Introduction: The Agencies at Present in Operation within the Metropolis for the Suppression of Vice and Crime.
One
of the most remarkable and distinctive features of the present age is the universal desire for analytical investigations. Almost every branch of social economy is treated with a precision, and pursued with an accuracy, that pertains to an exact science. Demonstration has been reduced to a mathematical certainty; figures and statistics everywhere abound, and supply data for further research.
Too often, however, it happens that the solution of the social problem, or the collation of facts tending to throw light upon the moral and religious condition of our country, forms the goal, and not the starting point of our labours.
Having accomplished a diligent, and often a laborious, search, and succeeded in eliminating truth from a mass of contradictory evidence, men are generally satisfied with the mere pleasure derived from success. Their knowledge, the hard pursuit of which has called forth immense energy and perseverance, and entrenched largely on their time and capital, is no longer the means to an end, but the end itself. Having gathered a few pebbles from the exhaustless arcana of social philosophy, they complacently enjoy their newly-found treasures, without a thought of the practical uses to which they may be applied.
Other men are found who enter into their labours, and use the materials thus collected as the basis of further philanthropic investigations.
While thus perpetually rising higher in the scale of intelligence, and arriving at closer approximations to truth, men too often neglect to turn their discoveries to any utilitarian or practical purpose, and rest content with merely theoretical results.
Thus it is that while an inductive philosophy is built up from a series of statistics and particulars, very little is being done to reduce this knowledge to practice. The science of investigation is admirable as far as it goes, and the pursuit of truth is at all times an object worthy of human ambition; but it must become the pioneer to tangible results, or its utility will by no means be apparent; and indeed it becomes a question, in an active state of existence, how far knowledge, which is final in its character and valuable merely for its own sake, is calculated to reward the efforts expended on its acquisition. It is true that the old philosophers held a contemplative life to be the highest development of human happiness, but their dreamy and fluctuating views are hardly likely to carry weight in an age of bustling activity; and it is equally certain that the bare, quiescent contemplation of evil in all its endless ramifications and hideous consequences, apart from all remedial efforts, is not likely to prove satisfactory to the philanthropist, nor consolatory to the Christian.
It is only so far as knowledge opens up to us the path of usefulness, and directs us how and where to plant our energies for the benefit of the human race, that it becomes really valuable. If, however, knowledge be power, and if the discovery of an evil be half-way towards its cure, then have we a right to expect that our humanitarian and other appliances for the alleviation of misery and the prevention of crime, should at least keep pace with modern developments of social science.
Hitherto men have been content to declaim against these evils, wherever they existed, without suggesting any feasible remedies.
For a length of time our philanthropic schemes have partaken too much of the character of mere surface appliances, directed to the amelioration of existing evils, but in no way likely to effect their extirpation. We have been dealing with effects rather than with
first
causes, and in our zeal to absorb, divert, or diminish the former, the latter have generally escaped detection. When too late, we have discovered that mere palliatives will not suffice, and that they are powerless to resist the steady growth of crime in all its subtle developments. For, as well might we attempt to exhaust the perennial flow of a spring by the application of sponges, as prescribe external alleviations for our social disorders.
Our homes, penitentiaries, and industrial reformatories will continue to do their work of mercy upon an infinitesimal scale, and will snatch solitary individuals from impending destruction; but in the meantime the reproductive process goes on, and fresh victims are hurried upon the stage of suffering and of guilt, from numberless unforeseen and unsuspected channels, thus causing a continuous succession of want, profligacy, and wretchedness.
We have affected surprise, that, notwithstanding all our benevolent exertions, and the completeness and efficiency of our reclaiming systems, the great tide of our social impurities continues to roll on with increasing velocity. Happily, however, for future generations, there is a manifest tendency in the present age to correct these fatal mistakes, and to return to
first
principles.
The science of anatomy is not confined to hospitals and dissecting-rooms, nor restricted in its application to the human frame. Social science conferences, and other associations are laying bare the deeply-imbedded roots of our national evils, and are preparing the way for their extirpation. Men are getting tired of planting flowers and training creepers to hide their social upases, and are beginning to discover that it is both sounder policy and truer economy to uproot a noxious weed than to pluck off its poisonous berries.
We have flattered ourselves that education and civilization, with all their humanizing and elevating influences, would gradually permeate all ranks of society; and that the leaven of Christianity would ultimately subdue the power of evil, and convert our outer world into an Elysium of purity and unselfishness. The results, however, of past years have hardly answered these sanguine expectations; and our present experience goes far to prove, that while there has undoubtedly been progress for good, there has been a corresponding progress for evil; for although the criminal statistics of some localities exhibit a sensible diminution in certain forms of vice, we must not forget that an increase of education and a growing intelligence bring with them superior facilities for the successful perpetration and concealment of crime.
All the latest developments of science and skill being pressed into the service of the modern criminal, his evasion of justice must often be regarded less as the result of caution, or of a fortuitous combination of favourable circumstances, than of his knowledge of chemical properties and physical laws. So far indeed from our being able to augur favourably from the infrequency of convictions, the fearful tragedies which are occasionally brought to the surface of society, coupled in many instances with a surprising fertility of resource and ingenuity of method, are indicative of an under current of crime—the depth and foulness of which defy all computation. We may add further, that the immense difficulty of obtaining direct evidence in cases of criminal prosecution, and the
onus probandi
that the law, not unfairly, throws upon the accusers, are sufficient to hush up any cases of mere suspicion; so that at present we possess no adequate data by which to gauge the real dimensions of crime, or to judge respecting its insidious growth and power. It is not, however, so much with crime in the abstract, as with the most prolific sources of
vice that the philanthropist has to deal; and it is a highly suggestive and encouraging fact that, in these days, men are concerned in investigating the various causes of crime, and in exposing its reflex influence upon society. Just in proportion as they adhere to this course, which is distinguished alike by prudence and sagacity, will they become instrumental in effecting a radical reformation of existing evils, and in restoring society to a more healthy and vigorous condition. "What we want in all such cases is no false rhetoric and no violent outbursts of passion, but clear statements of that vivid truth which contains the intrinsic elements of reformation amongst mankind. The true philanthropist is the man whose judgment is on a par with his feelings, and who recognizes the fact that there is some particle of meaning in every particle of suffering around us.
"Some of this wretchedness is remediable, the result of actual causes which may be altered, though much is beyond human control. In an age like this, however we may toil to overtake the urgent need of our own time, the difficulty is, at the same time, calmly and deliberately to satisfy the fresh wants which may daily arise —keeping pace with them. With the heavy defalcations from past years weighing upon them, our statesmen and economists are often bewildered at the magnitude of their engagements; while the best and wisest amongst us are crushed and appalled by the new and giant evils which are continually being brought to light. Earnest thought, however, is the true incentive to action,"
Meliora
, No. viii., p.
317
.
and we would thankfully recognize as
one
visible result of the increasing attention given to matters of public interest, a growing disposition on the part of all who are qualified by position and authority, to grapple manfully with the various phases of wretchedness and crime now contributing their influence upon our social condition.
Nowhere are these hopeful indications more manifest than in this giant metropolis, where the various conditions of ordinary life seem to be intensified by their direct contact with good and evil; and where Christianity appears to be struggling to maintain its independent and aggressive character, amid much that is calculated to retard its progress and check its influence.
It is here, within the crowded areas and noisome purlieus of this greatest of great cities, that we may gather lessons of life to be gained nowhere else—and of which those can form a very inadequate conception, who dwell only in an atmosphere of honied flowers and rural pleasures.
It is here especially that the sorrows and sufferings of humanity have evoked an active and pervasive spirit of benevolence, which has infected all ranks and penetrated every class of society; so that the high born and the educated, the gentle and the refined, vie with each other in a restless energy to alleviate human misery and to assuage some of the groans of creation. This disposition to relieve distress in every shape, and to mitigate the ills of a common brotherhood, proclaims at once its divine origin, and is, in fact, the nearest assimilation to the character of Him who "went about doing good."
The germ of this heaven-born principle has survived the fall; and though its highest development is
one
of the distinguishing marks of the true Christian, its existence is discernible in all who have not sinned away the last faint outlines of the Divine image.
Some philosophers, indeed, would persuade us that there is no such thing in existence as a principle of pure, unmixed benevolence; that every exercise of charity is simply another mode of self-gratification, and every generous impulse a mere exhibition of selfishness.
Undoubtedly there is a "luxury in doing good," and the ability to contribute to the happiness of others is
one
of the purest sources of human gratification; but we question whether an act, resulting from mere self-love, is capable of yielding any solid satisfaction to the agent; and we therefore hold the existence of
genuine benevolence, believing that it is a principle innate in the human breast, and requiring only to be developed and consecrated by religious influence to become
one
of the most powerful levers for the evangelization of the world.
Unhappily there are too many who have schooled themselves to the practice of inhumanity, and closed up the springs of spontaneous sympathy, thus depriving the heart of its rightful heritage, and restricting the sphere of its operations to self. Those who thus sever themselves from all external influences are left at length in undisturbed possession of a little world of their own creation. No longer linked to their fellow-men in the bonds of true fellowship, their orbit of activity becomes narrower, until at length every avenue to the heart is hermetically sealed, except such as minister to self-gratification and indulgence. The man who has thus estranged himself from the rest of creation, and become isolated from all the ties of a common humanity, is indeed an object of unqualified pity, because he has destroyed
one
of the purest springs of happiness.
He who, on the other hand, is most fully alive to the claims of universal brotherhood, and whose heart is most
At leisure from itself,
To soothe and sympathize,
is the highest type of man, and the best representative of [his] race. This spirit of brotherhood if recognised by the world, would "hush the thunder of battle, and wipe away the tears of nations. It would sweep earth's wildernesses of moral blight, causing them to blossom as the rose."
Those persons who accustom themselves to speak of London as a mere seething caldron of crime, or as a very charnel-house of impurity, without any redeeming character or hopeful element, are surely as wide of the mark as they who under-rate its vast resources for crime, or take a superficial view of its predominant vices.
It would, perhaps, be a curious and not unprofitable subject of inquiry how far the metropolis contributes its influence for good or evil upon the provinces, and to what extent the country is capable of reciprocating this influence. Probably, allowance being made for the difference of population, the law of giving and receiving is pretty evenly adjusted. Those forms of vice which seem to be more indigenous to our great cities are steadily imported into the country, while on the other hand, the hamlet and the village transmit to the town those particular vices in which they appear to be constitutionally most prolific.
It is in the crowded city, however, that the seeds of good or evil are brought to the highest state of maturity, and virtue and vice most rapidly developed, under the forcing influences that everywhere abound.
"Great cities," says Dr. Guthrie, "many have found to be great curses. It had been well for many an honest lad and unsuspecting country girl, that hopes of higher wages and opportunities of fortune—that the gay attire and polished tongue, and gilded story of some old acquaintance—had never turned their steps cityward, nor turned them from the rude simplicity, but safety of their rustic home. Many a foot that once lightly pressed the heather or brushed the dewy grass, has wearily trodden in darkness, and guilt, and remorse, on these city pavements. Happy had it been for many that they had never exchanged the starry skies for the lamps of the town, nor had left their lonely glens, or quiet hamlets, or solitary shores, for the throng and roar of our streets. Well for them that they had heard no roar but the rivers, whose winter flood it had been safer to breast; no roar but oceans, whose stormiest waves it had been safer to ride, than encounter the flood of city temptations, which has wrecked their virtue and swept them into ruin.
