Prostitution : considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities and garrison towns: with proposals for the control and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton.

  • William Acton
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prostitution : considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities and garrison towns: with proposals for the control and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    instances. A paternal government, as it is called, is intolerable to English instincts, and will ever, I hope, remain impossil)le in this country. People must be left to a great extent to reap the bitter con- sequences of sin and folly, but the principle lying at the very root of the existence of society is, that for the common good and for the advan- tages obtainable by this means only, each member of the state must be content to be deprived of the power to do exactly as he pleases— that is, must surrender for the sake of social order a portion of his freedom. So nuich for the arguments that may be adduced _ against the proposed legislation on the ground of interfering with the liberty of the subject. But after all, what is this liberty ? It is not liberty, but wanton licence. It is not freedom, but lawless indulgence. They talk, sir, says Dr. Guthrie, of the liberty of the subject. Let no man confound the liberty of the subject Avith licence and licen- tiousness, and I hold that the worst enemy of liberty is he who does so confound them. Wliy, the liberty is all on the side of evil-doers. I know many parents in Edinburgh Avho tremble to send their young men, even on lawful business, through the streets at night; I know of others who refused to live in certain parts of the town, otherwise most desirable, on account of the tem]itation thrown in the way of the younger members of the family. Why should this be tolerated 1 Why should the liberty of the well-doing be encroached on and circumscribed by the licentiousness of evil-doers ? Our magistrates should exercise the law—should clear the streets of every one of these infiimous women, and make them at least decent, if they cannot make them moral and virtuous. On the Continent no such offence to decency is seen. These women are not allowed to walk the streets; and as to saying, 'You might perhaps take up a good person in place of a bad,' the real truth, sir, is, there is not one of these wretched women in Edinburgh but is as well known to the police as the way to the police office—not one.* With the objection that recognition and regulation make the law an accomplice in sin, I have already dealt; I will only add this one remark. The law is cognizant of the existence of prostitution. It is known that thousands gain their bread by lives of infamy ; the evils incident to and arising from their calling, also, are well known. May it not be urged with at least equal truth that the law that permits v.'ithout restraining is in reality an accomplice, and chargeable with the evils which it refuses to remedy. Am I my brother's keeper? was the excuse for himself, offered by the first murderer, and is virtually said by all who see suffering and wrong, and pass by on the other side. Let us beware lest in endeavouring to avoid a sin, we do not fall into a greater. The suffering shame and ruin ascend from the pitiless streets and haunts of misery to the gates of heaven, and cry there for venge- ance, not only on those Avho Avring from broken hearts their guilty })leasures, but also on those wlio, wrapping close around them the*^cloak of self-righteousness, and shutting up their l)owels of compassion from the sorrow that they needs must see, refuse to make even an effort to xivert it, or to raise the arm, which if stretched forth, might save. * Daily Telegraph, 1st July, 1862.