branch societies, our local secretaries, our power of concentration
+on a given point at a given moment, our organisation generally,
+resembles a great telegraphic system which is a swift and formidable
+power. But our power is not in the machinery; it is in the living
+principle which runs like lightning through this great telegraphic
+system.
+
+I know there is abundant life in Scotland, but I venture to beseech you,
+friends, on behalf of England, which needs your help, as well as of your
+own country, to pray and seek for a redoubling of that life; for surely
+God is about to do great things. The power of evil is very awful, but
+greater is He who is with us than they who are against us. All cannot
+work actively for the ends we have in view, but all can pray, and
+
+      “More things are done by prayer than this world dreams of.”
+
+
+               A. Ireland and Co., Printers, Manchester.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+
+ ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+ ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75348 ***
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+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75348 ***</div>
+
+<div class='tnotes covernote'>
+
+<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p>
+
+<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='titlepage'>
+
+<div>
+  <h1 class='c001'>ADDRESS,<br> <span class='xsmall'>DELIVERED IN</span><br> <span class='xlarge'>CRAIGIE HALL, EDINBURGH,</span><br> <span class='large'>FEBRUARY <span class='fss'>24TH</span>, 1871.</span></h1>
+</div>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c002'>
+    <div>BY</div>
+    <div><span class='xlarge'>JOSEPHINE E. BUTLER.</span></div>
+    <div class='c002'><span class='large'>PRINTED, BY REQUEST, FOR <em>PRIVATE CIRCULATION</em> AMONG FRIENDS IN SCOTLAND.</span></div>
+    <div class='c002'><span class='sc'>Price One Shilling per Dozen.</span></div>
+    <div><span class='small'>To be had at the Central Office, 280, South Hill, Park Road, Liverpool.</span></div>
+    <div class='c002'>MANCHESTER:</div>
+    <div>A. IRELAND &#38; CO., PRINTERS, PALL MALL.</div>
+    <div>1871.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class='chapter'>
+  <span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>
+  <h2 class='c003'>ADDRESS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='c004'>Once when I was in Paris, I saw in a gallery a picture, which
+taught me a lesson. It was a picture of Saint Marguerite, as
+the representative of purity. She was very frail and youthful-looking,
+but, nevertheless, was seen advancing in the attitude
+of a conqueror, trampling upon a hideous dragon. The contrast
+between the gentle lady, in her pure white dress, and the disgusting
+creature beneath her feet, was striking. The dragon,
+the embodiment of some foul impurity, wickedness, and cruelty,
+was enraged at its conqueror, but terrified too, wallowing on the
+ground, breathing forth fire and venom, as hideous a monster as
+you can conceive. St. Marguerite had no look of fear, nay, not
+even of disgust, on her calm face, which was turned straight
+heavenward; and her fair feet, stepping with a conqueror’s
+tread on the rough scales of the prostrate monster, were not
+the least soiled by his vileness, but remained as white as her
+heart was pure. This picture carried my thoughts away to
+many a struggle which the world has witnessed between good
+and evil, and it taught me to remember that when God sends
+forth his messengers to combat impurity in its most hideous
+forms, these messengers, weak though they be, need never doubt
+his power to keep them unharmed. There is no evil in the world
+so great that God cannot raise up to meet it a corresponding
+beauty and glory, which will blaze it out of countenance. But
+mark me, friends, in order to escape unhurt, we must oppose
+and tread upon the evil. If we merely look on at this unclean
+monster, wondering at him, amazed, we shall be the worse for
+it. It is the very pain and vigour, and humble trust in God,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>induced by opposition, which enable us to rise above hurtful
+influences. It <em>is</em> possible to rise above all such hurtful influences,
+above the horror and disgust, and to attain to a region
+in which pure and elevating thoughts alone prevail. This is of
+God’s goodness, who gives us armour fitted for the battle.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I was asked this morning when it was that my thoughts
+were first directed to this subject concerning which we are met
+together. As I am here among friends and fellow-workers only,
+I may answer this question, which is personal to myself. It
+is many years ago that I first became acquainted with this
+system as it existed in Paris. I was one of those persons—they
+were few, I believe—who read that very brief debate in the
+House of Commons in 1866, when Mr. Henley and Mr. Ayrton
+alone, but clearly and boldly, entered their protest. It was in
+that year that the knowledge first broke upon me that this
+system, which I had so long regarded with horror, had actually
+found a footing in our England. It seemed to me as if a dark
+cloud were hanging on the horizon, threatening our land. The
+depression which took possession of my mind was overwhelming.