Yet I bless God for cities. The world had not been what it is without them.
The disciples were commanded to 'begin at Jerusalem,' and Paul threw himself into the cities of the ancient world, as offering the most commanding positions of influence. Cities have been as lamps of light along the pathway of humanity and religion. Within them science has given birth to her noblest discoveries. Behind their walls freedom has fought her noblest battles. They have stood on the surface of the earth like great breakwaters, rolling back or turning aside the swelling tide of oppression. Cities, indeed, have been the cradles of human liberty. They have been the radiating, active centres of almost all church and state reformation. The highest humanity has been developed in cities. Somehow or other, amid their crowding and confinement, the human mind finds its fullest freest expansion. Unlike the dwarfed and dusty plants which stand in our city gardens, languishing like exiles for the purer air and freer sunshine, that kiss their fellows far away in flowery fields and green woodland, on sunny banks and breezy hills, man reaches his highest condition amid the social influences of the crowded city. His intellect receives its brightest polish, where gold and silver lose theirs, tarnished by the scorching smoke and foul vapours of city air. The mental powers acquire their full robustness, where the cheek loses its ruddy hue, and the limbs their elastic step, and pale thought sits on manly brows, and as aërolites— those shooting stars which, like a good man on his path in life, leave a train of glory behind them on the dusky sky—are supposed to catch fire by the rapidity of their motion, as they rush through the higher regions of our atmosphere, so the mind of man fires, burns, shines, acquires its most dazzling brilliancy, by the very rapidity of action into which it is thrown amid the bustle and excitements of city life. And if, just as in those countries where tropical suns, and the same skies, ripen the sweetest fruit and the deadliest poisons—you find in the city the most daring and active wickedness, you find there also, boldly confronting it, the most active, diligent, warm-hearted, self-denying and devoted Christians."
The City, its Sins and its Sorrows
, p.
8
.
London then may be considered as the grand central focus of operations, at once the emporium of crime and the palladium of Christianity. It is, in fact the great arena of conflict between the powers of darkness and the ministry of heaven. Here, within the area of our metropolis, the real struggle is maintained between the
two
antagonistic principles of good and evil. It is here that they join issue in the most deadly proximity, and struggle for the vantage-ground.
Here legions of crime and legions of vices unite and form an almost impenetrable phalanx, while the strong man armed enjoys his goods in peace—no, not in peace, for here too the banner of the cross is most firmly planted, and Christianity wins its freshest laurels. Here is the stronghold, the occupation of which by the everlasting gospel, has given vigour, support, and consistency to the religion of the world. Here is concentrated that fervent and apostolic piety that has made itself felt to the remotest corner of the earth; and here is the nucleus of missionary enterprise, and the radiating centre of active benevolence.
"The Christian power that has moved a sluggish world on, the Christian benevolence and energy that have changed the face of society, the Christian zeal that has gone forth, burning to win nations and kingdoms for Jesus," have received their birth or development in London.
Since, then, this busy mart of the world, in which the most opposite and dissimilar wares are exhibited, is made up of such composite materials and conflicting elements, it is only fair that while estimating its capabilities for crime, and endeavouring to plumb its depths of depravity, ignorance, and suffering, we should, when possible, faithfully depict their opposites, and take cognizance of such instrumentalities as present the best antidotes and alleviations.
It is questionable, indeed, how far the cause of religion and morality would be
promoted by a ghastly array of facts, representing the dimensions of crime in all its naked deformity, or by any exhibition, however truthful, of vice and wretchedness under their most repulsive aspects, and without any cheering reference to corrective and remedial agencies. The effect produced upon the mind, in such a case, would be, in the generality of instances, blank despair; and the only influence thus excited would partake strongly of that morbid sympathy and unhealthy excitement, awakened by delineations of fictitious distress.
To unravel the dark catalogue of London profligacy, and present to the eye of the reader the wearisome expanse of guilt and suffering, unrelieved by any indications of improvement, would be like exhibiting the convulsive death-agony of a drowning man without the friendly succour of a rope, or like conjuring up the horrors of a shipwreck without the mental relief afforded by a life-boat.
We need the day star of hope to guide us through the impenetrable gloom of moral darkness. The olive branch of mercy and the rainbow of promise are as needful tokens of social and religious improvement, as of abated judgments and returning favour.
After being required to give attention to figures and statistics representing crime in the aggregate, the mental eye requires alleviation from the gross darkness it has encountered, and looks impatiently for some streak of light in the moral horizon, indicative of approaching day. To view London crime and misery, without their encouraging counterparts, would be like groping our way through the blackness of midnight, unrelieved by the faintest glimmer of light.
Just, however, as stars shine brightest in the darkest nights, so may we discover some element of hope under the most appalling exhibitions of human depravity, which thus serve as a background to portray in bolder relief, and by force of contrast, the redeeming qualities of Christianity.
As a work of absorbing interest and utility to the British philanthropist, Mr. Mayhew's wonderful book, "London Labour and London Poor," stands probably unrivalled. The mass of evidence and detail, accumulated after the most careful and indefatigable research, and the personal interest which is sustained throughout, by the relation of facts and occurrences, gleaned from the author's own private observation, or in which he took an active share, render his work both invaluable to the legislator and acceptable to the general reader.
While, however, the former will refer to it as a book of reference, the latter would probably rise from its perusal, with a sickening apprehension of London depravity, and unless fortified by a previous knowledge of counteracting agencies would probably form a too lugubrious and desponding view of its social aspects. As any such impression, derived from
ex-parte
statements, would be highly detrimental to the cause of truth and religious progress, and might contribute to the relaxation of individual effort, the publishers have naturally hesitated to allow
one
of the most startling and vivid records of crime to go forth to the world, without directing attention to the most approved and popular agencies, for the correction of such abuses, as have been faithfully delineated in the course of the work.
The following brief summary of charitable and religious organizations, having for their object the repression of crime and the diffusion of vital Christianity, is intended therefore to form a supplement, or prefatory essay, to the
fourth
and concluding volume of
London Labour and London Poor.
It would be impossible, within the narrow limits that have been assigned to this essay, to do more than touch in a cursory and incidental manner upon some of the principal agencies now at work within the metropolis, for the suppression of vice and crime; the object being not so much to exhibit the results which have rewarded such instrumentalities, great and incalculable as they are, as to indicate the best channels of usefulness, towards which public attention should be constantly directed; not to foster pride and self-complacency by tracing the progress we have
already made, in the race of Christian philanthropy, but rather to show how we may, by rendering efficient support to existing organizations, advance still further towards the goal, and rise to higher degrees of service in that ministry of love, which aims at nothing less than the regeneration of society, and the restoration of its unhappy prodigals to a condition of present and eternal peace.
What we want is not so much the elaboration of new schemes and the introduction of untried agencies, as a more unanimous and hearty co-operation in sustaining such as are at present in existence, many of which though fully deserving of a large measure of confidence and support, are grown effete solely from want of funds to maintain them in efficiency.
It has been truthfully remarked that there is hardly a woe or a misery to which men are liable, whether resulting from accidental causes or from personal culpability, which has not been assuaged or mitigated by benevolent exertions. Experience indeed would go far to prove that there are everywhere around us
two
mighty conflicting elements at work, each having no other object than to pull down and destroy the other. Every vice has its corresponding virtue, every form of evil its counteracting influence for good, every Mount Ebal, its Gerizim; the
one
being designed to act as an antidote or corrective to the other, and to restore the type of heaven which the other has defaced. The highest glory of our land—a glory far removed from territorial acquisitions and national aggrandisement, and that which makes it pre-eminently the admiration and envy of all other countries— are its benevolent and charitable endowments. There is not another nation in the world, where eleemosynary institutions have obtained such a permanent hold upon the sympathies of all classes of society, nor where such vast sums are realized by voluntary and private contributions.
"Palatial buildings, hospitals, reformatories, asylums, penitentiaries, homes and refuges, there are, for the sick, the maimed, the blind, the crippled, the aged, the infirm, the deaf, the dumb, the hungry, the naked, the fallen and the destitute; and it is to the support of such institutions, and the works which they carry on, that the nobles of the land, and our prosperous merchants devote a large proportion of their wealth." No less than
530
charitable societies exist in London alone, and nearly
of money is annually spent by them, while probably the amount of alms bestowed altogether is not less than
.
Any person wishing for further information respecting these Societies, may obtain it from a work published by Messrs. Low and Son, entitled "London Charities."
How far these resources, vast and extended as they really are, are capable of satisfying present demands, may be best inferred from the state of our criminal population, which is still to be counted by tens of thousands, even while our prisons, refuges, and reformatories are filled to overflowing.
"In spite," says the author just quoted, "of our prison discipline, our classification system, our silent system, and our separate system, all these efforts that we make, and perhaps boast that we make, to turn back the law-breaker to honest paths, nearly
30,000
criminals are each year sent to prison, who only know the higher classes as objects of plunder, and the maintenances of law and order as things; if possible to be destroyed, and if not avoided."
are annually expended in London for the reformation of such offenders, and every modern appliance that mercy or ingenuity can devise is brought to bear upon our prison system, with what results may be clearly ascertained by the large and increasing number of re-commitments—which form a proportion of something like
30
per cent. on such as have been previously incarcerated; while these, be it remembered, represent only the number of those who render themselves amenable to justice by detection; there being no means of ascertaining how many continue their avocations with impunity.
Results like these are sufficiently disheartening to the philanthropist, and
embarrassing to the statesman, and serve to show that however necessary it may be to devise methods for criminal reformation, it is even more incumbent upon us, and far more remunerative in the end, to carry out the principles of prevention.
The various agencies, at work in London, for the suppression of vice and crime, may be treated under the following heads, which will serve to indicate their relative value and proportionate influence; and though, in their popular sense, many of the words used, may appear to be only convertible terms, it is intended, for the sake of perspicuity and arrangement, to assign to each a distinctive and separate meaning.
Thus the word
curative
is used, not in its loose, remedial sense, as applying to expedients calculated to produce a diminution of crime, but must be understood as tending to the entire and absolute change of the human will, and the renovation of a corrupt nature—such a thorough change, in fact, as is implied in the word
cure.
Agencies for the suppression of vice and crime.
2
. Preventive (obstructive).
3
. Repressive and punitive (compulsory).
4
. Reformative (remedial).
Under this head
religion
naturally occupies the foremost place; since, by its restraining influence and converting power, it presents the only true antidote, and the only safe barrier to the existence or progress of crime; all other specifics, however valuable, being liable to the imputation of failure, and their influence being either more or less efficacious, according to the various phases of moral disease exhibited by different mental and physical constitutions.
