London labour and the London poor : a cyclopaedia of the condition and earnings of those that will work, those that cannot work, and those that will not work. / by Henry Mayhew.

  • Mayhew, Henry, 1812-1887.
Date:
1861-1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: London labour and the London poor : a cyclopaedia of the condition and earnings of those that will work, those that cannot work, and those that will not work. / by Henry Mayhew. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and under particular circumstances, disappearing altogether in nncivilized coun- tries, and gathering strength and virulence in the most refined states of society ? Will any modern philosopher favom^ us with a solution of this difficulty ? But ' the demand will always create the supply,' Inexorable logic apparently, and incontrovertible if the supply were limited to the demand. This, however, we deny. Thousands are driven to prostitution as the only alternative from starvation. Necessity, and not the demand, here creates the supply, and it is well known that the supply suggests the demand. Is, then, the balance of vice so exact and undeviating, that the gap occasioned by the removal of one victim must be speedily filled by another ? Is the equilibrium of profligacy so nicely adjusted, that it would be dangerous to assert the prerogative of virtue; and shall we desire its unhappy votaries to continue in sin that virtue may abound ? Shall we drive back anxious souls, striving to ' flee from the wrath to come,' with the cold- blooded assurance that, ' for the good of society, they had better remain where they are ?' Will it satisfy an immortal spirit, to be told that she helps to maintain the proper equilibrium of vice ; or that, by standing in the gap, she is a benefactor to the innocent of her own sex, who would otherwise be sacrificed ? Shall we assign as our reason for not preaching the Gospel to ' every creature,' that the state of society would be unhinged by cm'tailing a necessary evil, or that greater injuries would result from any attempt to rescue perishing souls ? Shall we mock Him who has said ' All souls are mine,' by elevating a doctrine of human expe- diency above the authority of a distinct command ? Let us be sure that, in a case so intimately afiecting the honour and glory of God, to 'obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.' In vain may we plead political necessity as a plausible pretext for disobedience. We are not afraid, however, to meet this argument on philosophical grounds; and we affirm, confidently, that the rescue of every fallen woman is a social boon. Admitting t]iQ possibility that, eventually, her place vv^ill be supplied by another— for v/e can approach no nearer to the truth—is it not better to remove a present evil than to provide for a remote contingency ? Supposing that in the long vista of future years, the immolation of a fresh victim is the price of every individual rescue, do we overlook the fact, that in the mean time a powerful temptation is re- moved, and that not merely units, but probably hundreds, of the young of the opposite sex are delivered from the toils of the strange woman ? Is nothing achieved by the temporary removal of one tempter from the streets, and is society a loser in the end, by the reformation of one whose sole occupation is to waylay and ruin the youth of the opposite sex ? Let our moral economists escape from this dilemma if they can; the philanthropist and the Christian need no further arguments to convince them that they have not only the law of God, but the inex- orable logic of common sense on their side. .Who can tell the pestiferous influence exercised on society by one single fallen woman? Who can calculate the evils of such a system? Woman, waylaid, tempted, deceived, becomes in turn the terrible avenger of her sex. Armed with a power which is all but irresistible, and stript of that which can alone restrain and purify her influence, she steps upon the arena of life qualified to act her part in the reorganization of society. The lex talionis—the law of retaliation—is hers. Society has made her what she is, and must be now governed by her potent influence. The weight of this influence is untold : view it in the dissolution of domestic ties, in the sacrifice of family peace, in the cold desolation of promising homes; but, above all, in the growth of practical Atheism, and in the downward tendency of all that is pure and holy in life! One and another who has been educated in an atmosphere redolent of virtue and principle, and has given promise of high and noble qualities, falls a victim to the prevalence of meretricious allure- ments, and carries back to his hitherto mitainted home the noxious influence he