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diff --git a/75348-0.txt b/75348-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..181e64f --- /dev/null +++ b/75348-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,472 @@ + +*** 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 *** |