+A few days ago I found a record of those days, in an old manuscript
+book long laid aside. In turning over its leaves, I found
+a note of that debate in the house, the date, and a written
+expression, which I had since forgotten, of a presentiment which
+at that time filled my mind, that in some way or other I should
+be called to meet this evil thing face to face—a trembling presentiment,
+which I could not escape from, that, do what I
+would, I myself must enter into this cloud. I find there recorded
+also a brief prayer, beseeching that if I must descend
+into this darkness, that divine hand, whose touch is health
+and strength, would hold mine fast in the darkness. I can
+recollect going out into the garden, hoping that the sight of
+the flowers and blue sky might banish the mental pain, but it
+clung too fast for a time for any outward impression to remove
+it; and I envied the sparrows upon the garden walk, because
+they had not minds and souls capable of torment like mine.
+But <em>now</em>, when I look back, I see that that prayer has been
+heard—the divine hand has held mine—often when I knew it
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>not. And, friends, God can give more than power to bear the
+pain; there is a positive <em>joy</em> in His service, and in any warfare
+in which He who conquered sin and death and hell goes
+before us, and is our reward.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>In England the aspect of the question before us, which
+affects most strongly the masses of the working-class electors,
+is the constitutional aspect. Even apart from the moral considerations
+involved, which are by far the most important, the
+working men will wage war to the death against this legislation,
+on account of its unconstitutional character; and it is not, you
+may suppose, as a merely theoretic iniquity which these practical
+men oppose it. It comes home to them very closely; they see
+at once the dangers which threaten their own homes first, and the
+whole commonwealth ultimately, through the admission of a
+principle into our penal legislation which is directly and violently
+opposed to the principles of the English constitution. Their instincts
+on this subject are more keen than are those of the upper
+classes; this keenness of perception arises mainly from the fact
+that they, not being sheltered by rank, position, or wealth, have
+no guarantee of liberty, and of penal justice, except what is
+found in the bulwarks of that constitution which these Acts of
+Parliament have broken down.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I will presently briefly recount to you the main features of
+those just criminal laws which Englishmen have lived under
+hitherto. Scotch laws differ, I believe, in many respects from
+English laws; and it may be that there is not among Scotch
+working men that deep attachment to the Constitution which I
+find in the English, though I believe the Scotchman has quite
+as strong a passion for freedom, and would be found to be
+stronger on the moral argument. It is well that we should
+understand clearly the illegal character of the Acts we oppose.
+I have been the more deeply impressed with the importance of
+this aspect of the matter, by reading the almost universal and
+powerful testimony of our great lawyers and historians to the
+danger of introducing, in any single instance, a lax, vicious, or unjust
+principle into our criminal code, and to the moral and social
+evils which such an introduction necessarily involves. Niebuhr,
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>De Tocqueville, Guizot, Hallam, Lieber, Creasy, Mackintosh,
+Blackstone, and a host of others, have again and again pointed
+out that upon the justice and purity of the penal legislation of
+a country the political wellbeing of that country mainly depends.
+The consideration of this subject has induced in
+me the deep conviction that public worship and the teaching
+of the Bible in a country where laws are corrupt, and freedom
+insecure, will do little more than to keep conscience alive in a
+remnant as it were, a minority of protestors, becoming yearly
+more saddened and more feeble amidst the corruption of social
+life through the sure and subtle teaching of the laws and
+public institutions; it will do little more than create an antagonism
+in the whole of society, between Christianity and the
+educational influence of public law and custom. The purity of
+our laws, then, is of the very highest importance in every aspect,
+political, social and moral. Again, if any great purification of
+our laws is to be brought about, as I trust it is to be brought
+about, at this anxious crisis of our nation’s history, I, for
+my part, am deeply convinced, it cannot be achieved except
+through a mighty awakening of the conscience of the people—through
+a baptism into fresh spiritual life—through a great
+stirring up of hearts to prayer and to action. Day by day,
+as I work in this cause, it is more deeply impressed on my
+mind that we need a very great reviving from on high.
