A critical summary of the evidence before the Royal Commission upon the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866-1869 / prepared for the National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, by Douglas Kingsford.

  • Kingsford, D. P. W. (Douglas P. W.)
Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A critical summary of the evidence before the Royal Commission upon the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866-1869 / prepared for the National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, by Douglas Kingsford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Illustrative cases 19,588 19,558 19,551; 18.558 The following cases illustrate some of the observations made j above:— ! 1. Jane Feather stone was brought before the magistrates of ■ Canterbury, The evidence of prostitution produced by the police was that she had been “seen in public-houses which were frequented by soldiers and prostitutes that she had been seen ; “ one evening sitting on a bench with a man” in a public pro- menade. The police admitted that she did not live in a brothel,, and that they had never seen her in one. The magistrate said 5 that it was not necessary to prove anything of that kind; and I trusting to the policeman’s belief based on the accused’s “ general| habits and manner,” made the order. 2. Eliza Kemp, a case before the Stipendiary Magistrate at: Green-wich. A remarkable case; the more so because this s occurred in a district where the Inspector of Police is admitted 4 to be a most careful and cautious officer. The evidence pro-*- duced by the jpolice was (1) that the accused had been seen to go with a man into a court (where there were several houses, none of which the police could say were brothels), and to remaii^. there about a quarter of an houi’; (2) the evidence of foui^ registered prostitutes, who said in cross-examination, “Well,, we have to go and be examined; why should not she go ?” (3) i the evidence of a man who admitted that he owed the accused^ money, and that she had threatened to summon him for it; (4) the fact, alleged by the police, that the accused was then suffer- - ing from venereal disease. Now, the result of the exertion of ana experienced solicitor was that every fact on which the policy depended was refuted or explained, and the summons wasi dismissed; but this result was only obtained after an “ extremel^ difficult and expensive fight, in which it was latterly a struggle whether this girl, emerging from prostitution, into decent life, was to be stopped and thrust back again into the class of; common prostitutes.” It will be clear on reading the detailB]- of this case that the accused could not have answered the facts s proved against her without the legal assistance afforded her, and : the remands, the cross-examination, and the evidence, of which ' she consequently had the benefit. If it be said that in a number ' of cases women charged under the Acts have had legal assist- ance provided for them, they have not been indebted to the Act, for this security.