PROTECTION OF FEMALES. (Hansard, 5 June 1848)

The BISHOP of OXFORD

rose to move the Second Reading of a Bill for the Protection of Females. In proceeding with this measure, it would, on the present oc- 333 casion at least, not be necessary for him to trouble their Lordships at any length. He was quite aware that, in bringing this subject under their notice, a great and painful question might be opened; but he begged it to be distinctly understood, that his present intentions were limited to proceeding through one stage with a measure which was simply intended for purposes of protection. By the Bill which he held in his hand no attempt was made for the suppression of brothels; but it was, on the contrary, intended for the prevention of one great evil to which this metropolis and other large cities were exposed; he alluded to the practice of entrapping, by unfair arts, young and unsuspecting females. From the best returns which he could obtain, it did appear that within the metropolis there were as many as 80,000 women who lived by prostitution; and there was every reason to believe that at least one-fourth of that number were brought to the deplorable state of wretchedness and misery in which they were to be found by the arts against which this Bill was directed. It was a fact which admitted of clear and indisputable proof, that many persons made an infamous livelihood by waiting at the different accesses from the country to this great city for the purpose of entrapping unwary young persons; and, under the pretence of procuring them situations, inducing those who arrived without friends or a knowledge of London to accompany them to their abodes of infamy, where, in a condition often of unconsciousness, their ruin was effected, and where violence itself was frequently resorted to in those dark and accursed places. For those evils, if it were at all possible for them to afford a remedy, no time ought to be lost in its application. Whatever differences of opinion might exist as to the practicability of putting down brothels by means of legislation, there could be no doubt that friendless and unsuspecting females were entitled to the protection of the Legislature; and he hoped that a measure might now pass both Houses of Parliament which should go a great length towards saving from prostitution all excepting those who wilfully entered upon that course of life. He felt at the outset, and he was now more than ever convinced of, the difficulty of so framing a measure as that it should meet the evils of the case. Since this Bill had been drawn up, he had himself perceived some defects in it; and one or two friends had kindly pointed out to him other im- 334 perfections, so that in its present form he feared that it would be utterly futile; yet, just at present, he was not desirous of proposing any alteration in the Bill, though he had prepared the Amendments which appeared to him to be necessary. What he proposed was, that the Bill should now be read a second time, and then referred to a Select Committee. There would doubtless be some difficulty in proving the words for "their own lucre or gain," as also in defining the word "seduction;" but these and the other difficulties of the case might, he hoped, be surmounted by the labours of a Select Committee. Before he sat down, however, he wished to observe that he proposed, that instead of the county being put to the expense of prosecution, it should be paid by the parties prosecuted. Upon the details of the measure it was not necessary that he should now trouble their Lordships further; but this he would say, without fear of contradiction, that it was the duty of Parliament to make an effort to prevent the great moral destruction that was going on under their eyes. He need not remind their Lordships that it was one essential part of the duty of the Legislature to provide for the avoidance or stoppage of great moral delinquencies. He knew as well as anybody that they could not by Act of Parliament make either men or women moral; but there was a principle of the law which recognised the duty of protecting those who needed protection from the arts of those who sought to make a profit of their unwariness and simplicity, He thought, that any step in this direction would be a great gain; and if a Bill could be framed which would make this abominable traffic more difficult—which might be avoided in many instances; but which would occasionally subject to punishment its violator—if they could effect but this, they would have done a great deal. There was no step, let their Lordships remember, more irretrievable, no step more irremediable, than that which this Bill was intended, in some instances at least, to guard against. The second downward step followed the first by such necessary and immediate sequence, that it was scarcely possible to conceive a destruction more certain than that brought about by the particular crime which this Bill was intended to punish. That crime involved the ruin both of soul and body—it involved a reduction from a state of happiness to such a condition of misery as the mind recoiled from the contemplation of—such a state of 335 physical suffering—of conscious degradation—of utter hopelessness—as but too often to drive its unhappy victims to suicide itself as the only possible method of severing themselves from the courses of wretchedness and guilt in which they had become entangled.