HQ
186
W27
1843

:
ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
VERITAS
SCIENTIA
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PLURIBUS UNIST
TUEBOR
SI-QUÆRIS-PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
THE GIFT OF
Dr. C. C. Warden
}
¡
t
:
HQ
186
LEM'
1243
NOTICES OF THE FIRST EDITION.
"We can employ no language sufficiently strong to ex-
press our admiration of the manner in which the author
has executed his delicate task. We commend the volume
as the most masterly production on this very melancholy
theme, in our own or in any language; and we sincerely
trust that its contents will be seriously and prayerfully
pondered by millions of the people. Every young man
living, or intending to live, in our cities or large towns,
should be supplied with a copy. Parents will incur a fear-
ful responsibility if they do not act on this suggestion."-
Christian Examiner.
"It may be unnecessary to observe, that in Dr. Ward-
LAW's Lectures there is nothing offensive to delicacy, be-
yond what is inherent in the subject.-Able, no doubt,
these Lectures are."-Spectator.
"Good reason have they to be satisfied with their learned
and eloquent advocate, whose lectures, now issued from
the press, at the earnest request, not only of the requisition-
ists, but of the large audiences before whom these were
delivered, will, we trust, rouse the same spirit of active
philanthropy among the Christian inhabitants of every
populous town and city of the British empire; for every-
where this foul crime is spreading as a pestilence, and cor-
roding the very heart of society. We can assure our read-
ers, that these Lectures, if read attentively and in the
spirit which their perusal is calculated to awaken, will
make them practical reformers, and that they will hence-
forth regard the monster iniquity as an enemy to be vigo-
rously grappled with, till it is driven from the haunts of
virtuous men, and compelled to skulk in the darkest reces-
ses, where the reprobate and the lost seek a hiding-place
and a refuge.”—Atlas.
"We have seldom, if ever, read a more valuable publi-
cation, in a moral point of view. It is a book which, to
be appreciated, must be read; and which ought to be
ii
NOTICES.
'read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested.' The Au-
thor's refutation of the alleged impurity of the Scriptures
is admirable; and his graphic sketch of the nature, extent,
and variety of the evil, is equally masterly. All this, as
we have already said, is done ably and masterly, in lan-
guage remarkably ornate and strikingly eloquent, and
without an expression that might offend the most sensitive-
ly delicate. We earnestly recommend this volume to all
interested in the elevation of degraded humanity, and de-
sirous of seeing this vice, the spawn of base cupidity, miti-
gated and suppressed. Let the young man, especially, read
it, and learn wisdom from its pages; let the philanthropist
read it and bestır himself; and let every reader remember,
when he says with the old Roman 'I am a man,' to sub-
join and act upon his practical conclusion, 'whatever con-
cerns man concerns me." "-Scotch Reformer's Gazette.
"We must now take leave of our author, thanking him
for the good service he has done his country, and the
cause of truth and Christian morality, and earnestly rec-
ommend this last, but not least, effort of his pen, to every
friend of virtue and of the female character."-Liverpool
Mercury.
"No higher honor was ever done Dr. W. than when he
was requested by the citizens of Glasgow to prepare, preach,
and publish these lectures. They ought to be extensively
read, especially by young men living in our cities and large
towns." Revivalist.
"We can not give utterance to the feelings with which
we have finished the perusal of this important volume. Its
disclosures have been to us so unexpected and appalling,
that we have almost wished we had remained in our former
happy state of ignorance. Never did we for a moment sus-
pect the existence, to so fearful an extent, of an evil in itself
so unutterably debasing, and in its consequences so exten-
sively and wofully ruinous, as that which is here brought
to view. A mystery of iniquity is in these Lectures un-
folded, from which every truly Christian and enlightened
mind will shrink with inexpressible loathing; but unfolded
in a manner which can not fail to awaken to vigorous ex-
NOTICES.
iii
ertion. Like every other evil, however, in order to be
remedied it must be known, and to make it known in all its
repulsiveness, with a due regard at once to fidelity and
good taste, required a combination of excellencies, moral
and intellectual, which rarely fall to be the portion of one
individual. Having searched the various sources of infor-
mation, and having selected the best authenticated facts,
the result is a performance distinguished by plainness and
fidelity, exhibiting a sufficiency of detail without exciting
unnecessary disgust, and a moral fortitude which calls
things by their proper names without the slightest tendency
to foster impure imaginings."-Scottish Congregational
Magazine.
"We entreat all our readers who have any means of
bringing their influence to bear on this evil, to read care-
fully Dr. WARDLAW's lectures. The subject is treated
with as much delicacy as is consistent with faithfulness,
and as much faithfulness as is consistent with delicacy.
We are sure our readers would rise from the perusal of the
volume, with a solemn conviction that this is a question that
more powerfully affects the well-being of the nation, than
nine tenths of the questions that agitate the political
world."-Scottish Guardian.
"The lecturer has taken great pains to make himself
master of the subject in all its parts and bearings, and he
has treated it throughout with sound judgment and ex-
quisite delicacy. There is much in the scheme which de-
mands the attention of the heads of families, and nothing
that it is necessary to withhold from the perusal of young
persons who are approximating toward maturity."—Bap-
tist Magazine.
"We are deliberately of opinion, that the volume before
us far surpasses, in comprehensiveness and power, any
work that has ever seen the light, on the agitating and-
much-neglected topic to which it refers. One of the most
brilliant efforts of a mind whose powers have been devoted
for forty years to the benefit of mankind. The most sur-
prising and eloquent work in our language on the subject
of magdalenism. Could we prevail on every good man and
iv
NOTICES.
woman in this country, to read Dr. W.'s second lecture
On the Effects of Magdalenism,' we are persuaded we
should do more to prepare the way for a vast meliora-
tion of this formidable mischief, than has hitherto been
effected by all the acts of parliament, and all the laws
of police, which have been brought to bear upon this
sin which maketh desolate. We say, earnestly, to all
who fear God, and who admit that sin is the cause of all
national judgments-read this lecture-read it carefully-
and then say if it be not your duty to attempt something to
stay the horrible plague which obtains in the midst of
us."-Evangelical Magazine.
"He has accomplished his difficult task with equal judg-
ment and tact, without veiling the deep horrors of the
widely ramified evils he laments, or falling into an error-
not always avoided by those treating this subject—of min-
istering to a prurient curiosity, by too great minuteness of
detail. Dr. W.'s statistical statements are founded on in-
formation as accurate as is likely to be obtained on so dark
and complicated a subject. These lectures are for the
silent, thoughtful, and conscientious reflections of women
as well as of men-but we stop here, earnestly recommend-
ing the lectures to the public attention, but especially to that
of Christian women-to matrons—and single women of ma-
ture age."-Tait's Magazine.
LECTURES
ON
MAGDALENISM:
ITS NATURE.
EXTENT, EFFECTS, GUILT, CAUSES, AND REMEDY.
BY REV. RALPH WARDLAW, D. D.
DELIVERED AND PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL REQUEST OF FORTY
MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL, AND ELEVEN HUN-
DRED FELLOW-CHRISTIANS.
FIRST AMERICAN, FROM SECOND GLASGOW EDITION.
NEW YORK:
J. S. REDFIELD, CLINTON HALL.
BOSTON
SAXTON, PIERCE, & CO.
1843.
*
}
}
INTRODUCTION.
So great has been the progress of magdalenism
during the last few years, and so numerous and
fearful the crimes to which it has partially or
wholly given rise, that the cause of morality and
religion, which has been so much advanced by the
issue of the following lectures in the Old World,
seemed to demand their republication here; and in
presenting the American edition, the propriety of
modifying the title and of rendering some of the
terms in the book less objectionable, was suggested
by several influential ladies and gentlemen.
Dr. Wardlaw's lectures were hailed with joy by
his Christian brethren abroad, as a book much
needed, and one calculated, by the learning, piety,
and eloquence of its accomplished author, to be
read with profit by that class to whom it is more
peculiarly adapted; and many who are deeply in-
terested in the moral and spiritual welfare of the
abandoned, have taken the utmost pains to have it
circulated and read by them: and with the cheer-
ing consolation, the deep and heartfelt satisfaction,
4
INTRODUCTION.
of knowing that many have thus been reclaimed
from the paths of error and ruin. It differs mate-
rially from the work of Parent-Duchatelet on
Prostitution in Paris, the most curious and phi-
losophical work on the subject ever issued, and
which should be read by every one who wishes
to understand the subject thoroughly.
The Rev. Dr. Wardlaw has treated of the repul-
sive subject of magdalenism with great eloquence,
and in such chaste language as to offend no one ;
and although the details are by no means agree-
able, yet the whole Christian community should
be exceeding glad that one who occupies so high
a position in the Christian church, and whose life
is so pure and spotless, has been willing, in imi-
tation of the example set him by his blessed
Master, to minister to those whose lives are spent
in wickedness, and to spare no efforts to turn the
magdalen from her paths of vicious indulgence,
and to rescue her as a brand from the burning.
We hope and trust sincerely that the efforts of
our Christian friends in behalf of this neglected
and depraved class of sinning, but immortal souls,
may be crowned with success, and that the publi-
cation of this little work may be the humble but
chosen instrument of opening the eyes of many
to the error of their ways; may incline their steps
to the paths of rectitude and virtue, and teach
INTRODUCTION.
5
ها
their hearts to look from things temporal unto
everlasting life and if but one, who has hitherto
been a wanderer from the fold of her Heavenly
Father, shall turn from her evil ways, and, after
living in the enjoyment of virtue, and religion,
and that peace of mind which the world can not
take away, shall die with the hope of a glorious
resurrection unto eternal life,-the aim of those
who have watched over this publication with
anxious solicitude, will be fully answered.
1*
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE REQUISITION, or MEMORIAL, referred to in
the title-page, runs in the following terms:-
"To the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D. D., by Members
of various religious denominations in Glasgow:
"REVEREND SIR: We, your memorialists, beg
to represent, that we view with unfeigned alarm
and regret the vast amount and constant increase
of magdalenism within the precincts of our own
city, with all its deplorable and widely-ramified
evils, affecting the most valuable interests of the
community, both for time and for eternity.
"Your memorialists are also impressed with a
conviction that the means employed for the sup-
pression of female profligacy are wholly inade-
quate thereto, by reason of their fewness and
limitation. Further, your memorialists feel as-
sured that the public mind requires to be more
awakened to a just sense of that wickedness which
is so great a stain both on our common' Chris-
tianity and our boasted civilization.
3
8
ADVERTISEMENT.
"On these grounds, reverend sir, your memo-
rialists are induced to make an earnest request
that you would deliver a lecture, or lectures, on a
subject so truly important: anticipating, from your
honored labors heretofore, the most beneficial and
gratifying results; which, accompanied by the
divine blessing, would, we believe, contribute to
bring the public mind into a right position respect-
ing the great evil your memorialists deprecate-
and which might ultimately unite all truly patriotic
and Christian men, and lead to active and strenu-
ous co-operation for the prevention and cure of
the prevailing immorality, and so advance the
cause of Christ's kingdom."
To this memorial there was subjoined a recom-
mendation of its object, to which were affixed the
signatures of thirty-eight ministers of the gospel;
and I should feel that I failed in justice to the
cause which I was thus invited to plead, were I to
withhold from that cause the weight of influence
which those signatures, individually and collect-
ively, carry with them. The list will, at the same
time, show how thoroughly free of the slightest
tinge of sectarian predilection the whole move-
ment has been. As the specific designations of
church, and chapel, and locality, are appended in
only a few instances, it will be sufficient to give
the names; and I shall insert them as they stand
ADVERTISEMENT.
9
in the document, according to the order in which
they appear to have been obtained :—
"We, the undersigned, have much pleasure in
expressing our entire satisfaction with the above
memorial. The subject is, confessedly, of great
importance and should Dr. Wardlaw accede to
the request of the memorialists, we can not doubt
of public attention being concentrated upon the
evil in question, and trust that it may be subse-
quently followed by ulterior and more specific
measures, of high value to the best interests of
the community.
THOMAS BROWN, D. D.
JOHN GRAHAM,
THOMAS PULLAR
WILLIAM KIDSTON, D. D.
JOHN MACFARLANE, LL. D.
NORMAN M'LEOD, D. D.
GAVIN STRUTHERS,
JOHN MITCHELL, D D.
NATHANIEL PATERSON, D. D.
WILLIAM SYMINGTON, D. D.
PETER CURRIE,
WILLIAM BRASH,
JAMES GIBSON,
JONATHAN R. ANDERSON,
ALEXANDER S. PATTERSON,
J. S. TAYLOR,
ALEXANDER TURNER,
PETER NAPIER,
ROBERT BRODIE,
JOHN FORBES, D. D., LL. D.
LEWIS ROSE,
DUNCAN MACFARLAN, D. D.
ALEX. O. BEATTIE, M.D.
WILLIAM LINDSAY,
JOHN EDWARDS,
GEORGE JEFFREY,
MICHAEL WILLIS, D.D.
WILLIAM ARNott,
JOHN ROBSON,
ALEX. W. SOMERVILLE,
ARCHIBALD NISBET
STEWART BATES, D.D.
MATHEW MUrray,
JOHN EADIE,
JOHN SMYTH, D. D.
HAMILTON M. MACGILL,
ALEXANDER HILL, D. D.
JOHN M. MACKENZIE, A. M."
Then there follow the signatures, commencing
10
ADVERTISEMENT.
with the committee by whom the memorial was
projected and framed, of about eleven hundred fel-
low-citizens, of all religious persuasions.
Such a memorial, thus recommended, and thus
signed, was at once commanding, encouraging, and
intimidating commanding, for, though couched in
terms of request, it carried an authority which
there was no resisting; encouraging, for, under the
shelter of such a host of approving names, I could
satisfactorily ward off the charge of presumption;
yet intimidating-the very weight and number of
the names engendering a sensitive dread of failure
in the execution of so onerous and responsible a
duty. The result, however, is now laid before the
public: the request for the publication of the lec-
tures having followed that for their delivery, and
the committee of memorialists having been sup-
ported in that request by the concurrent voice of a
large assembly of hearers.
The lectures, at first three in number, were de-
livered in Glasgow, on the evenings of the 30th
and 31st days of May, and 1st of June, to an ex-
clusively male auditory, to which the admission
was by tickets: the Hon. Sir James Campbell,
Lord Provost, William Gilmour, Esq., and James
Thomson, Esq., one of the Bailies of Gorbals,
occupying the chair on the successive evenings.
And in compliance with a request made to the
lecturer by the committee of the "Edinburgh So-
ADVERTISEMENT.
11
ciety for the Protection of Young Females," they
were re-delivered, under the same regulations, in
Edinburgh, on the evenings of the 5th and three
subsequent days of July (the first lecture having
been divided into two), on all which occasions the
chair was filled by Richard Huie, Esq., M. D.,
President of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ed-
inburgh. In both places, the meetings were
opened with prayer by ministers of different reli-
gious denominations.
Between the time of their delivery in Glasgow,
and their re-delivery in Edinburgh, the lectures
were carefully revised, and in each of them vari-
ous portions, larger and smaller, of additional
matter, were introduced.
BARLANERK, August 10, 1842
R. W.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION.
No production of the author's pen was ever
given to the world with a more oppressive solici-
tude as to the propriety of its publication, and the
reception it might meet with, than were the fol-
lowing lectures. The nature of the subject, and
the difficulty of treating it in such a manner as to
combine due fidelity and plainness with the avoid-
ance of whatever might be offensive to delicacy,
and might thus impede rather than promote the
end in view, and render prejudicial what was
meant for good—will suffice, with every mind of
sense and sensibility, to account for this peculiar
apprehensiveness. In proportion to the degree
of this oppressive feeling, has been the gratifica-
tion imparted by the amount of approbation which
has been conveyed to him, both by the periodical
press, and by letters of private and highly es-
teemed correspondents. The testimony borne on
the point of his chief anxiety-the degree of suc-
cess with which the combination alluded to had
been effected-has been peculiarly satisfactory.
ADVERTISEMENT.
13
There are not a few (and I know not how to
blame them, for the feeling springs from principles
in themselves so commendable) who are averse to
having the subject so much as mooted among those
whose purity and virtue are the objects of their
concern. The very title of such a book they
would, if it were in their power, keep from meet-
ing the eye of any member of their domestic circle.
Such attempts at entire concealment, however, can,
in few instances, in a world and a city like ours,
prove successful; and in some cases, there is
reason to fear, where there is most the appearance
of success, the failure is really the greatest: the
very eagerness to conceal on the one side, giving
rise to the greater reserve and secrecy on the
other. I say this for the purpose, not of repres-
sing prudent vigilance, but of modifying that over-
strained and morbid apprehensiveness, which, in-
stead of accomplishing the desired ignorance, may
hinder the restraints of a salutary knowledge.
By a culpable inadvertency, the author, in the
preface to the first edition, omitted to insert the
names of the committee by whom the requisition
was projected, and the signatures to it obtained;
and to whom, therefore, the public are indebted
for having had their attention called to the subject,
for whatever interest may be awakened, and for
whatever results may follow. I now, with much
2
૭
14
ADVERTISEMENT.
pleasure, do this rather tardy justice to our towns-
men-Messrs. Alex. Smith, Daniel Lindsay, A.
M'Coll, Jr., John Hay, and John Ross.
The lecturer has been assailed by remonstrances
from the socialists, as having, by the representa-
tion given of their principles on the subject of
sexual intercourse, done them and their founder
injustice. His answer to these remonstrances
was, in substance, a promise to reconsider this
point, and, if he should see occasion to retract
or to modify any of his statements, to do so in a
second edition. The result will be found in the
additional note, at page 28.
To say more is needless. It would be only to
repeat what is already said in the beginning and
close of the lectures themselves. I commend the
little work to the blessing of God: and to the
same blessing whatever efforts may follow for the
accomplishment of the benevolent object to which
it solicits the public attention, and is designed to
conciliate the public favor.
!BARLANERK, January 10, 1843.
R. W.
CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF MAGDALENISM………….. 7
LECTURE II.
ON THE EFFECTS OF MAGDALENISM....
51
LECTURE III.
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES OF MAGDALENISM ..
LECTURE IV.
81
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION, MITIGATION, AND
REMOVAL...
129
1
>
MAGDALENISM:
ITS NATURE,
EXTENT, EFFECTS, GUILT, CAUSES, AND REMEDY.
LECTURE I.
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF MAGDALENISM.
MY LORD PROVOST, FELLOW-CITIZENS, AND
FELLOW-CHRISTIANS: The subject, on which I
am about to address you, is one of the very last,
as you may well suppose, which if left to freedom
of my own will, I should have chosen for public
discussion. But to this freedom I have not been
left. A requisition, signed by about forty minis-
ters of the gospel, and eleven hundred fellow-
christians and fellow-citizens, left me no power
of choice. Inclination said-decline:-but con-
science put in her plea, and refused submission.
My wishes were in the one direction; but duty
was clearly in the other. In spite of the revolt-
ing character of the subject, I could not but be
sensible that it was one of no ordinary importance,
as involving, to a vast extent, at once the present
and eternal interests of individuals, and the mor-
als, and consequent well-being of the community.
2*
18
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
I shrunk from the task imposed upon me:-but I
shrunk, still more sensitively, from the possible
reflection, which might have loaded my spirit af-
terward, of having "left undone" what, how feeble
soever its execution, might have contributed, by
giving the first impulse to a series of future move-
ments, to the accomplishment of those most desir-
able results, by the hope of which the respected
requisitionists were influenced in presenting their
request. If there was presumption in undertaking
such a duty, the presumption, I felt, would be still
more reprehensible in resisting such an applica-
tion. Yet the repulsiveness of the subject, giving
force to every plea for setting it in the meanwhile
aside, may with truth be added to the existence of
various engagements, constant and unavoidable,
during the winter months, in accounting for a de-
lay, which certainly demands an apology. In
these circumstances, then, I appear before you;
and cast myself, confidently, upon your candor
and indulgence.
The subject is one of great delicacy and difficulty.
The latter arises, in part, from the former. It is im-
possible to speak of it at all, and especially to enter
into it with any minuteness of detail, without using
phraseology, and bringing forward statements, from
which the ear and the feelings of virtuous purity
recoil. And the very hearing of these, it may be
alleged, is in danger of conveying a taint, especial-
ly to the youthful mind, and of introducing asso-
ciations there, which might not otherwise find ad-
mission, and from which it were better kept free.
But there is another view of the case. As the
difficulty is almost insurmountable of keeping these
subjects from the minds of youth, the question
OF MAGDALENISM.
19
comes to be one of surpassing consequence, whe-
ther they are to be brought before them by the
friends of vice, or by the friends of virtue-whe-
ther invested with all their tempting fascinations,
or stripped of their allurements, and in their true
character of moral loathsomeness, and wretched
and damning tendencies.
In such discussions, generally speaking, it will
be found, that terms which are plain, but not coarse,
are at once the least offensive and the least prejudi-
cial. In the sacred scriptures, on all subjects of this
kind, there is what may be called a divine freedom.
I am aware that of some passages the enemies of
revelation have laid hold; have sneered at them;
have chuckled over them; have made obscene
uses of them; and, with sarcastic bitterness, have
founded upon them heavy imputations of immoral
tendency. As, in these lectures, the authority of
scripture must of course be assumed and appealed
to, it may be well, in the outset, to wipe away this
false aspersion, and take off the impression which,
in any mind, might interfere with the efficiency of
such appeal.
First of all, then, we fearlessly ask, who are the
persons, what their character, by whom this charge
has been brought ? Have they themselves been
the exemplarily pure, and virtuous, and godly?——
evidently and deeply concerned for the interests of
religion and of moral principle ?-shrinking, with
a delicate sensitiveness, from all that is opposite
to virtue and to piety?—trembling to touch the un-
clean thing themselves, and solicitous to preserve
others from the taint ? Has the reason why they
do not come to the Bible, why they refuse to study,
or even to read or have anything to do with it-
ཛཱནཾ
20
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
been really a conscientious apprehension of hav-
ing their principles contaminated, their refined
moral sensibilities impaired, the warmth of their
devotion cooled? The answers to such questions
I leave to the conscience of every one of my
hearers, who has ever heard the imputation of
lascivious and immoral tendency thrown upon
that book which we believe to be the Book of God.
Further; in objecting, whether gravely or jeering-
ly, to particular portions of the book, have these
persons shown any disposition to make the allow-
ance, which every well-informed and candid mind
ought to make, and will make, for the diversity of
customs and manners, of modes of speech, and
peculiarities of association, and other similar cir-
cumstances, in different countries, and periods, and
states of society? Or, without insisting on these,
let me rather ask, in what state of mind, and on
what occasions, are such objections usually offer-
ed? Is it in the spirit of seriousness or of light-
ness? of sober earnest or of jest? of piety or of
profaneness of temperance or of social excite-
ment? of ribaldry or of purity? And let it be
further considered, of what a different complexion
and tendency are the passages commonly referred
to, from the sly inuendoes, the studied refinements,
the luscious and enticing pollutions, of voluptuous
writings; where the excitement of the passions is
felt to be the writer's end in all that he discloses,
and where the very drapery of concealment is so
adjusted, as only the more effectually to stimulate
the imagination! Is not the conscience of every
one who opens the Bible sensible at once of a pur-
pose and a tendency at antipodes to this ?-of an
intention and aim, in all the passages in question,
OF MAGDALENISM.
21
the very reverse of everything of the kind by
which these others are characterized? Instead
of alluring to sin, by cherishing any light feeling
of its sinfulness, or any favorable impression tow-
ard it, is not the invariable design to set forth, in
lively colors, and in lines of deep condemnation,
its fearful malignity, turpitude, and guilt, the divine
detestation of it, and the peril of every one who
indulges in it? Is there, in any one instance, the
slightest perceptible symptom of its being the aim
of the writer to excite evil passions, or impure
conceptions and desires? Is there not, on the
contrary, on all occasions, an infinite distance from
everything of the kind, and an obvious, affection-
ate, and pervading solicitude to attach shame
and reprobation to all that is sinful, and to promote
in every heart the sentiments and feelings of spirit-
ual purity and heavenly-mindedness? I ask fur-
ther-if it were otherwise-if the Bible were
really a book of impure conceptions and immoral
tendency—in whose hands should we naturally ex-
pect to find it?
Should it not be in the hands of
those who love to have their passions stimulated,
their impure desires inflamed, their propensities to
evil encouraged? Might we not, as a matter of
course, look for it on the table of the man of pleas-
ure;-fingered and worn down at favorite pas-
sages, as such books ever are, by the sensual, the
frivolous, and the profane? If it really counte-
nanced sin, would it not be a favorite with the sin-
ner? If it were a friend rather than a foe to li-
centiousness, would it not be liked by the licen-
tious? If it supplied kindling and fuel to lust,
might we not expect it to be the secret companion,
the vade-mecum and bosom-friend, of the man
22
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
"whose mind and conscience are defiled," whose
66
eyes are full of adultery, and insatiate of sin ?”
—should we even be greatly surprised to find it in
the parlors and chambers of the brothel -Is it,
then, so? Is the Bible the favorite book, with
such characters, or in such places? I need not
answer the question. Whoever took up the Bi-
ble for such excitement, for such encouragement?
Who ever thought of coming to that hallowed fire,
to kindle their impure desires? Is not the Bible
the book from which such characters shrink -
which they can not bear to look into, or so much as
to hear named 2-which they are sensible, opposes,
and thwarts, and condemns them-and which they
are well pleased to keep out of sight and out of
mind? Such men may say what they will; but
in reviling the Bible, they bear witness against
themselves they give evidence how they dis-
like its very purity, spirituality, and strictness, and
how fain they are to discover, or to devise, any-
thing capable of being construed into a plausible
apology for disregarding it.
-Once more; I
:
make my appeal to facts. Many are the profli-
gates, who, by means of the Bible, have been re-
claimed from the " paths of folly, sin, and shame :”
-heard you ever of any who by the Bible were
led into those paths? It has often been known to
change enmity against God into love was it
ever known to change love into enmity? It has
humbled many a proud spirit: did it ever make
an humble spirit proud ?-It has softened many a
hard heart did it ever harden a soft one ?-It
has turned the stone to flesh: did it ever turn the
flesh to stone?-It has sweetened many a bitter
spring, and purified many a polluted one: did it
OF MAGDALENISM.
23
ever embitter the sweet, or pollute the pure ?-
Many have died in desperate anguish, lamenting
the ill-fated hour when first they listened to a skep-
tical companion, or opened an infidel book, and
closed and laid aside the Bible: heard you ever of
any, whose last hours were embittered by the re-
flection, of their having listened to the instructions,
followed the counsels, and obeyed the precepts, of
the Bible?—No, never. That book, the faith of
which has changed and purified the heart, has
made it the residence of holy principles, and holy
affections, and holy joys, and has thus fitted it for
the present and everlasting enjoyment of the God
of purity and love, that book has ever proved the
rock of the soul's confidence in the dying hour;
so that when, in any case, there has been fear, it
has arisen, not from any apprehension of the in-
sufficiency of what it reveals, but from the self-
diffident suspicion of the dying saint, that he had
not truly believed it and experienced sufficiently
its renovating power '
Nothing can be easier, than bandying bible
phrases, in the impure sportiveness of wanton
Îibertinism ;—but it is only because light associa-
tions with that book are felt to take off from the
awfulness of its damnatory denunciations. It is
easy to take portions of it out of their connexion,
and so to turn them to purposes the very opposite
of those they were meant to serve. But what
should we think of the man-what of the charac-
ter of his heart-what of the fairness of his in-
sinuated inference-who should take up Solomon's
graphic description of the adulterous harlot, whom
he saw from his casement addressing her entice-
ments to the simple unguarded youth, and should
24
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
gloat over it, in the prurience of his polluted ima-
gination; while he paid no regard to the solemn
and thrilling close-a close which reads to all, and
reads to youth especially, the monitory moral of
the whole : "He goeth after her straightway, as
an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the
correction of the stocks; till a dart strike through
his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and
knoweth not that it is for his life. Hearken unto
me now, therefore, O ye youth, and attend to the
words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline
to her ways; go not astray in her paths. For she
hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong
men have been slain by her. Her house is the
way to hell, going down to the chambers of
death." Prov. vii. 22-27.
But besides the difficulty that arises from the
delicacy of the subject, there is one of another
kind. The vice is, to a great extent, a secret one.
It is to a certain degree only, that it is open and
known. Though in a sad multitude of cases un-
blushing and unconcealed, inviting notice, courting
publicity, yet in an equal, if not a still greater
number of instances, it is practised more covertly.
The amount of the unknown, it is true, may exist
chiefly among those who, happily for themselves,
belong not to the number of the initiated in the
mysteries of impurity; and who therefore see and
hear comparatively little of it: and they who know
better may smile at their ignorance and simplicity.
But still it is a matter of no small difficulty to ar-
rive at anything like satisfactorily accurate statis-
tics. In one department there is a hazard of over,
and in another of under statement. In some cases,
the statistical calculations are not only different,
OF MAGDALENISM.
25
but so very widely different as to render it far from
easy to account for the disparity, and, to one who
has no means of forming a judgment for himself,
but is under the necessity of trusting to the esti-
mates of others, hardly to leave any alternative
but that of striking a medium between the ex-
tremes; although, in some instances, there may
be reason for leaning to the more favorable repre-
sentation-in others, to the more unfavorable.
In endeavoring to bring the whole subject before
you, as far as ability and propriety admit, I purpose
to pursue the following order :-
I. The nature, varieties, and extent of the evil.
II. The effects arising from it.
III. The evidence and degree of its guilt, or
moral turpitude.
IV. The causes which contribute to its prevalence.
V. The means of prevention, mitigation, and re-
moval.
I. I invite your attention, in the first place, to
the NATURE, VARIETIES, and EXTENT of the evil.