+Since I came to Scotland this thought has never been
+absent from my mind for a moment, night or day. My soul
+travails in pain up to this hour, wishing and longing for that
+outpouring of God’s Spirit, that breath of heaven which, my
+friends, I declare to you I believe to be our only hope, in this
+our day, of preventing our country from entering upon the
+first step towards speedy national decline and dissolution; and
+it is a cause of grief and pain to me that I can find no words
+in which to convey to you the strength of that conviction which
+is laid upon my heart, and of that motive which impels me
+forward as by the force of an internal fire which burns without
+ceasing. I resolved before coming here this evening that I
+would be bold, and that, though some here might perhaps think
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>me fanatical, I would tell you frankly out of my heart what I
+wish for, what I think we need, and more—what I believe God
+will grant us. There is, to my mind, a cloud of blessing hanging
+over our land, which will not long remain a <em>little</em> cloud, but
+will cover the sky. The enemy we have to contend with is
+materialism, productive of a despotic absolutism, in one form
+or other. The evil we are combating has its root in a deep
+scepticism as to the possibility of virtue, and in the denial of
+eternal principles. Therefore it is that we can only combat it,
+and its manifestations in our laws and institutions, by the power
+and Spirit of God visiting once more in an unusual degree this
+vexed land of ours.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Before pointing out, then, the corrupt tendencies of some of
+our modern legislation, I will sketch to you, in the words of a
+great legal writer, the main characteristics of just criminal
+jurisprudence, begging you never to forget that while the Contagious
+Diseases Acts have been imposed upon us in the name
+of merely sanitary and economical regulations, they are, <em>in fact</em>,
+grave penal enactments—they have introduced a great and
+serious change into our criminal jurisprudence. This legal
+writer says—“The characteristics of a just, fair, and sound
+penal trial (which characteristics are invariable in essence, and
+hold good for all time) are as follows: No intimidation before the
+trial, no attempt by artifice to induce the prisoner to confess, or
+criminate himself; the fullest possible realisation of the principle
+that every man must be held innocent until he is <em>proved</em>
+to be guilty; bail; a total discarding of the principle, that the
+more heinous the imputed crime, the less ought to be the protection
+of the prisoner, but, on the contrary, the adoption of the
+reverse; a distinct indictment, and the acquaintance of the
+prisoner with it a long enough time beforehand to give him
+time for preparing the defence: the accusatorial process, with
+jury and publicity; counsel and defence for the prisoner; a
+distinct theory of evidence (such as is defined by our statutes);
+no <em>hearsay</em> testimony: a verdict upon such evidence alone; the
+accusation not to be made by the <em>executive</em>.” Now this definition
+of a just penal trial has hitherto been strictly adhered to in
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>every case of moral and legal guilt involving severe penalties.
+I could point out to you—(but you can see it for yourselves)—how
+in <em>every one</em> of these particulars the Contagious Diseases
+Acts depart from the characteristics of a fair, just, and sound
+penal trial. In the matter of mere economical laws there is no
+harm in the fact of the accusation being made by the executive,
+indeed it is needful—as for instance, when the policeman is the
+person who accuses a cab-driver of driving recklessly; but when
+it comes to a matter of such awful seriousness as that of a
+woman’s honour, involving loss of character, which character is
+often, to a poor woman, her sole earthly property, her only
+possession and capital; involving, moreover, the penalties of
+personal assault, of a nature inadmissible hitherto in law even
+in the case of proved outrageous guilt; of imprisonment and of
+public registration as an infamous person; when it comes to
+this, I say, it is an awful thing to put the accusation in the
+power of the executive—that executive being the secret police,
+paid by the State, for the sole business of detecting and hunting
+down suspected or unchaste women. Again, the evil is aggravated
+by the fact that no other witness to the guilt of the
+woman is required, except the government spy, and that he, by
+this law, is not required to bring forward any overt act on the
+part of his prisoner, or one iota of positive proof, but is only
+required to believe and swear that the woman has a certain
+purpose or intention.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>If you doubt, read the Act carefully for yourself, and read
+the accounts of proceedings under the Act. Again, and this is
+all important, the denial of jury trial is cardinal to the very
+existence of these Acts. Thus while to male criminals all the
+safeguards of penal law are granted, as indeed they <em>ought</em> to be,
+women are deprived of every one of these safeguards under these
+Acts. Now even supposing that none but the most guilty of the
+outcast class were brought under the Acts, the Acts still remain
+an extreme injustice, and an aggression upon our constitution,
+fraught with danger to the commonwealth; for, as Chancellor
+Hobart said, “an element of license introduced into our criminal
+code is the first step towards the destruction of the liberty for
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span><em>all</em>.” I will not dwell on other points, as for instance the enforced
+self-crimination of the women, the dispensing, often, with the
+formality even of a Justice, but will pass on.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>My recent inquiries on these matters have made me very
+sorrowful, as a lover of my country, and not only of womankind.
