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iD OF FREEDOM.7€f)t temperance Reformation.INTEMPERANCE, IMMORALITY, AND CRIME.The treatment of crime is one of the great problems of the day, and so it will remain, until our legislators and reformers are wise enough to seek for the causes of that depravation of feeling which results in open immorality and reckless crime. We have had mournful experience that vindictive punishments only render the evil more inveterate, and that it is in vain to expect from reformed systems of prison discipline any thing more than the partial reformation of the offender. The terrors of the law have been fully tried—they have failed to deter men from crime: they may have succeeded in making them more daring or more cunning in its execution. It is time now to substitute for the barbarous jurisprudence of the middle ages a more humane and enlightened policy,—one that will harmonize with the principles taught from ten thousand pulpits on every Christian Sabbath. If a high sense of duty will not inspire us, the question is rendered important by other considerations. We see motive enough for inquiry and effort in the thirty thousand juvenile vagrants and delinquents of the metropolis, in the reports of our police offices, our prisons, and our criminal courts. We see it in the fact that the daily average number of prisoners in England and Wales in the course of the year is 14,624; that the number of persons confined in our prisons in the course of the year under seventeen years of age is 15,726; of persons above that age, 113,272; making a grand total of 128,998 criminals*.*. i ■passing annually through our prisons at an expense of nearly £30 per head, making an aggregate of nearly £500,000, for the cost of prison machinery alone. Add to this the heavy expenses of our jurisprudence—the loss sustained by the community from an army of depredators, nine-tenths of whom are skilful enough to escape detection, and other obvious penalties inflicted upon society for its ignorance and neglect; and in the absence of moral or religious considerations, they are sufficiently powerful to arouse attention from those whoare not absolutely deaf to the pleadings of humanity*« * *or common sense.The statistics of crime, however, are but the index to the immense and frightful volume of criminality and turpitude that defies the law or escapes its technicalities. The atrocities which now and then reach the public ear are sad revelations, but only examples of what is going on disgracing our civilization and mocking our Christian profession. We refer more especially now to that horrid trade which deals in female virtue, and systematically plans its lures and its temptations for the unsuspecting, the innocent, and the thoughtless. It is but lately that a case was brought before our police courts exhibiting a prominent feature of the system. A man keeping a carriage, footman, a,nd liveryservants, was proved to be the owner of about thirty brothels, which he farmed out at £1 a day to some miscreant like himself. Mothers of England! think of these wretches living upon the ruin of your fair and lovely daughters. Walk the fashionable promenades of our large tows and notice the poor outcasts who are the victiins of man's cupidity and lust, and become a scourge and punishment in turn. The fall of these poor girls is but the first step in a train of mischiefs. The avenger follows, and the retribution is most awful and most just. There is not a wrong that has been borne by these wretched ones but has been hurled back upon society with tenfold weight. The blood runs cold in reflecting upon the leprosy, moral and physical, that follows this pollution.We only expect it to be corrected by a better moral tone pervading society. The man who has perhaps blasted the peace of many a home is admitted by the matron to her family circle ; his affairs of gallantry sometimes giving an air of interest, or romance, to his character. The poor girl who has fallen a victim to his arts is spumed away and denied the beggar’s crust. She haspassed the threshold, the door is closed on her for ever; there is no return,—she has committed the sin for which no forgiveness is ever extended by her own sex, and for which the world has little charity. Many a fair dame, in the pride of youth and beauty, who would turn away in disgust and loathing from the poor streetwalker, does not hesitate to be whirled in the giddy dance by the gay deceiver who has driven the poor girl to prostitution. The debauchee, who has trampled upon the bright hopes of many a confiding and unsuspecting heart, scarcely forfeits his position; although he has committed crimes for which he ought to be spumed by every honest man, and repelled as a serpent from every domestic hearth, he can unite himself with a society for the protection of women, and by professions of penitence, real or affected, obtain credit for honourable feeling. For those he has ruined there is no retrieval. * Until society brands the seducer as the worst of criminals in vain shall we seek protection for the female sex.We have taken up this subject, as we believe, and some day may undertake to prove, that it has much more to do with the general crime of the country than is commonly supposed. We also wish to invite attention to the connection of our drinking habits with this horrible evil. We ask the candid inquirer to wTalk the streets of the metropolis and observe the splendid gin-shops. He will see in a short time the proportion of dissolute women who throng the entrances, strengthening their courage by drink, and enticing the unwary youth. By drink the procurer and procuress mainly succeed; it is known, at least, that it is often an accessory. The seducer borrows its aid. It is made the agent of sin and misery in every way. After an investigation of one or two of these places he will be better prepared for what we have to advance in connection with this most painful subject, and'will be ready to look with abhorrence upon the painted sepulchres—these halls of pleasure, leading down to the chambers of death.When the gin-palaces are looked upon in their proper light, and the mind penetrates beneath the glare and glitter of the exterior, they will be found to have a mighty influence in producing and sustaining prostitution. The number of these temples of Bacchus in the metropolis is increasing, and every new incitement usually adds one or more to the number. In addition to theVenticements of the drink they are allowed to open dancing and singing saloons. There youth of both sexes, and of the tenderest age, freely meet and mingle; theystay until late, their passions are aroused by the music,• . - . , • •the dance, and more especially the liquor. Our city andtown missionaries, and the reports of our penitentiaries can tell with what result. Then there are the public and beer-houses. It has been proved that many of these places are the resort of thieves and abandoned characters of every kind, that some arc houses of infamous