On the nature of it, it is surely very unneces-
sary to dwell. The evil is what is usually desig-
nated—the illicit intercourse of the sexes. But I
have no sooner uttered the designation, than I am
reminded by it of a class of persons that has re-
cently risen up among us, and whose members
have given themselves " a local habitation and a
name," whose system of principles disowns the
word illicit altogether. In regard to the inter-
course of the sexes, they deny the legitimate au-
thority of any restriction, admit no rule but that of
natural impulse, and would reduce us to the so-
cialism of the brutes. They would have us to re-
gard all intercourse as equally lawful, according to
3
26
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
"C
what they falsely affirm (falsely as we may here-
after see) to be Nature's law. Among the strange
characteristics of the strange times in which we
live, it is surely not the least extraordináry, that
in the middle of the nineteenth century, in an age
and country distinguished by the advance of knowl-
edge and improvement, the discovery should have
been made and broached, as the foundation of a
new moral world," that religion, property, and
marriage, are the real originators of all existing
evils-the Pandora's box, from which have issued
all the various and countless "ills that flesh is
heir to;" and that no God, no property, and no mar-
riage, are the true panacea for the world's vices
and the world's woes! I am not, of course, about
to enter into an examination of the general merits
or demerits of socialism. I have to do at present
with one only of the provisions of the misnamed
system; namely, the abrogation of the connubial
bond, and the substitution for it of the indiscrimi-
nate inter-communion of the sexes, according to
all the irregularities of temporary libidinous incli-
nation.* And I frankly confess that my own
* Even of the language of Mr. Owen's own book,-" The
Book of the New Moral World," there is no misunderstanding
the meaning, although the anti-marriage principles have been
much more openly and unblushingly avowed since. Thus for
example, when, in illustrating one of his laws of nature-the
law namely, that " each individual is so organized, as to like
that which is pleasant to him, or which, in other words, pro-
duces agreeable sensations in him," and of course, to "dislike"
the contrary, he speaks of the ease with which this earth
might be converted into a paradise instead of a pandemonium,
"by acting in obedience to the simple and unerring instincts
of our organization; an organization, formed purposely to di-
rect man, in the same manner as the general instincts of nature,
to those movements, exertions, and feelings, which are neces-
sary to his sustenance, health, and enjoyment;"-and then
OF MAGDALENISM.
27
loathing of the beastly system is so intense that I
am unable to speak of it with patience, or to ap-
ply to it any of the terms of a smooth-tongued cour-
adds: "This law of nature is evidently intended to induce,
impel, or compel, one portion of organized matter to seek
some other portion of matter necessary to its best state of ex-
istence; and this law seems to pervade all nature, except when
man, by his absurd artificial laws, opposed to nature's laws,
interfeles, and says to the Power which animates and organ-
izes the universe, I am more wise and holy than thou, and I
will therefore oppose thy laws with all my might, and endea-
vor to frustrate thy weak and foolish decrees. I will force into
union, according to my notions, bodies and minds, contrary to
thy laws, and compel the continuance of the union, however
thy laws may repel or loathe the connexion
•
"Thus has the ignorance of man, with regard to his own
nature, and universal nature, interfered in opposition to his own
happiness, and to the happiness of all surrounding nature, as
far as his limited powers extend.
He has decreed, that
men and women, whose natural sympathies and affections
unite them at one time and repel each other at another, shall
speak and act in opposition to these unavoidable feelings; and
thus has he produced hypocrisy, crime, and misery, beyond the
powers of language to express."-Owen's Book of the New
Moral World, &c-pp 54, 57. And again: "It is in reality,
therefore, the greatest crime against nature, to prevent organ
ized beings from uniting with those objects or other organized.
beings, with which nature has created in them a desire to unite.
Nature, when allowed to take its course, through the whole
life of organized beings, produces the desire to combine or
unite with those objects with which it is the best for them to
unite, and to remain united with them as long as it is the most
beneficial for their well-being and happiness that they should
continue together; and Nature is the only correct judge in de-
termining her own laws. It is man alone who has disobeyed
this law it is man alone who has thus brought sin and misery
into the world, and engendered the disunion and hatred which
now lender the lives of so many human beings wretched. It
is to secure the performance of this law, that Nature rewards,
with so much satisfaction and pleasure, the union of those or-
ganized beings, who often, in despite of man's absurd artificial
arrangements to the contrary, contain, between them, the pure
elements of union, by being the most perfectly formed to unite
together, physically, intellectually, and morally. Man, then,
to be perfectly virtuous and happy, from birth to death, must
implicitly obey this law of his and of universal nature."-Ibad
28
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
tesy. I should conceive myself to be equally in-
sulting the understandings, and outraging the feel-
ings of any audience but one composed of the in-
pp. 57,58. It is needless to enter into explanation; far less into
any exposure of the gross inconsistency of the system, which
talks of virtue and morality, and the power which animates
and organizes the universe, while it denies all moral responsi
bility and moral government, and the existence of any intell-
gent Creator and Ruler "The erior respecting this" (ano-
ther) "law of human nature, has led man to create a personal
Deity, author of all good, and a personal devil, author of all
evil; to invent all the various forms of worship of the former
and, in many instances, of the latter also; and the modes of
propitiating the favor of the one, and avoiding the supposed
evil doings of the other. And yct, when the mind can be re-
lieved from the early prejudices which have been forced into it
on these subjects, it will be discovered that there is not one
single fact known by man, after all the experience of the past
generations, to prove that any such personalities exist, or ever
did exist; and, in consequence, all the mythology of the an
cients, and all the religions of the moderns, are mere fanciful
notions of men whose imaginations have been cultivated to
accord with existing prejudices, and whose judgments have
been systematically destroyed from their birth ”—Ibid, p. 64.
-Bravo! "Until that I, Robert Owen, arose ""'*
in
* [Both in the text and in the preceding note, I have been
charged by the Socialists with misrepresenting the sentiments
of Mr Owen, and of themselves as his avowed followers. Had
any farther examination of their principles, as they appear
the writings, or the accredited public lectures, of their founder,
brought me to the conviction that there was truth in this
charge, I should assuredly have felt it an imperative duty to
fulfil the promise which I conditionally made, to retract or to
modify my statements But it has turned out otherwise ; and
I can not conscientiously do either. I conceived the language
of Mr. Owen, in the extracts given in the preceding note from
his Book of the New Moral World, as quite sufficiently intel-
ligible; especially when considered as used by a man who,
setting himself forward, not merely as an ordinary author and
instructer of the community, but as the framer of a new con
stitution for human society, such as should effect infallibly the
renovation of the whole race, was surely entitled to be re-
garded as one capable of understanding the meaning and ap-
preciating the value of his own words. And upon comparing
the language with that of the more recent "Lectures" of Mr.
Owen "on the marriages of the priesthood of the old immoral
OF MAGDALENISM.
29
mates of brothels, were I to set about any grave
refutation of it; a system which, by one fell
swoop, would annihilate all the bonds of kindred,
world," I am far more than confirmed in the conviction of my
having been right in its interpretation. It is true that Mr.
Owen did at one time legislate for his socialist communities on
the subject of marriage and divorce. But never was anything
done by man more inconsistent with his own principles. Mr.
Owen's fundamental maxım, on the subject before us, is that
Nature can do no wrong, and that if men would only agree to
follow Nature, all would be right. And by nature he does not
mean reason. Not at all. It has been the interference of
reason with nature, in the form of restrictions upon her dic-
tates, that has originated in this department all the immorality
and misery of the "old world." For the exemplification ac
cordingly, of what he means by following nature, he does direct
us, and that repeatedly, formally, and pointedly, to the habits
of the brute creation, as those which should regulate ours. It
were easy to extract from the Lectures passages of the most
unblushing and disgusting plainness, by which if he means
anything else, or anything less, than that the intercourse of
the sexes, in the human species, should have no other control
than the mutual impulses of their animal nature, what he calls,
in the extracts of the preceding note, the "instincts of their
organization,”—and that their temporary unions should be
formed and severed according to their temporary likings and
dislikings, however short and however shifting, he should
cease to write, till he has learned to write intelligibly Such
passages I might transfer to my pages, but that they might
thereby forfeit the character they have so generally obtained,
of having treated a subject, in itself so intrinsically nauseous,
with some measure at least of creditable delicacy. At the
same time I must say, I have hesitated between this decision
and the probable salutary operation upon the public mind of
an exhibition of this part of the system, in the very terms of
its founder, in all its native loathsomeness.
In his legislative capacity, Mr Owen took a fancy for an-
nual marriages, as some have done for annual parliaments -A
man and woman were to unite for a year, though why for a
year, when the "liking," on which alone the junction was to
be formed, might, by the uncontrollable influence of organiza
tion, become "dislike and loathing even in a few hours," the
man whose principle is that nature should be followed and the
impulses of organization implicitly obeyed, has not conde-
scended to explain. If, at the end of the year, both parties
wished to part, they were to be separated, and at liberty. If
3*
30
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
all the sweet and blessed charities of domestic life,
and all the possibilities of regular government; of
which the tendency-as even the present lecture,
the wish was expressed by one only of the parties, they were
to make a farther trial of six months more; during which, of
course, the party that wished to be off had it fully in his or
her power to effect the end, by only (and nothing could be
more easy) making the other a little more miserable. and
then, as in the former case, there was to be an end of it -Then
we have another beautiful exemplification of his consistent ad-
herence to the principle of following nature. That there might
be no barrier in the way of as frequent changes as parties
might desire. the parental training of children, and the whole
system of domestic life-the one-family system," as he calls
it-are to be abolished, and (as being doubtless more according
to nature, nothing being more unnatural than the idea of pa-
rents taking any oversight of their own offspring') the charge
of all children is to be taken by the community,—and all the
specialities of attachment to be done away with, as the inlets,
in this our "old immoral world," to all manner of malignity
and mischief'
Whether this legislation of his, in a matter in which every
interference of legislation is, on his principles, a presumptuous
and pernicious thwarting of nature, was a kind of intermediate
step, preparatory to the more full development of his plans, I
will not pretend to say; but certain it is, that in his " Lec-
tures" we have nothing of the kind. In them, he seems to
feel it necessary to muster up a special amount of resolution-
and he does it with a pompousness of self-eulogy sufficiently
ludicrous, as if he had ground to apprehend that what he
was now about to divulge might be too much for even the in-
tiated. And no wonder The principles of these lectures and
his system of legislative restriction, loose as it is, are at per
fect antipodes.-And although he writes strong things against
magdalenism, with which a careless reader of the old world
might be not a little pleased, the more attentive will observe,
that he is, to a great extent, using the word in a sense of his
own. The vice against which he utters his bitterest anathe-
mas, is the magdalenism of existing marriages:-"all married
pairs, with a very few exceptions" living, according to him,
76 in a state of the most degrading magdalenism, enforced upon
them by the human laws of marriage "-magdaleni-m, in the
vocabulary of the new moral world, meaning all continuance
in union when liking has ceased; and the founder of the new
moral world being pleased to hold that almost all married men
and women do mutually dislike each other, and are therefore
OF MAGDALENISM.
31
and still more those that follow, will abundantly
evince-is to results the most fearful which it is
possible for the imagination to contemplate; and
which, while it professes to follow nature, “under-
stands neither what it says, nor whereof it af-
firms," being itself a disgusting contravention of
all Nature's legitimate dictates, all her finest feel-
ings, all her most hallowed affections; or rather a
contravention, the most presumptuous, of the laws
and purposes of that God,-whether intimated
through nature or through his word-whose ex-
istence, providence, and moral government the sys-
tem, with a miserable consistency, denies. I was
about to say-but I will not, and I need not say
it-pardon my warmth. I should be sorry to think
living in magdalenism; while, on the other hand, if not the
whole, a large amount at least, of what we are accustomed to
stiginátize as magdalenism, is, according to him, the pure and
innocent chastity of nature'
I say it honestly-I should have been glad, for Mr. Owen's
sake, had I found reason to retract or to modify. But I must
say, and I say this honestly too,- that further examination has
only confirmed me in the correctness of my statements, and
proportionally increased my loathing. Those of Mr. Owen's
followers who try to put a less unfavorable interpretation on
his words, at once make him out a very unintelligible wiiter-
(which, however, on this subject, he is not)—and exemplify
the reason he had for fearing that even those who had em-
braced his system so far as they fancied they understood it,
were not prepared for the sweeping boldness of its full devel
opment. It is for Mr Owen, not for me, to ietract. It is for
Mr. Owen, not for me, to expound his own language, and re-
concile his own contradictions If, as I have been informed,
he has expressed himself satisfied with the New Marriage Act,
he will have got even more to do in this way than I was
aware of.
I have great pleasure in referring the reader, on this partic-
ular branch of Socialism, to a lecture by the Rev. R. Ainslie,
of London, entitled "An Examination of Socialism," being the
last of a series of lectures against that system, delivered under
the direction of the London City Mission.]
32
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
there was one now hearing me who did not hold
it in the same abhorrence with myself. On all
such occasions, my secret comfort is-strangely
as the term may sound in some ears-the worse
the better. There are schemes of error and of
immorality, which are invested with specious plau-
sibilities to the understanding, aud captivating se-
ductiveness to the heart; but a system such as
this gives one's mind the instantaneous and con-
fident assurance, that there is a sufficiency of sound
sense and of right feeling in the community, when
its real nature comes to be fairly before them,
stripped of those ad captandum accompaniments
by which the inconsiderate may, for the time, be
misled, at once to detect its drivelling folly, and to
repudiate its unblushing and unbearable vileness.
It is a satisfaction to be assured that the system,
although (like every other, how perverse soever,
which "boasteth great things," and is lavish in its
promises) it obtained, to some extent, a baseless
and brief popularity, is rapidly sinking into its mer-
ited disrepute and oblivion.
The evil, then, now to be the subject of our con-
sideration, is, I repeat, the illicit intercourse of the
sexes. The female who submits to this is guilty
of magdalenism. The very first offence is mag-
dalenism. I am aware that the propriety of this
use of the word may be questioned. Fornication
and magdalenism have been distinguished; the
former as meaning the act of illicit intercourse gen-
erally, the latter as including the idea of the act
being committed for hire. And Johnson defines
magdalenism "the life of a public strumpet." It is
little worth our while to dispute about the precise
shades of difference between different terms.
I
OF MAGDALENISM.
33
act.
consider the word magdalenism as, equally with
fornication and whoredom, applicable to the woman
who, whether for hire or not, voluntarily surren-
ders her virtue. But the first offence does not con-
stitute her who has been guilty of it a harlot: just
as the first act of thievery is theft; but that one
act does not make the perpetrator of it a thief. A
harlot and a thief are designations of character;
and a character can never be formed, nor the des-
ignation which expresses it merited, by a solitary
One lie does not make a liar; nor one oath
a swearer; nor one instance of intoxication a
drunkard. Who would call the apostle Paul a
swearer, because, yielding to the fear which
brought a snare," he, in one sad moment, used
"oaths and curses" to give effect to the denial of
his Master? And, on the same principle, who
would call the woman a harlot who, by whatever
temptation seduced, has but once, in a guilty and
unguarded moment, surrendered her honor to vio-
lation? In the one case, as in the other, there
may follow instantly the relentings and the tears
of a true and deep repentance. To form the char-
acter, and to justify the designation, there must be
the voluntary repetition of the act—the giving up of
the person to criminal indulgence.
(6
Of these females there are different classes, or
descriptions, according to the degree of openness
or of secrecy—of undiscriminating commonness or
more restrictive appropriation-with which the sin
is perpetrated. A harlot is generally understood of
one who makes her livelihood by whoredom. This,
however, may be done either wholly or in part on-
ly; and it is not, even in any degree, necessary
to the character, how general soever as an accom-
34
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
paniment of it. Among the varieties there are,
first of all, your kept mistresses,—and these are of
very various grades, from the first-rate style of
keeping down to the lowest; but, though varying
in the scale of (since I must use the word for
want of another to convey the idea, though I dis-
like the association of it with so vile a theme)-ın
the scale of gentility, all alike in that of moral tur-
pitude; unless, perhaps, in some instances, the
highest in the former may be the lowest in the lat-
ter. There are, again, the inmates of brothels;
and of these receptacles of infamy too, there are
corresponding varieties, from the expensive and
elegant accommodations of “nice nobility," down
to the most wretched styles of filth and loathsome-
ness; yet in their moral loathsomeness all the
same, alike vile in the eye of that Supreme Judge
with whom there is "no respect of persons," who
is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," and who,
in his estimate of comparative delinquency, "judg-
eth righteous judgment," regarding superiority in
education, rank, and influence, as aggravations,
rather than alleviations, of iniquity. There are,
still farther, those who, by different statists, are
called secret or sly harlots; by whom magdalenism
is not followed as their known and avowed course
of life and means of maintenance; but who, pur-
suing other occupations, receive more privately the
visits of paramours, or frequent what have been
termed houses of assignation,—which may justly
be regarded as no better than brothels under a dif-
ferent name,―haunts of the same pollution, under
false colors, and often, through this very descrip-
tion of aliases, only the more dangerous. The
females who compose this class, are to be found
OF MAGDALENISM.
35
among the multitudes who are engaged in the
various descriptions of feminine occupation; and,
if we may depend on the universal and unhes-
itating testimony of those who have investigated
the facts and drawn up the statistics of the case,
no small proportion of them among the domestic
servants of the communities of towns and cities.
"This description" (la prostitution clandestine),
says Duchatelet, in his work De la Prostitution
dans la ville de Paris, " of which many persons do
not so much as suspect the existence, exerts an in-
fluence on manners much more seriously perni-
cious than public prostitution itself. It is it that
corrupts and seduces innocence, and which, assu-
ming appearances the most honorable, paralyzes
authority, sets it perpetually at defiance, and
spreads with impunity the most frightful contagion,
and immorality the most flagrant But further in-
to detail, on such a subject, I abstain from enter-
ing: it is not at all necessary to the object I have
in view.
,,
In some countries magdalenism is legalized;
that is, its existence is legally recognised and for-
mally licensed; it is made the subject of public
enactment; and this, not for the purpose of punish-
ing and putting it down, not for the purpose of arm-
ing the police with powers of summary coercion
and repression; but for the purpose of bringing
the tolerated system under legitimate regulation.
Thus Parent-Duchatelet, in introducing that chap-
ter of his work on the magdalenism of Paris,
which treats of the different descriptions of houses
in which the sin is practised, expresses himself in
these terms: "The police, finding it an impos-
sible thing to prevent the existence of houses of
36
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
ill fame" (maisons de debauche), "has felt itself
under the necessity-not of authorising them (for
that it never has done), but of licensing them"
(non de les autoriser, mais de les tolerer). And
subsequently, in speaking of the most approved
designation for such houses, he avows his decided
preference for that of "licensed houses" (maisons
tolerées), as “the most judicious and the most con-
sistent with good morals (la plus sage et la plus
morale), it is possible to employ." And again, after
giving a graphic description of the character of a
"Dame de Maison," as one who trades on the cor-
ruption of public virtue; who lives upon the libertin-
ism and infamy of others; who haunts the steps of
every young female of tempting appearance; who
contrives and lays for such every description of
snare; whose very business it is to seduce youth,
and to purvey for profligacy; whose house is an
asylum for all who are weary of parental tutelage
and restraint, and whose passions long for freedom,
and a school for whatever is shameless, where mere
children serve their apprenticeship to magdalen-
ism: after thus giving a description of a character
of which it might seem the first of virtues to rid
the world-the conclusion to which he coolly
comes is, that the present state of society renders
these persons in a manner necessary, and that
the public good requires from the government
"their special protection!" and even he adds in a
subsequent passage, "the augmentation of their
numbers." To my mind, I confess, there is in all
this something inexpressibly revolting. I have no
idea of such lawless laws as go to regulate sin;
and to take crime under a kind of state patronage.
The idea of licensed brothels!-of a public regis-
OF MAGDALENISM.
37
ter of harlots '—of a national or municipal revenue
from a tax on recognised vice and profligacy! It
is nauseous. It is one, of which I know of no
consideration whatever that could persuade me to
admit the justifiableness. Were such a procedure
designed to stamp on magdalenism the brand of
public infamy, it might, perhaps, admit of some-
thing like a specious apology. But it is not so.
Such registering, and licensing, and taxing, can
serve no other purpose than that of taking off from
the public mind any desirable impression of the
moral turpitude of the legalized pollution, and the
enormity of its concomitant and consequent evils.
To take vice under legal regulation, is to give it,
in the public eye, a species of legal sanction. It
can never be right to regulate what it is wrong to
do, and wrong to tolerate. To license immorality,
is to protect and encourage it. Individuals and
houses, which have a place in the public registers,
naturally regard themselves, and are regarded by
others, as being under the law's guardianship and
authority; not, as they ought to be, under its bann
and proscription. I was glad to observe, after
having written this, the sentiment of Paley, (Mor.
and Pol. Philosophy, book 3, part 3, ch. 3), in such
exact agreement with it: "The avowed toleration,
and, in some countries, the licensing, taxing,
and regulating of public brothels, has appeared to
the people an authorizing of fornication, and has
contributed, with other causes, so far to vitiate' the
public opinion, that there is no practice of which
the immorality is so little thought of or acknowl-
edged; although there are few in which it can be
more plainly made out." It has, indeed, been al-
leged, that, where this mode of treatment prevails,
4
38
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
the prevalence of the vice itself is, comparatively,
less than when it is either let alone, or is made the
subject of severe legal restraints. I am slow to
believe this; not merely from my dislike of the
process, and a wish, thence arising, to find it other-
wise,—but from my conviction of its manifest and
natural tendency. There are cases, and this seems
to be one of them, in which there is sufficient
ground in the very nature of things, for more than
a suspicion that, whatever the facts be, there is
some mistake as to their cause. The tendency of
the arrangement in question most manifestly is to
diminish, in the public mind, the impression of the
guilt and odium of the tolerated, legalized, licensed,
regulated vice. Can this have a tendency to lessen
its prevalence? Can that which tends to the laxity
of public principle tend to the correctness of pub-
lic practice? Can that which lessens the reproba-
tion of a vice, restrain its indulgence? I presume
it will not be disputed, that in few places does
there prevail, through all the grades of society, a
greater amount of laxity of principle, on the branch
of morals now before us, than in the French capi-
tal. I stop not now to inquire into relative propor-
tions and causes. I state the generally-admitted
fact. And may not one of the causes of the fact,
contributing its share toward the aggregate result,
be the existence of the very system to which we
have been adverting? Indeed, the low estimate
of female virtue there, and the lightness and
gayety with which gallantries (called, in the more
faithful and homely phrase of the Bible, whoredoms),
are regarded, may be partly an effect and partly a
cause; and, in whichsoever view we consider it,
the inference is the same.
OF MAGDALENISM.
39
On the important point of the extent to which,
under its various forms, magdalenism prevails in
our own country, and especially in our principal
cities and towns, it is an exceedingly difficult mat-
ter to arrive at any certainty; or even, judging
from the disparity, in some instances, between the
representations of different authorities, to make any
satisfactory approach to the truth. In proof of
this, I shall, first of all, present you with the fol-
lowing extract from the review of the work of
Parent-Duchatelet on the magdalenism of Paris,
in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. XXXVIII.,
July, 1837, pages 340, 341: "The extent of
magdalenism is the first subject that engages our
attention; and there is scarcely any example more
striking of the exaggerations that result from the
neglect of statistical accuracy. There have been
frequent guesses at the number of unfortunate
beings engaged in it, both in Paris and London.
In the former capital, it has been publicly stated,
that the number exceeded sixty thousand; and
they were accounted very moderate, indeed, who
reduced the number to one half that amount: but
the registers of police, which have been very ac-
curately kept for the last twenty years, prove, that
there were never so many as four thousand at one
time engaged in this profligate course. Colquhoun's
Police of the Metropolis, a work possessing more
authority than it has any title to claim, estimates the
number of these females in London at fifty thou-
sand:-but the investigations instituted by Mr.
Mayne led to the conclusion, that there are not
more than from eight to ten thousand, and the
smaller amount is more probable than the lar-
ger. The mistake of the amount of these fe-
40
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
the error.
males is so common, and so injurious, that we
think it would be useful to indicate the sources of
The first of these is, the fluctuating
nature of this portion of the population. The
superintendents of our metropolitan police have
frequently noticed the rapidity and the suddenness
with which many of those on whom they have
kept a watchful eye disappear from the stage, leav-
ing no trace by which their further progress could
be followed. The registers of Paris contain
ample proofs of the same fact; and, if anything
could afford gratification in the view of this melan-
choly topic, it would be, that repentance appears
to be more frequently the cause of their removal,
than disease or death." (Would that we could be-
lieve this!) "A second cause of error is, that
persons estimate the amount for the entire city
from the numbers found in certain localities; and
this was the source of Colquhoun's enormous es-
timate. Finally, we have been informed by some
intelligent police officers, that the same persons
haunt different parts of the metropolis at different
hours, and are consequently counted many times
over. It must, however, be confessed, that there
are no means for estimating the amount of depraved
women in London, with anything like accuracy:
the nearest approach we can make to it is, that
their number is not much more than double that of
the same class in Paris."
Here, you will observe, we have, with regard to
Paris, a range of estimate, from under four thou-
sand to above sixty thousand; and, with regard to
London, from eight thousand to fifty thousand.
And in the latter case, this is far from being the
full extent of the differences; for, while the me-
OF MAGDALENISM.
41
'
tropolitan police reckon the number of harlots at
seven thousand, it has been stated by some-Mr.
Talbot, Dr. Ryan, Dr. Campbell, and others—so
high as eighty thousand Respecting this latter
statement, which rises so far above even what the
reviewer just cited calls Mr. Colquhoun's enor-
mous estimate,” the following remarks in the Lon-
don City Mission Magazine for November, 1840,
may suffice to show its extravagance: “Dr. Ryan
has stated, in common with many others, that the
number of females already alluded to is 80,000;
but he does so chiefly on the authority of Mr. Tal-
bot. In a report of the society for the prevention
of juvenile magdalenism, and quoted by Dr. Ryan,
It is said that it has been ascertained that full
two thirds of the unfortunate females in our streets
are under twenty years of age.' This gives us,
out of the 80,000, upward of 53,000 of this tender
age. By the population returns of 1821, it appears
that fifty out of every hundred of the population
are under twenty years of age; and that one tenth
of the whole population is between the ages of
fifteen and twenty. The whole number of our
female population between the ages of fifteen and
twenty, according to the last census, is 78,962;
and can it be true that 53,000 of them are harlots ?"
And again, giving the result under another form:
"In the last population returns for London within
and without the walls, Southwark, Westminster,
the parishes within the bills of mortality, and adja-
cent parishes not within the bills (the extent of
the metropolis to which such a calculation would
be confined), the number of males is given at 684,-
441, and of females at 789,628. By the population
returns of 1821, it appears that of every 100 per-
1
4*
42
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
sons twenty are under seven years of age, twenty
between the ages of seven and fifteen, and ten be-
tween fifteen and twenty, leaving fifty out of every
hundred from the age of twenty and upward. If,
therefore, we deduct for female children under fif-
teen years of age, and for females above fifty only
one half of the female population, we have 394,-
814 females in reference to whom the calculation
can be made. If we divide this number by 80,-
000, it gives us nearly five; and is it true that one
out of every five females in London, between the
ages of fifteen and fifty, including the highest, the
middling, and the humbler classes, is a harlot? If
it be true, the subject should be taken up very dif-
ferently from what it has been; if it be erroneous,
it should be corrected, and this foul blot upon the
metropolitan female character should be wiped
away." But surely the very statement must be its
own ample refutation. It is not, it can not be true,
nor even an approach to truth.
These differences are so very wide, as to be
really marvellous. How far the causes of discrep-
ancy, enumerated by the Foreign Quarterly Re-
viewer, are adequate to account for it in its full
extent, I shall not take time to inquire. Any data
on which an accurate decision could rest, appear
to be far from satisfactory.
One thing, however, I must notice, as having
forcibly struck me, respecting the smaller esti-
mates of the number of unfortunate females in
London-the estimates, I mean, which state it so
low as seven, eight, or even ten thousand-name-
ly, the inconsistency between these estimates and
the representations at the same time given of the
number of houses of ill-fame in that metropolis.
OF MAGDALENISM.
43
According to the returns made by Mr. Mayne,
these amount to 3,335 : and this enumeration "does
not include the city, in which also brothels abound;"
and "the Rev. Mr. Hughes, of Bedford Chapel,
Bloomsbury, states that in a space of ground about
700 yards in circumference (St. Giles' Rookery),
there are twenty-four houses of ill-fame, of which
the average number of occupants is ten; making a
total of 240 in that limited area. Of course, we
should be running into a grievous miscalculation,
were we to adopt the number of such houses in
this particular locality as a ratio of estimate for
the whole of London, or even the number of in-
mates in each of them as the average for all other
houses of the same description. Were we to pro-
ceed on the latter assumption, the 3,335 brothels
would contain a total of 33,350 inmates; and these
would, of course, be exclusive of the vast number
of a more secret description: of whom Mr. Taitf
makes the number in Edinburgh considerably
larger than that of the more common and openly
abandoned. This writer, in estimating the num-
ber in the Scottish metropolis, makes the "houses
of bad fame, including houses of assignation, li-
censed taverns, and eating-houses, where sexual
intercourse is tolerated," about 200; the average
number of girls who board and lodge in these
houses he estimates at three to each: in all 600.
Mr. Tait's careful inquiries no doubt satisfied him
as to the correctness of this average. It does
"Female Virtue its Enemies and Friends " A Discourse
by Rev. Dr. Edgar, of Belfast, &c. ; p 9
"Magdalenism: An inquiry into the extent, causes, and
consequences of prostitution in Edinburgh," by William Tait,
Surgeon, &c., &c. A work to which I shall have frequent oc-
casion to refer. Second edition, 1842.
44
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
seem, however, a low one. According to police
returns for Glasgow, the average to each of the
houses of bad fame (not, however, taking in the
variety of descriptions of houses included by Mr.
