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diff --git a/75348-h/75348-h.htm b/75348-h/75348-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5e0dee --- /dev/null +++ b/75348-h/75348-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,595 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>Address, Delivered in Craigie Hall, Edinburgh | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; } + h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; } + .pageno { right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: silver; + text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute; + border: thin solid silver; padding: .1em .2em; font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; } + p { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: justify; } + .fss { font-size: 75%; } + .sc { font-variant: small-caps; } + .large { font-size: large; } + .xlarge { font-size: x-large; } + .small { font-size: small; } + .xsmall { font-size: x-small; } + .ul_1 li {padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; } + ul.ul_1 {padding-left: 0; margin-left: 2.78%; margin-top: .5em; + margin-bottom: .5em; list-style-type: disc; } + div.pbb { page-break-before: always; } + hr.pb { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-bottom: 1em; } + .x-ebookmaker hr.pb { display: none; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } + .nf-center { text-align: center; } + .nf-center-c0 { text-align: justify; margin: 0.5em 0; } + .c000 { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + .c001 { page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em; } + .c002 { margin-top: 2em; } + .c003 { page-break-before:auto; margin-top: 4em; } + .c004 { margin-top: 2em; text-indent: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + .c005 { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: 0.25em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + .c006 { margin-top: 1em; } + .c007 { margin-top: 4em; } + div.tnotes { padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;background-color:#E3E4FA; + border:thin solid silver; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; font-family: Georgia, serif; + clear: both; } + .covernote { visibility: hidden; display: none; } + div.tnotes p { text-align: justify; } + .x-ebookmaker .covernote { visibility: visible; display: block; } + h1 {line-height: 150%; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } + body {font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: justify; } + table {font-size: .9em; padding: 1.5em .5em 1em; page-break-inside: avoid; + clear: both; } + div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<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 & 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, &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 <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> + diff --git a/75348-h/images/cover.jpg b/75348-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..377c55f --- /dev/null +++ b/75348-h/images/cover.jpg |
