1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
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>
|