While applying political expedients for the cure of such disorders, it must ever be borne in mind, that the origin of all evil is to be found in the corruption of the human heart, and in its entire alienation from God; and it is only so far as these intrinsic defects can be remedied, that any permanent influence will be produced. That power, therefore, which seizes upon the citadel of the heart, controlling its affections, regulating its principles of action, and subduing its vicious propensities or illicit motions, is the only sovereign remedy for crime. In its natural state the heart may be compared to a fountain discharging only turbid and bitter waters; but while various agencies are employed to sweeten, disguise, or check this poisoned current, religion is the only influence which purifies the fountain head, and dries up the noxious springs, by placing a wholesome check upon the
first
motive principles of action—the thoughts.
The truth of these remarks is even more strikingly exemplified in the sudden and complete transformations of character, effected by the all-mighty influence of religion. The moral demoniac finds no difficulty in bursting the chains and fetters, in which society has attempted to bind him. He is never changed, only curbed, pacified, or restrained by such artificial modes of treatment. The wound may be cauterised, cicatrised, or mollified, but the poison, if left in the system, is sure to rankle and exhibit itself afresh. Religion, however, casts out the unclean spirit, restores human nature to its right mind, and asserts the supremacy of reason over that of passion and caprice.
Next in value and importance to religion itself, are those subordinate instrumentalities calculated to exhibit or extend its influence, and which bear the same relation to it as the means do to the end. Such are the various agencies, in that divinelyappointed machinery for the regeneration of mankind, the universal spread of "truth and justice, religion and piety" throughout the world, and for the formation and support of the spiritual Church of Christ.
The most powerful and efficacious of all levers for the social, moral, and spiritual
elevation of mankind is the
Word of God.
Into whatever quarters of the habitable globe the sacred volume is diffused, there is a corresponding spread of civilisation, and a sensible improvement in the scale of humanity; and those countries are most socially, morally, and politically debased, in which its circulation is debarred or restricted.
Here it is only right to mention those societies which are directly concerned in diffusing the Scriptures.
The British and Foreign Bible Society
is
one
of the most honoured and influential channels for promoting the circulation of the Word of God, "without note or comment." It dates its origin from
, and since this period it has, either directly or indirectly, been instrumental in translating the Scriptures into
160
different languages or dialects, including
190
separate versions. Connected with this Society, there are in the United Kingdom
3728
auxiliary branches or associations.
The number of issues from London alone, during the last financial year, amount to
594,651
copies of the Old Testament, and
544,901
copies of the New Testament. The grants made during the same time amounted to
17
s.
7
d.
The total receipts of the Society derived from subscriptions, and from the sale of publications, amounted last year to
12
s.
6
d.
Next to the Bible Society, the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
is most directly concerned in the propagation of the Scriptures. It was founded in
. During the past year
157,358
Bibles, and
78,234
New Testaments have been issued, besides prayer-books, tracts, and other publications. In addition to the dissemination of religious works, its objects include the extension of the Episcopate in the colonies, by contributing to the erection of new sees, and the support of colleges and educational institutions. The receipts for the past year amounted to
19
s.
7
d.
besides
6
s.
8
d.
received for the sale of publications.
In addition to these larger instrumentalities for the circulation of the Scriptures, it has been reserved for modern zeal and piety to discover a "missing link" in the operations hitherto in use, and this void has been admirably supplied by the "Bible women" of the
nineteenth
century. The appointment of these female colporteurs has been attended with the most beneficial and encouraging results, for not only has the sale of Bibles been facilitated among classes almost inaccessible to such influences, but opportunities have been afforded of permanently benefiting some of the most wretched and morally debased of our population. The introductions, gained by means of this traffic, have been turned to the best account, and a kindly influence has been established over the families thus visited, which has been often attended with the most favourable results.
The lowest strata of society are thus reached by an agency which takes the Bible as the starting point of its labours, and makes IT the basis of all the social and religious improvements which are subsequently attempted. Small in its beginnings, the work, by its proved adaptation and results, has greatly enlarged its dimensions, enlisting the sympathy and liberality of the Christian public; and in almost all the metropolitan districts affording scope for the agency, the Bible women are to be found prosecuting their arduous labours, with immense advantage to the poor. At the present time there are
152
of these agents employed. During the past year the Bible women in London disposed of many
thousand
copies of the Scriptures amongst classes, which, to a very great extent, were beyond the reach of the ordinary means used to effect this work; and this circulation was attained not by the easy method of gift, but by sale, the very poorest of the population being willing, when brought under kind and persuasive influence, to pay for the Bible or Testament by small weekly instalments.
Another kindred agency of recent appointment is the "
Institution for reading aloud the Word of God in the open air
," in connection with which are the "
Bible
Carriages
," or locomotive depôts, now employed for extending the sale of the Scriptures in various parts of London, and which have succeeded in drawing a large number of purchasers, attracted, no doubt, by the novelty and singularity of the means adopted.
While enumerating the religious agencies concerned in the repression of crime in London, allusion need only be made incidentally to such as necessarily spring out of an organized, ecclesiastical, or parochial machinery consisting of clergy, churches, chapels, schools, &c., and to the various societies and associations designed to extend and give support to this machinery; the object of this essay being rather to draw public attention to such auxiliary and supplemental organisations, as are less generally known, or are of more recent origin.
One
of the most remarkable movements of modern times in connection with preaching, has been the establishment of
Theatre services
, which owe their existence to the present Earl of Shaftesbury. So irregular and unconstitutional a proceeding provoked, as might naturally have been expected, a large amount of censure and unfriendly criticism. Ecclesiastical dignities were at
first
somewhat scandalized by such an innovation of church discipline, and evidently regarded the movement as
one
calling rather for reluctant toleration, than as being entitled to episcopal sanction—a feeling which was probably largely shared by the more sober and orthodox portion of the community.
There appeared to be, at
first
sight, it must be confessed, a singular incongruity, if not an absolute impropriety, in converting the stage of a playhouse into a temple for the provisional celebration of divine worship, and using an edifice habitually consecrated to amusement, for the alternate promulgation of sacred verities and pantomimic representations. Apart, however, from the repulsive features of the proceeding arising from local associations, and from the periodical juxtaposition of objects the most hostile and dissimilar, there appeared to be no graver objection to the arrangement. The end was here, at least, supposed not only to justify, but even to sanctify the means, and the defence of this mal-appropriation was not unfairly said to consist in the inadequacy of church accommodation, and in the cheap facilities thus afforded, for bringing under the occasional ministry of the word of life, classes, who from long habits of neglect, prejudice, and an utter disrelish of religious ordinances, had become isolated from the ordinary channels of instruction and improvement. The movement having now had a fair trial, and the results being found to answer the expectations of the originators, it may be regarded as no longer a hazardous experiment, but as a part of the recognised machinery employed for the evangelisation of the masses.
These special services for the working clasess are now regularly conducted in the various theatres and buildings temporarily appropriated to divine worship. The attendance has been uniformly good, and that of a class who habitually absent themselves from religious ordinances, and could not therefore be reached by any of the usual instrumentalities. Considering the unpromising materials of which these singular congregations are composed, and the unfavourable antecedents of most of the audience, it is something to be able to state that on such occasions they are, for the most part, orderly and well conducted, while the continued good attendance at these services marks the appreciation in which they are held. During the Sabbath, then, at least, a wonderful outward transformation is effected in the pursuits and general demeanor of the frequenters, who meet together, week after week, to hear the Gospel message expounded in the very edifice, which during the previous
six
days has resounded with their oaths, ribaldries, and licentious language. Is there not room for at least a charitable hope, that when the heralds of salvation carry their proclamations into the very heart of the enemy's territory, and aggressively plant the banner of the cross, where only the cloven foot is wont to be seen, some victories will be achieved over the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and that some who usually meet to scoff and jeer, will return home savingly impressed with what they have heard?
In strict conformity with the objects contemplated by this arrangement, and arising out of the same temporary necessity, is
The Open-Air Mission
, which was established in
"for the purpose of stirring up the Church of Christ, especially the lay elements, to go out into the streets and lanes of the city, the towns and villages of the provinces, the great gatherings that periodically occur at races, fairs, executions, &c.; to go into lodging-houses, workhouses, and hospitals, and in fact wherever persons are to be met with and spoken to about sin and salvation." Since the formation of the Society, open-air preaching has become as it were a standing institution, and is recognized as an indispensable agency in working densely-populated districts. Ministers and laymen are to be found on every hand using this divinely-appointed and apostolic agency to "bring in the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind," and God has eminently blessed their labours.
From
, to
, the London City Missionaries conducted
4,489
outdoor meetings, at which the average attendance was
103
, and the gross attendance
465,070
. Numerous associations have been formed in connection with this Society for Open-Air Preaching, in various parts of London, and during the summer, eighteen stations are occupied for this purpose by the students at the Church Missionary College, under the direction of the
Islington
Church Home Mission. A course of Sunday afternoon services is also regularly held by the appointment of the rector in
Covent Garden Market
, which are generally well attended and appear admirably calculated to benefit the classes whose welfare is designed. The Bishop of London and other dignities of the Church have been the preachers on such occasions, and have thus lent their countenance to the proceeding.
In reference to all such agencies as open-air services, prayer meetings, tract distributions, Bible readings, &c., it may be safely asserted, that never in the entire history of the Church was there a period, when such extraordinary efforts have been made to evangelise the poor and the criminal population of London; or when a similar activity has been displayed in ministering to the social and spiritual wants of the community.
One
of the oldest and most privileged institutions within the metropolis, for bringing the influences of religion to bear upon the dense masses of our population is the
London City Mission.
It was founded in
, and its growth has steadily progressed up to the present date. The object of the mission is to "extend the knowledge of the Gospel, among the inhabitants of London and its vicinity (especially the poor), without any reference to denominational distinctions, or the peculiarities of Church government. To effect this object, missionaries of approved character and qualifications are employed, whose duty it is to visit from house to house in the respective districts assigned to them, to read the Scriptures, engage in religious conversation, and urge those who are living in the neglect of religion to observe the Sabbath and attend public worship. They are also required to see that all persons possess the Scriptures, to distribute approved religious tracts, and to aid in obtaining Scriptural education for the children of the poor. By the approval of the committee they also hold meetings for reading and expounding the Scriptures and prayer, and adopt such other means as are deemed necessary for the accomplishment of the mission."
The London City Mission maintains a staff of
389
missionaries, who are employed in the various London and suburban districts; and thus the entire city is more or less compassed by this effective machinery, and brought under the saving influences of the Gospel. The very silent and unobtrusive character of the work thus effected, precludes anything like an accurate estimate of results, or a showy parade of success.
It works secretly, quietly, and savingly, in districts too vast to admit of pastoral supervision, and in neighbourhoods too outwardly unattractive and unpropitious, to win the attention of any who are not animated with a devoted love of souls. The influence which is thus exerted in a social and religious point of view is inestimable, and the benefits conferred by this mission, are of an order that would be best understood and appreciated by the community, if they were for a time to be suddenly withdrawn.
In addition to the regular visitation of the poor, the missionaries are employed in conducting religious services in some of the "worst spots that can be found in the metropolis, and the audiences have been, in such cases, ordinarily the most vicious and debased classes of the population."