+There are other Acts of Parliament now in force, and
+several others I fear about to be passed, the tendency of
+which is in every case more or less unconstitutional, and
+more or less demoralising, using these words in a general
+sense. This type of legislation seems to me to flow from
+<em>one</em> source. I scarcely know how to designate that source.
+It is clumsy and despotic; and, though I have no doubt wellintentioned,
+it tends to the steady increase of the criminal class,
+by the rapid creation of new crimes, new offences, followed by
+new pains and penalties. It tends to bring us back to the old
+pantheistic State worship, to the substitution of the will of the
+State for individual conscience, and to that cruellest of all
+tyrannies which De Tocqueville shadows forth in his pages on
+the despotism of the future, the despotism which may exist with
+democratic institutions. This species of legislation assumes the
+right to coerce human beings to any extent which may seem to
+minister to a given material end, or to be temporarily expedient.
+It is stringent, punitive, and arbitrary. It is unchristian in the
+sense that it practically denies the possibility of moral renovation,
+and cuts off the means of rising from the stage of criminality
+to that of a reinstated membership of society. It deals out more
+and more punishment, more and more penalties, more and more
+espionage. It, in fact, legislates more and more for persons, as
+if they were “physical facts,” and not “moral agents.” It defies
+the instinct of freedom in man, and ignores the power of renewal
+in human character. The broad principles of our Constitution
+are so glorious in their acknowledgment of the dignity
+and worth of human beings, that wherever this new legislation
+takes root, it is obliged to do so outside of the Constitution, so
+to speak, or in direct violation of its principles. To the class of
+laws of which I speak belongs the Habitual Criminals Bill,
+which even now has begun to bring forth vicious fruit, to fill
+our streets with spies, and to drive men to despair.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>Again, there is the Pedlars Licensing Bill, which forbids a
+poor man to get a license to sell anything who may have been
+formerly committed for a legal offence, and which in fact says to
+a man, “You have sinned once, you shall not henceforward be
+allowed to pursue an honest trade.” Pre-eminent among such
+legislation stand the Acts against which we are contending, in
+this particular of branding those once fallen, and assigning them
+to the rank of professional and marked criminals.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>But I must here point out very emphatically that the Contagious
+Diseases Acts stand alone in one sense, inasmuch as
+they embody a far deeper iniquity than any of these other
+laws, and directly violate the law of God, by offering protection
+to a vice which in opposition to that law they pronounce to
+be necessary, and inasmuch as, while they cruelly brand the
+class to whom they apply, they at the same time give to the
+awful traffic which this class pursues the dignity of a recognised,
+legitimate, and even protected industry.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>It should be one of the aims of wise legislation to throw
+wide open the door of recovery to the lapsed classes; and
+motives even of self-interest should prompt legislators to endeavour
+to reinstate every criminal who has endured his legal
+punishment. The element, which I have tried to indicate, embodied
+in some of our recent legislation, tends to create a large
+class of criminals and outlaws, of sullen and despairing people,
+lost to self-respect, and for ever hunted by a watchful police.
+We are being hurried into fearful dangers. It has appeared to
+me at times as if we were smitten with a curse, a judicial
+blindness, which is leading a Parliament, nominally the most
+liberal we have ever had, to inaugurate a reign of materialism
+and despotism. We know the effects of the growth of a proletariate
+class in ancient Rome and in other countries. We are
+rapidly creating at this moment a proletariate class, and the
+creation of such a class ensures sooner or later the smothering
+of a nation in its own mud. I hold in my hand an Act of
+Parliament, called “A Bill for the better protection of infant
+life,” which to some extent illustrates what I have been saying.
+I do not wish to be understood to condemn absolutely all such
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>legislation, but it is impossible not to be struck with the fact
+that this Bill, the “Habitual Drunkards Bill,” and others which
+I have mentioned have not in them one particle of <em>prevention</em>.
