THE EARL OF MILLTOWNasked Her Majesty's Government, Whether, having regard to the fearful increase of juvenile prostitution, the strong feeling of the country on the subject, and the 215 fact that Mr. Gladstone had announced his intention to abandon the Bill wdich had recently passed that House, which had for its alleged object the mitigation of this crying evil, they would reconsider their policy of practically repealing the Contagious Diseases Acts, which had been proved by the evidence given before the Select Committee of that House to be doing an immensity of good work in this very direction? What the Government ought to have done after the scratch vote, passed by a majority consisting of considerably less than a third of the Members of the House of Commons, was to have seen whether Parliament would refuse the money to carry on the Acts. He had evidence to prove that the operation of these Acts had been most beneficial at Portsmouth, and had been the means of rescuing many young girls from a life of misery and vice. The Government did not invariably show the respect for Resolutions of the House of Commons which they had professed in the matter of these Acts. When asked why the Government had taken no action in pursuance of Mr. Chaplin's Resolution with regard to restricting the importation of foreign cattle, Mr. Gladstone had recently replied that they were very desirous of giving effect to Resolutions of the House of Commons "compatible with that which was of higher importance, obedience to the law of the land." But in this case they had given an effect to a Resolution of that House which completely set aside the law of the land. The recent Resolution passed in the House of Commons was due to the opposition raised by fanatics of both sexes, extreme Radicals, and loose women, with whose avocations these most salutary Acts seriously interfered.
§ THE EARL OF NORTHBROOKwas understood to reply that, after what had happened in the other House on that subject, the Government had adopted the only course in regard to it which, under the circumstances, was left open to them.