Six
missionaries are appointed, whose exclusive duty it is to visit the various public-houses and coffee-shops in London, and to converse with the
habitués
on subjects of vital importance. There are also
three
missionaries to the London cabmen, a class greatly needing their religious offices, and by their occupation almost excluded from any social or elevating influences.
The following summary of missionary work, and its results for
, is sufficiently encouraging, as pointing in some instances, at least, to a sensible diminution of crime, and as being suggestive of a vast amount of good effected by this pervasive evangelistic machinery.
Number of Missionaries employed .. .. ..
Visits paid.. .. .. .. .. ..
Of which to the sick and dying .. .. .. ..
Scriptures distributed .. .. .. ..
Religious Tracts given away .. .. .. ..
Books lent .. .. .. .. ..
In-door Meetings and Bible Classes held .. .. ..
Gross attendance at ditto .. .. .. ..
Out-door Services held .. .. .. .. ..
Gross attendance at ditto .. .. .. ..
Readings of Scripture in visitation .. .. ..
Communicants .. .. .. .. ..
Families induced to commence family prayer .. ..
Drunkards reclaimed .. .. .. ..
Unmarried couples induced to marry .. .. ..
Fallen females rescued or reclaimed .. .. ..
Shops closed on the Sabbath .. .. .. ..
Children sent to school .. .. .. ..
Adults who died having been visited by the Missionary
only
The income of the London City Mission, during the past year, amounted to
35,018
l.
6
s.
10
d.
;
5,763
l.
15
s.
7
d.
having been contributed by country associations.
Next to the London City Mission, the
Church of England Scripture Readers' Society
is
one
of the most extensive and important channels for disseminating a religious influence among the masses by means of a parochial lay agency.
It is the special duty of the Scripture readers to visit from house to house; to read the Scriptures to all with whom they come in contact; to grapple with vice and crime
where they abound;
and to shrink from no effort to arrest their career.
"To overtake and overlook the growing multitudes which crowd our large and densely-peopled parishes," was a work universally admitted to be beyond the present limits of clerical effort; and this
desider atum
has been supplied, at least to some extent, by the appointment of a lay agency, acting under the direction and control of the parochial clergy. By this means "cases are brought to light and doors opened to the pastoral visit, which were either closed against it or not discovered before; and an amount of information concerning the religious condition of the parish is obtained, such as the minister, single-handed, or with the aid
of a curate, never had before." The following results, which are reported as having attended the labours of a single Scripture reader, during a period of
fourteen
years, will serve as an illustration of the nature of those services rendered by this instrumentality:—
Visits paid to the poor .. .. .. ..
Infants and adults baptized on his recommendation .. ..
Children and adults persuaded to attend school .. ..
Persons led to attend church for the
first
time .. ..
Persons confirmed during visitation .. .. ..
Communicants obtained by ditto .. .. .. ..
Persons living in sin induced to marry .. .. ..
One hundred and twenty-five
grants are now made by the Society for the maintenance of Scripture readers in
eighty-seven
parishes and districts in the metropolis, embracing a population of upwards of a million.
The Society's income for the past year amounted to
9,850
l
2
s.
10
d.
Second
only in importance to personal evangelistic effort is the influence of a
Religious Press.
Public opinion being often fluctuating, and its general estimates of morality being, to a considerable extent, formed by the current literature of the age, it is essential that this mighty and controlling power should be exerted on the side of religion and virtue.
Works of a high moral tone, inculcating correct principles and instilling lessons of practical piety, conduce, therefore, in the highest degree, to a wholesome state of society, and to the preservation of public morals.
The
two
great emporiums of religious literature, most directly concerned in producing these results, are the
Religious Tract Society
and the
Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.
The latter has already been referred to, as
one
of the main channels for the diffusion of the Scriptures.
None of the works issued by the
Religious Tract Society
can compete in point of interest or usefulness with those widely-circulated and deservedly-popular serials the Leisure Hour, the Sunday at Home, and the Cottager, a periodical lately published, and admirably adapted for the homes of the working classes.
The publications issued by the Society during the past year amounted to
41,883,921
; half of which number were English tracts and handbills;
537,729
were foreign tracts; and
13,194,155
fall under the head of periodicals.
The entire number of both English and foreign publications issued by the Society, since its foundation in
, amount to
912,000,000
.
Grants of books and tracts are annually made by the Society for schools and village libraries, prisons, workhouses, and hospitals, for the use of soldiers, sailors, emigrants, and for circulation at fairs and races, by city missionaries and colporteurs.
The total number of such grants during the past year amounted to
5,762,241
; and were of the value of
14
s.
4
d.
The entire receipts of the Society from all sources for the past year amounted to
16
s.
11
d.
; the benevolent contributions being
9
s.
2
d.
Other channels for the supply and extension of religious literature are the
Weekly Tract Society
, the
English Monthly Tract Society
, and the
Book Society,
which latter aims especially at promoting religious knowledge among the poor.
As a supplemental agency for the collection and dissemination of a wholesome literature, the
Pure Literature Society
, established
, is deserving of especial commendatory notice.
The following is a list of the periodicals recommended by the Society; and the circulation of which it seeks to facilitate:—
For Adults:—Leisure Hour, British Workman, Good Words, Old Jonathan, Youth's Magazine, Appeal, Bible-Class Magazine, Christian Treasury,
Churchman's Penny Magazine, Evening Hour, Family Treasury, Family Paper, Friendly Visitor, Mother's Friend, Servant's Magazine, Sunday at Home, The Cottager, Tract Magazine.
For Children:—Young England, Band of Hope Review, Child's Own Magazine, Child's Companion, Child's Paper, Children's Friend, Children's Paper, Our Children's Magazine, Sabbath School Messenger, Sunday Scholar's Companion.
Upwards of
140,000
periodicals are sent out annually by the Society in monthly parcels.
The Society's income during the past year amounted to
12
s.
2
d.
Under this division are not included those measures which have for their object the forcible suppression of crime, which will be considered under a separate head, nor yet such as are calculated to extinguish those criminal propensities, which are ever lying dormant in the human heart, for these, as has been already shown, can only be effectually subdued, or eradicated by the influences of religion. By preventive agencies are rather to be understood, those instrumentalities best adapted to effect the removal of peculiar forms of temptation, or to abridge the power of special producing causes of vice; whatever means, in fact, are efficacious in removing hindrances to the development of virtue, and in fostering principles of morality. Human nature, owing to the force of adverse circumstances, being often placed at a disadvantage, it is the peculiar province of preventive agencies to give it a fair chance of escape, by extricating it from its perilous position, and surrounding it with virtuous influences and humanizing appliances. Under this head, moreover, are included all such measures as conduce to the social and moral improvement of the community, either by presenting an indirect barrier to the progress of crime, or by the employment of counteracting agencies.
In this connexion the
Temperance Associations
are deserving of especial prominence. Drunkenness being the most fruitful source of all crime, and the primary cause of want and wretchedness, it follows that whatever instrumentalities are capable of arresting its progress, or curtailing its influence, are in every way worthy the consideration of the philanthropist and the statesman. The utility of temperance societies has often been called in question; but it must be admitted, that as an instrumental agency for the suppression of drunkenness, and consequently for the diminution of crime, the influence of such associations is unlimited. Whether or not the entire-abstinence system is based on philosophical arguments, or is deducible from Scripture-teaching, is little to the point, provided the fruits it has yielded are unquestionably salutary in their effects upon society, and conducive to the present and eternal happiness of millions of individuals, who, but for this timely interference would have continued in their mad career of dissipation, without the power to break off the thraldom, or to dispel the infatuation in which they were held.
The National Temperance Society
, formed in
, is now in active operation, and seeks by means of meetings, lectures, and publications, to disseminate its principles, and to draw attention to the objects it is endeavouring to promote.
The United Kingdom Alliance
, for the legislative suppression of the liquor traffic, is a step in advance of the ordinary temperance movement, and aims at nothing short of the entire extinction of a commerce in intoxicating drinks. This body has already secured a large number of influential adherents, and appears to be rapidly gaining ground. A monster meeting has lately been held in Manchester in furtherance of the Society's proximate aims, which are to introduce a permissive Bill into Parliament, to delegate to local authorities the power to prohibit such traffic within their respective neighbourhoods.
The passing of this Act will in effect resolve the question of abolition or toleration into
one
of public opinion; and districts, if so inclined, will possess the power of deciding whether or no the sale of intoxicating drinks shall be carried on within their own parochial boundaries.
As a counteracting agency to the beer-shop and the gin-palace,
The Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association
, formed
two
years ago, is deserving of special notice. It has for its objects the erection and maintenance of drinking fountains in the various crowded thoroughfares of the metropolis, thus humanely furnishing the means of alleviating that feverish thirst, which during the hot season impels so many to an excessive use of intoxicating drinks.
The Ragged Schools
hold a prominent place among the indirectly preventive agencies for the suppression of crime in the metropolis; for since ignorance is generally the parent of vice, any means of securing the benefits of education to those who are hopelessly deprived of it, must operate in favour of the well-being of society.
The Ragged School Union
has been formed with a view to develope and give consistency to this movement, which it does by collecting and diffusing information respecting schools now in existence, and by pecuniary grants towards their foundation and support.
The number of buildings now in existence in London, appropriated to these educational purposes, is
176
. The day-schools are
151
in number, and are attended by
17,230
scholars. The evening-schools number
215
, and the scholars
9,840
; Sunday-schools
207
, and scholars
25,260
. The number of scholars placed in situations last year amounted to
1,800
.
Penny Banks, Clothing Clubs, Reading Rooms, Mother's Meetings, and Shoe- Black Brigades have been established in connexion with this movement, and contribute their influence to the general well-being of those attending the schools, as well as to that of society at large.
In connexion with the Union are
16
refuges for the homeless and destitute, accommodating
700
inmates.
The receipts of the Union amounted last year to
7
s.
8
d.
; and probably no money was ever laid out at better interest, than that contributed by the benevolent public towards the rescue and moral training of these embryo criminals. Difficult as the principle of Government intervention no doubt is, that would be a wise, politic, humane, and economical course which should sever this Gordian knot, by constituting the State the lawful guardian of such as are deprived of all that is understood by the terms home influence, and moral training.
Another agency contributing largely to the prevention of crime is
the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes
, not so much, however, in the transformations and improvement of buildings effected under its own immediate control, which are rather designed to serve as models to those desirous of carrying out these principles of reform, as by drawing public attention to
one
of the most interesting and painful subjects that can occupy the mind of the philanthropist, viz., the inadequate provision of decent, and proper house accommodation for the industrial classes, which is now universally admitted to be productive of the worst social disorders.
The important provisions of the Common Lodging-Houses Act, passed in
, under the auspices of Lord Shaftesbury, and the system of registration thus enforced, have also been attended with great benefits, and have conduced not a little to the promotion of social and sanatory reform, by bringing legal enactments to bear upon the disorders, indecencies, and impurities of low and crowded lodging-houses.