+These Acts of Parliament assume that we are to acquiesce in
+the present state of England as its normal state; they assume
+that we are to continue to have so many thousands of paupers,
+so many thousands of habitual criminals, of outcast women, of
+drunkards, &#38;c., &#38;c. Measures for dealing with these classes
+as they now exist may be necessary; but, while they are
+enacted, common sense requires, and surely the country will
+demand, that measures for <em>preventing</em> these enormous evils
+shall at least keep pace with measures for regulating them. A
+measure, for instance, is passed for licensing baby-farming, and
+for punishing infanticide, but nothing is done to increase the
+responsibility of the fathers of illegitimate children, and the
+seducers of girls who are minors are still left unpunished by
+law. Little or nothing has yet been done to lessen the temptations
+to drunkenness, while expensive provision is to be made
+for those who have become confirmed in that vice.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Now the spirit of the teaching of Christ is the very opposite
+of that which animates so much of this legislation. It is said
+of God, “He giveth liberally and upbraideth not;” but man
+gives grudgingly, upbraiding all the time. The Christian
+religion teaches that we shall forgive a fallen brother not once
+but many times, and that forgiveness shall be practically proved
+by granting an open path to recovery, that it shall not be a
+forgiveness followed by perpetual espionage, suspicion, and the
+ban of society fastened upon the once fallen for the rest of
+their lives. I am not insisting that the Christian rule is to be
+followed out to the letter in penal legislation, but I maintain
+that legislation which violently adopts principles the very opposite
+of Christian comes from an evil source, and will be followed
+by disastrous consequences.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The principle of arbitrary compulsion embodied in some of
+our <em>sanatory</em> Acts is fraught with danger. The medical and sanatory
+measures embodied in such Acts may in themselves be
+excellent, but they are for the most part grounded on opinion
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>only—the opinion sometimes of a mere clique,—which opinion
+has none of the authority of those eternal principles of right and
+wrong which are written within the human conscience. Wherefore,
+by the creation of a multitude of technical crimes through
+the multiplication of these compulsory-sanatory and other Acts,
+the criminal class is enormously increased, and to some extent
+the mind is demoralised, while the body may or may not be
+kept in health. The forcible doctoring of the people, whether
+they will or no, is, as a matter of mere policy, a most dangerous
+experiment. The magisterial powers now granted to State doctors,
+the amount of domiciliary visitation already legalised for police
+and medical men, to which the families of the poor have to
+submit, are not likely to make the people in love with the laws,
+or to induce in them a readiness to help their operation; and if
+the people at large do not cheerfully help the action of any law,
+that law must come to end either by dying a natural death or
+by revolution. Much sullenness and revengefulness are even
+now being bred in the minds of large sections of our working
+men by the action of some of these stringent criminal-making
+laws; whereas it should be the policy of a wise government to
+secure the co-operation of this vast and powerful portion of our
+population in the maintenance of law and order.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>There is another evil incidental to the enforcement of these
+multiplied enactments which are now so rapidly following one
+another. All these laws are administered by the central
+authority, which, from London, stretches its hand over the vast
+populations of our great cities. This gradually increasing centralisation
+overrides municipal authority, represses corporate
+freedom, and tends to deaden and stupefy the political life and
+self-governing power of our great provincial capitals. The local
+self-government of our country has ever been the object of the
+admiration of thoughtful foreigners, who attribute to it much
+of the manly character, the respect for law, and the readiness of
+resource in emergencies which characterise our countrymen.
+But all these things are struck at by this threatening imperialism,
+which works the ruin of corporate freedom as much as that of
+individual virtue and liberty, by treating the subject as a mere
+child or chattel, and imposing a uniform rule upon all alike.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>The new forthcoming Sanatory Bill is one which ought to be
+jealously watched by the people. It seems likely to involve
+uniformity of prescription in matters where such uniformity is
+least wise, and where the power of self-regulation is most wholesome,
+as well as to increase the magisterial powers of State
+doctors to an extent hitherto unknown.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>The influence of women and their faith in the recoverability
+of human nature are needed in these legislative matters. Our
+male legislators are apt to ride rough-shod over us in matters of
+domestic detail. Their heavy-handed legislation is applied now
+not only to matters of imperial interest, but to everything which
+most nearly concerns our conscience and feelings. It seems to
+me that we women shall soon have to fight for the last inch of
+ground left us;—not for our civil rights only, but for our hearths,
+our homes, our beds, our babies, our very persons. The crudeness
+of intellect of some of our young male legislators needs to be
+corrected by the wisdom of the thoughtful matrons of England.
