State regulation of vice : address / by Mrs. Butler.

  • Butler, Josephine Elizabeth Grey, 1828-1906.
Date:
[1876?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State regulation of vice : address / by Mrs. Butler. 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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    their backs, and they were thus taken as slaves in chains from one brotliel to the other, in Christian Europe. This is with the knowledge and per- mission of the authorities. This is an illustration of what will come to us if we don't prevent it, and indeed now we are not free from it in Eng- land, for girls are here already bought and sold under this system. Tlie result of this system on the Continent and wherever it exists is this that it lowers the moral tone of the whole community. Men and women insensibly, in the course of ten or twenty years, are lowered in their tone of morality, for it is almost impossible to live in an atmosphere so per- meated with moral corruption and not to be affected by it. In illustra- tion of this, Mrs Butler said—:ln Brussels, which I visited a few weeks ago—(this was told me by a minister of religion, a M. Durand)—some Protestant girls were sent from Frankfort, which is a Protestant city, to the one I speak of, which is a Catholic city. They were recommended to a minister's special charge, and he was asked to use his influence that they might become members of his church. He made their acquaintance. One had found a situation in a refreshment room of the first class in Brussels, and he sent asking if she would come to be a member of the church and receive her first communion. He received a letter in reply from her employer to say, I have just had registered as a prosti- tute. She will have to go up to the doctor's to-morrow, and then she can come to the Holy Communion. Such facts as this I have given are not uncommon, and are attested by the highest authorities on the Continent. You will see the horrible attempt there is here to combine light and dai k- ness, to bring about a union between Christ and Belial. What a lower- ing mist and darkness comes over the whole of the moral sense. In the case I have alluded to, the explanation of the masters conduct is simple enough. The Acts are in force in this place. Every girl who attends in refreshment rooms incurs suspicion, and the best thing the master can do •^(his convenience is)—to have the girls registered as prostitutes. But so depraved was this man that he thought the girl could become a mem- ber of a Christian Church, and at the same time be registered as a minis- ter to the worst of our social sins. I need say no more of the horrois | coming on our country in the wake of this system. They are not here so great as on the Continent, but unless we get the Acts repealed, they will come upon us. I should just like to say in conclusion, deeply pain- ful and awful as the subject is, we on this platform can testify most so- lemnly to this truth: that though we have suffered agonies in taking up this work, we find in it, increasingly, as we go on, a sweetness, a peace of mind, a strength and a reward, such as God knows how to give to tl; who can bear to take up a little cross for His sake. (Great applause;. Those who would wish further information, or are willing to unite i efforts for the Kepeal of Laws which virtually license prostitution, invited to correspond with Mrs Josephine Butler, Secretary, 348 Par] Koad, Liverpool; Mrs Arthur. Tannisr, Sidcot, Bristol, Treasurcr ft the Ladies' National Association; or Mva NlciiOL, Huntly Lodge, Mej tfhiston, or Miss Wigham, 5 Gray Street, President and Secretai-y i the Edinburgh Ladies' Association. |