Tait) is seven. A respected city missionary (to
whose statements future reference may be made)
makes the number of houses larger, and the aver-
age complement of each less-four instead of
seven. Suppose we should take the average for
the houses of bad fame in London at five instead
of ten, this will still yield us the aggregate of
16,675; and this independently of the city, and
independently too of all those classes that are not
included among the occupants of brothels, respect-
ing whom Mr. Mayne says, that, "in his opinion,
there is no means of ascertaining the number of
female servants, milliners, and women in the mid-
dle and upper classes of society, who might prop-
erly be classed with them-or the women who
frequent theatres exclusively, barracks, ships,
prisons, &c." With such an opinion before me,
it would be presumption to venture even a guess
at the aggregate of those varieties. But it must
at one glance be apparent, that, estimate it as you
will, the 7,000, or even the highest of Mr. Mayne's
numbers, the 10,000, for the entire amount in Lon-
don, must be much below the truth. And really,
on looking at the magnitude of these discrepancies
in the calculations for London, I have felt no great
encouragement, after having begun, to prosecute
my endeavors to obtain information from other
places. Mr. Tait, who himself estimates the public
harlots of Edinburgh at 800, and the private at
1,160, admits, that, even with regard to that city,
there has been a range of diversity in statement
•
OF MAGDALENISM.
45
from 300 up to 6,000! I might copy, to a great
extent, as to different cities and towns, the statis-
tics given by others; but what would it avail, when,
from the nature of the case, anything approaching
to certain accuracy is so little attainable ?
My hearers would doubtless be startled, as I was
myself, by the statement in the closing sentence
of the extract cited a little while ago from the For-
eign Quarterly Review, in which the reviewer,
after mentioning the impossibility of "estimating
the number of depraved women in London with
anything like accuracy," adds: "The nearest ap-
proach we can make to it is, that their number is
not much more than double that of the same class in
Paris !”—“What!" we are ready to exclaim—
"London more than double Paris!-and all that
can be said in mitigation of the statement, that it
is not much more "" Even when we bethink
ourselves of what at the first moment we are apt to
overlook, the disparity between the population of
the two cities, we still are not satisfied. We have
been accustomed to comfort ourselves with the re-
flection that, bad as our own metropolis is, it is not
so deeply sunk in pollution as that of France; to
which, were the number of depraved women in it
more than double, it would at least approach more
nearly, in its" bad eminence," than we had weened.
And here we have before us another exemplifica-
tion of the extreme uncertainty attending all the
estimates on this subject, on both sides of the chan-
nel. Hear what Mr. Tait says-bringing before
us, not the relative proportions of London and
Paris only, but also of our Scottish metropolis,
and of what, in point of population and commer-
cial importance, may be called the capital of the
46
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
United States of America—the city of New York.
Having, by the mode of calculation which he de-
scribes, fixed the number of openly depraved wo-
men for Edinburgh, whether residents in brothels
or in other places, at 800, and mentioned the pro-
portion which this number bears to the "adult
male population" as being " about one to every
eighty," he adds: "In London, there is one for
every sixty, and in Paris one for every fifteen.
Edinburgh is thus about twenty-five per cent. bet-
ter than London, while the latter is about seventy
per cent better than Paris. And what is to be
said of the chief city of the United States of
America-of the independent, liberal, religious,
enlightened inhabitants of New York It will
scarcely be credited that that city furnishes a har-
lot for every six or seven of its adult male popu-
lation ! Alas! for the religion and morality of the
country that affords such a demonstration of its
depravity! It was not surpassed even by the me-
tropolis of France during the heat and fervor of
the revolution, when libertinism reigned triumph-
ant, and the laws of God and men were alike set
at defiance ”—Magdalenism; 2d ed., pp. 6,7. In
a note, Mr. Tait subjoins-showing the ratio by
which these relative proportions were estimated.
"The manner in which these calculations are
made is as follows: The one half of the popula-
tion of these cities is supposed to be males ;
third part is subtracted from this number, as being
either too young or too old to exercise their pro-
creative functions; and the remainder is divided
by the number of public women in each city. The
number supposed to exist in Edinburgh is 800; in
London, 8,000; in Paris, 18,000; and in New
а
OF MAGDALENISM.
47
York, 10,000—which gives the proportions above
stated." Still we are in the region of uncertainty;
for while Mr. Tait gives the number of depraved
women for Paris as 18,000-which, in fairness
of estimate, must, like the other numbers, refer to
public and known harlots-Mons. Fregier, in his
work entitled "Des Classes dangereuses de la popu-
lation dans les grandes villes," &c., states the num-
ber of the registered as 3,800, and of the unregis-
tered as 4,000: not 8,000 in all ' I am inclined
to believe that this is either greatly under the truth,
or that there must be in Paris a large amount of
licentious intercourse that does not come into the
ordinary estimates of magdalenism. The reviewer
gives the actual number in London as more, though
not much more, than double that in Paris: accord-
ing to the statement of Mr. Tait, the number in
Paris is considerably more than double that in
London; while, in relative proportion, the former
city is four times worse than the latter! And the
statement of the rate of proportion between Paris
and New York is still more startling than that of
the reviewer respecting London and Paris.* The
Rev. Dr. M'Dowall, after stating the nature of his
data, thus writes: "We are satisfied we do not
exaggerate, when we repeat that there are now
ten thousand girls and women in the city of New
York who live by public and promiscuous magda-
lenism. Besides these, we have the clearest evi-
dence that there are hundreds of private harlots
and kept misses, many of whom keep up a show
* For a careful estimate of the number of abandoned females
in the city of New York, see the Advocate of Moral Reform
for June 1, 1842: an extremely valuable weekly journal, con-
ducted by a society of ladics, for the suppression of this vice.
48
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
of industry as domestics, seamstresses, nurses,
&c., in the most respectable families, and throng
the houses of assignation every night. Although
we have no means of ascertaining the number of
these, yet enough has been learned from the facts
already developed, to convince us that the aggre-
gate of these is alarmingly great, perhaps little
behind the proportion of London, whose police
reports assert, on the authority of accurate re-
searches, that the number of private harlots in that
city is fully equal to the number of public ones
This is a most appalling picture of moral degrada-
tion; and we forbear to dwell on so painful and
mortifying conclusions as those to which this view
of the subject would compel us. We can not for-
get, however, that the Rev. Mr. Stafford, formerly
employed as a missionary among the depraved
population of our city, published his conviction,
after careful investigation of this subject, that
there were 15,000 abandoned females in this city
(New York); and our population, permanent and
transient, was then one third less than it is now."
Such statements may well, indeed, be designated
C6
appalling." On the general ground of the un-
certainty of all calculations on this subject, as
evinced in the facts already laid before you, I would
fondly suspect some luiking error. But if such
error there be, I have not in possession any means
of detecting it.
The details, regarding these chief cities of our
own and other countries, were too important and
interesting to be passed over; else I should have
felt that I had been detaining you too long from the
city in which and in whose interests we are most
immediately concerned, the mercantile and manu-
OF MAGDALENISM.
49
Of the
facturing capital of Scotland,-Glasgow. Accord-
ing to returns made by the intelligent and inde-
fatigable superintendent of our police, Mr. Miller,
there are in our city 204 houses of bad fame ;
of which 49 are kept by males, and 155 by fe-
males; and the entire number of females who live
in these houses, is 1,475. The city missionary
before referred to, estimates the number of houses
at 450; and, at four to each house, the whole
number would be 1,800. From the proportion re-
ceived into the Lock hospital, Dr. Hannay (the
able surgeon to that institution) says he is "in-
duced to believe that 1,600 will bound the number
who exclusively and openly abandon themselves to
this vicious course of life in the city of Glasgow."
This is a medium between the other two.
1,475 in Mr. Miller's estimate, he "is of opinion
that considerably more than one half come from
the country;" and for this he naturally enough ac-
counts, from "the fact, that, when a girl misbe-
haves, or becomes unfortunate, or loses her service,
in the country, she generally betakes herself to
the nearest large town." Many are supplied
also," he states, " from the large number of High-
land and Irish girls, who are constantly coming to
Glasgow in search of work." Having estimated
the number of females, who are inmates of broth-
els, as above, at 1,475, Mr. Miller adds: “I find
it impossible to say how many females given to
this vice there may be, who do not frequent broth-
els; and on this subject I feel a delicacy in giving
even a guess." It would be no mark of either
modesty or judgment, in myself or any one else,
to venture on a conjecture when an authority so
competent declines it. I have before alluded to
4.
50
ON THE NATURE AND EXTENT
the fact that, in regard to Edinburgh, Mr. Tait
conceives the number of those whom he denomi-
nates "sly magdalenes," to be considerably greater
than that of the openly and notoriously abandoned.
The latter, as has been stated, he estimates, on the
authority of Captain Stewart of the police estab-
lishment, at about 800; while he makes the num-
ber of the former "1,160 and upward;" the aggre-
gate being composed of the three following divis-
ions,—660 from among the 2,000 females sup-
posed to be engaged in sedentary occupations,-
300 servant girls, the lowest calculation in that
class which he thinks can be made,—and 200
women, who are either widows or have been de-
serted by their husbands. Whether in Glasgow,
the aggregate amount of secret bears anything like
the same proportion to that of public magdalenism,
I will not, for the reason assigned, pretend to say.
If it did, it would oblige us to add considerably
above 2,000 secret or sly magdalenes to the 1,475
frequenters of the houses of ill fame. Distressing
as it would be to believe this, yet, for aught I can
tell, it may be true.
I feel it unnecessary, as I have already said, on
account of their unsatisfactoriness, to multiply state-
ments relative to other places;-nor do I think it
could serve any valuable purpose to dwell more in
detail on this first branch of my subject.—In next
lecture I shall proceed to the second.
OF MAGDALENISM.
51
LECTURE II.
ON THE EFFECTS OF MAGDALENISM.
To such as are already duly impressed with the
guilt of this vice, regarded in itself, independently
of all consideration of consequences, the state-
ments under our first head, laid before you in last
lecture, will be sufficiently appalling. If the num-
ber of those females be so great, who, in various
ways, more secret or more open, give themselves
to this course of life; how much greater must be
the number of the other sex who are their regular
or occasional paramours, their socu criminis, par-
takers in their guilt! The amount of sin, in the
eye of Him, of whose law every act of unclean-
ness is a violation, and in the eye of every one
who has learned to regard that law as "holy, just,
and good," is indeed fearful. But still it is neces-
sary, even to enable us fully to estimate, in all its
kinds, the nature and amount of the guilt, to look
a little closely at the attendant and consequent
evils connected with this "mystery of iniquity."
By such considerations some possibly may be im-
pressed, by whom the sin in itself is but lightly
condemned. And even of those whose conviction
is deepest of its "exceeding sinfulness," the in-
dignant sympathies may be awakened, and the ac-
tive energies for its suppression called forth or
52
ON THE EFFECTS
}
stimulated to livelier exertion, by having presented
to their minds some of the more prominent and
shocking effects of this parent evil; the poisonous
and deadly fruits of this Upas tree; the bitter
streams of this bitter fountain.
I begin with the effects of it to individuals--
to the miserable victims of the sin themselves.
This general class of effects includes varieties.
They relate to body-to mind-to present outward
condition—to prospects for eternity.
The corporeal effects themselves are frightful.
For myself, I must avow it, that I had no concep-
tion of them—and I believe that conception to be
very inadequate still-till the facts were, to a cer-
tain extent, brought before me by this investigation.
I have been specially and oppressively struck
with the representations on all hands given, by
statists and medical authorities, with regard to the
average duration of life among the female victims
of this vice. "It may be stated generally," says
Mr. Tait (in his Magdalenism), "that in less than
one year from the commencement of their wicked
career, these females bear evident marks of their
approaching decay; and that in the course of three
years, very few can be recognised by their old
acquaintances, if they are so fortunate as to survive
that period. These remarks apply more especial-
ly to those who are above twenty years of age,
when they join the ranks of the vicious." Accord-
ing to the same authority—and taking the average
of Edinburgh as a fair one for other places, "not
above one in eleven survives twenty-five years of
age ;" and, taking together those who persist in
vice, and those who, after having abandoned it,
die of diseases which originated from the excesses
OF MAGDALENISM,
53
""
they were addicted to during its continuance,
"perhaps not less than a fifth or sixth of all who
have embraced this course of life die annually.'
"Mr. Clark, the late chamberlain to the city of
London," says Dr. Ryan (Prostitution in London,
p. 185), "calculated the duration of life" (2. e., the
average duration of the lives of these females,
from the time of their abandoning themselves to
their infamous course) "at four years; while
others estimate it at seven years." The represent-
ation of Captain Miller, with regard to our own
city, is in harmony with these: "The average
age at which women become abandoned, is from
fifteen to twenty :-the average duration of women
continuing this vice, is, I think, about five years:
-the most common termination of their career is
by early death; and this is to be accounted for by
the extremely dissolute life they lead. For the
most part they live in a state of great personal
filthiness; they have most wretched homes; they
are scarcely ever in bed till far in the morning
they get no wholesome diet; and they are con-
stantly drinking the worst descriptions of spirituous
liquors. In addition to these evils, they are ex-
posed to disease in its very worst forms; and,
from their dissolute habits, when disease overtakes
them, a cure is scarcely possible. A few become
reformed by being confined in our excellent Bride-
well for a sufficient length of time to allow new
habits to be formed, or from other accidental
causes; but the number who reform I believe to
be very small."* In speaking of the proportion
who die annually, it may here be mentioned, that
on the same principle which estimates the num-
*" Houses of bad fame in the city of Glasgow,"--p. 2.
5*
54
ON THE EFFECTS
ber in London at 80,000, the annual amount of
death has been reckoned at 8,000! Were the for-
mer estimate correct, the latter might readily be
admitted; being only at the rate of a tenth of the
whole. But of the excessive extravagance of
each of the statements there is separate and satis-
factory proof. We have seen this as to the former
of the two. The following, from the same publi-
cation-the London City Mission Magazine—re-
lates to the latter: ((
'By the 'Second Annual Re-
port of the Registrar-General of births, deaths,
and marriages,' we find that the total number of
females that died from July 1st, 1838, to June 30th,
1839, both inclusive, was 22,817. Of these,
10,496 were under fifteen years of age, and 6,335
were above fiſty :-so that, instead of 8,000 har-
lots dying annually in the metropolis, there were
only 5,968 females between the ages of fifteen and
fifty died last year; and these are the only ages
that such a calculation can refer to. If the cal-
culation that 8,000 die annually be correct, every
one of these 5,986 must have been depraved, and
we must take 2,014 from those between fifty and
sixty-five years of age to make up the number;
and then, not one virtuous woman would have died
last year in the metropolis, between the ages of
fifteen and sixty." This is decisive. There sure-
ly is no need, on such a subject, for geing one hair's-
breadth beyond the truth. Everything of the
kind indeed is, not only needless, but, in different
ways, injurious. The waste of life is, even on
the lowest calculations, most distressing. And
wretched is the life the poor creatures live, and
wretched the death they dic. Besides a variety
of diseases to which their dissolute habits expose
OF MAGDALENISM.
55
them-cutaneous, intestinal, nervous, inflammato-
ry-the predisposition to other distempers induced
by their vicious course-and the aggravated char-
acter too imparted to these by the state of their
constitution-of all which the authentic medical
statements are sufficiently sickening; there is the
one disease, with its distinctive designation, to
which all the rest are represented as, in compari-
son, next to nothing. From the dreadful ravages
of syphilis there are said to be very few indeed
who escape.
The cases of such as do are 66 rare
exceptions." "The great majority," says Mr.
Tait, "are affected with the disease within a few
months after they have forsaken a life of chastity;
and very few escape it during the first year." Dr.
Hannay's testimony is to the same effect: "that
not one girl in twenty continues a course of vice,
without contracting disease within the first three
months." I presume, indeed, that in this point all
competent authorities are agreed. In multitudes of
instances, as already stated from Mr. Miller, the
poor suffering wretches have no means of cure:
and even when these means are provided, the
malady is ever recurring; shattering, in an in-
credibly short period, the soundest constitutions,
deforming the fairest and emaciating the stoutest
and healthiest frames, bringing on premature ex-
haustion, and an early grave. And the disease,
when it has fairly pervaded the system, and begins
to make this manifest by its external ravages, is
absolutely terrific. Its effects are-extensive, se-
vere, and loathsome ulcerations; the destruction
of the eyesight, and of the palate and tonsils;
the rotting of the flesh from the bones; the exfo-
liation of the bones themselves; till the whole
56
ON THE EFFECTS
frame becomes a mass of living corruption, from
which the eye, though filled with the tear of pity,
turns away in sickening disgust. It is not a theme
to dwell upon. But even here, plain truth is use-
ful. I wish to sicken you. I wish to horrify you.
I wish to fill you with loathing of the loathsome
effect, that you may loath with a deeper loathing
the more loathsome cause. And for this purpose,
assuredly for no other, I risk any character I may
have for delicacy, by setting before you one case;
-and, although a bad, it is very far from being a
solitary one—it is thus given, in a single sen-
tence or two, by Mr. Tait: "There is one case
under the author's charge at the present time,
where the whole bones of the nose, external and
internal-the bones which form the roof of the
mouth-the bones of both cheeks-the greater
part of the superior maxillary or jaw bones, with
the teeth which they contained—besides all the
softer fleshy parts connected with or covering
them-have been successively separated from the
body. The disease has continued for more than
three years, and has set at defiance every remedy
which the most celebrated medical practitioners in
Edinburgh could suggest. Her face is literally
rotten, and presents a large opening, into which
an ordinary-sized fist may be thrust without diffi-
culty." I might add a great deal from the medi-
cal portion of Dr. Ryan's work on the prostitution
of London, and the publications of other profes-
sional authorities; but enlargement on such a topic
would be as offensive as it is unnecessary. Mark
the terms in which the respected and benevolent
author from whom I have taken the above citation
sums up the section on the subject of the diseases
OF MAGDALENISM.
57
to which magdalenism exposes its votaries: "From
the effects thus produced it must be obvious, that
the suffering which the unfortunate patients have
to endure is very great. It is much more severe
than that which arises from any other disease;
and the period of its duration is also very consid-
erable. Weeks, months, and years, pass away,
without their experiencing any mitigation of their
agonies, or receiving one word of consolation, or
assurance from the lips of their medical attendant,
that there is at last some hope of being restored
to health. The most gloomy forebodings thus con-
tinually hover around them, till death relieves
them from this scene of sorrow and anguish, and
hurries them, often unprepared, into the presence
of their great judge."
The terms in which Parent-Duchatelet speaks
of this malady, are not inferior in strength to these
representations: "Of all the contagious distem-
pers," says he (vol. 11., pp. 37-39), "which affect
mankind, and which work the largest amount of
detriment to his social existence, there is not one
more serious, more dangerous, more to be dreaded,
than syphilis. I may affirm, without fear of con-
tradiction, that the calamities of which it is the
source, surpass the ravages of all the plagues
which, from time to time, have spread consterna-
tion through society.
It pre-
vails among ourselves;-it prevails among our
neighbors; it prevails everywhere. It does not,
it is true, like many other diseases, take off its vic-
tims suddenly; but, notwithstanding that, the num-
ber of those victims is immense. Its ravages are
incessant. It attacks more especially that part of
the population which, from its time of life, forms
58
ON THE EFFECTS
at once the strength and the 'wealth of nations.
By the debility which it induces, it incapacitates
for the production of a vigorous progeny; and,
where it does not occasion sterility, gives birth to
an unfortunate and degenerate race, unfit for the
due discharge of any functions, whether civil or
military, and which becomes an absolute burden
on the community. And finally, in our modern so-
ciety, there is no security against its assaults, even
to the purest innocence. How many hired nurses,
how many faithful wives, how many hapless suck-
lings, are, from year to year, the subjects of its
cruel invasions!"
One thing further only would I mention on this
most disgusting topic; more fearful, morally at least
if not physically, than anything I have yet men-
tioned. I refer to the early age at which, both in
boys and girls, this frightful malady has been
known to be communicated. In the address to the
public issued at the formation of the "London So-
ciety for the protection of young females and pre-
vention of juvenile magdalenism," we have this
statement: "In three of the largest hospitals in
London, within the last eight years, there have not
been fewer than 2,700 cases of disease, arising
from this cause, in children from eleven to sixteen
years of age." Of the manner in which such
66
poor innocents" are decoyed, and exposed to pol-
lution, we may take due notice by-and-by. Dr.
Ryan records, as physician to different charities in
London, how much he has himself been shocked,
and how much grayheaded members of his pro-
fession, who came to see his practice, have been
amazed, at the precocious depravity apparent, "in
seeing beardless boys, or rather children, present-
OF MAGDALENISM.
59
وو
ing themselves for advice for venereal diseases."
Mr. Tait" adds his testimony to similar facts."
Mr. Miller, of our own city, testifies: "At the
time of opening the House of Refuge for males,
it was particularly noticed that many vagrant boys
and girls were prowling about the streets. I have
known girls of the tender age of from ten to twelve
certified by the office-surgeon as diseased." And
the esteemed city missionary already mentioned,
writes to me as follows: "I visit the Lock hos-
pital on Thursday forenoons; and I usually find
from thirty to thirty-six females. They are gen-
erally from fourteen to twenty-two years of age.
About ten days ago, I conversed with a girl, in
presence of the matron, who was only eight years
of age!! This girl's mother was also in the hos-
pital at the time in a diseased state. The girl was
seduced in her mother's house "" It would be an
outrage on all right feeling, in speaking of a fact
so horrible, to quarrel with a word. It must be
obvious, however, that seduction is a term which
must be used with a great latitude of meaning, to
include the case of such a child:-and who is
there who is not ready to join in driving from the
society of human beings, with " curses loud and
deep," the infamous miscreant who could be guilty
of this unnatural violation ?*
And in speaking of the ravages of this frightful
disease, it would be far wrong to limit our attention
to its prevalence among the abandoned themselves.
These ravages, as a matter of course, affect both
sexes, and are communicated, by a fearful recipro-
*In a postscript to a more recent letter, on another subject,
the same correspondent mentions as having met with another
instance in the hospital of similar juvenile distemper.
60
ON THE EFFECTS
cation, from the one to the other;-a consideration
which, along with others of a higher order, may be
pressed upon inexperienced youth, as an induce-
ment to flee the divinely branded sin, and to "ab-
hor that which is evil," lest they
(( mourn at the
last, when their flesh and their body are consumed,
and say, 'How have I hated instruction, and my
heart despised reproof!"
Among the physical evils arising from this pro-
lific source of misery, ought also to be mentioned,
the numberless cases of attempts, successful and
unsuccessful, at abortion, and the wretched effects
thence resulting, whether to mothers, or children,
or both. Where fæticide is not effected, and liv-
ing children are born, what is many a time their
condition? Let a competent authority among our-
selves declare: "I fear," says Dr Hannay, "to
expose perhaps the blackest part of this already
sufficiently disgusting and appalling picture ;-it is
the fearful misery to the children of which these
wretched creatures often become the mothers, and
of the dreadful sacrifice of human life to this de-
mon of horrid cruelty. Besides suffering from the
diseases which they receive from their parent, and
which are wrought into every fibre of their body
at its earliest moment of existence, their wretched
progeny experience every kind of bad usage, every
form of misery, squalor, and neglect, under the tor-
tures of which they fall, in no inconsiderable num-
bers, victims to this Moloch-like demon. I have
not noted down this fearful part of the picture; but
I give it as my deliberate and solemn conviction,
that not one in twenty of the miserable beings to
which the harlot gives birth reaches the second
OF MAGDALENISM.
61
year of its earthly existence in any tolerable de-
gree of health and strength.”
And this statement is in affecting agreement with
that of Duchatelet: "I have found but one opin-
ion," says he, "respecting the frightful mortality
among the children of harlots. This opinion has
been confirmed by all the accounts I have got from
the hospital, from the prison, and from every in-
dividual who has had opportunity of direct obser-
vation. Of eight children born, on an average, in
the prison, four die within the first fortnight, and
the other four in the course of the first year; and of
ten born during one year in the hospital, five have
been dead almost from the moment of birth, and
the other five have gone before the full recovery
of the mother."
I pass to another description of effects, not less
deplorable, in one view, indeed, incomparably
more so, those which relate to the mind and heart,
to the moral principles and sensibilities.
"How-
ever it be accounted for,” observes Dr. Paley (Mor.
and Polit. Phil., book 3, part 3, chap. 2), “the
criminal commerce of the sexes corrupts and de-
praves the mind and moral character, more than
any single species of vice whatever. That ready
perception of guilt, that prompt and decisive reso-
lution against it, which constitute a virtuous char-
acter, are seldom found in persons addicted to these
indulgences. They prepare an easy admission for
every sin that seeks it; and, in low life, are usual-
ly the first stage in men's progress to the most des-
perate villanies; and, in high life, to that lament-
ed dissoluteness of principle, which manifests it-
self in a profligacy of public conduct, and a con-
tempt of the obligations of religion and moral pro-
6
62
ON THE EFFECTS
bity. Add to this, that habits of libertinism inca-
pacitate and indispose the mind for all intellectual,
moral, and religious pleasures; which is a great
loss to any man's happiness" Lest any one should
treat such a testimony with lightness, as that of a
severe moralist, from whom, on such a subject, con-
demnatory terms hardly within the limits of mode-
ration might be expected, (although assuredly there
never was a moralist who had less of the cynic
about him than Paley), I take leave to add other
two testimonies to the same effect, the peculiarly
hardening and demoralizing influence, namely, of
this vice. The one is from that sentimental volup-
tuary of skepticism, Jean Jaques Rousseau; the
other, in his own characteristic Scottish style,
from the Bard of Caledonia. The former thus ex-
presses himself: "I have uniformly observed that
young persons, early corrupted, and given up to
women and to debauchery, have been hard-hearted
and cruel the vehemence of their temperament
has rendered them impatient, revengeful, fierce;
their imagination, absorbed by one object, has been
indifferent to every other; they have been stran-
gers to compassion and tenderness; they would
have sacrificed father, mother, the very universe,
to the least of their pleasures.' And thus, in a
poetical "Epistle to a Young Friend," does the
latter impart his sound moral counsel:-
"The sacred lowe o' weel-placed love
Luxuriantly indulge it.
But never tempt th' illicit rove,
Though naething should divulge it;
I waive the quantum o' the sın,
The hazard of concealing:
But och it hardens a' unthin,
And petrifies the feeling '''
* Emile-Liv. 1v.
OF MAGDALENISM.
63
Poor Burns! Who can fail to pity him, even
however severe, on some grounds, and justly se-
vere, may be his condemnation, when, in the clo-
sing lines of the same epistle, he sings:
"And may you better reck the rede
Than ever did th' adviser !"*
To these authorities I may further add that of
the great John Milton, who, in his Comus, thus
sings:
"When lust
Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
The soul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies and imbrutes, till she quite lose
The divine property of her first being."
And how graphic, yet how revolting, the descrip-
tion of his own character, before his conversion,
given by Augustine !—are there none beside him-
self, that might have sat for the picture?
"Thus
I polluted the very life-blood of affection with the
vileness of concupiscence, and its pure sincerity I
shrouded in smoke from the hell of my lust; and
yet, all the while, foul and dishonorable as I was,
I assumed, in the exuberance of my vanity, the
mein of gentlemanly urbanity and elegance
יין
Of the association of this evil, in low life, with
other crimes, to which Paley alludes, I shall have
occasion to take some notice by-and-by. I only
remark at present, that if the debasing and cor-
*Pity must not be allowed, however, to soften the moral
condemnation. There is too much reason for thinking that
few writings have contributed more than those of Burns, by
the unhappy power of ludicrous association, both with vice and
with its punishment, and by the fascination of the light of ge-
nius, like a lamp gleaming amid the rottenness and corruption
of a sepulchral vault, to lessen the horror of evil, to promote
its reckless indulgence, and to help "fools to make a mock at
sin!"
2*
64
ON THE EFFECTS
rupting influence of such indulgences on the
moral principles be, indeed, as these authorities
represent it; if even in the superior walks of life,
it is a vice that opens the avenues to other tempta-
tions, obliterates the protecting fences of virtue,
maintains a process of induration over the sensi-
bilities of the heart, and sears to callousness what-
ever was tender and susceptible in the conscience;
what must be its effects on those whose under-
standings have been uncultivated by knowledge,
and their hearts unimbued by the early infusion of
right principle! In cases where there has been
this early infusion, and where its restraints have
been overpowered by the arts of seduction; when
the miserable victim is cast off by her heartless
betrayer, and, in forlorn abandonment and hopeless
destitution, gives herself up to a life of voluptuous
profligacy, the mental agonies that are endured are
many a time unbearable; these agonies drive, in
desperation, to wilder excesses; and, so long as
the searing process is but in its commencement,
the excesses react, with a horrible power, upon the
conscience.
And when the short period elapses, during which
any powers of personal attraction are retained,
and the poor wretch, cast off with pitiless uncon-
cern, is left to all the rage of mortified vanity, and
the burning of insatiate lust, and the workings of
weak-minded but fell revenge, or to the dreadful
collapse of exhausted sensuality; what must be
the state of the mind, unless it escapes from its
own thoughts in the madness or the stupefaction
of intemperance, when neither past, present, nor
future, has aught but bitterness to yield; the past
and the present without pleasure, and the future
OF MAGDALENISM.
65
without hope! The following description brings
before us, the blended miseries of body and mind,
of personal and social condition, in what may be
termed the last stage of "the harlot's progress."
It is a frightful, but faithful picture; and when I
have set it before you, I shall tell you why.—“ The
effects of sin are not more plainly and fearfully
displayed on any class of human beings, than on
fallen and decayed harlots. Their character and
appearance seemed to be stamped with the indig-
nation of Him whose laws they have violated, and
whose counsels and reproofs they have despised.