+A young M.P. said to me lately, “We shall do no good at all
+until we make poverty a crime; disease is already made a crime
+in some cases, and poverty ought to be so also.” I did not
+answer him, but in my heart I said, “Thou fool!”</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Such are some of the dangers before us. It has lately
+been suggested by several gentlemen who are alive to this
+subject, that it may be desirable and necessary to form some
+sort of a Covenant or League, of a wide and national character,
+for the protection of freedom and virtue as its general object,
+and in particular to observe vigilantly, and examine strictly,
+every proposal and act of the legislature, especially such as
+emanate from certain favoured cliques or professions, and to
+secure that nothing passes into law which has not the sanction
+of the whole nation, marked by open debate in Parliament, and
+by a majority of votes in a House where there is more than a
+mere fraction of members present. It has been suggested that no
+penal measures, involving extensive interference with the liberty
+of the subject, or measures sanctioning the erection of new tribunals
+for the assigning of grave and terrible penalties, shall in
+future be enacted except where two-thirds, or at least some
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>reasonably large proportion of the House are present. It is a
+rule, in many private and public associations, that no grave or
+important changes or measures shall be made or enacted except
+in the presence of a very large proportion of the members, constituting
+a quorum. It would surely be a very right and natural
+demand on the part of the people of England (with the warning
+they have now before their eyes of the secret passing of the
+Contagious Diseases Acts) that Parliament should never again
+make any great change in our penal code, or infringe upon
+constitutional principles, in the name of sanitary improvements,
+medical necessities, or any other thing, except by means of such
+a parliamentary quorum as would satisfy the nation.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>Any national league, such as has been suggested, for the
+defence of the constitution, of liberty, and of morality, would
+of course be composed both of men and women. Women are becoming
+rapidly educated in all these matters, and their vigilance
+would naturally exceed even that of men, for most of these
+threatening tyrannies fall <em>first</em>, if not exclusively, on women
+and children.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I know not what work God may have in store for us, dear
+friends, but this I know, that it is not for any small end that He
+has called our Association together, a mighty band throughout
+the kingdom, united with one heart in the presence of a common
+danger. He has not called up all these rapidly-formed and grave
+friendships, this loving co-operation and powerful mutual help,
+for any end or aim inadequate to so great an instrument. I
+believe that the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, which is
+our immediate object, is only a small part of the work He has
+designed for us. I know not what that work may be; but this
+is sure, that God knows and that he is guiding us. I believe
+that the materialism of the day and the principle which opposes
+that materialism are about to meet and to try their strength
+in a deadly encounter, and that we have a great and holy
+work before us. We must be filled with high courage, hope,
+and stern resolve. Think what a machinery we have now
+for work! Our branch societies, our local secretaries, our power of
+concentration on a given point at a given moment, our organisation
+<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>generally, resembles a great telegraphic system which is a
+swift and formidable power. But our power is not in the
+machinery; it is in the living principle which runs like lightning
+through this great telegraphic system.</p>
+
+<p class='c005'>I know there is abundant life in Scotland, but I venture
+to beseech you, friends, on behalf of England, which needs your
+help, as well as of your own country, to pray and seek for a
+redoubling of that life; for surely God is about to do great
+things. The power of evil is very awful, but greater is He who
+is with us than they who are against us. All cannot work
+actively for the ends we have in view, but all can pray, and</p>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+  <div class='nf-center'>
+    <div><span class='small'>“More things are done by prayer than this world dreams of.”</span></div>
+    <div class='c002'><span class='xsmall'>A. Ireland and Co., Printers, Manchester.</span></div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class='pbb'>
+ <hr class='pb c006'>
+</div>
+<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'>
+
+<div class='chapter ph2'>
+
+<div class='nf-center-c0'>
+<div class='nf-center c007'>
+    <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+ <ul class='ul_1 c002'>
+    <li>Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75348 ***</div>
+  </body>
+  <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e (with regex) on 2025-02-11 19:41:33 GMT -->
+</html>
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #75348 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75348)