There is no class of preventive agencies in the metropolis, which on every principle of justice and humanity have stronger claims on the sympathy of the
benevolent than such as interpose their friendly shelter and kind offices, to rescue those who are suddenly reduced to positions of great extremity and temptation. It is doubtless an act of mercy to rescue a drowning man, and such charitable deeds are performed by those who labour for the reformation of the criminal; but it is a higher act of charity, and a wiser and more Christian course to prevent his falling into the stream; experience, however, proves that it is easier to enlist sympathy on behalf of
one
who is already being swept away by the current of crime, than to rescue
one
who is bordering on destruction, and perhaps bravely battling with temptation. This is perhaps only natural; our perception of danger in the
one
case is far greater than in the other, and our commiseration is awakened at sight of the death agony of the drowning wretch, but is hardly stirred on behalf of him who walks on the slippery brink.
The following circumstance may be regarded as an illustration of this assertion:—
A girl is reported to have applied for admission into
one
of the older Institutions in London for the rescue of the fallen. On examination, however, it was ascertained that she had
not fallen low enough
to merit the assistance she craved, and she was accordingly rejected because her moral character was not sufficiently depraved. Here, at least, the greater the sinner, the greater the compassion!
It is unhappily a fact too well authenticated to need further demonstration, that owing perhaps to sudden reverses of fortune, to the removal of natural protectors, or to the force of some overwhelming temptation, many persons are unwillingly, and almost unavoidably, pressed into the ranks of crime, who but for the extremity in which they were placed, would have continued to walk erect in the path of honour and virtue. Let none then who move in the calm sunlight of prosperity, presume to judge those who stumble in the dark night of trial.
The path of a man, even of a man on the highway to heaven, is never
one
of perfect safety. There are many dangerous passes in the journey of life. The very next turn, for anything we know, may bring us on
one
. Turn that projecting point, which hides the path before you, and you are suddenly in circumstances which demand that reason be strong, and conscience be tender, and hope be bright, and faith be vigorous.
Happily there are persons whose qualities of head and heart have enabled them by precautionary measures to provide against the weakness of human nature, and to offer assistance to those who are placed in such critical positions.
There is no class more essential to the well-being and comfort of society, and none, it is to be feared, more exposed to dangers and temptations, than domestic servants. It is calculated that in London alone there are upwards of
one hundred thousand
females engaged in domestic service, and that
ten thousand
of these are continually in a transition state, and therefore out of employment. When it is borne in mind that vast numbers of these young women have migrated, at an early age, from various parts of the country in search of a livelihood, that many of them are orphans and friendless, or at least wholly destitute of friends and resources in London, that they are moreover inexperienced, unsuspecting, and ignorant of the snares and temptations that surround them, it cannot be a matter of surprise that the reports of all the London penitentiaries should bear witness to the fact, that a large majority of the fallen women who are received into these institutions came originally from the ranks of domestic service. It would be superfluous to attempt to prove the value of associations formed to counteract these evils, by offering advice, shelter, and protection to servants who are out of situations or seeking employment.
One
of the oldest and best organizations of this kind is the
Female Servants' Home Society
,
The Homes are situated in
Nutford Place
,
Edgware Road
;
Hatton Garden
,
Holborn
;
Blackfriars Road
; and Woodland Terrace, Greenwich. The Society is very inadequately supported, and is greatly in need of funds to maintain its efficiency.
which has now been in active operation
four
-and-
twenty
years. Its objects are to provide a safe
home
for respectable female servants when
out of place, or for those seeking situations. The Homes,
four
in number, are under the control of experienced and pious matrons, who establish a kind and motherly influence over the inmates, and are indefatigable in endeavouring to promote their welfare. The Homes are regularly visited by Christian ladies, and a service is conducted every week by the chaplain. A registry, free to the servants, is attached to each Home, where for a trifling fee of half-a-crown, or by an annual subscription of
one
guinea, every facility is afforded to employers of procuring efficient and trustworthy servants.
Since the formation of the Society, upwards of
7,000
servants have been received into the Homes, and
37,000
have availed themselves of the registry provided, while in numberless instances young and friendless girls have been rescued from positions of extreme and imminent danger.
A kindred institution to the above is
The Female Aid Society
, established in
. Its objects, which are threefold, are thus defined:—
1st
. "It provides a home for female servants, where they may reside with comfort, respectability, and economy, while seeking for situations;" and in connexion with which is a register for the convenience of servants and employers.
2nd
. "It receives into a home, for purposes of protection and instruction, young girls to be trained for service and other employments, who, from circumstances of poverty, orphanage, or sinful conduct in those who should preserve them from evil, are exposed to great temptations, and are in want of a home where there is proper guardianship and example."
3rd
. "A home and rescue is offered to women who, weary of sin, are desirous of leaving a life of awful depravity and misery;" and no depth of past degradation, provided there is any sign of amendment, presents a barrier to their reception, shelter being freely offered to the very outcast among the outcasts, to inmates of refractory wards, of workhouses, and to women freshly discharged from prison. Since the formation of the Society
4,116
servants have been admitted into the Home, and
7,622
placed in service;
2,008
young women have enjoyed the protection of the Friendless' Home, and
2,205
have been received as penitents. Want of funds, however, has obliged the Society to curtail its operations.
The Girls' Laundry and Training Institution for Young Servants
is an industrial home, affording shelter, protection, and instruction in household duties to
forty
young girls, who are thus carefully trained and prepared for domestic service.
Other institutions for the accommodation, temporary relief, and permanent benefit of servants are,
The National Guardian Institution, The Marylebone Philanthropic Servants' Institution and Pension Society, The Provisional Protection Society, The General Domestic Servants' Benevolent Institution
, and
The Servants' Provident and Benevolent Society.
Among the London preventive agencies must be classed the various homes, refuges, and asylums for the relief of the utterly destitute and friendless of good character, and which severally offer food, shelter, and protection to those needing their assistance.
The
Field Lane
Night Refuges
provide accommodation nightly for
200
men and women; and by this instrumentality many are rescued from death and crime, and are enabled to regain their positions in life, or to maintain themselves in respectability. During the past year
31,747
lodgings were afforded to persons of both sexes. Many of those thus assisted were poor needlewomen, who, during an inclement winter, had been, together with their families, turned into the street, having been stript of everything for rent.
The Dudley Stuart Night Refuge
, founded by Lord Dudley Stuart in
, provides for the reception of the utterly destitute during the winter months. Accommodation is offered to
95
persons in
two
warm, spacious, and well-ventilated apartments. The relief afforded consists of a night's lodging, bread night and
morning, and medical attendance, if required. This charity has, since its foundation, alleviated a vast amount of suffering. It admits those against whom every other door is closed, and requires no recommendation beyond the utter destitution of the applicants. Upwards of
8,000
men, women, and children were admitted and relieved during last winter.
The Houseless Poor Asylum
is the oldest night-refuge in London, and was opened to "afford nightly shelter and sustenance to the absolutely destitute working classes, who are suddenly thrown out of employment during the inclement winter months." Accommodation is provided for
700
; and since the opening of the Asylum
1,449,047
nights' lodgings and
3,515,951
rations of bread have been supplied.
The House of Charity
provides for the reception of distressed persons of good character, who, from various accidental causes, require a temporary home, protection, and food. Nearly
3000
persons of both sexes have been thus accommodated for an average period of a month or
five
weeks.
,
first
opened in
, for the reception of illegitimate children, has undergone considerable changes and improvements, and now shelters, maintains, and educates
460
children, who, at the age of
fifteen
, are apprenticed or otherwise provided for, and are thus humanely rescued from the early and contaminating influence of vicious associations. No child is eligible for this charity unless there is satisfactory proof of the mother's previous good character and present necessity, of desertion by the father, and that the reception of the child will, in all probability, be the means of replacing the mother in the course of virtue, and the way of an honest livelihood.
The Society for the Suppression of Mendicity
was instituted in
, "for the purpose of checking the practice of public mendicity, with all its baneful and demoralizing consequences; by putting the laws in force against imposters who adopt it as a trade, and by affording prompt and effectual assistance to those whom sudden calamity or unaffected distress may cast in want and misery upon the public attention."
A just discrimination between cases of real and fictitious distress, and a judicious adaptation of relief to deserving cases, is a necessary, but very difficult, part of true benevolence. The frauds which are successfully practised by systematic sharpers upon a charitable, but over-credulous public, and the existence of an immense amount of genuine and unrelieved suffering, are sufficient proofs of the value and importance of any agency designed to counteract these abuses, and to accord a just measure of benevolence.
By means of printed tickets supplied to subscribers, beggars can be directed to the Society's offices, where their cases are fully investigated, and treated according to desert, a sure provision being thus made against imposture.
Since the formation of the Society
51,016
registered cases have been disposed of, and food, money, and clothing dispensed to deserving applicants, while employment has been provided for such as were found able to work.
The Association for Promoting the Relief of Destitution in the Metropolis
is likewise a safe channel for the exercise of public benevolence. It is carried on under the direction of the bishop and clergy, and the efforts of the Association are directed to the origination and support of local undertakings, thus forming a connection and a centre of union between the various parochial visiting societies.
The present condition of that large class of female workers in London, comprehended under the terms milliners and dressmakers, is
one
of the saddest reproaches upon a country whose benevolent objects are so numerous, and so extensive, and
one
of the severest comments upon the heartlessness and artificialism of that society, which takes no cognizance of those who are most largely concerned in
administering to its necessities. The miseries of this shamefully under-paid and cruelly over-worked class of white slaves have been too often eloquently animadverted upon, to need any further denunciations of the system, under which they are hopelessly and unfeelingly condemned to labour.
The impossibility of supporting life on the wretched pittance accorded to their labours, is the oft-heard, and the unanswerably extenuating plea for their recourse to criminal avocations.
While, however, the State shrinks from the task of ameliorating their condition by any legislative interference, it is satisfactory to know that public benevolence in this wide field is not wholly unrepresented.
The
Association for the Aid and Benefit of Dressmakers and Milliners
is a noble breakwater against the inroads of oppression, and a valuable counteracting agency to the force of temptation.
Its objects, briefly stated, are to obtain some remission of labour and other concessions from employers, and to afford pecuniary and medical assistance in cases of temporary distress or illness. A registry and provident fund are provided in connexion with the association.
Actuated by the same humane intention, although different in object, is the
Needlewomen's Institution
, established in
, "with the twofold view of affording those who had suffered under the oppression of middle men and slop-sellers, the opportunity of maintaining themselves, by supplying them with regular employment at remunerative prices, in airy work-rooms, and if desired, lodging at a moderate charge."
Another institution of very recent origin directed to the religious and social improvement of the same unhappy class, is the
Young Women's Christian Association and West London Home
, for young women engaged in houses of business. Its objects are twofold,
1st
, "to supply a place where young women so employed, can profitably spend their
Sundays and week-day evenings
," thus counteracting the evil influence of badly conducted houses of business; and
2nd
, "the home is intended to provide a residence for young people coming from the country to seek employment, and for those who are changing their situations, or who from over-work and failing health require rest for a time." The rooms of the Association are open every evening from
seven
until
ten
o'clock, when educational and religious classes are held for the benefit of those attending.