Everything which formerly rendered them attrac-
tive is completely banished. Every feature ap-
pears altered in expression, and gives frightful
indication of the writhings of an agonized con-
science. The friends with whom they associated
only a short time before, are now unable to recog-
nise them. The feelings of pride and of vanity,
that were so active and powerful in propelling
them into a licentious life, seem enervated or ex-
hausted; and they crawl forth from their dens of
infamy unwashed and undressed. It is when a
number of these wretched beings are congregated
in one cellar, that their miserable condition be-
comes most conspicuous, distressing, and humil-
iating. The bawl and laughter of the drunkard,
the oaths of the profane, and the shrieks and cries
of the penitent, are inharmoniously mingled toge-
ther; and even the same individual is to be found,
at one time laughing, now cursing, and now
weeping for her sins. The effects produced upon
the mind of the spectator by such evidence of
mental disquietude, are greatly heightened by the
bodily wretchedness which presents itself to his
6*
66
ON THE EFFECTS
view. The apartment in which these creatures
live, exhibits the same impoverished aspect which
is so deeply impressed on its miserable inhabi-
tants. Not a single vestige of furniture which is
deserving of the name, is to be seen within its
walls. Beds and bed-clothes are out of the ques-
tion. They are looked upon as fortunate who
have a little dirty straw upon which they can lay
themselves down to rest. Many are in possession
of no such luxury, and sleep night after night
upon the hard boards which form the floor of
their uncomfortable dwelling. The dress of the
unfortunate females themselves is often not suffi-
cient to cover their nakedness, far less to protect
them from the cold. Their clothes, if they have
any, are seldom cleaned; and, when the reader is
informed that they are never changed, day nor
night, for weeks or perhaps months together, he
can form his own idea as to their comfort or ap-
pearance; for it would be offensive to the feelings
of humanity to attempt to describe them."-Then
there follows a statement of what was witnessed
by the author himself, in one of the lowest de-
scription of brothels, when he was professionally
called, on a Saturday night, in December, 1839,
to visit one of its inmates, who was dying;-and,
as I wish you, for the reason which I shall assign
immediately, to have a full impression of the hor-
rors of this last stage of the harlot's wretchedness,
I must extract it: "On entering into the house,
it appeared to be crowded with women almost in
a state of nudity, and also two ragged black-
guards of men, who had the discretion to retire.
The hovel consisted of two apartments, in the
inner of which the patient was lying in a corner,
OF MAGDALENISM.
67
ent.
on a piece of old carpet, without one article con-
ducive to her comfort. She was without covering
of any description; and without any kind of dress
save an old merino frock, which the author had
seen her wearing during the whole of the pre-
ceding year. On inquiry, it was learned, that
other five females lodged in the same house,
the whole of whom and two strangers were pres-
Three of them were lying drunk on the
floor, unable to stir or to speak. The others had
been recently fighting, and the blood was running
down their cheeks. One only, out of the seven
assembled, seemed to be sober enough to under-
stand what was said to her, and all the dress
which she possessed was a single petticoat. .
This house was without bed, chairs, or stools.
In one place only there was a little straw. A few
large stones were placed round the fireplace,
upon which the inmates sat. A whisky-bottle
and a wineglass appeared to be the whole stock
of crockery. There was not a single particle of
food within the door; and none of the women had
a fraction of money with which they could pur-
chase nourishment for the one who was in dis-
tress, which was all that was considered neces-
sary for her relief." (Tait's Magdalenism, pp.
216-219.)
And now, some of you may naturally ask me-
is this fair? Why dwell on scenes of such low
and disgusting loathsomeness? Is this a just
average specimen of the whole system? Is there
nothing superior ?-nothing more refined noth-
ing less revolting? And if there be, why take
an ad-captandum advantage, by giving such prom-
inence to the very lowest and worst grade of the
68
ON THE EFFECTS
evil? My answer to such questions forms my
promised reason for having introduced at all these
disgusting details. The answer and the reason
are one. It is the affecting and fearful consider-
ation, that to this lowest grade, in all its horrors,
the entire system tends. Yes: I repeat it, and
press it on your serious attention, the tendency is
all downward. The case is, in this respect,
unique. Even in thievery there may be an ad-
vance. The boy, of the lowest grade, who, by his
inferior practice, comes to be a dexterous pick-
pocket, or a clever abstracter of the contents of a
till, may in time rise to the envied, though un-
enviable, celebrity of a Barrington. He who first
pilfers a penny from a shop, if he gets forward in
the arts of villany, may find his way to the thou-
sands of a bank. But in the present case, rising
is a thing unknown. It can not be. It is all de-
scent. The young woman, who begins her shame-
less career in a low brothel, and among the
refuse of the other sex, docs not rise from the
lower to the higher, and push her way upward,
till she become the mistress of a peer. Mark me :
let me not be misunderstood; let me not be sup-
posed to say this, as if I conceived the guilt
would, in that case, be the less. Far be the
thought! It would be the very same same in the
rising as it is in the sinking scale. I am speak-
ing at present, not of the morality, but of the
misery of the case. And again I say, the ten-
dency is all downward. Gentlemen in high life
may think lightly of their gallantries. They do
things genteelly. They seduce in style; and they
keep in style. They conceive themselves to lay
under a kind of obligation the females whom they
OF MAGDALENISM.
69
honor with their preference. And alas! the poor
females, in the vanity of their hearts, often think
so too. But the honor is infamy; the flattery is
ruin. Not only is the sin the same in the highest
as in the lowest, but soon the poor victim, who
has yielded to the temptation, comes to know
what I mean by the tendency downward. Wheth-
er seduced in private, or beguiled into one of
the superior receptacles of infamy, it is seldom
long ere satiety and the passion for change throw
her off. She is turned mercilessly adrift. Her
seducer has gained his end, and thinks no more
of her. Another, and another, have taken her
place. But O! it is chilling to the heart, to think
of the downward career, of whose beginning that
seducer has been the guilty cause. Surely, did
his selfish and heartless voluptuousness allow him
for a moment to trace it,-had he one warm drop
of sensibility remaining in his heart's blood, he
could not but recoil and sicken at the thought. It
is all down-down-rapidly down; down from
stage to stage, till it terminates in some such
scene of squalid wretchedness as the one just de-
picted.
After what has already been laid before you, it
can not be to any of you matter of surprise to learn,
that suicide, and attempts at suicide, are frequent
among these miserable beings. "About a third or
a fourth part of them," says Mr. Tait, "attempt
suicide at one time or other: and perhaps about
eight per cent. are successful in accomplishing it.
It appears to be very contagious; for if one has
been known to have endeavored to take away her
own life, a number of others will soon do so also.
Several months will pass over, without anything
70
ON THE EFFECTS
of the kind again taking place; and then six or
eight cases will occur in the course of one or two
weeks. The author knew of four having tried to
poison themselves by laudanum in one night, and
in the course of next fortnight he heard of other
six." "It is believed, that a great number of har-
lots deprive themselves of existence, without any
person having the least knowledge or suspicion of
it, as they suddenly disappear from the midst of
their companions, and are never heard of after-
ward." "The great majority of harlots," says
the superintendent of our own police," appear to
entertain no sense of religion whatever. Many
cases, however, occur, of females brought to the
office in a state of insensibility from poison, or from
having attempted to drown themselves; and, on
being questioned as to their motive, the uniform
answer is—' I am tired of life,-I am very unhap-
py,-allow me to die.' Many of these unhappy
creatures might be saved, if a refuge were provi-
ded to which they could betake themselves. I
have seen cases, where the poor creatures labored
under the deepest remorse for past misconduct;
and they seemed only to require a home to save
them from perdition, and render them in time use-
ful members of the community. I may add, that
the greater part of these females in a short time
become so depraved, that they do not appear to
know what moral responsibility means. They re-
gard themselves as outcasts of society and act up-
on that conviction." To the humane and pious
mind this is very shocking. We do not wonder to
hear, that attempts at self-destruction are most
frequent" among those who have recently departed
from the paths of virtue;" the anguish of spirit
OF MAGDALENISM.
71
consequent on their fall, from the stings of con-
science, and from a keen sense of the loss of hon-
or, and character, and confidence, and every-
thing on which future prospects in life depended,
sufficiently accounting for the fact:-yet many
such cases may well be traced too to the accumu-
lation of misery in the unhappy creature's pro-
gressive descent, rendering hei "tired of life,"
and also to that mental imbecility and insanity,
which, by all medical authorities, are numbered
among the evils incident to such a course of life.
"It is worthy of remark," Dr. Ryan says, "that
this frequency of mental alienation, and impair-
ments of mind, has been observed in all ages."
The love of life is the first and strongest principle
in our nature; and, whether it be hopeless guilt
that overcomes it, or hopeless misery, or both to-
gether, what must be the weight of oppression,
or the agony of desperation, that drives to such an
extremity' Even although there may be little if
any thought or apprehension of an hereafter, yet is
the act of self-destruction a sadly convincing proof
of the cessation both of enjoyment and of all hope
of its return in the present world. And in those
cases, of which, in such a country as this, there
are not a few,—where there is the knowledge of
God, and Christ, and judgment, and heaven, and
hell, what a phrensy of felt and hopeless wretch-
edness must that be, which can find no refuge but
by plunging, in unrepented guilt and unsanctified
pollution, with curses, it may be, on the past, and
a reckless braving of the future,-into the abyss
of a dark eternity'
I feel it quite unnecessary for me to enlarge on
the misery produced by this vice in the circle of
72
ON THE EFFECTS
domestic life. I shall leave, in a great measure, to
your own imaginations, the wounded honor, the
offended pride, the shame, the indignation, the
grief, the pity, the bitterness of disappointment in
retracing the pleasing promises of the past, and
the dreary, heart-sinking blight of all that was
cheering in the anticipations of the future ;-which
are the inevitable results, when a daughter, or a
sister, has strayed from the paths of purity. O
the conflict, to parents especially, between duty
and affection,-the former seeming to require one
course, while the latter pressingly dictates anoth-
er ;—alternate convictions, desires, and determina-
tions, dividing the judgment against itself, and rend-
ing the very heart asunder; now hope prevailing,
and now fear, but the hope feeble, and the fear
strong; everything suggesting the recollection
-(if indeed the remembrance can ever be said to
be for a moment suspended)—of their lost child,
once their treasure, now their shame'
The very
caution with which, in their presence, friends avoid
every subject which would call up the bitter asso-
ciation, is itself a touching reminiscence; while
every day's incidents and rumors are incessantly
opening and irritating the sore. And possibly—
(the case is neither an imaginary nor a solitary one)
the natural and proud revenge of a brother for a
sister's violated honor, may challenge to the meas-
ured field of death the perpetrator of the foul deed;
the sister's seducer may become the brother's mur-
derer, and the parents may have to weep over the
grave of a son, as well as over the ruin of a daugh-
ter ! And even should that daughter, forsaking the
paths of sin and shame, find her way back to her
abandoned and dishonored home, the very pleasure
OF MAGDALENISM.
73
of her return is but a "bitter-sweet;" the venom
which the barbed arrow carried with it to the heart,
can never be thoroughly extracted; the very smile
of parental love is ever after a pensive smile, and
is followed by the sigh and the tear of hidden sor-
row. And not less distressing are the feelings of
every right-principled and right-hearted parent,
when a son-the rising hope of the family-has
fallen before the temptations of bad companionship
and the fascinations of the "
strange woman.
Alas! that by any this should be so very much less
thought of than the other' Far be it, that I should
wish the abhorrence of the other mitigated!—no ;
I would have it deepened. But I would that we
heard less frequently the gentle terms of allevia-
tion and half apology, in which, with regard to
our own sex, this sin is too often spoken of ;-that
we heard less of the indiscretions and irregularities
of youth; to which, by some parents, it appears to
be almost taken for granted, as a matter of course,
that young men should be found, in a greater or a
less degree, giving way: "They are only like
their neighbors; where is the youth to be found
that is blameless ?" It is very sad, when that
which ought to "pierce" the parental heart
"through with many sorrows," should, in so many
instances, be so lightly felt, and so lightly spoken of.
O! of what an amount and variety of domestic
misery has this sin in diverse ways—whether
committed by sons or by daughters, by husbands
or by wives, by fathers or by mothers-been the
prolific parent! How many hearts has it broken!
what anguish, what resentment, what jealousy,
what alienation, what strife, what blood, has it
caused! what scorpions has it thrown into the
7
74
ON THE EFFECTS
circle of family concord' what infuriated and re-
vengeful passions has it enkindled' or what heavy
and deep-sunk melancholy has it brought over the
broken spirit-melancholy which refuses to be
comforted, and looks for rest only to the grave!
And from this point I am led, by a natural asso-
ciation, to the evils resulting from this vice to the
public. The feelings of distress which I have
been depicting are far, alas! from being the feel-
ings of all parents, and of all families, in the cır-
cumstances supposed. Many parents there are,
who seem strangers alike to the dictates of con-
science and to those of natural affection. Brought
up themselves in licentious habits, they train their
children to the same course. Their sole calcula-
tion respecting them is, to what profitable account
they can be turned; whether it is by working, or
by stealing, that they can make most; and if they
can unite the two, so much the better. When
their girls grow up, this vice is regarded, both by
parents and children (children and children's chil-
dren of "the wicked one"), not in its sinfulness and
its dishonor, but only as one among other means
in their choice of getting a livelihood. They throw
themselves upon the town, or they are put out to
the trade of infamy by their unnatural fathers and
mothers. The habits of vice and licentiousness
in which boys and girls together are thus trained,
may contribute, with other causes, to account for
the notorious fact of the almost invariable connex-
ion between magdalenism and different descrip-
tions of crime. In all the representations of those
public functionaries who have the best opportuni-
ties for observation, this fact stands prominently
out: "A large proportion," says Mr. Miller, "of
OF MAGDALENISM.
75
the robberies from the person, committed in Glas-
gow, take place in houses of bad fame, or by har-
lots on the streets or elsewhere. The value of
property reported to the police as stolen from the
person in 1840, within the Royalty, was £2,268,
18s. ; but it is believed that robberies to a consid-
erable amount take place in brothels, or are com-
mitted by depraved females elsewhere, that are
never heard of, from the unwillingness of the per-
sons robbed to expose themselves."-" Robbery,"
says Mr. Tait,
is another consequence of mag-
dalenism. While the latter is openly tolerated and
encouraged, the former will also continue to exist.
The extent to which this crime is carried on is
very great. No man who goes into the company
of harlots is certain that he will effect his escape
without being robbed. Scarcely a week passes,
without such cases being recorded in the public
papers. Let the records of the justiciary courts
be consulted, and it will be found that nearly one
third of those who are convicted of robberies and
larcenies belong to the class of harlots; and it is
almost needless to say, that nearly as many are
acquitted for want of evidence, and thrice as many
more against whom no charge is brought, as the
conviction of the one party must necessarily dis-
close the guilt of the other. The amount of the
sum stolen is often very considerable."
A num-
ber of instances are introduced in the work for
illustration and proof. It may not be perfectly
correct, perhaps, to speak of this as simply "a
consequence of magdalenism." In very many cases
the crimes of theft and robbery must have preceded
harlotry, and the habits of dexterity in their perpe-
tration have been previously acquired-this vice
76
ON THE EFFECTS
only opening a new field for the successful exer-
cise of this dexterity. True it is, however, that
in low brothels, the receptacles of vileness and
vice, there is a concentration of the arts of fraud
and the practices of plunder. Their female in-
mates are the thieves; the "fancy-men," or "bul-
lies," of these inmates-their professed protectors,
though often their greatest abusers-receive their
share of the spoil; and their keepers are, to a great
extent, the resetters of the stolen property. Theft
and robbery are reduced to a system. And this,
among other reasons, renders such houses fair
objects for the interference and coercive suppres-
sion of the legislative and municipal authorities.
But this is not the only way in which harlotry
promotes dishonesty and crime. It is not merely
that these abandoned females pilfer in the brothels
from those who frequent them, and extend their
nefarious practices to the streets and lanes of the
city: there is a species of robbery traceable to
this source, which is of a description even more
lamentable. I refer to the temptation which it
holds out—and often too successfully-to young
men, to defraud and rob their employers, in order
to provide themselves with the necessary means
of pursuing their dissolute courses. A course of
licentiousness can not be followed without expense.
When a young man has once given way before
temptation, and has come to the fatal resolution of
making his own inclinations his rule, he feels the
sin to be sweet: he is by this means tempted to
its repetition; every repetition relaxes the hold
which virtue had of his conscience, and wreathes
the chain of vice more closely round his deluded
heart. He has got among those whose sole ob-
OF MAGDALENISM.
ying
ject, though carefully concealed, is to fleece him.
They ply him with all their arts of obscenity, flat-
tery, and banter; coaxing him with honeyed words,
or stinging his pride with the taunts of ribald sar-
casm. And if his male associates in licentiousness
chance to be such as possess means of gratifica-
tion more abundant than his own, the snare be-
comes more than doubly perilous. Money he must
have. He can not be behind his companions. With
a throbbing heart and a trembling hand, he makes
his first petty embezzlement. He succeeds in
concealing it. Another follows. The success is
equal. He gets emboldened. Fraud succeeds
fraud. Suspicion arises. Vigilance is awakened.
Detection ensues. Character, and confidence, and
situation, are forfeited. And the fate of the infatu-
ated youth is either a prison and transportation, or
a total´abandonment to low vice and villany, ter-
minating in premature exhaustion, disease, deser-
tion, misery, and death.
Every one who wishes well to the rising youth
of our own and other cities and towns, must deeply
lament the increasing number of female seducers.
Many of them may themselves have been the sub-
Jects of seduction by the other sex.
But they
become seducers in their turn; and, whether from
the first entering spontaneously on a life of mag-
dalenism, or throwing themselves on the town
when cast off by the heartless despoilers of their
virtue, they become, emphatically, moral pests of
the community. In our days, as in Solomon's,
the harlot "lieth in wait as for a prey; and in-
creaseth the transgressors among men.
"Now
is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in
walt at every corner." "Her lips drop as a
""
7*
78
ON THE EFFECTS
honey-comb, and her mouth is smoother than oil :
but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-
edged sword: her feet go down to death; her
steps take hold on hell: lest thou shouldst ponder
the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou
canst not know them." But, in spite of the warn-
ing which follows, coming with the united author-
ity and kindness of Heaven--“Remove thy way
far from her; come not nigh the door of her house"
-how many of our young men, the inexperienced
and thoughtless, the unsuspicious, light-hearted,
and gay, are thus haplessly led astray The vice,
in certain circles-circles, alas' of no narrow
limits-is one of those in which it is hardly reck-
oned consistent with the character and pretensions
of a lad of spirit to be uninitiated.
Such inexpe-
rience-the happy ignorance and virgin purity of
youth-exposes him to the sneers, and winks, and
shrugs, the banter, and the pity, and the laugh, of
his companions. If, when "in the twilight, in the
evening, in the black and dark night," he is as-
sailed by the artful blandıshments of the harlot,
any of these companions happen to be with him,
and, amid merriment and jeering, set him the ex-
ample of what they call manly spirit and indepen-
dence, how can he withstand the united assault?
the fascinations of fem le gallantry, working on
passions which are in all the strength of youth,
while the principles of restraint are in all youth's
weakness-aided by the raillery, the cajoling, the
persuasion, the all but absolute force, of associates,
who tell him, while they exchange glances of pro-
voking scorn and pity, he may go home, if he will,
to his mammy and to his Bible, and to the leading-
strings of the nursery; that he may take his way,
and leave them to take theirs; insinuating, perhaps,
OF MAGDALENISM.
79
at the same time, that "deep waters flow stilly;"
that they know full well what way his inclination
lies, if he had but spirit enough to dare to follow
it; and that, after all, he is not, at bottom, a whit
better than themselves! He hesitates; he turns
away; he looks back; he blushes for his very
virtue; they follow up their advantage; he yields;
and he is lost. It is to be feared that the number
of young men, of whom this, or something like
this, is the history, is far from being small. And
especially is this the fate of many who come, in
boyhood and youth, from the comparative inexpe-
rience of the country. For these, both abandoned
men and abandoned women are on the lookout;
who throw their toils around them in such artful
ways, that to escape from their meshes would be
a kind of moral miracle. And thus the number
multiplies of those whom the necessary expenses
of one sin drives to the commission of others;
whom incontinence tempts to dishonesty; who
from the shop or the warehouse abstract the hire
and the presents of the kept mistress or the
brothel; who from the cash drawn during the day
provide for the sensual pleasures of the night; or
who, if pursuing those pleasures in a higher grade,
practise their swindlings on a larger scale; and
perhaps at length, getting desperate, draw fictitious
bills, and, with the proceeds, flee their country.
And while thus, in such a variety of ways, the
prevalence of this vice cherishes, as in a hot-bed,
theft, and fraud, and embezzlement, and lying, and
forgery; it spreads, wide and more wide, the gen-
eral debasement of moral principle, and hebetude
of religious sensibilities, manifested in profane
swearing, in filthy conversation, in the ridicule of
all that bears the semblance of piety, in sabbath-
80
ON THE EFFECTS
breaking, in rivalry at framing the most tremendous
oaths, uttering the grossest obscenities, or accom-
plishing the most dexterous or most daring acts of
wickedness, and in that contempt of goodness, and
obliteration of right feeling, which, to the extent
wherein it prevails, cuts up by the roots "the
righteousness which exalteth a nation," and to the
seriously thoughtful mind holds out so fearful a
prognostic for the time to come; “sın” being,
under the administration of Him who is "of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity," not the " reproach"
only, but the peril of a community, the prominent
and appalling attraction to the lightnings of his
vengeance. Men may, indeed, think lightly of it;
but they only think lightly because they think igno-
rantly, inconsiderately, or selfishly. By all his-
torically-recorded experience we are borne out in
the assertion, that the prevalence of this vice tends,
in a variety of ways, to the deterioration of nation-
al character, and to the consequent exposure of the
nations among whom it abounds to weakness, de-
cline, and fall. I believe it will be found, that an
average of the general state of morals, in different
countries might be pretty fairly struck, by simply
ascertaining the degree in which this particular
vice prevails; the average of national virtue aug-
menting as this diminishes, and diminishing as
this augments. In this view, the suppression of
it, by every legitimate means, becomes a matter of
interest to patriotism as well as to piety and benevo-
lence; to the friends of public as well as of private
character; of national as well as of personal well-
being; to the soundly-principled and conscientious
magistrate, as well as to the minister of Christ.
The means themselves of such suppression will
hereafter be considered.
OF MAGDALENISM.
81
LECTURE III.
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES OF MAGDALENISM.
In order the more strongly to impress upon your
minds the duty and the necessity of bringing all
accessible means, that are right in principle and
capable of beneficial application, to bear upon the
great practical end mentioned in the conclusion of
our second lecture, I now proceed to consider—
III. THE EVIDENCE AND DEGREE OF THE
GUILT, OR MORAL TURPITUDE, of the sin under
discussion This has all along been assumed; but
has not been sufficiently brought out by illustration
or argument. I speak of the guilt, not of the vice
itself alone, but of every kind and measure of
countenance or encouragement, positive or nega-
tive, that is given to it.
I have already more than hinted my concern,
that the estimate, prevalent in general society, of
the moral evil of the vice in question, should be
so very low. Among the reasons accounting for
this, may be mentioned the fact, that, with one of
the sexes, the indulgence of it extends at once so far
up and so far down in the social scale; whence arises
the further fact, that there is no one in the catalogue
of reputed evils, for which there exists, on the
part of that sex, so strong and so general a propen-
sity to discover or invent excuses and alleviations.
82
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
One of these is so common, that it presents itself
for notice at the very threshold of this department
of our subject. There can be no very deadly harm
in it, it has been alleged, seeing it is only follow-
ing nature; for why has nature given us appetites,
but to be indulged? Now this may sound plausibly:
but a very brief examination is sufficient to show,
that even its plausibility is derived from its har-
monizing with inclination. It is only one out of
numberless examples, which go to show, how
readily the human mind satisfies itself with any-
thing that bears the semblance of an argument,
when it is on the side of the heart's tendencies.
Nature, rightly read, teaches no such lesson; but
gives, on the contrary, indications the most palpable
and decisive, of its being a violation of her will.
I trust I need not say that, when I thus adopt for
a moment a common phraseology, I would be un-
derstood as meaning by nature nature's God. His
lessons are to be found in the two volumes of na-
ture and of revelation; and on the present, as on
all other points, the lessons of both are in perfect
coincidence. It is true that we have natural ap-
petites. It is true, that with the exercise of those
appetites the God of nature, the divine author of
the constitution of our frame, has been pleased to
associate sensations of enjoyment. And in this
we have a manifestation, not of benevolence alone,
but of wisdom. The pleasure was necessary to
these appetites answering their ends. The pleas-
ure itself was not nature's end, but something sub-
servient to its effectual attainment. Many and
striking are the marks of this wisdom. In regard
to some of the functions of our wonderful animal
mechanism, functions which are necessary every
OF MAGDALENISM.
83
moment to its continued vitality, the wisdom ap-
pears in so constituting the internal structure of
our frame, as to make them go regularly on, in-
dependently of the volitions of our minds. Such
are the functions of respiration, and the circulation
of the blood. We should have had much more
than enough to do, had we had these processes
alone to attend to. In..other cases, by the same
wisdom, the end is effected in another way, name-
ly, by the attaching of sensations of pleasure to
the indulgence of the natural and necessary appe-
tite. Thus, it is necessary to life, that men should
eat and drink; and eating and drinking are sources
of enjoyment. The Author of life has not left its
maintenance to depend on what is painful, or even
on what is indifferent, but, with a characteristic
union of wisdom and kindness, on what is directly
pleasurable. On the principle of the plea we are
considering, the glutton and the epicure, the men
who, instead of eating to live, live to eat, find their
plausible ground of self-justification in their re-
spective indulgences. Thus, then, it is in the case
before us. The sexual intercourse is necessary to
a most important end, the very perpetuation of the
species. And, with the same union of wisdom
and kindness, the Author of our constitution has
connected this too, not with pain, but with pleasure.
It is evident, that, had the fact been otherwise, the
race would not long have subsisted. But it is no
less evident, that to seek the mere pleasure, inde-
pendently of the end which the pleasure was only
meant to subserve, is not to follow nature. It is to
abuse nature's kindness, and nature's wisdom; un-
gratefully and criminally to abuse them, by follow-
ing a course, which, as we shall notice immediate-
84
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
ly, tends to subvert, instead of subserving, nature's
purposes. The God of nature has connected the
wise and kind arrangement to which we have been
referring, with certain restrictions. These restric-
tions are marked by nature, as well as by revela-
tion: and the mere voluptuary, who sets at naught
these restrictions, and follows the libidinous im-
pulses of his animal appetite, not for the sake of
the end for which it has been implanted, but solely
for the sensual pleasure that is incidental to it and
conducive to the end, so far from following nature,
is only availing himself of nature's beneficent ar-
rangements, for the sake of self-gratification of the
lowest kind, regardlessly of nature's real and di-
vinely characteristic intentions.
I have said, that Nature has marked her own
restrictions, in regard to the way in which she
designed her end to be attained; and to follow
nature, is to seek the attainment of the end in that
way and under those restrictions. Various and
impressive facts concur in evincing, that, for in-
suring the preservation and increase of the race,
nature's way is not the way of indiscriminate
promiscuous indulgence, but that of peculiar con-
jugal appropriation; in one word, that the law of
nature is, on this point, the same with the law of
revelation, “that every man have his own wife,
and every woman her own husband." Of these
facts I may just mention, without dwelling upon
them, the average equality of the sexes; and the
general barrenness and unproductiveness of the sys-
tem of magdalenism; the latter distinctly proclaim-
ing its unnaturalness, by its contrariety to nature's
admitted end and primary law in the creation of a
male and a female-a law which, expressed in the
OF MAGDALENISM.
85
terms of holy writ, is-" Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth." That the system of
conjugal appropriation is, beyond comparison, the
most steadily efficient for the maintenance and nu-
merical increase of the race, experience has
placed out of the range of doubt. The barrenness
of magdalenism is proverbial; and against the
prevalence of the vice, were there no marriage,
there could be no security. The number of
abandoned women," says Captain Miller,
"who
become pregnant, or at least whose offspring come
to maturity, is very small-probably not one in
fifty:—but on this subject I can not speak with
any certainty.' Certainty or precision is not ne-
cessary:—the general fact is enough. And the
fact stands confirmed by the best authorities. "On
a review," says Parent-Duchatelet, "of all the
returns made to my inquiries, together with what
I have found in various ancient and modern books,
the conclusion forced upon me has been, that a
thousand of these women yield scarcely sıx births
in the course of a year." He confirms this by
statements from lying-in hospitals, &c. :—and the
general result is, that, how frequent soever con-
ception may be, the retention and birth of living,
and still more of healthy children, is exceedingly
rare.
""
And on the contrary he states, that when
they relinquish their guilty vocation, and become
attached by marriage to one man, the barrenness
ceases, pregnancy becomes regular, its course
auspicious, and its results happy; the children
which are its product being as healthy and lively
as those of other wives. But there is still an-
other way, in which nature, or rather the God of
nature, has stamped on magdalenism the brand of,
8
86
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
guilt and reprobation. I allude again to that most
fearful distemper, which, while never in one in-
stance does it visit the "bed undefiled" of conju-
gal fidelity, is so intolerable a scourge of inconti-
nence. Is there no lesson in this no divine
intimation of the right and the wrong, the lawful
and the lawless ?-no seal of virtue, and stigma
of vice? That a disease, involving a complica-
tion of diseases of which I have said enough
before to satisfy you, that it is one of the most
dreadful that can invade the human frame-should
to so great an extent be the effect of the one spe-
cies of intercourse, and never at all of the other;
a disease, which, while it commits such ravages
on its immediate subject, is also, many a time (in
not a few cases through the innocent and doubly
wronged wives of faithless and adulterous hus-
bands) communicated to helpless children, so as to
make their early death a deliverance and a bless-
ing; and, in some instances, taints the blood, and
debilitates the constitutions, of successive genera-
tions:—is not this, I ask, fairly interpreted as na-
ture's warning voice;—the voice, it may be, of
severity-yet of a just and salutary severity, and
of a real kindness,-a voice dissuading from the
one course, and recommending the other; -a voice
loudly and sternly repeating Nature's, and the God
of nature's, own original law-"Let every man
have his own wife, and every woman her own
husband."