accommodation, and sustained less by the profits of the drink than by the wages of prostitution. Let us look then at the temptation these create for our youth. Inmany of them prostitutes are regularly kept, and artsaxe practised to give effect to the enticement which we cannot describe. Here youth are taught to drink and smoke, and practice nameless debaucheries. Mr, Clay, of Preston, speaks of a number of drinking houses, the regular resort of prostitutes, and that beer-house keepers have married women in the neighbourhood ready to obey their call for infamous purposes. Prostitution and drink are ever associated, and refinements are now given to vice which fills us with the most mournful forebodings as to the future destinies of our country. The labours of bur Sabbath schools are blasted* * i 1 r • * .in a number of instances, and kind and indulgent parents have to weep in agony of spirit over children lost: doomed to a lot worse than death. It is not only the children of our working and poorer classes, but those of the middle classes who fill up the frightful amount of criminals and prostitutes.While this is going on, our philanthropliy is not idle. In no city of the world are there so many means employed to improve, to guide, and to save; as in London. Institutions appeal to us on every hand, and so far as palliative measures are concerned, every means seems to have been exhausted, and yet there remains the great fountain of crime and prostitution, as if in mockery of our efforts. Are we to believe that the evil admits of no cure. We cannot have so low an opinion of our providential agencies. We reject the idea as more worthy of a Turkish fatalism than the principles of our religion. How is it then that the mischief has gone on, swelling in extent and intensity, in spite of all ourlabours? We believe it is because society has never* * , * * * * lt;• • • .sufficiently investigated the causes. It is our conviction that we must not hope to lessen in any material degree the evil, unless we are prepared to cry down the use of intoxicating drinks. It is true we have had sermons against intemperance, hut why have they failed r they have been levelled against drunknenness and not against strong drink. The minister of religion has inveighed against the vice of drunkenness, but has refreshed himself after his discourse with a glass of wine. The judge on the bench has solemnly warned the people, but did he feel it his duty to take one glass the less. Magistrates have gone away from the committal of a number of persons whose offences were caused by drink, and sat down to their sumptuous dinner and their bottle of port or sherry. Families from whose very bosom the drinking system has tom away the lovely and beloved, still countenance the drink. Here is the primary cause of much* of that depravation of morals, that coarseness of character and licentiousness of manner, that disgraces our country at present, and sets at defiance our efforts to improve it. Surely the thousands who are annually ruined, and who in the bitterness of their despair have to curse strong drink, ought to rouse us to reflection and inquiry on this matter. Science has demonstratedits utter uselessness as an article of diet, and that dictum1 4is now backed by the authority of the most eminent medical men in the country. Judges and magistrates and inspectors of prisons all declare it to be the great cause of crime—all experience has shown it to be the parent of disease, poverty, want, and ignorance. No half measures will do in grappling with such a foe. It jnust be banished from our table and our abodes, andrich and poor must unite to abolish the drinking*customs.JJatutarg Reform.* ■Refusing Christian Interment.—On Saturday, acommunication was received at Lloyd's, stating that one of the crew of the Helen, Captain Easter, having died from cholera, off Southwold, Kent, the master took the body ashore for interment; the authorities, however, ascertaining that the man had died of cholera, positively refused to allow the body to be buried, and the crew consigned their deceased shipmate to the deep.Free Baths and Wash-Houses for the Pooh.— On Monday, the third annual report of the Association for Promoting Cleanliness amongst the poor, of the free baths and wash-houses, in Glasshouse-yard, East Smithfield, was made by' the committee. It stated* .that during the past twelve months there were bathers; 34,843' poor women had washed and dried the clothing of themselves and families; and 12,610 had ironed—making a total of 61,108 persons during the year who have participated in the benefits of the establishment, without one farthing cost to themselves. The institution has also gratuitously furnished many hundreds Of the poor in the crowded and wretched localities of East Smithfield with whitewashes, and the loan of pails and brushes to cleanse and purify their dwellings, and which, to a great extent, has prevented the spreading of fever prevailing at certain periods during the year. The subscriptions for the year amounted to £289 12s., together with a loan of £47 ISs., making a total of £337 10s., whilst the expenses amounted to £367 5s. lid., being an excess over income of nearly £30. A hope was expressed that at a time when London was threatened with a return of the cholera the public will support an institution like tliis, which effects so much good by promoting cleanliness amongst the poor.Deadly Effects of Impure Air.—On Wednesday last an inquest was held before Mr. Baker, at the London Hospital, on view of the body of James Bai ter, aged thirteen years, who died from the effects of fever produced by impure atmosphere, in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel. Mr. James Brown, inspector of nuisances,stated that on the 24th of July last the mother of the deceased called his attention to her back ‘kitchen, No. 17, Prinqess-street. The room was overflowed with filthy water, and the effluvia was most dreadful. Witness called the attention of Mr, Liddle, surgeon, to the fact, who, after examining the premises, certified that the water flowed through the wall of the kitchen, from an offensive drain, belonging to No. S, Moss-buildings, contiguous to Princess-street. Several drains in the same street were also in a bad condition, and the air was very impure. The jury returned the following verdict:—“That the deceased died from fever caused by noxious effluvia from a privy draining into the back part of the house in which he resided; and the jurorsstrongly recommended that prompt and speedy measuresbe adopted by the parochial authorities for the abatement of the nuisance so caused, to prevent further mischief. The coroner said he would write to the churchwardens. of the parish, .and acquaint them with the sentiments of the jury.
Newspaper Details
London Standard of Freedom
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Sep 09, 1848
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Elena E.
RO 03 Jan 2021
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