Thus, "where occasional spasms of sympathy, the well-merited castigations of the press, and the voice of popular opinion had unitedly failed to shake the throne of the god of Mammon, erected on skeletons, and cemented with the blood of women and children, it was reserved for a Christian lady to strike out a plan which has already been productive of an immensity of good, and has commended itself to the approval of all who are labouring to promote the welfare of this oppressed and neglected class. The better to appreciate the importance of this noble and truly womanly enterprise, only let the solemn and fearful fact be borne in mind, that in London
alone
1,000
poor girls are yearly crushed out of life from over-toil and grinding oppression, while
15,000
are living in a state of semi-starvation. Ah! who can wonder that our streets swarm with the fallen and the lost, when SIN OR STARVE is the dire alternative! Who cannot track the
via doloroso
between the
15,000
starving and the thrice that number living by sin as a trade!
"Here, then, is an Institution that meets the wants of the case. It not only catches them before they go over the precipice, and lovingly shelters them from the fierce blasts of temptation, beating remorselessly on many a young and shrinking heart, but ensures them a '
Home
,' where soul and body alike may find rest and peace."
Any
one
desiring further information respecting this truly admirable movement, will do well to procure a little pamphlet, entitled, "A Brief Sketch of the Origin, Aim, and Mode of Conducting the Young Women's Christian Association, and West London Home for Young Women engaged in Houses of Business,
49
,
Great Marlborough-street
,
Regent-street
, London; in a Letter to the Earl of Roden, President of the Association."
The
Society for Promoting the Employment of Women
has lately been called into existence, by the emergencies of the present age, the object of which is to develop and extend the hitherto restricted field of female labour, by the establishment of industrial schools and workshops, where girls may be taught those trades and occupations which are at present exclusively monopolised by men. Those "educated in this school will be capable of becoming clerks, cashiers, railway-ticket sellers, printers," &c.
These and similar measures which tend to open up resources to women in search of a livelihood, will have the happiest effect in diverting numbers into paths of honest industry, who now labour under strong temptations to abandon themselves to a life of criminal ease and self-indulgence.
The remaining agencies indirectly tending to the prevention of crime, are the
Metropolitan Early Closing Association
, for abridging the hours of business, so as to afford to assistants time for recreation, and for physical, intellectual, and moral improvement; the
Metropolitan Evening Classes for Young Men
, for furnishing the means of instruction and self-improvement; and the
Young Men's Christian Association
, for promoting the spiritual and mental improvement of young men, "by means of devotional meetings, classes for Biblical instruction, and for literary improvement, the delivery of lectures, the diffusion of Christian literature, and a library for reference and circulation." This last instrumentality has been widely blessed, and its beneficial influence is now extended, by means of branch associations, to most of the provincial towns.
3
. Repressive and Punitive Agencies.
The various instrumentalities falling under this head appear deserving of separate consideration, and cannot therefore be appropriately included under either of the previous divisions, being neither curative in their character, nor preventive to any appreciable extent. They evidently presuppose the existence of crime, and merely seek to diminish its influence, or curtail its power by the application of legal provisions and compulsory measures, intended on the
one
hand to indemnify society against the infraction of its rights, and on the other to intimidate or restrain the criminal offender. The absolute reformation of the viciously disposed can hardly be expected to result from the use of such means, and belongs properly to another class of agencies. It may indeed be achieved by punitive measures, but in this case reformation of character is rather a startling accident than an essential property of the system pursued. Experience has abundantly established the utility of legal provisions as a "terror to evil doers;" but the statistics of our police-courts will by no means warrant the assumption that penal measures have
per se
been successful in reclaiming the offender. It is not intended, however, while speaking of repressive and punitive agencies, to include in this category the strictly legal efforts employed by the State to deter and correct the criminal who renders himself amenable to justice. This subject will be found fully and distinctly treated by Mr. Mayhew, in a work now in the press, entitled "Prisons of London, and Scenes of Prison Life."
The inquiry pursued in the course of this Essay is not designed to comprehend such constitutional measures as are employed by either Church or State, for the suppression of vice and crime; but rather to draw from their obscurity, and to give prominence to those resources and expedients which society itself adopts, for the defence and preservation of its own interests.
The Society for the Suppression of Vice
, which was established in
, has for its objects the repression of attempts "to spread infidelity and blasphemy by means of public lectures, and printed publications." The operations of the Society have also been directed to the suppression of disorderly houses, the punishment of fortune-tellers, and other important objects. "It is represented that by means of this Society many convictions have taken place, and persons have been sentenced to imprisonment for selling obscene publications and prints," while their works have been either seized or destroyed. With such admirable intentions and useful objects, to commend it to benevolent support, and with the entire voice of public opinion in its favour, the only wonder is that this Society does not carry on its operations with greater publicity, vigilance, and efficiency. Unhappily the loathsome traffic in
Holywell Street
literature is still carried on with bold and unblushing effrontery, and its existence, although greatly diminished in the country, is too notorious and too patent, in certain portions of the metropolis, to need any extraordinary efforts to promote exposure and punishment.
The demoralizing influence of low theatres, and the licentious corruptions of the Coal Hole, and Posés Plastiques, might surely afford scope for vigorous prosecutions under the Society's auspices; and yet these dens, in which the vilest passions of mankind are stimulated, and every sentiment of religion, virtue, and decency grossly outraged, or publicly caricatured, are allowed to emit their virulent poison upon all ranks of society without the slightest let or hindrance! Only let a man smitten by the plague or with any other infectious disease, obtrude himself by unnecessary contact upon the public, and his right to free agency would be summarily disposed of, by speedy incarceration within the walls of a hospital; but provided only the disorder be a moral
one
—and therefore far more to be dreaded, in its pestiferous influence and baneful effects upon society— it is forsooth to be tolerated as a necessary evil!
Proh tempora et mores!
The Associate Institution
, formed in
, has been in active operation
fifteen
years, and has been instrumental in effecting a large amount of good, by improving and enforcing the laws for the protection of women. It has maintained a strenuous crusade against houses of ill-fame, and has since its establishment conducted upwards of
300
prosecutions, in most of which it has been successful in bringing condign punishment upon the heads of those, who have committed criminal assaults upon women and children, or who have decoyed them away for immoral purposes.
Important as these results have been, a larger amount of good has probably been achieved by means of lectures and meetings held in various parts of the country by Mr. J. Harding, the Society's travelling secretary, whose faithful and stirring appeals and bold denunciations of vice have contributed not a little to the spread of sounder and more wholesome views on social questions, and to the removal of that ignorance of profligate wiles and artifices, which, in so many cases, proves fatal to the unsuspecting and unwary.
Two
Bills prepared by this Association,
one
for the protection of female children between
12
and
13
years of age, and the other to simplify and facilitate the prosecution of persons charged with keeping houses of ill fame, were this year submitted to parliament, but unhappily without success, having been lost either on technical grounds, or for want of support. It is refreshing to turn from the supineness of statesmen to the energy and decision manifested by private associations in resisting the encroachments of vice. The
East London Association
, composed of a committee partly clerical and partly lay, and including most of the influential parochial clergy in the district, was instituted
four
years ago for the purpose of checking "that class of
public offences
, which consists in acts of indecency, profaneness, drunkenness, and prostitution."
Its modes of action are as follows:—
1
. To create and foster public opinion in reprobation of the above-named acts.
2
. To bring such public opinion to bear upon all exercising social influence, with a view to discountenance the perpetrators and abettors thereof.
3
. To secure the efficient application by the Police of the laws and regulations for the suppression of the class of public offences above named; and to obtain, if necessary, the institution of legal proceedings.
4
. To procure the alteration of the law, wheresoever needful to the object contemplated, and especially to the obtaining further restrictions in granting Licenses for Music and Dancing to houses where intoxicating liquors are sold.
5
. To find Houses of Refuge and means of restoration for the victims of seduction by honest employment, emigration, &c.
It is satisfactory to state that already, and with the very limited funds placed at the disposal of this Association, no fewer than "
seventy-five
houses in some of the worst streets in the east of London, hitherto devoted to the vilest purposes, have been cleared of their inmates;
one
of these houses having had
thirty
rooms, which were occupied by prostitutes; that more than
one
house ostensibly open for public accommodation, but really for ensnaring females for prostitution, has been closed; and that in
one
instance of peculiar atrocity, the owner of the house has been convicted and punished. Handbills have also been issued, containing extracts from the Police Acts, to show the power of remedy for offences against public decency, such as swearing, the use of improper language, and the exhibition of improper conduct in the streets."
Such are the objects and results of this Association, and such the praiseworthy example set to other London districts, which if vigorously followed would result, at least, in the repression of vice, and in a marked diminution of crime.
"It is chiefly from the reserve which, rather by implication than by compact, has so long been preserved in those influential quarters where the power to correct and guide public opinion is maintained, that the crying social evil of our day has attained such dimensions, and exhibited itself in such dangerous and revolting forms as we have referred to. Preachers, moralists, and public writers have been deterred by the difficulty and delicacy of the subject from their obvious duty of protecting the social interests, and a sluggish legislature, ever inert in introducing such measures as are calculated to foster and conserve the public virtue, has thus lacked the external pressure which might have aroused it to vigilance and forethought in the discharge of its duties. Recently, however, there have been clear indications that a distrust of the old plan is spreading. With manifest reluctance, but not without interest, has public attention fastened itself on a subject in which not merely the happiness of individuals, and the peace of families, but the national prosperity and the concerns of social life, are felt to be bound up. Inquiries as to the best mode of doing something to stem the tide of immorality which is coursing onwards are made in quarters where indifference, if not acquiescence, was formerly manifested. Public opinion is ever slowly formed, but is seldom wrong at the last in detecting the true source of generic evils, and in applying to them the best remedies. Example, also, is as contagious on the side of virtue as of vice; and where an initiative step, taken by another, appeals to our intuitive sense of right and duty, it is seldom that the courageous right-doer has to wait long for the expression of sympathy and the proffer of aid.
It is only recently that the great sin of our land has received a measure of the attention it has long and loudly called for.
First
in
one
quarter, and then in another, has the subject been discussed with tolerable delicacy, and with an approximate fidelity.
The discussion has done good. Men have thought about the subject, have been led to measure the fearful dimensions of this evil, to observe its progress and influence within their own neighbourhoods, and have come at last to deplore the existence of that which they have too long tolerated or connived at. Where
remedial measures have been attempted, they have not lacked for countenance and support; and, in some quarters, at least, there have been indications of a desire to pass from the feebler stage of alleviation to the more potential remedy of prevention. Whilst it seems to be admitted on all hands, that to aim at the forcible extinction of immorality would be Utopian and disappointing, the repression and diminution of crime is felt to be an imperious obligation upon all who are vested with any power and influence for that end.
We cannot help regarding the measures which have been recently adopted by certain parochial authorities in the metropolis as at once a proof of the benefit which has arisen from the partial discussion of this subject in the various public channels into which it has gained admittance; and we regard it, further, as a cheering sign that a deepening conviction is spreading on all sides respecting the absolute necessity of a well-organised antagonism to evil, in place of our former supine indifference, or more culpable acquiescence. Some of the most influential metropolitan vestries have commenced a crusade against the keepers of bad houses in their respective parishes, and, by the vigour and promptitude characterizing their prosecutions, seem determined to hunt down the hosts of abandoned householders who are mainly concerned in extending and facilitating immorality.