To any who know their bibles I need not say,
how perfect is the agreement between all in nature
that is indicative of divine condemnation, and the
more peremptory and uncompromising sentence of
revelation. Here there is no dubiety;—no ambi-
OF MAGDALENISM.
87
guity in the oracles of this shrine. Here, all im-
purity is laid under the heaviest of divine anath-
emas. It stands branded, deep to the very bone,
with the mark of the curse. It is not here a mere
failing, an irregularity, an indiscretion, a venial
fault. It is numbered among the sins which ex-
clude their unrepenting perpetrators from the king-
dom of heaven, and "because of which the wrath
of God cometh upon the children of disobedience."
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not in-
herit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
neither fornicators. nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor cffeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the king-
dom of God. And such were some of you: but
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God." "Now the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, for-
nication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the
which I tell you before, as I have also told you in
time past, that they who do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God." And the entire
Bible is in the same strain; full of commands to
abstain, of denunciations against transgressors,
and of recorded judgments as the execution of
such denunciations; and full too of intimations of
a future vengeance unutterably heavier than aught
ever inflicted in the present world.
Thus the facts of nature and the pages of rev-
elation speak the same language. We are left at
88
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
no loss. In the word of God especially, all is
plain dealing. "Fornication and all uncleanness"
have their place there among the sins for which
"the wicked shall be turned into hell." In the
face, then, of these lessons of nature and revela-
tion-that is surely a very presumptuous and a
very perilous position, which by some has been
taken up, and which I have myself heard main-
tained, that the existence of this class of females is
necessary to the preservation of the general virtue
of the community. There would otherwise, it has
been surmised, be little security for the chastity of
our wives and daughters from the wild passions of
a lawless libertinism' A question or two here nat-
urally suggest themselves. First of all, I would
ask, what special title have the wives and daugh-
ters of those who employ this plea to the pro-
tection of their virtue, more than other wives and
daughters? Why are theirs to be protected at the
expense of the others, and not the others at the
expense of theirs? Who, in the community, are
to be the victims-the vice-doomed safeguards of
the virtue of the rest the wretched safety-
valves of unprincipled and unbridled passions?
Are we to have a decimation by lot of the virgin-
ity of the country or is some inferior class to
be sacrificed to the demon of lust, for the benefit
of those above them? That the evil has always
existed, is a melancholy truth :—that it must
always continue to exist, is the affirmation, made
with all the coolness of indifference, of the reason-
ers in question; although it is not quite the faith
of the Christian. But what if this were equally
true with the other-the future doomed to be
coincident in character with the past and the pres-
2
OF MAGDALENISM.
89
ent? It is still a widely different thing from the
position, that vice is essential to the preservation of
virtue. That were indeed a hard necessity.
Where is the individual—male or female, and in
what rank soever of society-whom I am not to
dissuade from vice-whom it would be wrong so
to dissuade the successful dissuasion of whom
would be an injury to the public by prevailing
with whom to give up her evil course, I should
incur the responsibility of one who shuts a high-
pressure safety-valve ?—where the individual,
whose body and soul I am bound to leave to death
and perdition, lest perchance some others should
come to be exposed to temptation ?—If harlotism
be sın, I am bound—and so is every one else—
to prevent it, as far as possible, in all. The idea
of countenancing, or even winking at it, in some,
with a view to its prevention in others, is an out-
rage on everything that deserves the name of
principle. Who are the men whom you find argu-
ing for such a toleration? Did you ever hear any
one use the argument, who had himself a right
impression of the sin and guilt of the practice-
who was himself a man of religion and virtue?
If any but heartless libertines have ever adopted
it, surely it must have been with a strange incon-
sideration of their ground. Generally, if not uni-
versally, it will be found, that the men who talk
thus of the necessity of this vice, are the very
men from whom the alleged danger, if it exist at all,
originates; men who have no impression of the
evil of doing that themselves from which they are
so dutifully solicitous forsooth to preserve others ;
who are determined on their own indulgence; and
who throw over it this among other flimsy cobweb
8*
90
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
coverings. Away with it! It will not bear a
thought; far less an argument. In the depart-
ment of morals, the maxim that "of two evils we
should choose the least" admits of no application.
There is no liberty left us to choose, either the
least or the greatest. The idea that any sin re-
quires to be tolerated, in order to prevent more,
involves an impious reflection on the Divine Being,
for which there never has been, there is not, and
there never can be, the remotest ground. That
which he demands, in regard to "the flesh with
its affections and lusts," is-their " crucifixion."
Our maxim, as to all that is morally evil-the only
safe one for either ourselves or others-is-" de-
lenda est:”—and, both in ourselves and in others,
we are bound, to the utmost extent of our power,
to give the maxim realization. "As to the usual
apology for this relaxed discipline," says Dr Paley
(he is speaking of the public toleration of this
vice), "the danger of greater enormities, if access
to abandoned women were too strictly watched
and prohibited; it will be time enough to look to
that, after the laws and the magistrates have done
their utmost. The greatest vigilance of both will
do no more than oppose some bounds and some
difficulties to this intercourse. And after all,
these pretended fears are without foundation in
experience. The men are in all respects the
most virtucus, in countries where the women are
most chaste."
But I have not yet done with the moral turpi-
tude of the offence. I have been regarding it as
in itself evil; as a sin, stamped as such by the
hand of Nature, and branded still more clearly and
deeply as such by the hand of God in revelation.
OF MAGDALENISM.
91
But, to have a full view of the case, you must
think further of the effects of magdalenism, as they
were formerly, though far from fully, set before
you,—the various and dreadful results to which,
both in this world and in the world to come, it
gives rise. Is there no moral evil in being acces-
sory to these?—no violation of the claims of right-
eousness and benevolence —no offence against
the great rule of all equity, and honor, and love,
"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye even so to them?" By any man who
reflects for one moment on these results, can
any answer but one be given to such questions?
And be it remembered, every man is accessory
to those results-to one and all of them, in
all their horrible multiplicity and extent-who,
whether by his personal example or in any other
way, contributes to the support and countenance
of the system. There are not a few, it is feared,
who never think of this; who indulge in their
own gallantries, and look no farther, conceiving
that they have to answer only for their own,-
that with those of others they have nothing to do.
But I wish them to think of it. I wish all to
think of it. Such men are far mistaken. Their
gallantries can not be taken by themselves. They
form part of an aggregate; and the amount of that
aggregate they contribute, in various ways, to in-
crease. They go to the upholding of an extensive
an extending system of sin and misery. And in
this tendency, apart from their own intrinsic guilt,
they are deeply criminal. The man who by his
practice, by his writings, by his conversation,
by his company, countenances this vice, stands
chargeable with his share of all its attendant and
92
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
consequent miseries, throughout the entire range
of its prevalence; with his share of all the bodily
disease, the torture, and the premature death; of
all the loss of character, respectability, mainten-
ance, and comfort; of all the deprivation of moral
principle, all the lying, dishonesty, theft, obscen-
ity, and profaneness; of all the secret and open
crime; of all the agonies of mind, all the searing
of conscience, all the intemperance, all the jeal-
ousies, quarrels, battles, and blood; of all the
abortions, infanticides, and suicides; of all the
shrinking and shrieking fears, and all the still
more appalling hardihood and heaven-defying cal-
lousness, of the dying hour; and of all the untold
woes which, in the unseen world, await the guilty
soul, that enters it steeped in sin, and fit for no
region there but that of the "worm that dieth
not:"-yes; with his share, larger or smaller as
it may be, of all the wretchedness and ruin
which, in time and eternity, this prolific parent-
sin produces ! O let not the man of inconti-
nence measure his guilt exclusively by the num-
ber of his own direct personal trespasses against
the laws of chastity. These may be many, or
they may be few. Every one of them, in itself,
involves deep and soul-ruining criminality to the
perpetrator, how many other persons soever there
may be to whom he can point, whose gallantries
are both more frequent and flagrant than his own.
But let him remember, that this is not the limit of
his moral delinquency. Let him take a survey of
the general evils of the system-than which, when
all its varieties are taken in, there is not another
so full of wo;" no, not intemperance itself,
many and miserable as its evil consequences are;
66
OF MAGDALENISM.
93
it may slay its thousands, but this slays its ten
thousands and let him shrink, with dread and
horror, from the thought of in any way contribu-
ting to the continued subsistence and extension of
this pandemonium, this hell upon earth, this dismal
concentration of pollution, and guilt, and blasphe-
my, and wretchedness'
And in speaking of the guilt of the general
system, and of all the countenance that is given
to it, I know not that I can have a more appro-
priate occasion for noticing a class of persons,
whom one can not but regard as the very imper-
sonations of satanic malignity,-the most loath-
some of the emissaries of hell. I refer to those
persons to be found in connexion, I believe, with
both the higher and the lower description of
brothels, though more especially with the former,
-who go under the name of procurers and pro-
curesses. The designation is quite sufficient to
show their hellish vocation. Such it literally and
emphatically is. They are agents of the tempter.
They watch for innocence. Night and day, they
are on the lookout for such virgin viitue as, by
any art of insinuating affability and kindness, and
of false representations and alluring promises, they
can contrive to decoy to those retreats of impurity,
where, in utter ignorance and simple-hearted un-
suspiciousness of what awaits them, they are
handed over to the company of some wretch, ex-
perienced in the wiles of seduction;—a wretch,
who gives his orders for virgin innocence, as he
does for his haunch of venison or any other dainty
article in his bill of fare;—a wretch, to whom it
gives not the concern of a moment what it may
cost to others, provided he have but his hour of
94
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
choice pleasure ;-
-a wretch, who has made female
nature his study, with no other view than that of
detecting its weaker points, and working upon
them for its destruction,-and who, by artfully-de-
vised conversation, all, though at first impercepti-
bly, tending one way, by flattery, by hollow
promises, by enticing blandishments, by wine, by
force, or by a combination of them all,-all alike
accused,-effects his nefarious purpose.-
O!
-
one's blood boils over, to think of the agents of a
system so monstrous ! And yet these procurers
and procuresses have been known to frequent the
very house of God, in pursuit of their diabolical
ends, on the scent for their prey. When we
think of the absolute devilishness of the occupa-
tion, it becomes, so far as our own city is con-
cerned, a satisfaction, to have the testimony of
Capt. Miller, that there are comparatively few
who are engaged in it. In reply to a query put
to him on the subject, his words are: "There
are, I believe, a few individuals in Glasgow, who
employ themselves as procuresses; but the num-
ber is very small." Since, however, this is a part
of the system elsewhere, and is carried to an ex-
tent which one would fain disci edit, would the
evidence but admit of incredulity, I should be un-
faithful to my duty, were I not to bring it more
fully before you. The following paragraphs,
without comment, will give you quite enough of
it; and I should be sorry to think that there was
one individual within these walls, on whose mind
the impression produced by the reading of them
was any other than one of unmingled and unmiti-
gated detestation, followed by the irrepressible
desire, that not private means alone, nor alone the
1
OF MAGDALENISM.
95
united moral efforts of Christian benevolence, but
the strong and punitive arm of the law, were made
effectively to reach, and thoroughly to put down,
a system of such atrocious infamy.
The
Here too I might quote from Duchatelet, by
whom the same class of persons is described; but
I have enough, and more than enough, nearer home.
The first of my two extracts is from the Sixth Re-
port of the London Society for the protection of
young females, before alluded to; it is the entire
section entitled-" PUNISHING OF PROCURERS AND
PROCURESSES." "Last year, at the time of the
Annual Meeting, the committee reported, 'That
they were engaged in prosecuting a woman, named
Emma Stone, for decoying a child, eleven years
of age, from her parents, into a brothel.'
crime was clearly proved against this woman, and
she was sentenced to a twelve-month's imprison-
ment, with hard labor. Cases of this kind are al-
ways difficult of proof; and this will, in some
measure, account for the very few in which the
committee have been enabled effectually to inter-
fere. They are, nevertheless; exceedingly nume-
rous; to prove this, it need but be stated, that the
keepers of brothels at the west end of London,
supply their houses with a constant succession of
young females, through the agency of the procu-
rer. They do not retain any of them more than
one or two months, keeping them confined to the
house during that time, and then allow them to de-
part, or turn them out if necessary.
Those who
have the moral courage, and are enabled to return
to their parents, endeavor to hide the defilement
which they have contracted, and for which they
could obtain no redress; but being generally of
96
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
that age when the judgment is weak and the sense
of shame strong, and finding their characters gone,
their means of subsistence taken from them, and
being polluted, probably in mind as well as in body,
by the criminal intercourse to which they have
been daily compelled to submit, they give them-
selves up for lost, and continue the course into
which they have been entrapped; the final result
of which is, that, shut out, not only from the sym-
pathies of their own sex, but from those of man-
kind, and treated with the greatest brutality, es-
pecially in the latter part of their career, they event-
ually perish, either by suicide or disease, the ef-
fects of misery and destitution. A few weeks
since another case was brought under the cogni-
zance of the committee. A woman had, by some
sinister means, become possessed of the person of
a young female from the country, the parents of
whom were dead, and who had been residing with
her uncle, a clergyman. This woman immediately
forwarded a letter to a gentleman in the city, sta-
ting that she had just received a beautiful young
girl from the country, and making an appointment
for the gentleman to meet her in the evening at a
brothel, in a street near to Charing-cross. Upon
the receipt of this letter, the gentleman immedı-
ately placed it in the hands of the committee, who
adopted such prompt and decisive measures as they
believed were calculated to save the girl from pres-
ent destruction. In the course of the investigation
it was discovered, that this woman had been in the
habit of procuring females for the basest purpose
for a long period. At the time she offered this
young creature, as described, she had possession
of another, whom the committee, being aware of
OF MAGDALENISM.
97
the fact too late, were unable to save. An appli-
cation was made to the magistrate at Marlborough
street police office, for a warrant against her, who
regretted that, however diabolical the conduct of
the woman had been, the law gave him no power
to interfere. Thus she escaped the punishment
she so justly merited, and was let loose upon soci-
ety to pursue her dreadful trade. These cases
might be multiplied, but the committee desire not
to extend their report to too great a length; they
can not, however, omit to mention the fact, that by
such means, many of the houses kept by foreign-
ers are supplied, and who are at considerable ex-
pense in obtaining respectable young women from
the Continent, by engaging them as nursery-gov-
ernesses and for other employments. After their
ruin has been accomplished, they are dismissed,
and fresh victims imported to supply their places.
They trust that ere long this crime will be met by
some stringent law, and thus an end be put to this
odious and disgusting traffic. They call again up-
on every one who values the purity of the domes-
tic circle and the welfare of society, to assist in
suppressing this detestable crime, and in promoting
the interests of virtue and morality."
My other extract is from the work of Mr. Tait,
to which I have already acknowledged my obliga-
tions, and may have to do so again. Speaking of
the procuresses, he says: "Having spent a great
proportion of their days in scenes of the utmost
wickedness, and seen all the vicissitudes of their
profession, they are consequently versant in all
the particulars relating to it, and prove useful as-
sistants and admonitors of those who have newly
opened an establishment on their own account.
9
98
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
Most of the genteel brothels have one of these de-
based characters attached to them; and by her in-
structions the keeper is in a great measure guided.
Besides acting as house-keepers, part of their busi-
ness is to seek out nice-looking girls as lodgers;
and, in order to do this successfully, they have
generally a number of agents in different parts of
the town employed to ferret out such servants,
sewers, or unprotected females, as they imagine
will answer their purpose. Those thus engaged
are small shopkeepers, green-wives, washing and
mangle women, and some of those who keep pub-
lic lodgings, who have many opportunities of meet-
ing with strangers who come to their houses for a
night's protection, and of advising them to brothels
as servants, &c. But as nothing is so much cal-
culated to convey an idea of the extent and enor-
mity of this evil, and of the characters of those
employed in it, as the following statements of Mr.
Talbot from the work of Dr. Ryan, the author will
take the liberty of quoting them. He represents
them as 'the most abominable wretches in exist-
ence, alike reckless of themselves and of those
who may become their prey. Some procurers are
men moving in the most respectable classes of so-
ciety. These are attached, for the most part, to
brothels kept by foreigners, and are often sent to
different towns and villages on the Continent to
engage young girls from their parents, as tambour-
workers, dress-makers, &c.; and a quarter's wages
are advanced to the parents to lull their suspicions.
When these inhuman monsters have obtained a
sufficient number, they bring them to London,
where their modesty and virtue are sold to some
profligate wretch for from £20 to £100. After a
OF MAGDALENISM.
99
short period, these children are said to become
stale, and are turned into the streets (contaminated
or not) to starve.' He again remarks, that 'pro-
curesses are employed in this metropolis and else-
where to watch stage-coach offices, and to offer
advice, aid, and lodging, to girls who come to Lon-
don to obtain situations. Others frequent servant's
bazars, or rather sinks of iniquity, workhouses,
prisons, penitentiaries, for the purpose of luring
servants, and decoying innocent and inexperienced
girls, by every artifice and cunning which infamy
can suggest. I have known procuresses who were
sent seventy miles from London, and no expense
spared in their horrible traffic. Others prowl
about the streets of London day and night, for the
purpose of entrapping the unwary; and thus the
demand for fresh victims is supplied.' In refer-
ence to another kind of procuresses, Mr. Talbot
observes The Sabbath is a favorite day with
these wretches; and they watch young children
going to Sunday schools, and entice them to their
haunts; nay, I believe children have been actually
taken from the schools in the sight of teachers and
companions, they having no idea of such a shock-
ing system being in operation. As soon as the
children are secured, they are sold, and their ruin
sealed perhaps by some hoaryheaded debauchee,
at an enormous price
The whole system here
depicted, is one of such a horrifying description,
that nature shudders at the thought of it. Edin-
burgh being comparatively a small city, may not
present the evil in the same magnitude or enormity
as London; yet it is much to be feared that an
evil of the same kind exists on a small scale.
Mangle-wives have been reported to be established,:
ין
100
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
even by gentlemen, with the sole intention of en-
trapping servant girls for the gratification of their
own ungovernable propensities; and, at the mo-
ment when he writes, the author has in his eye a
small green shop, in a respectable street, the keep-
er of which-an old kept-mistress-was a few
years ago installed into that situation by two or
more gentlemen for the purpose alluded to; and
in which no fewer than eight decent servants of
families in the neighborhood, have been unsus-
pectedly seduced in the course of the last year.
This was accomplished by inviting them to tea on
the Sabbath evenings, and afterward treating them
with wine till they were nearly intoxicated, when
these gallants were introduced, and of course joined
them in their merriment, till they attained their
object." (Magdalenism, pp. 101–103)
יין
GENTLEMEN "" GENTLEMEN!" and must
we indeed use the name in such an association?
I can hardly bring myself to utter it. It is one of
the disgraces and curses of modern society, that
such paragons of heartless and lawless infamy
should bear the designation: men, compared with
whom the thief who picks their own pockets, and
whom they would curse and kick into the kennel,
or order to the watch-house, is a pattern of honor,
and respectability, and worth' Pardon the burst
of honest indignation: you can not wonder at its
forcing an utterance, after what I have just read to
you. And if we are shocked at the atrocity of
such an occupation, what are we to think of the
guilt of those for whose gratification it is instituted
and maintained? and what of the guilt of the
whole system of magdalenism, which thus accu-
mulates upon us as we advance? and what of
OF MAGDALENISM,
101
the consequent guilt of all who, with their eyes
open to its horrors, contribute in any way to its
continuance, or even fail to do their utmost for its
suppression?
IV. Let me now go forward to the fourth branch
of our subject—THE CAUSES WHICH CONTRIBUTE
TO THE PREVALENCE OF MAGDALENISM.
It may seem to some of you, as if this should
have occupied an earlier place in our discussion.
It appeared to me, however, on two accounts, pref-
erable to introduce it here: first, that it was at
least quite as natural, if not more so, to have be-
fore us the nature and extent, the effects, and the
moral turpitude, of the evil in question, ere we pro-
ceeded to trace it to its causes; and secondly, that.
since it is, in no small degree, by rightly ascer-
taining the principal causes to which any evil is
attributable, that we are prepared for considering
the most eligible and promising means of its alle-
viation, it was not undesirable to bring these two
parts of the subject, as much as possible, into
juxtaposition.
Yet it is not my purpose to enter here into much
of minute detail. The causes which, by various
authors, have been assigned as, some more and
some less, conducing to the melancholy aggregate
of wickedness and misery, are numerous.
I can
only select some of the more prominent.
Whenever we think at all on the subject, the
first thing which, in the order of nature, forces it-
self upon our notice is, the strength of the sexual
propensity, and the comparative weakness of the
moral principle which ought to hold it in restraint.
This, however, is a topic of which, whether abso-
lutely or comparatively, I shrink from the public
9*
102 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
discussion; and am glad to think that I can waive
it, without materially, if at all, affecting the com-
pleteness of my argument, or the force of my ap-
peal. It may be enough, on a point of such pe-
culiar delicacy, to say, that while other causes
blend their influence with this, it is absurd to sup-
pose that, but for this, they could operate with such
fatal success nor can it admit of a doubt, as to
either sex, that this cause does at times cloak itself
under the allegation of others, which can be plead-
ed in extenuation with less of shame.*
It is abundantly obvious, that the causes of this
vice are to be sought, not among females alone,
nor even among females chiefly. A large amount
of them, in addition to the one just mentioned, is to
be found with the other sex, and arising out of cir-
cumstances by which the conduct of that sex is,
either necessarily or culpably, affected. I can not
help thinking, for example, that some of the usages
of modern society, by the way in which they al-
most unavoidably influence the procedure of our
young men, contribute not a little toward the re-
gretted evil. Early marriages, wherever they can
be contracted with any ordinary regard to prudence,
are among its best preventives; and whatever con-
tributes to hinder the formation of these, may be re-
garded as standing chargeable with their share of
its encouragement, as ranking among the causes
of magdalenism. I deny not that prudence is a
* These brief general sentences I have substituted for a few
remarks of a somewhat more extended character, which,
though they could be made with propriety and freedom before
an entirely male auditory, it harmonizes better with iny own
feelings to suppress in publication Were they necessary to
my purpose, I should think the delicacy false that omitted
them.
OF MAGDALENISM.
103
virtue, and that the question of marriage is a prop-
er sphere for its exercise. But there can not be a
doubt, that high notions, which, by the refinement
and extravagance of our times, have been intro-
duced, of the style in which young men entering
on life must set up their domestic establishment,
have, in many instances, laid restraints on the early
cultivation of virtuous love, and prevented the hap-
py union of hearts in youthful wedlock. I can not
look upon this as at all an improvement on the
homely habits of our fathers. Many are the young
men who are thus tempted to remain single by
their felt inability to start in what is regarded a
somewhat creditable style. Would to God I had
the ear of all the youth in our city, and in our
country, that I might tell them of the sweets of
early virtuous union; that I might earnestly and
affectionately urge them to consult their own best
interests, and to set an example pregnant with the
most beneficial results to the community, by bid-
ding defiance to the tyranny of fashion; by return-
ing to the good old way; by finding a partner who
will marry from love, and who will be willing, and
more than willing, to begin upon little, and by the
blessing of providence, to rise gradually to more.
That was the way in the olden time; and, although
no croaker for the superiority of all that pertained
to ancestry, this, most assuredly, is a point in which
I should " say of the former days they were better
than these." I would say to the rising youth-the
hopes of coming generations-"Moderate your
views; defy custom; marry; fear God; be vir-
tuous; and be happy." Could my voice and my
counsel prevail, what a salutary check would be
given to the prevalence of the vice which is our
104 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
present subject! Virtuous love operates with a
most beneficial influence on the vicious principles
of our fallen nature; nor are there many sights on
earth more delightful for the eye to rest on, than
that of youth joined with youth in honorable and
hallowed union, union of heart as well as hand,
and living together in all the faithfulness and ten-
derness of a first love. Even should their outset
in conjugal life be somewhat stinted, how much
better a little mutual self-denial, than that cold cal-
culating celibacy, which is ever looking forward to
some distant stylish starting-point, and which, in
the meanwhile, is so frequent an occasion of young
men's "falling into temptation and a snare," and
into "foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown them
in destruction and perdition!"
Another prominent cause of the prevalence of
magdalenism, is to be found in the low and light
conceptions, existing throughout society generally,
of the evil of the sin itself;-and in the ignorant
and inconsiderate estimates of the train of miseries
which, in this world and the next, attend and fol-
low it. Whatever tends to maintain upon the pub-
lic mind light impressions of the turpitude of the
vice, and of the fearfulness of its effects, contrib-
utes proportionally, of course, to its extension and
perpetuation. What, then, is the state of the fact?
Take the higher circles of society. Does this
vice stand there, with anything like the stigma at-
tached to it which it deserves? In these circles,
it is impossible for a man to be a detected thief, or
a detected liar, and to continue to hold his status
as a gentleman. He is cut, as the phrase is, by
every man who himself has any pretensions to the
designation. Club-rooms and drawing-rooms are
OF MAGDALENISM.
105
closed against him. He is "sent to Coventry."
And while this is the deserved fate of such char-
acters, it is too often the fate also-(then most un-
deserved)—of the man who has so much of the
principle of moral rectitude in him, as to refuse
submission to the world's law of honor, and rather
to be called a poltroon than to violate his con-
science. He, too, in fashionable circles, is black-
balled and bolted out. But the man of gallantry-
does he meet with any such rebuffs ?
On the con-
trary, does he not find his open way into what the
world calls the best society ? Is he not the pride
of the club-house, the ornament and magnet of
the drawing-room? Is it or is it not so ;-that the
man who, night after night, is making himself fa-
miliar with pollution; who bargains for unfallen
innocence; who, by " perjured arts and smooth dis-
sembling," beguiles that innocence to ruin; who
boasts of such exploits; who casts off victim after
victim to its unpitied destiny, so soon as it has
served the hour's purpose of his lawless lust ;—to
whom be his station in society what it may, and by
what epithets soever of apologetic courtesy his vi-
ces may be glozed over in the circles of gayety and
fashion, the Bible, with "divine plainness of
speech," assigns his place of reprobation among
the "whoremongers and adulterers whom God will
judge;" that that man, for whom, and for whose
career of selfish and pitiless vileness, there are no
terms of execration sufficiently strong; that that
man finds his undisputed place in the first circles?
-he passes from the brothel to the ball-room;
from the scene of ruined innocence to the scene
of courtly splendor and gay festivity:-he smiles
and is smiled upon :-he is followed by glistening
106
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
:
eyes from group to group: the men are jealous of
him the fair (let us sincerely believe in igno-
rance) "lift the light of their countenance upon
him;" their hearts beat pleasure on his approach;
they court his hand, and envy the favored ones on
whom it is bestowed? This state of things is
"for a lamentation." It indicates a prevailing
looseness of principle, and indifference of feeling
regarding the vice in question, such as tends pain-
fully to lower the tone of one's hopes as to any
general and effectual reformation. The mischief
is rooted in high places. It is the sin of the rich,
as well as of the poor; of the peer as well as of
the commoner; of the lord of the manor, as well
as of the peasant. It pervades all ranks. Here
lies one of the great difficulties the moral reformer
has to contend with. [I feel here that I must “do
nothing by partiality," that I should act unworthily
of my trust if I did.] How can they be expected
to legislate freely on the subject, how can they
fail to be shy of restrictive and punitive measures,
-who are conscious, possibly, that any law, ap-
proaching in its principle and in its execution, to
impartiality, must first affect themselves? And it
is very manifest that, if there are to be laws,-laws
of more stringent and effective restraint and coer-
cion,—they must, in their provisions and in their
application, be impartial. They must not be con-
fined to the lower haunts of profligacy. Granted,
in as strong terms as you please to express it, that
these are dens of infamy, foul hotbeds of all de-
scriptions of mischief; schools of intemperance,
larceny, robbery, and all manner of crime; and
that they are, therefore, pests to the community;
still it must not be forgotten, that it is in the higher
CF MAGDALENISM.
107
walks of gallantry,-in the brothels and assigna-
tion-houses of our nobility and gentry, that the
Jewel of virgin purity is incomparably most in dan-
ger; that it is for their supply the wretches are
employed, whose arts and deeds of demon treach-
ery we have a little ago detailed; that, according
to the tendency downward, formerly pointed out, it
is from these higher quarters that the lower and
the lowest are, in part, and to no small amount,
provided; and that in these the sin against God,
and the crime against society, instead of being
of less hemous offensiveness, are only the more
flagrant, in proportion to the education, the rank,
and the influence of the parties, and the knowledge
they can not but possess of the consequences to
the community of the libertine excesses in which
they indulge. What are we to think of the state
of the public mind regarding this vice, with the
two following facts before us? They belong to
high life; but every one knows to what an extent
the lower grades of society take from the higher
their "form and fashion." I give you my author-
ities for them, and have no reason to doubt their
authenticity: "Some time ago," says Mr. Tait,
a most elegant piece of plate was presented to
a common brothel keeper in this city" (Edinburgh),
by the gentlemen who were in the habit of fre-
quenting her house, as a mark of esteem”-(es-
teem' I know not whether this is only Mr. Tait's
ironical word, or whether it was bona fide the term
used in the inscription, which, doubtless, this piece
of plate, like every other, would bear, recording,
for admiring posterity, the reason of its presenta-
tion ')" as a mark of esteem for the excellent
manner in which she conducted her establishment,
46
108 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
and for the great anxiety she had always manifested
to render it worthy of their approbation and patron-
age!" The other fact is of a kindred description.
It was openly stated, without hesitation, and with-
out contradiction, by Mr. Greig, the respected trav-
elling agent of the London Society for the protec-
tion of young females, when he was recently in this
city: "That a festive meeting-(a dinner, I pre-
sume, according to the etiquette when distinguished
personages are to be complimented)-was not long
since held, în a brothel of the highest description,
by the gentlemen accustomed to frequent at, at
which a nobleman presided, to express their grati-
tude, congratulations, and good wishes, to the mis-
tress of the establishment, on her retiring from bu-
siness and transferring the house to another; and
to show countenance and good fellowship to her suc-
cessor, on her entrance on her honorable charge
I leave the facts without comment. They hold out
a strong temptation to sarcasm, were one in a hu-
mor for it. But the subject is too serious for jesting.
