Magdalenism : an inquiry into the extent, causes, and consequences of prostitution in Edinburgh / by William Tait.

  • Tait, William
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Magdalenism : an inquiry into the extent, causes, and consequences of prostitution in Edinburgh / by William Tait. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ascertaining whetlier they might not be ultimately overcome. If they be so far lost, in a moral point of view, as to be looked upon by society as beings of so degraded a caste that they do not de- serve the least exertion of the public to rescue them from that state of degradation and immorality into which they have unfortunately fallen, it is surprising that our courts have so long admitted them as evidence for or against others, and in this respect put them on the same footing as other members of the community. If they are incapable of fulfilling the social and moral duties binding upon them as members of society, they are equally incapable of fulfill- ing the obligations to which allusion has just been made. ^If they are so immoral and profane in then* conduct and conversa- tion, as to be totally unfit^jCo conduct themselves properly)in the world,(they are rertaiiiily t.9„9,.i\T\pii?:^, irreligious tojje called upon to give evidence in the^ presence of Almighty God^ who is their great judge., As the law at present^^tands/they are entitled to the rights and privileges of their fellow-subject^;(^T3ut when they are hnown^to^.disregard the laws of God' so entirely Tn their out- ward conductrjand when their ordinary conversation shows that they feel not the solemnity of an oath, At would appear that the guilt which they are sure to incuj^ when admitted as evidence in any case, rests partly upon the heads of those who, by authoriz- ing an appeal of this kind to such witnesses, 4IEJ'']3£.^'TiD-'?JH^S' ment tjo little less than a mockerjo ^Viien it can almost be establislied that prostitutes in general spend the greater j)!ni.aLj^gk.i.iff6 in rioting aod dissipation,^ -^hatthey are never perfectly capable of observing accurately what is going on around theni^ being either above or below a healthy state of mental exciteiTfent, and ^lien to this a morbid habit of lying has been superadded^t becomes a very nice ques- tion to decide)^vhether or nol;)^here is any difference between the /real conditioil of their minds}and^that form of mental alienation so well illustrated by Pinei and Pritchard, -lander the title of ^he perversion) or (^leviationy)f feeling is nearly as obvious infthe moral manifestations) of the one,as oflthe^ther ; and^tiie intellectual faculties of both]are_Jicar^in„the jame con- dition.) If there is any difference at all, the one nmyjjie_saad_to