Aristocratic St. James's, and more plebeian
Lambeth
, have alike joined in these laudable measures; and it is to be noticed, with extreme satisfaction, that the steps thus taken have been almost invariably successful, and that severe punishments have been inflicted upon the wretches who were the objects of these prosecutions. Such a movement cannot be sufficiently applauded, and fervently is it to be trusted that the example thus shown in these influential centres may not only reach to every other parish in the metropolis, but may also stir up the parochial authorities in every city and town in the land to a like course of procedure. This is to strike at the main root of the evil. In vain are all our Reformatories and Refuges, in vain the endeavours of Christian people to repress the evil by exertions for the rescue even of a large number of its victims, if the floodgates of vice be allowed, by public neglect, to remain open, ever to pour out into our streets fresh streams of wickedness and pollution. There are, no doubt, persons who think that measures, such as those now under consideration, will not materially check the traffic in vice, but will only lead to its being more subtly and secretly practised. Even that result, if brought about, would be something gained, something as a protest on the side of public purity and virtue, and something in the amount of warning and terror brought home to guilty breasts, leading them to dread retribution in future, whenever offended justice could detect them in their malpractices. But in truth there is no limit to the amount of good which would result from these repressive measures becoming universal and wellsustained.
Many persons would be saved from future ruin, a manifest check would be given to the further development of iniquity, and the example of authority thus generally exercised in aid of the cause of virtue, would greatly tend to the spread of sounder views of social duty in regard to this matter."
The Magdalen's Friend and Female Homes' Intelligencer, No.
12
, vol. ii."
One
of the greatest scandals on a country professedly Christian, is the extent to which Sabbath desecration pervades the metropolis. Although the traffic now openly pursued in the streets, or carried on with impunity in shops, is strictly illegal, yet the technicalities which are too often allowed to obstruct the ends of justice, and the smallness of the fines inflicted, even where summary conviction follows, concur to render the law, in this particular, a mere dead letter.
The permission to sell on Sunday, originally extended only to vendors of perishable articles, is now claimed by whole troops of costermongers, who,
presuming upon the license they have so long enjoyed, no longer hesitate to ply their usual calling in the most public and offensive manner, frequently pursuing their traffic in the open streets during the hours of divine service, and disturbing whole congregations by their noisy vociferations around the very doors of our churches.
These evils call loudly for more stringent legal measures, and it is to be hoped the time is not far distant when some improvement will take place.
As
one
means of directing public attention to this subject, by the circulation of appeals and tracts, and of promoting the introduction of salutary legal provisions for the repression of such acts of desecration, the
Society for Promoting the Due Observance of the Lord's Day
is entitled to a large measure of support. The efforts made by the Society to awaken public opposition to the obnoxious provisions of Lord Chelmsford's Sunday Trading Bill, were probably mainly instrumental in securing its rejection.
One
of the noblest repressive agencies within the metropolis is the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
, established in
, which employs a number of agents to frequent the markets and public thoroughfares, for the purpose of bringing to punishment persons detected in the commission of acts of cruelty to animals. It seeks, moreover, by means of suitable tracts, to diffuse among the public a just sense of the duty of humanity and forbearance towards the lower orders of creation. Allusion was made during the present year to the objects embraced by this Society from upwards of
two thousand
London pulpits, which will doubtless have the effect of directing the attention of the benevolent public to an instrumentality which has already achieved a large amount of good; and only requires to be better known to enjoy a corresponding measure of support.
Must be understood as referring solely to individuals, and include all such measures as are employed to effect an external change of character, and render those, who are vicious and depraved, honest and respectable members of society.
While, however, agencies of this kind are reformative in their relation to persons, they have also a preventive aspect, when viewed in their bearings upon the entire community; for the reformation of every vicious man is a social boon, inasmuch as it removes
one
individual from a course of vice, and thus diminishes the aggregate of crime.
As a nucleus of reformatory operations, and a "centre of information and encouragement," the
Reformatory and Refuge Union
was established in
. It seeks to diffuse information respecting the various agencies at present in existence, and to encourage and facilitate the establishment of new institutions. In connection with the Union is a "
Female Mission
" for the rescue of the fallen. The Mission maintains a staff of female missionaries, whose business it is to distribute tracts among the fallen women of the metropolis, to converse with them in the streets, and visit them in their houses, in the hospitals, or in the workhouses. These missionaries, "as a rule, leave their homes between
eight
and
nine
o'clock at night, remaining out till nearly
twelve
, and occasionally till
one
in the morning. They are located in different parts of London, near to the nightly walks and haunts of those they desire to benefit. They have the means of rescuing a large number who have been placed in the Homes or restored to their friends."
There are upwards of
fifty
metropolitan institutions for the reception of the destitute and the reformation of the criminal, or those who are exposed to temptation, capable of accommodating collectively about
4,000
persons of both sexes.
Nine
of these institutions are designed especially for the reception and training of juvenile criminals, sentenced under the "Youthful Offenders' Act," and
two
for vagrants sentenced to detention under the "Industrial School Act."
Three
are
exclusively appropriated to the benefit of discharged prisoners, and the rest are chiefly employed in the rescue and reformation of destitute or criminal children.
Those who wish for further information respecting these Institutions are referred to a handbook containing authentic accounts of the various Metropolitan Reformatories, Refuges, and Industrial Schools, published by the Reformatory and Refuge Union. A magazine, edited by a clergyman, price
3
d.
monthly, designed to awaken and sustain public sympathy on behalf of the fallen, and to draw attention to the most prolific causes, contributing to the extension of the social evil.
Most of these institutions, with the exception of such as are certified by Act of Parliament, and aided by Government subsidies, are supported entirely by voluntary contributions and by the earnings of the inmates, who are either admitted free on application, or by payment of a small sum towards the expense of maintenance.
Such is the benevolent machinery now at work within the metropolis for the reformation of our criminal population, and for the preservation of those who are in a fair way of becoming the moral pests and aliens of society.
The results, both in a religious, social, and sanatory point of view, achieved by these different agencies, are beyond all human calculation; and it is mainly to their beneficial and restraining influence that the peace, safety, and well-being of society may be attributed.
The other
Reformative Agencies
are those adapted to the rescue and reformation of fallen women, or such as have been led astray from the paths of virtue.
There are
twenty-one
institutions in London devoted to these objects, and unitedly providing accommodation for about
1,200
inmates.
Ten
of these are in connexion with the Church of England, and in the remaining
eleven
the religious instruction is unsectarian and evangelical.
Three
, viz.,
The Female Temporary Home, The Trinity Home
, and
The Home of Hope
, are designed for the reception of the better educated and higher class of fallen women.
One
, viz.,
The London Society for the Protection of Young Females
, is limited to girls under
fifteen
years of age; and another,
The Marylebone Female Protection Society
, affords shelter exclusively to those who have recently been led astray, and whose previous good character will bear the strictest investigation.
It may be fairly assumed that the objects of all these institutions are substantially the same, viz., the reformation of character, and the restoration of the individual to religious and social privileges. While, however, the end is in most cases
one
and the same, the methods and subordinate means adopted to insure its attainment, are often strikingly dissimilar, and present distinctive and almost opposite features. Thus
one
class of institutions, in imitation of our Lord's merciful forbearance towards the sinner, make their treatment pre-eminently
one
of love, and seek by means the most gentle and attractive to win back the stubborn wills and depraved natures of those entrusted to their care. Kindness is the only instrument used in laying siege to the hard heart, and in mollifying the seared conscience. Stern discipline, irritating restraints, and rigorous exactions, form no part of a system which is built up on the model prescribed by Him, who "spake as never man spake."
That a mode of treatment which affords such a remarkable coincidence, and such a striking parallel to the divine method of dealing with the sinner, so eloquently taught under the parable of the Prodigal Son, should be found by experience to be the only really efficacious
one
, can hardly be a matter of surprise. The fact is too notorious to require any proof that in numberless instances
Law and terrors do but harden
the heart which can be easily subdued by the exhibition of Christian kindness. Here is the omnipotent weapon which has achieved such moral victories, when
wielded by gentle and loving women, like Miss Marsh, Mrs. Wightman, and Mrs. Sheppard.
The opposite mode of treatment, however successful it may be in the restoration of external character, or in the subjugation of turbulent passions, is defective, inasmuch as it fails to influence the heart, and therefore at best contributes only to an incomplete and partial cure. The almost penal character of the system pursued in many of the older penitentiaries is founded on the misconception, that the injury sustained by society in the departure from virtue of her female members, can only be atoned for by some personal mulct inflicted on the offender. While, therefore, the ultimate object is the reformation of lost character, this is too often overlooked or rendered subsidiary to the proximate
one
of propitiating society; and the austere regimen by which the latter point is secured, is generally found to be subversive of the other. When, however, as is too frequently the case, society is the
tempter
, the offence may surely be condoned by a less rigorous process! Society may indeed well waive the right to compensation for supposed damages, when it can be proved that she is at least
particeps criminis
, and when, moreover, she has a personal interest in the speedy restoration of her unhappy prodigals. The retributive suffering, which, in the majority of cases, so surely overtakes the female delinquent, may be urged as another reason for dealing leniently with the erring; but the strongest justification of such a method is undoubtedly derived from the success attending it, and from the Divine sanction which it has received.
The impediments which the old penitentiary system of close confinement, criminal fare, and hard labour, have unfortunately presented to the rescue of fallen women is too well known to those who are accustomed to deal with this class. Frequently are the urgent entreaties of the missionary to forsake an abandoned course of life, and seek shelter in some institution, met with either rancorous denunciations against the penal system, or by polite but firm refusals to submit to the discipline, which is supposed to extend to all reformatory asylums.
Gradually, however, this prevailing opinion is being cleared away, and the fallen women themselves are not slow to distinguish between the
two
opposite methods of treatment, a fact which is rendered clearly apparent by the overwhelming number of applications for admission into those Homes which are characterized by a more humane and gentle regimen.
The oldest reformatory institution in the metropolis for the reception of fallen women is
, founded in
. During the last
100
years of its existence nearly
9,000
women have been admitted, about
two
-thirds of whom have been restored to friends or relations. At the time when this charity was
first
instituted "the notion of providing a house for the reception and maintenance of 'Penitent Prostitutes' seems not to have suggested itself to the public mind. Even good and actively benevolent men appear to have been startled at the novelty of the proposition, while they doubted the wisdom, and still more the success of such an attempt. The newspapers of that period contained both arguments against, and ridicule of the plan and its promoters. God, however, blessed the undertaking, and raised up friends and supporters in every direction."
So that eighteen years after its incorporation its friends were able to use the following cheering language.