?
199
Is it not, then-O! is it not, supremely desir-
able, that public sentiment and public feeling could
be brought to bear, more justly and more bene-
ficially, on this monstrous enormity
Let gallant-
ry, in the higher circles, get its proper name; and
let the man who practises it get his. Let it no
longer be, that the guilty should escape, and the
innocent suffer;--that "the whoremonger and the
adulterer" should continue to be received to the
unblushing familiarity of social intercourse, while
"the iniquity of the fathers is visited upon the
children," by the proscription and exclusion of the
blameless progeny of his illicit amours. Let it
no longer be that, while the liar and the thief
OF MAGDALENISM.
109
are hooted and hissed out of society, the spoiler of
virgin innocence-the mean and selfish robber of
the weak and the defenceless-woman's robber of
her most precious possession, the pearl of her
purity, and with it her peace, her self-respect, her
character, her reputable subsistence, her place in
the esteem and affections of her former friends,
her prospects in the world, and, possibly and prob-
ably too, her health and her life;—that this man
should still be the gentleman and the man of honor!
Let him be branded as he deserves. Let the fair
frown upon him. Let the whole world of female
virtue look upon him with indignation, as the worst
enemy of their sex ;-who, instead of regarding
woman as formed for man's virtuous and happy
companionship-the companionship of mind and
heart-degrades her to a mere instrument of his
selfish and sensual gratification. Let them shrink
from his approach. O' if there be one case, in
which pride might with truth be called becoming,
surely this is such a case ;-the indignant pride
of the whole sex concentrated in the bosom of
the individual;-each feeling the wrong done to
all ;—the spirit of lofty scorn beating in the breast,
and mounting to the cheek, and flashing from the
eye, of offended womanhood, on the traitor, who
dares to trample her honor in the dust, and yet to
approach her with the bows and smiles of a grace-
ful urbanity, the lips of winning flattery, and the
presumptuous assurance of her favor-So long
as, in general society, this vice continues to hold
its association with honor ;- -so long as no brand
of disgrace is attached to it, as there is to others;
-the roots of the evil, it is to be feared, although
they may be partially loosened and pulled up, can
10
110 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
never be thoroughly disentangled and cleared
away from the soil of social life. And in this
view of the case, the female portion of the com-
munity have much in their power. Let them but
agree, that they will withdraw their countenance
from every known polluter and dishonorer of their
sex. Let him be loathed for his vileness, con-
temned for his meanness, frowned upon for his
treachery, and abandoned for all the three. They
would thus contribute more effectually to the sup-
pression of the monstrous abomination, than any
association, however zealous, however able, and
however active. Could it be brought about, that
this vice, instead of being passed quietly over as a
thing not to be spoken of, and about which it would
never do to be particular-and even, under the
designation of gallantry, smiled at, as being, if a
vice, among the expected and pardonable vices of
a gentleman—should stamp disgrace on the name
and on the memory of its perpetrator-our end
would be gained. And who have so much in their
power, for bringing this about, as the virtuous
women of our land?
"Where shall the traitor rest-
He-the deceiver?
Who could win maiden's breast-
Ruin-and leave her?
"Shame and dishonor sit
By his grave ever .
Blessings shall hallow it-
NEVER!-O NEVER !”
But I am forgetting that I have not yet arrived
at the means of suppression.”
*
[* NOTE TO 2D En-Since the delivery and first publication
of these lectures, strange disclosures have come before the pub-
lic, affectingly illustrative of the heartlessness of this vice, and
of the general profligacy which, when already existing, it in-
OF MAGDALENISM.
111
Associated with the cause of the prevalence of
this vice which has just been mentioned, and as
contributing to maintain the light notions of the
vice to which I have referred, I might point your
notice to much of the reading of the day; to cer-
tain descriptions of novels; to voluptuous poetry;
to lascivious songs and ballads, adapted to both
grosser and more refined tastes, and associating
with comic humor what ought never to be thought
of but with serious reprobation; together with the
character and tendency of the drama, in theatres,
superior and inferior, though, perhaps, especially
the latter, a character and tendency apparent in the
notorious facts, that the theatres are one of the
favorite resorts of abandoned women, and these of
every grade that can afford to obtain admission,
from box to upper gallery, and the resort too, con-
sequently, of those whose gallantries they expect,
creases, and which, when not previously existing, it seldom
fails to produce. No fewer than four of our English nobility
have given themselves an unenviable notoriety, and have been
pilloned to the equal scoin and loathing of the community, for
the unblushing shamelessness of their amours, and the unprin-
cipled conduct accompanying them. It were most unjust to
their compeers in rank, to take them as a specimen of the ave-
rage of virtue in the class to which they belong. But here is
a case for testing the spirit of female virtue in that class. If
the high-born ladies of our country do not, in such instances
as these, where no ignorance can be pleaded, make a stand
against the perpetiators of such dishonor upon their sex; if
they continue to receive with all the customary etiquette of
honorable society, men who have rendered themselves so un-
worthy of their courtesy and their smiles, men, who, though
noblemen, have shown anything but the character of noble men;
if, in one word, they do not, in their own way, "send them to
Coventry," as they may have sent others of their own sex, far
less deserving of such excommunication;-what are we to think
of the average of principle in this the highest class of our fe
male population? It is a testing case. There could not be a
fairer opportunity for feminine virtue to take up the position of
high-toned resistance prescribed to it in the text.]
112 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
or whom they lie in wait to decoy; and that the
purlieus of the theatres are generally thick-set
with houses of assignation and of ill-repute. On
such topics, however, and a variety of others, I
find it necessary to decline entering. They would
not, indeed, be digressions: but my limits inter-
dict them.
In the chapter of his work "on the magdalenism
of Paris," in which he treats of the causes of this
vice, and the proportions in which these causes,
respectively, contribute to the aggregate result,
Parent-Duchatelet, after enumerating, and distinct-
ly illustrating, more than a dozen of those causes,
presents us, in the close, with the following state-
ment of the cases of 5,183 of the registered mag-
dalens of that city, of whose fall the origin had,
by their registration, been ascertained:
"The extreme of misery, sheer destitution, 1,441
Loss of parents; banishment from home;
entire desertion,
The support of parents old and infirm
Elder daughters of orphan families, for the
bringing up of brothers and sisters, and
in some instances, of nephews and
nieces
Widows and forsaken wives, for the main-
tenance and education of large families
Come to Paris from the country, for con-
cealment and a livelihood
1,255
37
29
23
280
Brought to Paris, and there abandoned, by
military men, clerks, students, and others 404
Female servants, seduced by their masters,
•
and dismissed
Kept mistresses, who, after a longer or a
shorter time, have lost their paramours,
and been thrown into straits,
289
1425
OF MAGDALENISM.
113
With regard to this enumeration, though I have
no intention of enlarging on its various items, I may
be allowed to offer one or two remarks.
First of all, from the character of the parties, it
can not fail, in many instances, to be exceedingly
difficult to get, with any certainty, at the truth ;
there being so very little dependance to be placed
on their veracity, and so endless a variety of con-
siderations, interested or capricious, real or ima-
ginary, that may tempt to mis-statement and pre-
varication and then, secondly, although all the
causes enumerated are of such a kind, that they
can hardly fail to be found operating in other
countries as well as France, and in other cities as
well as Paris, yet the diversities in national man-
ners, and in feminine occupations, in different
countries, may give rise to very considerable cor-
responding diversity in the relative proportions of
their influence. In regard to the first of the causes
mentioned-destitution; it is, of course, every-
where confined, in a great degree, to the lower
classes of the female population-from which, in-
deed, the ranks of prostitution must ever be prin-
cipally recruited: and respecting our own city, it
is observed by Mr. Miller, “ that in times of com-
mercial distress, when many poor people are
thrown out of employment, there is always a large
accession to the number of girls who seek a living
by magdalenism;" "and at the present moment,
he continues, "from the pressure of the times it
is supposed, the police observe many girls about
the streets not before recognised, belonging either
to the suburbs of Glasgow, or to the neighboring
manufacturing towns and villages. Many of these
girls return to a lawful course of life, when work
10*
114 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
can be found; but a considerable number of them
are irretrievably lost." On the same principle,
however, it generally happens, that there is a
smaller amount of this vice from this particular
cause, in towns where there is any adequate em-
ployment for females, than in others "In Edin-
burgh," according to Mr. Tait, "there is not em-
ployment for above two thirds of the working
female population:" and, in harmony with this,
he subsequently adds, " The circumstance of Glas-
gow, Dundee, and Paisley, furnishing fewer har-
lots to Edinburgh, in proportion to their population,
than the other large towns in Scotland, is suffi-
ciently explained by these being manufacturing
towns, and providing much more employment for
the female part of the population. It is also a
fact, that Edinburgh is a source from which har-
lots emanate to supply all the large towns in
Scotland. So far as the author has been able to
ascertain, from information which has been fur-
nished to him from different quarters, he is led to
infer, that for every harlot Glasgow sends to Edin-
burgh, the latter returns about three."
It is melancholy to think of the number, in the
above list, of " orphans," and children “abandoned
by their parents." This gives a very sad view of
the parental character. Parents who abandon
their children must, in a far worse sense of the
word, be themselves abandoned: and of orphans
and forsaken children who throw themselves on
magdalenism for a livelihood, the probability is,
that the parents were of a similar character, and
that the magdalenism is only the following out of
the vicious principles instilled in their early train-
ing. It is, on another and a different ground,
OF MAGDALENISM.
115
affecting to reflect on the number who are repre-
sented as devoting themselves to this guilty course
from the impulse of natural affection,-in order to
the maintenance of families and of other relations.
In such cases, I confess myself somewhat un-
charitable. I will not deny that in some instances,
when all attempts at finding employment fail, the
poor wretches, both widows and others, may be
driven by desperation to such a resource; but in
most instances, there is surely ground for appre-
hending that there must be in operation, along
with a palpable deficiency of right principle, a
positively vicious inclination. In this suspicious-
ness, however, I may not, perhaps, be making
sufficient allowance for the strength of the impulse
of a mother's agony, when "her children cry for
bread, and she has none to give them."
"There
are, perhaps,” Mr. Tait says, no fewer than fifty
or sixty families in Edinburgh, who are almost
wholly supported by the clandestine vice of the
mother; and three times that number who are
partially maintained in the same manner." In the
three items of the enumeration-" 404 brought to
Paris and there abandoned," "289 servants seduced
by their masters and dismissed,” “and 1245 mis-
tresses who have lost their paramours,” from various
causes, but doubtless from desertion among the
rest-we have an affecting indication of the heart-
less selfishness of vice. And in the cases of de-
sertion, the sickening effect upon our spirits is not
much the greater or the less, whether it arises
from satiety and the love of change on the one
side, or from unfaithfulness on the other.
There is a cause of the prevalence and spread
of this vice, which is merely hinted at by Duchat-
116
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
elet, and which, from the circumstance of its not,
in any great extent, bearing application to Edin-
burgh, is not mentioned by Mr. Tait,-which it
would be wrong for me to pass over; I mean the
corrupting influence of extensive factories, usually
termed public works: those especially, in which
young men and young women, in large numbers,
meet and work together. There are certain prin-
ciples, from which, in the present state of human
nature, we might a priori anticipate, from such
establishments, unfavorable results to the morals
of those by whom they are frequented. The in-
fection of vice, alas' is much more readily caught
than the spirit of virtue. The latter is incompara-
bly more in danger of being tainted by a contact with
the former, than the former is likely to be rectified
by association with the latter. The diffusive con-
tamination of vice is fearful. If in any public
establishment the case should occur (I fear a rare
one) of the many being right-principled and vir-
tuous, and the unprincipled and vicious being the
exceptions, the good, in such a case, may keep
each other in countenance, and retain their posi-
tion: though even then there is a melancholy
risk, the proverb, of "one infected sheep spoiling
a whole flock," being applicable, with a mournful
emphasis of truth, to the contagion of immorality;
even one tainting a second, and, by union with
that second, doubling her power for the corruption
of more, till, with a growing rapidity, the depra-
ving influence pervades the whole, the "little
leaven leavening the lump:" and when the ma-
jority are without light principle, at what premium
would a moral casuist ensure the purity of any
virtuous young woman who enters such a school?
OF MAGDALENISM.
117
66
The consciousness of vice can not endure the pres-
ence and the reproving contrast of virtue. It
eyes it askance with jealous leer malign," and
determines its ruin. It becomes, in such cases,
the immediate aim of the vicious to undermine
the principles of the virtuous; and they rest not,
till, by all possible arts of temptation, they have
succeeded in making them like themselves. The
new comers are thus by degrees familiarized with
evil; and by such familiarity the resistance of the
good principle is gradually weakened. Placed
among "fools who make a mock at sin," they can
not long withstand the power of ridicule and ban-
ter, blended with the arts of cajolery and flattery,
of sly insinuation, alluring description, and boast-
fulness of freedom. They are shamed into vice
by universal example; or they are driven to it, in
desperation, by the misery which, in numberless
and nameless ways, is inflicted on their insuffer-
able singularity. It is sadly true too, that the
elder corrupt the younger; pouring into the ear
of the mere children that work by their side all
that is fitted to initiate them into vice, to counter-
act any sound and healthy principle which per-
chance had been instilled into their infancy, and
to prepare them for an early entrance on a course
of practical pollution.
Admitting the truth of all this, there is yet, on
such subjects, no little difficulty. Nothing is ea-
sier than to deal in sweeping and unqualified asser-
tions. I might adopt the terms of Fregier, as
quoted in the review of his work in the newly-
published number of the London Quarterly, and
say, that among the girls of such establishments
chastity is almost unknown." But I should feel
(C
118
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
that, by a charge so broad and undiscriminating, I
was almost sure of being, to some extent or other,
unjust-unjust to both employers and employed.
All are not alike. All proprietors and masters are
not alike; all factories are not alike. So univer-
sal an indictment, therefore, while it might be fully
deserved by some, might be but partially, and that
in various degrees, applicable to others. Substan-
tial equity would almost require data furnished by
the examination of every extensive establishment
in the kingdom. Being, of course, in possession
of no such data, I deem it better to take up the
general position, about the truth of which there
can be no question, that in the aggregate of these
public works, though to a greater or less degree in
each, there prevails a melancholy amount of the
pollution which is the subject of these lectures—
there being, in them all, from the promiscuous as-
semblage of so many youth of both sexes, a ten-
dency to its production, and the amount depending
on the general vigilance of proprietors and over-
seers, and especially the care bestowed by them
upon the education of the younger workers. The
Quarterly reviewer of Fregler's work says:
"We
confess with sorrow our belief that there is in
France more paternal watchfulness, more kindly
feeling, on the part of manufacturers and master-
workmen toward those whom they employ, than
there is in England ?" By England, I presume,
we are here to understand the southern part of our
island-England proper. I have just seen this
statement, and am in possession of no such infor-
mation relative to the two sides of the channel as
could enable me either to affirm or question its
correctness. If it be true of England, which I
OF MAGDALENISM.
119
am exceedingly loath to think, I hope it does not
extend to Scotland. But should it be a just ac-
count of the manufacturers of our island at large,
it will be well if proprietors and superintendents
take the hint, and by a speedy, principled, and
thorough amendment, look to their own and their
nation's character-at once .wiping off reproach,
stemming the tide of personal and social corrup-
tion, and promoting the first and best interests of
individuals and of the community.
Under the two general heads of NATURAL and
ACCIDENTAL` causes of magdalenism, Mr. Tait men-
tions, in distinct sections, as belonging to the for-
mer head, licentiousness of inclination; irritability
of temper; pride, and love of dress; dishonesty, and
desire of property; indolence—and, as pertaining to
the latter, seduction; inconsiderate and ill-assorted
marriages; inadequate remuneration for female
work; want of employment ; intemperance; poverty ;
want of proper surveillance of their servants on the
part of masters and mistresses; ignorance, or de-
fective education and religious instruction; bad
example of parents; harshness and unkind treatment
by parents and other relations; attendance on even-
ing dancing-schools and dancing-parties; theatre-
going; desecration of the sabbath; the publication
of improper works, and obscene prints; the counte-
nance and reward given to vice, and the small en-
couragement to virtue. Of these twenty particulars,
the greater number, though not the whole, are also
mentioned by Duchatelet, and by other writers.
Each of the twenty is by Mr. Tait made the sub-
ject of illustration, and various appropriate and
striking facts are adduced in proof of the reality
and extent of its operation. But to enter now into
120 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
a field so wide and diversified, is out of the ques-
tion. A few brief remarks, as in the former case,
are all that I have time for, or, indeed, that I con-
sider necessary for my purpose.
I have before said enough to show you that I
consider Mr. Tait fully justified, alike by the na-
ture of things and by experience, in placing among
his natural causes "licentiousness of inclination”-
a cause which Duchatelet has not admitted into
his enumeration. Irritability of temper, which cer-
tainly does appear in a somewhat" questionable
shape" among causes of magdalenism, resolves
itself into one of the varieties of another cause-
that, namely, of want of employment: referring, as
subsequent explanation shows it does, to the case
of household servants, who, on account of the in-
subordination and the insolence, the "answering
again," the pertness and impropriety of words and
conduct, to which their hasty and ungovernable
tempers give rise, have been turned out of succes-
sive families, and tempted thus to throw themselves
upon the town.
Of the "love of dress," this author
says—and it is presumed all who have, with any
attention, observed the character of the class of
females to whom he refers, will be easily per-
suaded of its truth-that "there is not, perhaps, in
the lengthened catalogue of causes of magdalenism
given at the head of this chapter, one more gen-
eral or more powerful than this ambition for fine
dress." Duchatelet speaks in similar terms of the
fondness for showing off in expensive finery, as
(C
une des causes les plus actives de la prostitu-
tion." It is indeed a crying evil. Even where
the desire can be honestly gratified, it is injurious;
stimulating and nourishing the vanity and love of
OF MAGDALENISM.
121
admiration by which it is engendered, and, espe-
cially when associated with any degree of superior
personal appearance, becoming the means of ex-
posure to temptation, and proving a fatal snare.
But in how very few cases is it that the propensity
can be gratified honestly' The competition for
finery, especially when it becomes (as not seldom it
does) a competition with superiors as well as equals
an aping of their mistresses, as well as a rivalry
with their fellow-servants and others of like sta-
tion-requires more for its gratification than either
female house-servants receive in the form of wages,
or female workers in the form of payment. And
the suspicions induced by the showy and even ex-
pensive finery of not a few in these classes might
(if general report is at all to be credited) be veri-
fied to a melancholy extent by an appeal to fact:
the silks, and laces, and veils, and trinkets, being
known, in too many instances, to be “the wages
of iniquity," the "hire of the harlot " That se-
duction is a very frequent cause of this vice,
there can be no doubt; although in not a few in-
stances it may be far from easy to determine the
proportions of the guilt belonging respectively to
the two parties, the seducer and the seduced: the
ready compliance of the latter almost depriving the
term seduction of its appropriateness. In many more,
however, the term is, alas! too appropriate, emphat-
ically, nefariously appropriate." So far as can be as-
certained," says Mr. Tait, "about eighteen per cent.
of all the common women have become so in conse-
quence of seduction; and eighty per cent. of all who
have been seduced have been led astray by individuals
moving in a higher sphere than themselves. The:
means which in many instances are used by the so-
122
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
ducers to accomplish their object are such as are un-
worthy of any one aspiring to the name of gentle-
man. He who can unblushingly, by falsehood and
artifice, seduce a virtuous and unsuspecting female
from her friends and home, for a moment's gratifi-
cation to his animal appetite, and afterward desert
her to a life of misery, wretchedness, poverty, and
suffering—which, perhaps, may be terminated by
self-destruction-has no claim to any such title.”
I have already (strongly enough I trust, though not
too strongly, for that is impossible) given utterance
to my fellow-feeling with this sentiment. But, in
the indignant terms of our national bard—(would
again that all he sung had been, both on this and
on other subjects, of the same high moral tone and
tendency!) such
with
"Wretches, villains, lost to love and truth,"
"Honor, conscience, virtue, all exiled,"
in whom there is
"No pity, no relentless ruth,”—
have been and still are to be found, who not only
lay claim to the title, but would almost make the
claim exclusive, appropriating it as their own and
their fraternity's special denomination; who, in the
same breath, boast of their own honor, and boast
of the number of virtuous and unprotected females
whom they have robbed of theirs; boast of their
honor, and glory in their shame. I have before
said enough of them. They are to be found among
all professions in the superior grades of society ·
OF MAGDALENISM.
123
and in no one of them (I grieve to say) are they
more rife, than in that where honor is all in all-
delicate as a hair-trigger, sharp and keen as a
sword's point.
O that I could induce every youth
now hearing me, to adopt, with regard to such
characters, in the full spirit of indignant loathing
-the language of the good old patriarch-" My
soul, come not thou into their secret!-unto their
assembly, mine honor, be not thou united""
That "ignorance, or defective education and reli-
gious instruction," is to be reckoned among the
causes which eminently contribute to the increase
of the sin of prostitution, as well as of other de-
scriptions of evil, will not be doubted by any who
either believes his bible, or credits the records of
experience. The mind that is uneducated, and
more especially the mind that is uninstructed in
the principles of true religion, must ever be the
easier prey to the temptations of the world, the
devil, and the flesh. This cause of abounding
evil is entitled to the more particular mention, be-
cause it is one which for a good many years back,
it is to be feared, has been not a little on the in-
crease—in consequence of the periodical depres-
sions in the trade and manufactures of our country,
by which wages have been so much reduced, and
work itself, even at such wages, rendered so scarce
and precarious, that the working classes have not
had the means of attending to the education of their
families, being hard put to it for their mere subsist-
ence,—and it is one too to which the operations
of Christian benevolence are quite capable of be-
ing extended, so as to mitigate at least, if not to
remove it. "That the soul be without knowledge
it is not good,”—is an inspired maxim, the truth
124 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
of which is attested by every day's experience.
And it should be recollected, that knowledge is not
the mere ability to read. Reading is but the means
of knowledge; and in multitudes of instances,
even the early acquired ability to read is never
applied to any profitable use :—and ignorance, in-
stead of being the mother of devotion, becomes
the mother of a progeny like itself, of irreligion,
vice, and crime. Even the mere ability to read is,
in a great many instances, wanting, among these
abandoned females. Mr. Tait, indeed, speaks of
the number in Edinburgh who could not read as
"smaller than might have been anticipated." In
a statement, on the other hand, which I have re-
ceived from Dr. Hannay, the proportion of those
admitted into the Glasgow Lock hospital who are
unable to read, is greater that I at least should
have anticipated. Out of 389 patients 150 could
read well, 80 imperfectly, and 159 could not read
at all. Thus, as Dr. Hannay says-"Fifty per
cent. of them can not read at all, or so imperfectly
that their reading is of little or no use to them:
and I have ample reason to believe, that only 30
out of 320 can write well;-out of the same num-
ber 70 were found to write imperfectly, and 220
can not write at all." I shall have occasion to re-
fer to this authority again.
Passing over the other causes, which all exert
their peculiar kinds and measures of evil influence,*
let me conclude this lecture with a single word as
*NOTE TO 2D ED.-I have heard surprise frequently ex-
pressed, that I have not said more on the subject of intempe-
rance, among the causes of this vice. This assuredly has not
arisen from any want of disposition to give it its due measure
of prominence in the catalogue of evils and evil-workers. That
in multitudes of instances, intemperance and lewdness are
OF MAGDALENISM.
125
to the last of them--" the countenance and the re-
ward given to vice, and the small encouragement to
virtue." Under this particular, Mr. Tait presents
us with the following most astounding statements:
"It has been shown by a very moderate computa-
tion, that more than £8,000,000 sterling is expend-
ed annually in London for the support of magda-
lenism alone, £6,400,000 of which is pocketed by
brothel-keepers. Some wealthy pampered brutes
dole forth readily £100 or more as the price of
the virtue of an innocent child, and would grudge
to contribute one shilling annually for the support
of an institution which had for its object the resto-
ration of such victims to their friends and society.
In Edinburgh, the sum annually spent for magda-
lenism is supposed to be about £200,000. Add
to this £14,000, which is £50 a night for ten
months in the year for the support of the theatre,
and £10,000 for kept-mistresses; making in all,
for the maintenance of these sources of crime and
moral pollution, the handsome item of £224,000
sterling. If this sum were appropriated to the pro-
•
shown by experience to be kindred vices, and that the former
many a time leads to the latter, is not to be denied
It is long
since Solomon placed among his dissuasives from " tarrying
long at the wine"-" mine eyes shall behold strange women
and how often have fools who have disregarded the dissuasion
become, when in their cups, these "strange women's" miserable
victims, plundered and stripped, without knowing by whom!
Still, however, my conviction is, that lewdness is to the full as
often a cause of intemperance, as intemperance is of lewdness,
the latter being chargeable with the former in all cases in
which it resorts to it as a means of attaining its nefarious ends;
and, moreover, that by thousands and tens of thousands, the
sin of lewdness is practised, who are in a great degree, or even
wholly free from the charge of intemperance. If others, how-
ever, should think differently, God forbid that I should mitigate
the evil of either vice, or their reciprocal tendencies to promote
each other!]
11*
126
ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
motion of morality and religion, it would support
6,000 paupers at ten shillings a week-200 ad-
ditional schools in Edinburgh for the instruction
of the children of the working classes gratis, with
an endowment of £100 as the annual salary of
the teacher-sixty additional clergymen for ex-
cavating the heathen" in the Cowgate and other
destitute parts of the city, with £300 a year each
-furnish 6,000 paupers with two suits of clothes in
the year at £2 each, so as to fit them for atten-
dance on public ordinances, build sixty new church-
es at £3,000, for the new incumbents, and 200
new schools at £500; and, after the first twelve
years, leave an annual surplus fund of £24,000
for charitable purposes, and the encouragement and
promotion of morality throughout the country.'
""
The respected City Missionary to whose esti-
mate of the amount of magdalenism in Glasgow I
referred in my last lecture, has presented me with
the following calculation of the average sum ex-
pended annually on this vice in our own city,-
vouching very decidedly for its being within the
mark; and, as it includes only what is paid, pilfer-
ed, and drunk, in known houses of all fame, if the
calculation itself even approach to correctness, it
can not fail to be within, and greatly within it.
"Number of houses of ill fame
Average number of the vicious, four
in each house,
Number of bullies or "fancy-men,"
450
Mistresses of said houses,
Total living on magdalenism,
Men visiting each house weekly
Number visiting the 450 houses
1,800
""
1,350
450
3,600
W
80
36,000
OF MAGDALENISM.
127
The girls in the third or lowest class
houses receive, on an average,
from each visiter 1s., making the
sum, weekly, of
Robberies, 2s. 6d. weekly from each
£1,800
is a low average,
4,500
Spent on drink, 2s. weekly for each
visitor.
3,600
Total for magdalenism weekly
•
£9,900
£514,800
Making a total annually of
The adoption of Captain Miller's lower estimate
of the number of houses and of harlots, would con-
siderably reduce this amount. But then what has
been mentioned must not be forgotten, that not only
is the calculation taken from the lowest description
of brothels, but there is no account made of the
sums expended, in various ways, in what may be
called the higher walks of this vice, the entire
system of more private magdalenism. At the
aggregate of these sums I dare not, without data,
venture even a guess. But it must be very large.
Taking all together, how vastly must the amount
exceed what is contributed in our city for every
description of benevolent objects, whether con-
nected with the temporal or the eternal interests of
mankind' And is not this very heart-sinking?
And when this is placed beside the amount ex-
pended otherwise on intemperance and kindred
evils, how heavily do we feel the necessity we are
under, of looking, for some measure of comfort and
relief, to our bible, and missionary, and school,
and tract, and freedom societies, with all the other
philanthropic institutions of our country, whether
128 ON THE GUILT AND THE CAUSES
for bodily or for mental health, for physical or for
spiritual purposes of mercy! And even when we
do look to these, the comparison brings out so
mournful a contrast, that it fails to ally our sinking
spirits, and to lighten them of their gloomy fore-
bodings: it can but throw some relieving sunshine
on those gathering clouds of divine indignation,
from which, as they lower and thicken over our
land, the voice of the "Just One" seems to say, in
accents of thunder, "Shall not I visit for these
things? Shall not my soul be avenged of such a
nation as this?" Yet there is hope. There is much
in our country of all in which the "Just One” de-
lights; much of divine truth, and much of its in-
fluence; much of the spirit of godliness; much of
the "salt of the earth;" much done for God's glory,
much for the world's well-being; and little ween
the men of this world, how largely they may be
indebted to those hosts of daily prayers, which,
while they hold them in derision, " have power
with God and prevail." The terms in which the
poet addresses the metropolis of our country, may,
in the spirit of them, and in all their emphasis, be
applied to our country at large:
"O thou, resort and mart of all the earth,
Chequered with all complexions of mankind,
And spotted with all crimes in whom I see
Much that I love, and more that I admire,
And all that I abhor. thou freckled fair,
That pleasest, and yet shock'st me, I can laugh,
And I can weep, can hope, and can despond,
Feel wrath and pity, when I think on thee.
Ten righteous would have saved a city once;
And thou hast many righteous; well for thee
That salt preserves thee: more corrupted else,
And therefore more obnoxious at this hour.
Than Sodom in her day had power to be,
For whom God heard his Abra'am plead in vain !”
OF MAGDALENISM.
129
}
LECTURE IV.
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION, MITIGATION, and
REMOVAL.-
I Now come to that part of my subject toward
which all that has preceded has been pointing,
and without which it would be of little avail. I
am to consider in this lecture-
V. The MEANS OF PREVENTION, MITIGATION,
AND REMOVAL.
"that
In the review of Parent-Duchatelet, formerly
referred to, in the Foreign Quarterly Review, the
able writer, in entering on his task, takes occasion
to "point out a great error, to which philanthropists
are liable, and which has produced many calami-
tous results. It is simply," he continues,
many aim at extirpating an evil which can never
be wholly removed, and that, from their failure in
finding a specific cure, they infer it to be idle to
attempt alleviation." Now the spirit of this obser-
vation is most just; but to me, I confess, the ex-
pression of it appears faulty. Had it merely been
said that the impossibility, so far as evinced by
experience, of effecting the entire removal of any
evil, is no valid reason for withholding whatever
efforts are practicable for its mitigation, the maxim
would have been unobjectionable. But surely no
amount of experience whatsoever can be a suffi-
cient warrant for not seeking its extirpation. This
130
OF THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
must be a duty. Let our success, or our expecta-
tion of success, be what it may, extirpation as-
suredly requires to be our aim. The same thing
holds true with regard to the vices of the social
system, which is true as to the evils of personal
character. Our not being able, as Christians, while
in this world, to reach the point of sinless perfec-
tion, can never be a satisfactory excuse for not aim-
ing at it. Not to aim at it, is to be satisfied with
remaining sin. So as to the prevailing evils in
society. Our aim should be their annihilation.
Of that aim we may fall mournfully short; but
still our eye should be upon it, and our exertions
toward it. The reviewer's illustration from poverty
is evidently drawn from a case that is far from par-
allel. When, after introducing it, he says, "We
claim for the other evils which afflict humanity the
same enlightened tolerance that is bestowed on pov-
erty," he places on the same level, he includes in
the same category, things in their nature essen-
tially different. In some cases, it is granted—
nay, in very many-poverty may arise from the
operation of principles which are in their nature
immoral; but poverty is not itself a sin. I can,
therefore, freely apply the phrase "enlightened
tolerance" to poverty, while I more than shrink
from the application of it to harlotry; especially
after the survey we have been taking of the amount
of both its intrinsic and its incidental turpitude.
And I still further demur, when the critic adds that
"magdalenism is a vice inherent in the social
tem That it is inherent in the social system, as
that system exists under the corrupting influence
of our nature's depraved passions-that all along,
since the entrance of sin, the sexual intercourse
""
sys-
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
131
has, in a greater or less degree, been debased and
polluted by the all-pervading and all-tainting prin-
ciple of evil-is a truth-a truth as sure as it is
sad. But this is not imputable to the social system
itself. It is incidental to it only; not inherent in
it. Had the dominance of the original principles
of our nature continued, "the social system" would
have given birth to nothing but purity and happi-
ness. And to sin as such, to moral corruption
and debasement as such, we can allow no such
thing as tolerance; far less can we consent to dig-
nify such tolerance with the epithet of "enlightened
tolerance." Sın must have no quarter. It is, at
the same time, quite true, that high and firm as is
the position we must take in regard to our aim, the
entire extirpation of such an evil is more than,
from all past experience, we have any reasonable
ground to anticipate; but then, of an evil so mon-
strous in itself and in its effects, even the partial
prevention and the partial removal are much, and
are worthy, for their attainment, of all our personal
and combined efforts.
The means which may be brought to bear on
the accomplishment of these desirable objects, are
chiefly of two descriptions, moral and legal: the
operations of Christian and humane benevolence, and
the interference of legislative enactment.
In entering on the consideration of the moral
means, I may repeat that the object is twofold-
prevention and alleviation. Now, for the effectual
accomplishment of this double design, it must be
obvious that it is not enough for us to work directly
on the minds of those unfortunate and guilty beings
themselves, whom we can succeed in bringing
under our beneficent influence. We must stir up
132
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
public interest, and let me say, especially Chris-
tian interest, in their behalf. And this, which
might be conceived to be very easy, is as far from
being so as possible. The prejudice against them
is natural and strong. And if the prejudice bore
no other phase than that of a loathing of their vile-
ness, it were well. But Christians are too much
in danger of forgetting, what never for one moment
should they allow to slip from their minds, that the
more odious their vileness, and the deeper their
guilt, the more imminent is their danger, and the
heavier the sentence of wo that hangs over them;
and that therefore the more fervent ought to be the
pity with which they are regarded, and the more
earnest the solicitude for their recovery. Hatred
of their sins must on no account be allowed to de-
generate into hatred of their persons. To hate
their sins, we learn from God; but to hate their
persons, we can learn only from the devil. What
should have been our condition, and that of our
entire race, had not this distinction been made by
the God with whom we have to do '—had not he
who hated the sin looked with compassion on the
sinner!
I make my first appeal to the pulpit. The
theme, I am well aware, is one on which the min-
isters of the gospel can not dwell, frequently or
freely, before promiscuous auditories. Yet there
is a danger of an excess of squeamishness, such
as it is not easy to reconcile with faithfulness.
In a city like this there are few sins from which
the rising youth are exposed to greater peril.
They require to be warned, affectionately and ear-
nestly warned, against this as well as the many
other "
snares of the devil." Parents need warn-
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
133
ing, to watch over this department of the morals
of their sons with a sedulous and monitory care.
Masters and mistresses need warning, to keep an
eye of vigilant kindness upon their young domes-
tics. And these domestics themselves need warning,
to beware of the vanity, and of the flatteries, the
false promises, and the unnumbered and nameless
arts of the liers-in-wait for their virtue. When
either such subjects come in a minister's way, or
when special circumstances demand the notice
of them, or when the description of congregation
in which he labors, as consisting largely of par-
ticular classes of hearers, calls for their more fre-
quent introduction,-it becomes imperative on him
who would be "clear of the blood of all men," not
to shrink from them, but with all "plainness of
speech”—a plainness which may be used without
the remotest approach to coarseness, and in perfect
harmony with the claims of the chastest delicacy
(6
-to "reprove, rebuke, and exhort," with all fidelity.
Allow me to give weight to these observations by
the following energetic appeal of Dr. Dwight,
Theology," sermon cxx.: "Is it not a plain and
prominent part of the counsel of God to forbid, to
discourage, to prevent, this profligate conduct of
mankind? Why else was this precept" (the sev-
enth commandment) "inserted in the decalogue,
and promulgated amid the lightnings of Sinai?
Why else is it, throughout the Scriptures, made
the subject of such forcible prohibitions, and the
object of such awful threatenings?
What reason
can be given why it should not be introduced into
the pulpit? Can common sense either prove or
discern the usefulness of excluding it? Is it fit,
is it safe, is it not preposterous, is it not ruinous
12
134
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
?
to the best interests of mankind, to leave the whole
management of it to loose and abandoned men, and
to suffer them, from year to year, and from century
to century, to go on in a course of corruption, sc-
ducing and destroying thousands and millions,
especially the young, the gay, and the giddy-
while we, ministers of Christ, divinely appointed
to watch for the souls of men, quietly sit by, and
see them hurried on to perdition ? Shall we be
awed by the cry of indelicacy, originally raised
by the most indelicate of mankind, only to keep
the field open for its own malignant occupancy
Shall we not infinitely rather lay hold of every
opportunity, and all the means furnished here and
elsewhere" (that is, in the pulpit and out of it), “to
rescue our fellow-creatures from destruction ?”
And, although from the pulpit we could not enter
into any such details as have been introduced in
these lectures, yet the cause of the wretched vic-
tims of pollution might, for their own sakes, for
the rising youth's sake of whom they are the
tempters, and for the sake of the community and
of the church of God, be occasionally pleaded,
and appeals made in their behalf to Christian feel-
ing and to Christian faith.
I have said, to Christian faith: for on the pres-
ent subject, there is, I fear, among Christians, a
culpable lack of faith. The impression is, to a
great extent, prevalent, that magdalenism is a case
of hopelessness. Now let my fellow-Christians re-
member, that, while they are professing to found
their despondency on the scantiness of past results,
when compared with the extent of effort and of
means, they may, unwittingly, be inverting the or-
der of cause and effect, and pleading, as the ground
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
135
of their unbelief, that
of their want of faith.
failure they complain, they have been using in
hope, rather than in faith,-and even that hope slen-
der; with an unworthy doubt hanging constantly
over their minds, whether the grace of God was
free enough for the reception of such abandoned
outcasts, rich enough for their forgiveness, or migh-
ty enough for their conversion
Their prayers
have been unbelieving prayers; their efforts unbe-
lieving efforts. They have proceeded too much
on a peradventure:-their supplications are not
sufficiently pervaded by confidence in God's faith-
fulness to his promises, or in the omnipotence of
his word and spirit. And in due proportion, per-
haps, to the scantiness of their faith, and of the
honor they have given to the God of grace, has
been the stintedness of the harvest they have
reaped.
which is itself the product
The very means, of whose
Ôn this branch of my subject, namely, the use
of moral means for the accomplishment of our be-
nevolent end,—so far as that end is the reclaiming
of the already vicious,-I would venture, not per-
haps unqualifiedly, but to a considerable extent, to
question the correctness of a maxim laid down by
Duchatelet, or rather, approved by him as the
sentiment of others, from whom he quotes, and of
whose practical wisdom he expresses a high esti-
mate,—in regard to the place which the truths of
religion ought to hold, in the order of their appli-
cation. He speaks of the "Bon Pasteur" Asy-
lum,-but of course not exclusively, the same gen-
eral principles being applicable to others; and, in-
deed, admitting of application out of an asylum, as
well as in it: "It must be by slow degrees that
136
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
Let
the admitted inmates are brought to join in all the
customary religious exercises. Virtue must be
rendered agreeable to them; they must be taught the
exercise of self-respect; and special care must be
taken to avoid the use of discouraging terror. The
earthly advantages of virtue should, in the first in-
stance, be set before them, rather than its future
heavenly rewards. It will be well to teach them
the duties which we all in common owe to God
and to society, gently to point out to them their vi-
olations of these duties, and to show them the ne-
cessity at once and the means of making atonement
for what has drawn upon them public displeasure,
and excluded them from social intercourse.
them but have a conviction of the possibility of
their regaining the esteem of others, and being re-
instated in their own;-let them but try their
strength, and be satisfied that this is not utterly un-
attainable ;—they will then, of their own accord,
apply themselves to those religious exercises, to
which they now yield a compulsory submission ;
and we shall no longer have the mortification of
seeing the doors of the penitentiary closed for ever
on those who, weary of such disciplinary con-
straint, prefer returning to their former ways."
Now, let me be understood. The mental charac-
ters, the knowledge, the moral and spiritual condi-
tion, and the natural and acquired tempers, of the
subjects on whom we have to work, are so exceed-
ingly diversified, that it is not to be supposed the
very same course of treatment could be equally
suitable for all. I am also well aware of the ex-
treme difficulty of introducing into minds which
have, not a few of them at least, been almost with-
out a thought of a divine Being beyond what is in-
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
137
volved in blaspheming his name, and by a course
of profligate indulgence have been confirmed and
indurated in the habits of vice,-anything like a
connected system of religious truth,-especially
when they are set to the learning of it as a part of
their allotted and required tasks,—and are thus led
to regard it as an article of their discipline rather
than a kind prescription for their good, and to feel
it a toil rather than choose it as a pleasure. And
I would still further admit, that everything ought
to be done in the way of pressing upon them the
temporal evils of vice, and the temporal benefits of
virtue, and of employing all possible affectionate
persuasion to lure them from the one to the other,
-to convince them, and induce them to act on the
conviction, how very essentially such a change
will contribute to their present interest and enjoy-
ment. Yet, making all these admissions, I can
not but more than suspect, when I look into my
New Testament, that the plan of Duchatelet is
hardly in harmony with either its principles or its
facts. From some parts of the connexion indeed
in which the passage just cited stands,—where the
nature of the religious instructions imparted, and
of the religious exercises in which they were obli-
ged to engage, is incidentally brought out,—we can
not greatly wonder at the whole proving even much
worse than a failure. Mark the reply which Du-
chatelet received from a number of them to his in-
terrogatories on this subject: "We hear nothing
but about hell, and the necessity of penances and
mortifications; we are for ever reminded of our
past lives; we are obliged to repeat prayers which
we do not understand; we are treated like chil-
dren,―punished by having our gown for a time ta-
12*
138
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
ken from us, or by having to wear a black bonnet,
or to remain on our knees, or to kiss the ground;
and by way of penance, all our means of paying
our homage to the Virgin will be taken from us;
and when too late, we may see them pass into the
hands of others, without any power to recover
them." All this is sad enough; sad that, in any
way, whether by slow degrees or immediately, the
poor creatures should be brought under a system
so worthless and delusive. But even taking our
author's own words apart from any relation to such
a statement, no one who understands the gospel
can fail to be sensible of the defective and mista-
ken views of it which they discover. There is
too much of regard to the outward forms of devo-
tion, too much of the merit of repentance,—too
much of the idea of compensation for the past by
reformation for the future.—and too much of the
principle of confining our aims to such reforma-
tion, and of seeking its attainment, in the first in-
stance, by the influence of temporal and earthly
considerations. My conviction is, that, if we would
effectually obtain our whole object, we can not be-
gin too soon with the simple elements of evangel-
ical truth.
Not only is there to be found, among those har-
lots on whom we have the opportunity of bringing
our moral means to bear, a few who are possessed
of more knowledge than the rest; but even with
regard to the very worst and most ignorant of them
all-the Bible way of getting at the heart-of
reaching the very root of the evil-of effecting a
change in the dispositions and springs of action-
is, to urge "repentance toward God and faith tow-
ard our Lord Jesus Christ ;"-to tell the tale of
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
139
the cross; to exhibit, in all their divine simplicity,
its terrors and its attractions;-to hold forth to
them the boundless love of a sin-hating but sin-
pardoning God-the God who while he hates the
sin, loves the sinner-who has "remembered
them in their low estate," and who "delights in
mercy ;”—the merits of a divine Savior; the pre-
ciousness, and the permanent virtue, of his blood;
the untrammelled and universal freeness of his
grace. This is the refuge from despair.
refuge for all-a refuge for the worst.
Christians forget Him who said to the weeping
penitent that washed his feet with her tears-"Thy
sins are forgiven thee :-go in peace!"
-go in peace!" If you
would soften the hard heart, you must employ, for
your purpose, the omnipotence of love. You
must work upon it by the mercy of the cross-the
mighty, melting mercy of the cross. The truth
It is a
Let not
revealing it is simplicity itself, and the right per-
ception of that truth, is the inlet to all the rest.
Get but the mind of the most ignorant and most
obdurate to catch a glimpse of God's delight in
mercy through a divine Savior;-the heart bends
to the power of redeeming love; the tearless eye
fills; the once untamed, but now timid and tremb-
ling spirit, receives peace-a peace, not from light
thoughts of sin, for how could they be lighter than
they were before ?—but springing from the faith
of that simple truth, which at once impresses with
sin's "exceeding sinfulness," and shows that sin
forgiven. Let Christians remember, that when
the Baptist preached repentance, and pointed to
"him who should come after him"-" the lamb of
God which taketh away the sins of the world,'
while the proud Pharisees "rejected the counsel
""
140
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
7
of God against themselves," "the publicans and
the harlots believed him." It was the words of
Him"into whose lips grace was poured" that
broke and healed the heart of the "woman who
was a sinner" before alluded to-probably just
such a character as some of those whom we are
desirous to see rescued from the ways of death,
and from the death to which those ways lead. The
tale of the cross has the same power as ever.
Under the teaching of God's Spirit, there is no
hardness which it can not soften; no power of
sin which it can not subdue; no impurity which
it can not cleanse; no length and strength of
habits of evil which it can not counteract and
rectify; no fears which it can not quell; no bro-
ken spirit which it can not heal. There is not
unfrequently to be found, among Christians them-
selves, a kind of harshness of feeling toward the
description of transgressors of whose case we are
treating, that is far from being in harmony with
the lovely example of their divine Master.
Was
he indifferent to the sin? Who among his fol-
lowers can see and feel its sinfulness as he saw
and felt it, or can hold it in the abhorrence in which
he held it? Yet he never turned away from the
sinner; and not a word of unkind and repulsive
harshness, even to the chief of sinners, ever fell
from his lips. I am far from meaning by this,
that all are to be treated in the very same way,
and all spoken to in the same terms, and tone, and
manner. But, generally speaking, it is kindness
that is the key to the human heart; a key, by the
right application of which you may open an en-
trance to it, when every other means fail you.
And the influence of kindness is often the great-
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
141
est on those who have been least accustomed to
it. A poor orphan girl, who, for some cause had
been dismissed from one of the haunts of magda-
lenism, made her appeal, as stated by Duchatelet,
to a benevolent lady :-she was received and
spoken to with kind compassion:-"she burst
into tears; and, being questioned as to the cause
of her emotion, replied, that it was the first time
in her life she had found one who took an interest
in her, who spoke to her with gentleness, or who
showed her any friendly feeling." And assuredly
there could be no greater incongruity, than ex-
hibiting the mercy of God in an unmerciful spirit
-than telling a fellow-sinner of the love of Christ
in the temper of those who said-" Stand by thy-
self; come not near to me; for I am holier than
thou!" I have spoken of this means in general
terms; because it may be used by Christians in-
dividually, as well as within the walls of a peni-
tentiary. And by whomsoever it is used, nothing
can be of more importance than its being rightly
used. It is the gospel-the gospel in its simplest
and most elementary truths-the gospel, as con-
centrated into the one sentence-" The wages of
sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,"-it is this truth,
this gospel, that is able to change the heart and to
save the soul. O! the first and grand object is-
to get the poor sinful creatures convinced, that,
while their sins have doomed them to hell, the
God who has pronounced their doom is in earnest
in offering them mercy; that there is no sin for
whose guilt the blood of the cross is not a suffi-
cient atonement; and no character of which the
sins are so numerous or so aggravated as to be
142
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
beyond the range of infinite mercy-mercy shown
to be infinite by that very atonement.
It is with the acceptance of mercy that the re-
ligion of every sinner must begin. The great
question is, in regard to this part of my subject-
What, in dealing with the victims of profligacy, is
your arm?
Is it reformation only-or is it conver-
sion? The answer to the question should be—it
is both. Then, which is the better way to pro-
ceed?—to begin with the one, or to begin with
the other? I should think the most reasonable
answer here would be-begin with the one which
is sure to be followed by the other. You may
possibly reform, without converting; but you can
not convert without reforming. The question
bears a close analogy to one in the department of
missions. Civilize first, said many; then chris-
tianize. The plan has been tried: the experiment
has been made :-but it has invariably proved a
failure. Whereas, the instant Christianity has
been received, civilization, in the form of all de-
scriptions of personal and social improvement, has
followed in its train. I would not say, that every
attempt at reforming the victims of prostitution
must prove a failure. I have admitted the con-
trary. But the cases of success are rare; and
even when you succeed, you have left incompara-
bly the more important part of your work undone
and what you have accomplished does not at all
insure it. You have effected good for the body
and for time; but the soul is still without the
"vital spark of heavenly flame," the principle of
the new and better life ;—and eternity is still un-
provided for. You have thus done the least, and
left the greatest undone. Would it not be better
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
143
to aim at once at the greatest,-seeing this has
the special advantage, that it is impossible to ef-
fect it without the immediate sequence of the
other ?
You go to the root. The principles of
conversion are the principles of all reformation.
They are the divinely-implanted seeds in the soul,
which will germinate into all the fruits of virtue
and godliness in the life. If you fall short of the
"new heart," you fall short of the only security
for an effectual and permanent change: and, al-
though, to a certain extent, you may benefit the
objects of your benevolent interest in regard to
this world, you fail of their soul's salvation.
With regard to public institutions for the benefit
of harlots, allow me to begin with a remark or two
on the subject of Lock hospitals. These, most
of you are aware, are receptacles for the diseased,
and have, for their immediate and primary object,
the treatment and cure of the body. Now, even
on moral and religious grounds, apart entirely from
the claim which all suffering, whatsoever may
have been its cause, has to suffering, whatsoever
may have been its cause, has to pity, I should
conceive it unmerciful to object to such institu-
tions. The disease in question, if left to itself,
would hurry its victims to a wretched end, and
thus put a speedy close to the possibility of any
further means, or any means at all,-for their
spiritual and eternal benefit,—for their rescue from
sin and perdition. On this ground, therefore, even
were there no other,―for the sake of "giving
them space for repentance," I would plead for the
cure of their bodies. At the same time, it must
be admitted, that, when regarded simply as hospi-
tals for the healing of the body, they do wear
144 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
On
somewhat of the revolting aspect (for such it can
not but be to the Christian mind) of places for re-
fitting their inmates for the renewed prosecution
of their vile and guilty career; and appear as if
they almost held out an encouragement to their
continuance in it, by the very knowledge of the
means being thus at hand of repeated cure.
this account, it does seem most desirable,-per-
haps, in order to the full reconciliation of the mind
to the system, I might say indispensable,-that
every Lock hospital should, to a certain extent at
least, be, at the same time, a penitentiary; con-
taining, in its constitution, some provision for the
soul, as well as for the body: and, since the pa-
tients can not, of course, remain after they are
sufficiently convalescent to be removed, that there
should be associated with it another institution of
a different kind,-for moral and religious disci-
pline and training, into which, if (as is presumed)
there can be no compulsion, they should be per-
suaded to transfer themselves. I can not imagine
anything more inconsistent with genuine benevo-
lence, than to have a house filled with patients,
suffering in their bodies from the effects of soul-
ruining vice,—in which, while the most skilful
medical attendance is provided for the cure of
their maladies and their restoration to corporeal
soundness, their guilty and polluted spirits are
suffered to remain in all their ignorance and de-
pravity, without an attempt to instruct, reclaim,
and save them. What an anomaly this, in a
country calling itself Christian In the Lock
hospital of our own city, I rejoice to say, the
souls of the inmates are not overlooked. How far
now any existing institution among us possesses
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
145
the character of a penitentiary for females of the
description in question, we shall inquire imme-
diately.
There can be no question, that a large amount
of benefit, both temporal and spiritual, has resulted
to fallen females, from the institution of asylums,
under various designations, as places of refuge
from the temptations of the world, and from the
imminent danger to which, in their state of outcast
degradation, they otherwise stand exposed, of re-
turning to their former courses. The following
statement I lay before you from the London City
Mission Magazine for September, 1837. I read
it myself after writing the preceding paragraph;
and it will be observed how precisely the two in-
stitutions first mentioned accord, in the nature of
their relation to each other, with the suggestion
which that paragraph contains, and which indeed
can hardly fail to present itself to every Christian
mind :-
"The Lock hospital is the oldest institution in
London for the benefit of degraded females, and
is devoted entirely to the cure of such as are dis-
eased. It was founded in the year 1747, and
since that period to the present, 45,448 have been
cured by means of this valuable hospital.
"The Lock asylum was founded in July, 1787”
(forty years after), "for the reception of penitent
female patients when discharged from the Lock
hospital, and up to Lady-day, 1837, the number
of women received into the institution was 984”
(in half a century' an average of not quite 20 an-
nually); "of whom 170 have been received by
their friends, 281 have gone to service, 22 have
died in the house, and 18 were in the house at
13
146 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
Lady-day, 1837. Of the remaining number many
have been sent to their parishes: some have
eloped, and some have been expelled for ill-beha-
vior, but of several even of these favorable ac-
counts have been since received; some of them
are known to be married, and to be living credita-
bly, while many others are earning an honest live-
lihood, who not long since were among the pests
of society.
"The Magdalene hospital was founded 10th
August, 1758” (eleven years after the Lock)," and
up to 5th January, 1837, had received 6,284 fe-
males" (not quite an average of 90 annually).
"Of this number 4,258 have been reconciled to
their friends, placed in service, or other respecta-
ble and industrious situations; 104 have been lu-
natic, troubled with fits or incurable disorders, 105
have died, 1089 discharged at their own request,
638 discharged for improper behavior, 2 ab-
sconded in the year 1826, and 88 were in the
house 5th January, 1837. The following fact at-
taches peculiar interest and importance to this
institution: A considerable number of the wo-
men, when discharged from the house, are under
twenty years of age, and it is an invariable rule
not to dismiss any woman (unless at her own de-
sire or for misconduct) without some means being
provided by which she may obtain a livelihood in
an honest manner.'
"The London Female penitentiary was insti-
tuted in 1807. Since that time, out of 5,579 ap-
plicants, 2,258 have been admitted into the house;
leaving 3,321" (greatly more than half)
"that
could not be received. Of which 1,292 have been
placed out to service, reconciled and restored to
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
147
their friends, or otherwise provided for; 268 have
left the house at their own request, 383 discharged
from various causes, 58 sent to their parishes, 47
emigrated to Van Diemen's Land, 27 have died,
and 102 remained in the house on the 1st of
April, 1837.
"The Guardian Society was established in
1812, and since that period 1,560 wretched out-
casts have partaken of the advantages of this in-
stitution; 363 have been placed in service or
satisfactorily provided for, 420 restored to their
friends, 52 sent to their respective parishes, 663
have been discharged or withdrawn, 14 have died,
and 18 are now under the care of the institution.
"The Maritime Penitent Female Refuge was
the next institution of this class formed in the me-
tropolis. The children, orphans, or connexions.
of seamen are regarded as primary objects of the
attention of this institution, but no poor wanderer
of any other grade is excluded from its benefits.
It has also a peculiarity which distinguishes it
from every other society; it not only seeks to
raise the fallen and to reform the guilty, but it
stretches out the hand of mercy to the destitute
and homeless female, when no prospect but that
of magdalenism, from absolute abandonment and
starvation, is presented before her.' The last re-
port states, that during the year just ended, 140 fe-
males were admitted, besides 50 who were in the
asylum at the last anniversary; 57 of these have
been dismissed as improper objects, or for bad
conduct, or have left at their own request; 34 have
been restored to their relatives or friends in va-
rious parts of the country, and 46 have been
placed in comfortable and respectable situations;
}
148 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
and one has died: leaving the present number of
inmates in the Refuge 52."
The following comparative view of the bene-
ficial results of these establishments, in different
places, is given by Mr. Tait:-
"
Although the principles upon which these in-
stitutions are established, and the regulations by
which they are governed, are very nearly the same;
yet the contrast between the success attendant
upon their exertions is very striking, and some-
what inexplicable. For example, the Magdalene
hospital in London, from its commencement in
August, 1758, to January, 1808, admitted 3,865
females, of whom 2,532 were reconciled to friends
or placed in service, being about 633 per cent. of
the number received into the asylum. The Lon-
don Female penitentiary, which was instituted in
1807, has afforded a refuge (at the last anniversary
meeting, 1839) to 2,429 persons, of whom 1,442
had been sent to service or friends, which is about
59% of those admitted. Of 80 admitted in seven
years into the Bristol Penitentiary, 5 died true
penitents, 17 were placed in service, 8 were re-
stored to their friends, and 24 remained. Of 143
in the Bagot Street penitentiary, Dublin, 42 were
provided with services or restored to friends; 45
remain. The Liverpool penitentiary has reclaim-
ed on an average twelve each year; many of them
are now placed in confidential situations, and some
well married and members of Christian
churches. Since the opening of the Edinburgh
Magdalene in 1797, up to the time of publication
of last report in 1837, 814 unfortunate females
have been received into the institution, of whom
only 293, or about 36 per cent., have been sent to
are
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
149
their friends and situations. It may be stated
generally, in regard to the Bon-Pasteur in Paris,
that its success is still less satisfactory than that of
Edinburgh. As the report and regulations of the
Glasgow Magdalene are not expected to be print-
ed before the publication of this essay, the author
is not in possession of any data by which the suc-
cess of its operations can be determined." Magda-
lenism, pp. 334, 335.
With regard to the Glasgow Magdalene asylum
here referred to (an institution which owed its
origin chiefly to the benevolent zeal of the late
excellent and lamented Dr. M'Gill, my friend John
Wright, Esq., who from the beginning took a most
active interest in its concerns, as the secretary to
the institution, does not-in answer to my inquiries
--speak in strong terms of the amount of its suc-
cess; the instances of true conversion to God
having been comparatively "few and far between;"
and the permanence of external reformation in
other cases, in consequence of the migratory
character of the parties-who pass from situation
to situation and are soon lost sight of-being ne-
cessarily a matter of uncertainty. Others, how-
ever, have thought more favorably. Dr. M'Gill,
in a sermon preached five years after its commence-
ment, while admitting, as a matter of course, a large
amount of disappointment, speaks of "the instan-
ces of success as being then so many and so great,
as to give pleasure to every man who regards the
temporal well-being of his fellow-creatures; how
much more to him who estimates, with Christian
faith and Christian feeling, the value of saving a
soul from death!" That institution, as exclusively
a Magdalene asylum, or a penitentiary for harlots,
13*
150
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
has now ceased to exist. In consequence of the
beneficial effects found by experience to result
from the House of Refuge for male juvenile de-
linquents, a similar institution for the repression of
female juvenile delinquency was resolved upon in
1840. Subscriptions were opened-a committee
having been appointed at a public meeting of the
inhabitants; that committee, consulting and co-
operating with the committee of the Magdalene,
by whom the proposal for the extension of the in-
stitution had been very cordially received-pro-
ceeded to the erection of additional buildings; and
this new House of Refuge received the sanction
of Parliament under the "Act for repressing juve-
nile delinquency in the city of Glasgow," to which
the royal assent was given in June, 1841.
The first paragraph in the report of the com-
mittee of the enlarged institution, states in gene-
ral terms the results of the previous working of it
under its more restricted form, for above a quarter
of a century: "It is now upward of twenty-five
years since the Magdalene asylum was opened.
In the course of that time, about 800 individuals
have been received. Many of these have certain-
ly belied the professions of penitence made by
them at their admission, and disappointed the ex-
pectations of the directors :—but while there has
been just cause of regret from this, there have
been also many delightful instances in which the
directors had obvious reason to see their wishes
crowned with the most encouraging success.
With the sentiment which closes the same report
all who now hear me, will, I trust, heartily concur:
"It is said in the infallible word of God, that 'there
is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.'