We see many fellow-creatures, by means of this happy asylum, rescued from sorrow in which they had been involved by all the iniquitous stratagems of seduction; in which condition they had been detained by a species of horrid necessity; from which they had no probable or possible retreat; and in which they must, therefore, according to all human appearance, have perished. We see them restored to their God, to their parents, to their friends, their country, and themselves. What charitable heart, what truly Christian hand can withhold its best endeavours to promote an undertaking so laudable, so beneficent? Who would
not desire to add to the number of souls preserved from the deepest guilt—of bodies rescued from shame, misery, and death? Who would not wish to wipe the tear from a parent's eyes—to save the hoary head from being brought down with sorrow to the grave?
An interval of half a century elapsed after the foundation of the Magdalen Asylum before the establishment of any similar institution. Within the last
ten
years, however, public attention has been directed with increasing interest to this subject, and numerous efforts have been made to provide more ample accommodation for those who are desirous of escaping from their wretched mode of life.
The
London by Moonlight Mission
, inaugurated some years ago by Lieutenant Blackmore, has been followed in our own day by the
Midnight Meeting Movement
, which has excited a world-wide sympathy and interest, and has been very generally approved even in quarters where encouragement could be least expected. The commencement of these meetings in London was the signal for similar experiments in Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Dublin, and other large towns.
Twenty-two
of these meetings have now been held, and attended by upwards of
4,000
women, more than
600
of whom have been rescued, and either restored to friends, or placed in situations, where they are giving satisfactory evidence of outward reformation, and many of them of a thorough change of character.
The largest association in London for the reformation of fallen women, is the
Society for the Rescue of Young Women and Children.
The Society has at present
eleven
homes in various parts of London, and
one
at Dover.
Four
of these are "Family Homes" for the reception of
preventive
cases, or young girls who have
not
strayed from the path of virtue, but are addicted to crime, or are in circumstances of danger.
One
is a Home for orphan children, from
nine
to
thirteen
years of age; and the remaining
seven
are for fallen cases.
Upwards of
2,700
women and children have been admitted into these Homes since the Society's formation in
, the greater part of whom have given satisfactory proof of having been reclaimed and permanently benefitted. The Society's income for the past year amounted to
17
s.
2
d.
The Homes are under the care of pious and experienced matrons, who labour incessantly to promote the spiritual and social welfare of their charges.
Another institution of recent origin, but of rapidly increasing growth, is the
London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution
, which already numbers
four
Homes, and has admitted, during the past year, upwards of
250
inmates.
The following are the objects embraced by the Institution:—
I. To seek the destitute and fallen by voluntary missionary effort.
II. To afford temporary protection to friendless young women, whose circumstances expose them to danger; also to effect the rescue of fallen females, especially those decoyed from the country, by admitting them to the benefits of this Institution.
III. To restore, when practicable, the wanderer to her family and friends, whether in town or country.
IV. To qualify those admitted into the Institution for various departments of domestic service, to obtain suitable situations for them, and provide them with clothing.
V. To aid such as for approved reasons wish to emigrate.
VI. Above all, to seek the spiritual welfare of the inmates.
The
two
last-named Societies and the
Home of Hope
, which is another Refuge identical in character and spirit with that last named, have received most of the cases rescued by the midnight meetings.
Great and encouraging as are the results effected by these institutions, and wide
as the sympathy is which they have awakened, it is clear that the means of rescue are as yet wholly disproportioned to the numbers claiming assistance.
Calculating the number of fallen women in London at
, which is probably not far wide of the truth, and computing the number at present in the different institutions to be
1,000
, the chance of rescue through the only recognized medium for female reformation is offered to
one
woman in every
eighty
!
This is
the high-water
mark of public charity, and the utmost provision made by Society for the rescue of these
80,000
outcasts! And yet there are special reasons which seem to give them a strong claim upon the sympathy and compassion of the benevolent public. The brief term of their existence, the average length of which is at best but a few years, and the fact that large numbers of them are driven upon the streets by a stern necessity, and compelled to live by sin as a trade, while everything contributes to prevent their escape from the mode of life into which they have been involuntarily forced, are surely considerations calculated to stimulate Christian effort on their behalf. But more than this,—it is well known that they are hanging as it were over the mouth of the bottomless pit.
"Their life-blood is ebbing at a fearful rate, and their souls are drifting madly to eternity. Their fate is certain; their doom impends: and, for their death-bed, there is not even the faintest glimmer of hope which charity can bequeath to the dying sinner. All others
may
find peace at last; but these, suddenly overtaken by death, and perishing
in
and
by
their sins,
must
be irrevocably lost. And who are they on whose warm vitals the 'worm feeds sweetly,' even on this side the grave, and around whose heads the unquenchable fire prematurely burns? Who are those whose souls, in countless numbers, are now glutting the chambers of hell? Not swarthy Indians nor sable Africans, whose deeds of violence and superstition have spread horror and astonishment among civilized nations, but delicately-nurtured Saxon women, who in infancy were lovingly fondled in the arms of Christian mothers, and received 'into the ark of Christ's Church' in baptism, before a praying congregation; young girls, for whom pious sponsors promised that they should be 'virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life,' and who, in the faithful discharge of this promise, were trained in our Sabbath-schools, and 'taken to the Bishop to be confirmed by him.' They have sung the same hymns which we now sing; our congregational melodies are still familiar to them. They have read the same Scriptures which we now read, worshipped in the same temple in which we assemble, offered up the same prayers, listened to the same exhortations, and looked forward to the same glorious fruition of future blessedness. But where are they now? What are their hopes and expectations, and what the probable end of their existence? Let those answer these questions who sneeringly ask why such prodigious efforts are made to rescue the fallen.
It not unfrequently happens, however, that the benevolent promoters of such schemes are perplexed and disheartened by those who assume a tone of expediency and argue thus: 'Yes, it is all very true; and we can sympathise with your efforts, and pity the poor unhappy objects of your solicitude; but, then, this is a necessary evil, and any attempts to remove it are altogether mistaken, and are sure to end in failure, or to produce greater mischief. Besides, the demand will always create the supply, and for every fallen woman you snatch from the streets, an innocent, and hitherto virtuous girl, must be sacrificed. No, we are sorry for them, but better let them perish than save them at the sacrifice of other victims.'
First
then, this is a '
necessary
evil.' Falsehood is sufficiently patent upon the face of this foolish and monstrous assertion. Could the Creator have pronounced his work 'very good' with such an inseparable appendage to social life? Again, how comes it that a '
necessary
evil' only exhibits itself in
certain localities
,
and under particular circumstances, disappearing altogether in uncivilized countries, and gathering strength and virulence in the most refined states of society? Will any modern philosopher favour us with a solution of this difficulty?
But 'the demand will always create the supply.' Inexorable logic apparently, and incontrovertible if the supply were limited to the demand. This, however, we deny. Thousands are driven to prostitution as the only alternative from starvation.
Necessity
, and not the demand, here creates the supply, and it is well known that the supply
suggests
the demand. Is, then, the balance of vice so exact and undeviating, that the gap occasioned by the removal of
one
victim must be speedily filled by another? Is the equilibrium of profligacy so nicely adjusted, that it would be dangerous to assert the prerogative of virtue; and shall we desire its unhappy votaries to continue in sin that virtue may abound? Shall we drive back anxious souls, striving to 'flee from the wrath to come,' with the coldblooded assurance that, 'for the good of society, they had better remain where they are?' Will it satisfy an immortal spirit, to be told that she helps to maintain the proper equilibrium of vice; or that, by standing in the gap, she is a benefactor to the innocent of her own sex, who would otherwise be sacrificed? Shall we assign as our reason for not preaching the Gospel to 'every creature,' that the state of society would be unhinged by curtailing a necessary evil, or that greater injuries would result from any attempt to rescue perishing souls? Shall we mock Him who has said 'All souls are mine,' by elevating a doctrine of human expediency above the authority of a distinct command? Let us be sure that, in a case so intimately affecting the honour and glory of God, to 'obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.' In vain may we plead political necessity as a plausible pretext for disobedience.
"We are not afraid, however, to meet this argument on philosophical grounds; and we affirm, confidently, that the rescue of every fallen woman is a social boon. Admitting the
possibility
that, eventually, her place will be supplied by another— for we can approach no nearer to the truth—is it not better to remove a
present
evil than to provide for a
remote
contingency? Supposing that in the long vista of future years, the immolation of a fresh victim is the price of every individual rescue, do we overlook the fact, that
in the mean time
a powerful temptation is removed, and that not merely
units
, but probably
hundreds
, of the young of the opposite sex are delivered from the toils of the strange woman? Is nothing achieved by the temporary removal of
one
tempter from the streets, and is society a loser in the end, by the reformation of
one
whose sole occupation is to waylay and ruin the youth of the opposite sex? Let our moral economists escape from this dilemma if they can; the philanthropist and the Christian need no further arguments to convince them that they have not only the law of God, but the inexorable logic of common sense on their side.
Who can tell the pestiferous influence exercised on society by
one
single fallen woman? Who can calculate the evils of such a system? Woman, waylaid, tempted, deceived, becomes in turn the terrible avenger of her sex. Armed with a power which is all but irresistible, and stript of that which can alone restrain and purify her influence, she steps upon the arena of life qualified to act her part in the reorganization of society. The
lex talionis
—the law of retaliation—is hers. Society has made her what she is, and must be now governed by her potent influence. The weight of this influence is untold: view it in the dissolution of domestic ties, in the sacrifice of family peace, in the cold desolation of promising homes; but, above all, in the growth of practical Atheism, and in the downward tendency of all that is pure and holy in life!
One
and another who has been educated in an atmosphere redolent of virtue and principle, and has given promise of high and noble qualities, falls a victim to the prevalence of meretricious allurements, and carries back to his hitherto untainted home the noxious influence he
has imbibed. Another and another, within the range of that influence, is made to suffer for his sacrifice of moral rectitude, and they, in their turn, become the agents, and the originators of fresh evils. Who, in contemplating this pedigree of profligacy resulting from a solitary temptation, will venture to affirm that the temporary withdrawal of a single prostitute is not a social blessing? Surely for such
immediate results
we are justified in dispensing with considerations of
future expediency;
and, acting upon the
first
principles of Christian ethics, may help to reform the vicious and profligate, leaving it in the hands of a merciful God to avert the contingency of ruin overtaking the as yet unfallen woman."
Magdalen's Friend," vol. ii. p.
131
.
In reference to all such Christian efforts to reclaim the fallen, it has been truly said that "You may ransack the world for objects of compassion. You may scour the earth in search of suffering humanity, on which to exercise your philanthropy; you may roam the countless hospitals and asylums of this vast city; you may penetrate the dens and caves of all other profligacy; you may lavish your bounty upon a transatlantic famine, or dive into Neapolitan dungeons, or scatter the Bible broadcast throughout the great moral wildernesses of heathendom: but in all the million claims upon your faith, upon your feeling as a man, upon your benevolence as a Christian, you will never fulfil a mission dearer to Christ, you will never promote a charity more congenial to the spirit of this gospel; you will never more surely wake up joy in heaven, and force tears into the eyes of sympathising angels, than when you can bring a Magdalene face to face with her Redeemer, and thrill her poor heart, even to breaking, with the plaintive music of that divine voice, calling her by name—MARY."