""
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
151
The
Let us, then, in the prosecution of our duties, hope
that some poor wanderer from the paths of virtue
may, in this asylum, be brought to the knowledge
of eternal life, embrace the way of salvation, and
become an everlasting monument that Christ came
' to seek and to save that which was lost.' Then
would all our outlay be more than repaid, and all
our exertions in this benevolent scheme be more
than remunerated." True, however, as this is,
the reflection is a very melancholy one-one which
can not fail to draw the sigh of heaviness from
every rightly-feeling bosom, that the proportion
even of those who have taken refuge in such asy-
lums and still more of those who have been
really benefited by them-is so very small, when
compared with the numbers who, during the same
periods, have lived and died in their sins.
ratio, on this point, which some statists have given
in regard to London, I shrink from mentioning;
because it proceeds upon data, both as to the num-
ber of harlots in that metropolis, and as to the
proportion of them who die annually, which, as
formerly stated, have been clearly shown to be
fallacious. It is upon the assumption that there
are 80,000 harlots in London, of whom 8,000 die
annually (of the extravagance of which assump-
tions I can not now resume the proof), that Dr.
Ryan proceeds, when he says, that "while 11,000
individuals have been benefited by these asylums
(in London) four millions have, within the same
portion of time, been sacrificed by magdalenism.'
I am constrained, therefore, to take this statement
with a deduction corresponding to that requiring
to be made from the assumptions on which it rests.
It is a subject on which, as on other branches of
""
152 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
the same system, there is no need for exaggera-
tion:-the lowest estimate is quite sufficiently
appailing. Mr. Tait states in regard to Edinburgh,
referring to the same period of 79 years, from the
time of the opening of the first establishment in
London for the reformation of harlots-that
"while 814 have found a refuge in the Magdalene,
15,800 females have perished in their iniquity."
I shall not enter into any details respecting the
constitution and management of female penitentia-
ries. Their leading objects, as all must be aware,
are—to afford to those who desire it protection
from exposure to temptation, and to encourage
them in every intimated wish to return to the paths
of rectitude; to impart religious instruction, and,
in order to this, when required, the elements of
reading; to train to habits of industry; to infuse
principles of honesty, integrity, decency, sobriety,
and virtue, and, as far as possible, give to the
operation of such principles the force of habit; to
restore, in all possible cases, where good is likely
to be the result, to parents, and relations, and
friends; and to place out in respectable situations
those who afford a promise of doing well. Sadly
true indeed, is the statement immediately follow-
ing the paragraph already cited from the Report
of the Glasgow Female House of Refuge: "Few
can imagine the state of extreme wretchedness
and ignorance, in which the applicants for admis-
sion into this institution are at first to be found.
To a character of course ruined in the eyes of the
world, there is conjoined, not unfrequently, an in-
ability to read, and a total destitution of religious
knowledge. Degraded in their own eyes, they
feel themselves to be the outcasts of society, and,
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
153
even were they willing to work, no one will re-
ceive them. What a blessing, then, must such an
institution as this be to these poor outcasts, with-
out a friend and without a home, domiciled only in
the haunts of profligacy! Across their minds
some painful recollections of a character once un-
tarnished, and of joys now departed, occasionally
force themselves; and here they have an opportu-
nity of proving whether such feelings shall be
matured into final improvement, or subside at last
into confirmed degradation."
The new institution is for the repression and
reformation of juvenile female delinquency in gen-
eral—it having been thought practicable, by an ex-
tension of the constitution of the Magdalene asy-
lum, to combine its special object with the more
general one. The institution now affords its bene-
fits to the three following classes : "1st, females
of more mature age, but under twenty-five years
of age; 2d, young females, who may be com-
mitted to the jail and bridewell, and who express
a desire to be received into the asylum; 3d,
young females who, from extreme want and desti-
tution, may be in danger of being led astray; but,
as to the admission of such, the committee of
management for the time are to be at liberty to
exercise their own discretion in all cases. It
will be observed, that, while there is thus an ex-
tension of the previous constitution in one way,
there is an abridgment of it in another. In the
first place, there is an exclusion of all above
twenty-five years of age;-and secondly, although
the terms of the act are purposely general, speak-
ing only of "such young persons as the board
shall think fit and as shall request to be received
154
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
into the house, and shall consent to become in-
mates thereof, or, being already inmates of the
same, shall consent to remain therein for a speci-
fied time," yet, from the character of the certifi-
cates required of such consent, &c., it seems to
be designed, not for the reception of harlots as
harlots, but for the reception rather of delinquents
of other descriptions, whose delinquency, however,
may be considered as very generally associated
with magdalenism. I have no doubt that all the
views which could be taken of the matter were
present to the minds of the united committees, at
the time when it was resolved to merge the Magda-
lene in the House of Refuge. I can not help,
however, throwing out my doubts, whether, in such
a city as Glasgow, it be altogether as it ought to
be, that there should be no such thing as a peni-
tentiary for harlots as such—a place of refuge and
reformation for them, regarded simply in this
character, seeing there may be some, possibly not
a few, who fall into this snare, and thus lose caste
and are in imminent danger, who have not, as yet
at least, manifested any propensity to such other
species of delinquency, as are contemplated in
both the male and female houses of refuge :—and
farther, whether it be right that into no asylum can
any woman now be received above the age of five-
and-twenty. This latter exclusion arises from the
houses of refuge being expressly for the repression
of juvenile delinquency. But surely, true as it is
that the ordinary range for entrance on and con-
tinuance in a life of magdalenism, is from the age
of fifteen to that of twenty-five-it would be far
from desirable or right, to act on the principle that
above the latter period all is hopeless. At that age,
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
155
and beyond it, there may be not a few cases, in
which the habits of vice have not been matured;
and even in cases where they have, there ought
to be taken into the reckoning of probabilities, as
sometimes a strong counteraction of the force of
habit itself—a growing experience of the misery of
such a course. It was when the prodigal son was
reduced, by his career of reckless debauchery, to
felt and hopeless wretchedness, that he "came to
himself," and turned his thoughts to his father's
house. I throw out such hints, however, in the
form only of doubts, for the consideration of my
fellow-citizens. It would be wrong in me, were I
to omit the opportunity of expressing the high
satisfaction which, in common with those fellow-
citizens, I experience in the extension of the plan
to all descriptions of juvenile delinquency; and at
the same time the special pleasure I feel in that
part of the constitution of the House of Refuge for
young females, which engages, in all ways that
are consistent with feminine propriety and delica-
cy, the benevolent, and, in such a case, peculiarly
appropriate aid of the ladies of our city; at whose
suggestion, it should be mentioned to their honor
(the suggestion, in terms of the Report, "of
the committee of ladies who, for some years past,
have taken a most laudable interest in the young
females committed to the jail or bridewell of the
city,”)—the extended plan came to be seriously
contemplated.
And I may embrace this opportunity of saying,
that, as female agency appears to possess a special
appropriateness to institutions of which females are
the inmates, and the best interests of females the
end, it is exceedingly desirable that in the bosoms
156
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
of our Christian ladies the aversion to come into
contact with the miserable creatures of their own
sex who are the immediate subject of these lec-
tures,—if it can not, and perhaps ought not to be
entirely cancelled,—should yet be controlled and
regulated by correct principle. If such aversion
be, in any case, a failing, it must be acknowledged
a failing that "leans to virtue's side." It would be
most harsh and unjust, to place it in the category
of prudery, and at once and unqualifiedly to con-
demn it. Still, however, it is of great moment to
prevent its going to an extreme; to convince our
truly Christian country-women,-those who know
the gospel of Christ and feel its holy and benevo-
lent power, that there is no inconsistency be-
tween the most shrinkingly delicate sensitiveness
on the point of female purity and honor, and their
taking a compassionate interest in the case of those
guilty and wretched beings who have violated the
claims of both;-that the spirit of the gospel is the
spirit of pity;-that one of the excellences and
recommendations of the gospel is its sufficiency.
both in pardoning grace and in reclaiming and pu-
rifying influence, for the very worst cases of guilt
and depravity;-that "to save a soul from death,
and hide the multitude of sins" is an aim, in such
cases, within their reach, and full of all that should
draw forth their benevolent ambition; and that both
their acquaintance with the peculiarities of female
nature, and the freedom with which they can hold
their communings with those of their own sex, ren-
der what we are recommending a peculiarly suita-
ble field for their tender sympathies and their be-
neficent exertions.
Still, however, there is something wanting. It
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
157
has become a proverb, that " to prevent is better
than to cure." The systems of which I have been
speaking have too little in them of the preventive.
It is surprising, that plans on the principle of the
adage just cited should not have been sooner
thought of; or, if thought of, should not have been
sooner carried out into vigorous practical efficiency.
I have the greatest satisfaction in now proceeding
to state, that in the year 1835, a society was formed
in London, under the designation of "The Lon-
don Society for the Protection of Young Females,
and Prevention of Juvenile Prostitution." The
leading objects of this most important institution
are-1st, to suppress those houses which en-
courage juvenile magdalenism: 2d, to punish per-
sons acting as procurers or procuresses; 3d, to
afford protection to the unhappy sufferers." To
this statement of its object there is added: "That
this Society shall co-operate with other institutions,
which shall have for their object the amelioration of
human suffering, in the protection and rescuing from
irremediable ruin those unfortunate victims who
may have fallen a prey to the machinations of li-
centiousness, or been betrayed by the traders in
prostitution." One of the means by which the so-
ciety prosecutes its ends, or rather, I may say,
one object at which it aims, in order to ulterior ob-
jects, 1s, "to procure an alteration in the existing
laws, so that the evidence necessary to convict may
be more readily and easily obtained, and to provide
a summary and severe method of punishment.
This object once obtained," says the committee,
"the labors of the society will be comparatively
easy." This society, I rejoice to say, is under
high patronage, and zealous and effective manage-
14
158
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
ment; and the encouragement it has hitherto re-
ceived gives every assurance of its stability and
extending usefulness. Its funds, from fifty pounds
in the first year of its existence, have risen to be-
tween fourteen and fifteen hundred in the sixth.
During the year ending May, 1841, it was success-
ful in the suppression of twenty brothels, and from
its commencement to the same date, of eighty. In
the year 1839, the committee opened a distinct
asylum of their own; in which they confine their
attention to females who are under the ages at which
they are admissible to other similar institutions—
that is under the age of fifteen; and by a happy
system of reciprocity, those applying to them who
are above that age are recommended to other refu-
ges, while those below it that apply to the others
are recommended to them. "When the committee
opened their asylum in the year 1839, fifteen ſe-
males were sheltered within its walls during the
first year; in the second year twenty, and through
the greater portion of the year closing with this
anniversary, twenty-eight have received the bene-
fit of the asylum. At the present moment thirty
young females under the age of fifteen, several of
them between nine and twelve years of age, are
protected, religiously instructed, and taught all that
is necessary to make them virtuous and useful ser-
vants in after life. At the last annual meeting
there were remaining in the house, twenty; ad-
mitted from a great number of applications since
that time, thirty; making a total of fifty. Ten have
been restored to their friends, after being in the
house not less than twelve months; nine sent to
respectable servitude, one left improperly, leaving
thirty in the asylum at the present time; making
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
159
a total of females received into the asylum of 226
since the establishment of the society." In con-
sequence of the impossibility of receiving and ac-
commodating the number of juvenile unfortunates
(for to children from eight or nine to fifteen years
of age, who are the victims of the wiles of demons
in human form at least to many of them-one
knows not how to apply a severer designation)—
who seek admission or for whom it is sought-the
society, in the end of 1840, for reasons alas!
too satisfactory," resolved upon opening a subscrip-
tion, either to erect a building, or to adapt one al-
ready erected to the purposes of an asylum, capa-
ble of accommodating not less than 150 young fe-
males, to be denominated' the Juvenile Female pen-
itentiary.'" May the benevolent design be speed-
ily accomplished; and may it, under the blessing
of Heaven, realize and exceed all the committee's
philanthropic desires,-in saving from ruin these
infant victims of the lust and cupidity of human
brutes of a maturer age; thus at once benefiting
the poor young creatures themselves, and benefit-
ing the community by the prevention of extending
pollution and crime!
I have further the satisfaction of mentioning that,
in conformity with the purpose of that society to
spread the operation of its system in other large
cities and towns in the united kingdom, its intelli-
gent and zealous travelling agent, Mr. Greig, has
been recently in Scotland; and that, in conse-
quence of his visit, societies have been formed, both
in Edinburgh and Glasgow, based upon the same
principles with that in London. The society formed
in our Scottish metropolis has published its objects
in the following definite terms: 1. "To obtain the
160
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
suppression, by all lawful means, of houses of bad
fame:" 2. "To obtain the enforcement of the ex-
isting law of the land, and, as soon as possible, an
improvement of it, in respect to juvenile magda-
lenism; and the more effectual exposure and pun-
ishment of seducers, procurers and procuresses:"
3. “To relieve and protect the unhappy victims of
magdalenism, particularly when of tender years;
by aiding in restoring them to their friends, and to
the paths of industry and virtue :" 4. "To establish
with these views, a Female Refuge in Edinburgh,
as soon as the necessary funds for that purpose
can be procured." Of this society, Sir James
Forrest, Bart., is president; its extraordinary and
ordinary directors form a very numerous and emi-
nently respectable list; and when I mention that
among the office-bearers of the institution, the sec-
retary-on whose efficiency so much depends-is
the author of the work of whose pages I have, in
these lectures, made so free a use-William Tart,
Esq., Surgeon, we have a good guarantee for both
knowledge, zeal, and activity, in the prosecution of
its interests.
At a meeting of magistrates, clergymen, and
others, held in the town-hall of our own city, on
the 16th of February last, the Hon. Sir James
Campbell, lord-provost, in the chair-it was re-
solved, that a society be forthwith established for
Glasgow and the neighborhood, to be called "The
Glasgow Auxiliary to the London Society for the
Protection of Young Females." It was, at the
same meeting farther resolved, "that a petition
similar to one then read be adopted, signed by the
lord-provost as chairman of the meeting, and
forwarded to both houses of parliament, and that
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
161
the members for the city be earnestly requested
to give all the assistance in their power to the
committee of the parent society, in their efforts
to obtain an alteration in the laws regarding tra-
ding in magdalenism:" And still further, "that
the lord-provost be requested, as chairman of
the meeting, to convey to the promoters of the
new police bill for Glasgow (now before parlia-
ment), the earnest desire of the meeting, that a
clause or clauses should be inserted into such bill,
giving to the magistrates greater power to detect
and punish the keepers of brothels, and others
guilty of promoting the vice of magdalenism.'
The objects of this association, as being an
auxiliary to the society in London, are of course
substantially the same with those of the parent
institution. They are thus stated: After the res-
olution, "That the society be designated the
Glasgow Association for the Protection of Young
Females, and reclaiming them from Magdalen-
ism:"
""
1. "To induce young females, who have be-
come harlots, or who are in danger of being led
into this profligate course of life, to take advan-
tage of the means now existing, or which may be
provided, for their protection and reformation.
2. To call public attention to the frightful and in-
creasing extent of this much-neglected enormity,
the fruitful source of crime and wretchedness-
by obtaining information-particularly statistical
information-and by inducing ministers of the gos-
pel to call attention to the subject, in such forms
as they may deem most beneficial. 3. To expose
and punish all parties trading in, or promoting, the
sin of magdalenism." It is further specified "that,
14*
162
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
in prosecution of these ends, the association will
use their utmost efforts to obtain petitions to the
legislature, for the enactment of such laws as
shall more effectually reach and punish the guilty
parties—and
parties and that the association co-operate with
the directors of the Female House of Refuge,
with the parent institution in London, and with
other institutions seeking to promote female
virtue."
I trust the public will be induced to take a ready
and a zealous interest in the objects of this society,
and efficiently to countenance and assist it in their
promotion. You will have observed, that one of the
leading objects of such institutions is prevention;
the prevention, by every accessible means, of the
early temptation and ruin of the female character—
on the high or the low average of which, in a com-
munity, the general virtue, and the consequent gen-
eral well-being, to such an extent depend; the pre-
vention, for example, of the arts of that diabolical
system, by which unwary young females are so
often entrapped into vice and ruin, and even mere
children decoyed, and sold into the hands of liber-
tine brutality. This is to be done, by getting pres-
ent laws examined and understood in their true
extent, and to that extent more stringently enforced;
and by obtaining such alterations in the existing
statutes as will accommodate them more to the
present state of society, and render them both
more capable of easy application, and more
thoroughly efficient. In such cases as have just
been referred to-namely, of the seduction of young
females, it is at present enacted, that "if the un-
happy victim has been drugged, or is under twelve •
years of age, the offence shall be held capital; and
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
163
along with the principal the person procuring is in-
volved as an abettor and accessary. But there is
no law for the punishment of the seducers, when
their prey has passed this tender age, even by an
hour." The design, then, is-(for I can not ex-
press it more succinctly and appropriately, than in
the terms of the address of the Edinburgh Society
-from which too I have just taken the statement
of the existing statute)" to endeavor to wipe
away that reproach to our laws; to reach the
purveyor, and repress her trade; to track, expose,
and punish the profligate who bribes her services;
and, not least, to rescue, protect, and restore to
her friends, at the moment when she will most
gratefully and eagerly embrace the means, the
helpless young creature who has just been envel-
oped in the spider's toils." In the experience of
the London society, as partially laid before you
in the last lecture, it has already been seen, to
what an extent even existing laws may reach to
the apprehension and punishment of these pests
of their species, and to the suppression of those
receptacles of pollution where so many bodies and
souls are destroyed. It is certainly most desirable,
that the law should be made to reach more effect-
ually every accessible point of this system of
moral desolation and death. We have laws
against gaming-houses. On what principle are
these laws founded? In themselves, they wear the
aspect of an encroachment on the liberties of the
subject. Has not every man a right to use his own
house for what purposes he pleases, and for which
others voluntarily please to frequent it? The an-
swer is, that where there are laws against injus-
tice, swindling, and robbery, no man is entitled to
164 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
?
?
break these laws, either in his own house or in
the house of another, or to receive and harbor
those who do. The mischief such houses do to
society, is enough to justify their suppression ;-
the entrapping, cheating, and fleecing of the un-
wary and inexperienced; the plunder thus amassed
by adepts in villany; as well as the evil passions
engendered, and the quarrels and the duels ari-
sing out of them. And if we have laws for the
putting down of gambling-houses, why should we
not have laws, equally or even more stringent and
stern, for the putting down of brothels-of houses
for magdalenism? Is the mischief less in the one,
than in the other? are the treachery and the un-
righteousness less? are the losses sustained less?
are the crimes perpetrated less-less either in moral
enormity, or in their effects to the community
are the victims sacrificed less deserving of com-
passion-more able to protect themselves, to secure
their own interest, and to effect their escape?
is the wrong done to them more easily retrieved?
-is the corrupting influence of their character,
when ruined, less injurious, less deadly? With-
out at all attempting to mitigate the horrors of the
gaming-table, we hesitate not to say, that there can
be but one just answer to all such questions. The
horrors of the brothel have the bad pre-eminence.
There can be but one reason for speaking less
condemnatorily of the one than of the other-is
it a creditable one that the propensity to whore-
dom is more general than the propensity to gam-
bling. Most assuredly, if there be one object of
legal surveillance and punitive restraint more legit-
imate, on all right principles, than another--this
is it. The powers of magistrates ought surely to
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
165
be so far extended and strengthened, as to enable
them to put down those houses of infamy, where
the youth of both sexes are contaminated with the
worst principles of evil; and which are fountains
of moral pollution to the public character, and foul
nests of disease and crime. And can any suffi-
cient reason be assigned, why those whose char-
acter and vocation as harlots are notorious should
not be prevented from carrying on that vocation in
our streets? Are the known character, and the
purpose for which they come abroad at particular
seasons, not sufficient ground for such prevention ?
I am here of course to be understood as referring
to the known inmates of houses of ill fame. To
extend the power to apprehension on mere suspi-
cron, would be a hazardous and inadmissible en-
croachment on the liberty of the subject, and lead
to all manner of oppressive abuses. And why
should not those monsters to whom I made point-
ed reference in last lecture-the purveyers for
sensuality, the hired decoyers of innocence, the
deliberate traders in virgin purity, be met by some
determined measures of prevention? I say of
prevention:-for in their case, be it remembered,
prevention is the only thing worth attempting. Are
you, in such a case, to wait for the evert act, for
the positive perpetration of the infamous deed-
and then visit it with punitive vengeance? O let
it be recollected, that this description of robbery
is not like others. Not only is it the robbery of
that, compared with which the "purse" is "trash,"
-but it is robbery of what can not be recovered.
By the efforts of an active police, you may trace
to their secret concealment the robbed or the sto-
len property;—but what police can restore the
166 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
virgin honor of the plundered and ruined victim
of the vile seducer? Surely, to lie in wait for
defenceless and unsuspecting innocence—and es-
pecially when that innocence is in the ignorance
and helplessness of childhood-is worse, in some
respects, than to lie in wait for blood. If there
be a crime besides murder that deserves being
visited with death, I should be disposed to pro-
nounce that the crime.
""
Among the many causes enumerated in last lec-
titre, as contributing to the vast aggregate of mag-
dalenism, poverty, you may remember, was one.
"Give me not poverty," said Agur," lest I be poor,
and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.'
And, while this condition of extreme depression
has tempted many to theft, it seems to be ascertained
also, beyond a doubt, that it has, in not a few in-
stances, been the constraining cause of selling the
body to dishonor. Into the means of prevention
here, it is impossible to enter. Were I to do so,
I am well aware of the contending theories of po-
litical economy, whose eager advocates or oppo-
nents would instantly be on the alert. All that I
can now say is, that the subject should be thor-
oughly investigated; that the true state of the poor
should be distinctly ascertained, with the tempta-
tions as well as miseries to which that state expo-
ses them ;-and that some more efficient means, be
they what they may, should be brought into opera-
tion, for alleviating the miseries, and breaking the
force of the temptations ;—from which, it can not
be doubted, a large amount of immorality and crime
is engendered. The principle on which those
means should be selected or framed is obvious ;-
that they be such as most thoroughly to fulfil the
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
167
end, namely, the maintenance, to the extent
needed, of the really destitute and dependant,-
with the least amount of liability to abuse on the
part of those who come not under this description;
so that there may not be, on the one hand, the dis-
advantage to the deserving poor of nominal support,
while, from the pitiful smallness of the pittance
doled out to them, it is nominal only, and little bet-
ter than a mockery,-nor, on the other, such an
alienation of the funds designed for them to per-
sons of a different character, as to foster the spir-
it of idle and lazy dependance, and help the dis-
solute to the means of profligacy. But it will not
be expected that I should here attempt to decide
between the contending claims of the different
theories for the prevention and relief of pauper-
ism; spontaneous charity alone, legal provision
alone, or some plan which might combine the vir-
tues of both, with the least possible of the vices of
either.
In last lecture, I mentioned the want of educa-
tion, and especially of religious instruction, as con-
tributing essentially to the evil deplored. Form-
ing his estimate from tables kept at the lock hos-
pital,—one of which shows that of 1,591 patients,
admitted within a certain period, there were 777
-nearly a half-whose fathers were dead,-and
another, that from the middle classes of society
(the higher being of course out of the question)
the proportion of inmates is, comparatively to the
lower, very small,-Dr. Hannay says: "The in-
frequency of the children of the middling classes
falling into this sin, speaks volumes for the excel-
lence of the educational and moral discipline to
which they are subjected, as far at least as pre-
168 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
venting this evil; and suggests, that, to the main-
tenance, improvement, and extension of this dis-
cipline we can not, therefore, pay too much atten-
tion."*
Of the correspondence of the proportions
in these tables with great general averages, I en-
tertain no doubt. It were well, then, to bring into
operation, to the utmost extent possible, this coun-
teracting influence; by endeavoring more widely
and efficiently than ever, to diffuse education, and
particularly Christian education, before the period
of life, at which, to the female character, the prin-
cipal danger commences. Any association that
seeks the prevention of the evil, would do well to
look earnestly after this. I would urge the teach-
ers of our invaluable sabbath schools, to increase
as much as possible the number of their adult clas-
ses,-classes, in which children are retained for
more advanced instruction, after they have passed
the limit of childhood. I would entreat both pa-
rochial ministers and the pastors of dissenting con-
gregations, to augment to the utmost those district
day schools, in the poorer localities of the city,
where the ability to read may be imparted to so
many who would otherwise remain without it,
and where the knowledge may be acquired, and
the restraining influence begin to be felt, of those
principles of religion, which are the best safeguards
of all virtue. I would entreat also the owners and
superintendants of large factories, to which so spe-
cial a reference was made in last lecture, to look
well to the education of the younger workers.
workers. Were
this conscientiously and liberally done, these es-
tablishments might, in many cases, instead of nur-
series of pollution, be rendered subservient to the
* Private communication.
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
169
advancement of knowledge and of personal and so-
cial virtue; inasmuch as many young persons
would receive there an education suited to their
circumstances, as well as the elements of religious
instruction, who would never have enjoyed these
benefits at home. If the proprietors of those
works were rightly alive to their own interests,-
as universal experience shows,—they would not
neglect this department of both moral and legal ob-
ligation; instead of evading the law, they would
go beyond it. The reviewer of Fregier's work in
the Quarterly, after speaking of the corrupting in-
fluences of the society of such establishments up-
on their inmates, says—perhaps with a sufficiently
indiscriminate severity," It is seldom, that the
master of the establishment and his deputies pay
any attention to all this; engrossed as they are in
their one great aim, the execution of a certain
quantity of work in a certain space of time, and
blind to the fact, self-evident as it is, that мORAL-
ITY IS THE BEST FOUNDATION OF ORDER AND DIS-
CIPLINE. Would to God that all owners and mas-
ters were impressed as they ought to be with the
truth of this self-evident maxim, and would but ap-
ply it actively and faithfully in the management of
their little communities! What real substantial
benefit might they confer on thousands of the ri-
sing generation, and through them on the commu-
nity at large, not only without injury, but with ul-
timate advantage, to themselves!
I may mention, in addition to these means of
promoting the end in view, some system of tract
distribution: the circulation of larger and smaller
publications, having more especial reference to the
subject under discussion. And these should be of
15
170 ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION,
various descriptions,-more general, and more par-
ticular:—those of a general character, designed
and fitted to inform, to interest, and to rouse the
public mind, by setting forth the nature and extent
of the evil, and the necessity of every possible
means being put into operation for its removal;
the more particular, addressed appropriately to va-
rious classes-to the victims of the vice themselves
to young men,-to young women,-to servants,
-to heads of families,-to proprietors and super-
intendants of factories ;-and perhaps, rising still
higher, to the legislators of our country, the repre-
sentatives of the people, and the peers of the
realm; and this, with the view of contributing to
give efficacy to another means, before alluded to,
the petitioning of the legislature for a revision of
the laws relative to this subject, in order to their
amelioration and enlargement. But I can not en-
ter farther into detail. With any institution that
now exists, or that may be formed on similar prin-
ciples, though perhaps on a still more comprehen-
sive scale,-I must leave the reduction to practice,
by all the variety of accessible and legitimate
means which their discretion shall suggest, of the
general principles and views which, in these lec-
tures, I have been endeavoring, however feebly, yet
in dead earnest, to expound and inculcate.
I have done. I urge upon you the duty of zeal-
ous co-operation in this good work, by the claims
of every relation you sustain. I plead with my
fellow-men on the principles of their common hu-
munity, which should prompt them, whenever, with
the old Roman, they say "Homo sum," "I am a
man," to subjoin his practical conclusion-" huma-
ni nihil a me alienum puto,"-" whatever concerns
MITIGATION, AND REMOVAL.
171
man concerns me." And as men too, allow me to
remind you, that you are the natural guardians of
the feebler sex. They are committed by Heaven
to your protection. Alas! that the very weakness
which should interest every heart and nerve every
arm in their defence and in the maintenance of
their honor and their rights, should, in so many
instances, be basely taken advantage of for their
wrong and ruin. I call upon you, as men, to stand
forward on their behalf; to come with the shield
of your protection between them and danger; to
prevent their degradation, and vindicate their hon-
or; to screen their purity from the putrid breath
of pollution; to maintain and elevate their virtue,
that along with it, and by means of it, you may
maintain and elevate that of the community to
which they belong, and of which, take them in the
aggregate (I speak my most sincere conviction
when I say so), they are not the weaker merely,
but by many degrees the better portion. And this
leads me naturally to add—I plead with you, as
my fellow-townsmen, by the interest you feel in the
character of our city;-whose emblematic tree
bore of old the motto, "Let Glasgow flourish by
the preaching of the word." They did foolishly
who abridged it; for if the abridgement was in-
tended to render the wish for the city's prosperity
more general and comprehensive, they forgot
what those who first affixed the motto knew-that
the prevalence of true religión tends as effectually
to temporal as to spiritual prosperity. I plead with
you, as my fellow-countrymen, by all the claims of
an enlightened patriotism; for it has been true from
the beginning, and will continue true to the end,
that "righteousness exalteth a nation, and sin is
172
ON THE MEANS OF PREVENTION.
the reproach of any people." I plead with fellow-
parents, for the sake of the safety of the rising
youth of their families, exposed, in entering on life,
to all the blighting and deadly influences of a cor-
rupt and tempting world. I plead with fellow-
Christians, on the ground of their common Chris-
tianity; which is the revelation of divine benevo-
lence,-of mediatorial grace to the chief of sin-
ners, and which, through the lips of the Son of
God himself, says to them-"Be ye, therefore,
merciful, even as your Father who is in heaven is
merciful!"
I have only, in conclusion, to thank my audi-
ence for the patient attention with which these
Lectures have been listened to; and to assure them,
that if they shall prove instrumental, in however
small a degree, under the divine blessing, of giving
a fresh impulse to the public mind, on a subject so
intimately connected with the personal and the so-
cial, the temporal and eternal interests of man-
kind, I shall feel it an ample recompense for what-
ever time and study have been expended on their
preparation.
THE END.
SEP 19 1919
:

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 00533 9232
A 739,108
DUPL