SECOND READING. (Hansard, 8 April 1889)

THE EARL OF MEATH
My Lords, in asking your Lordships to read this Bill a second time, I may state that its object is to embody in a general law the enactments for the suppression of indecent advertisements and the legislation in the form of local Acts. It may be said that there is already legislation sufficient to deal with this question, but I think I can show your Lordships that that is not the case. Neither the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839 nor the Act of 1847 touches this question in the least. The result is that it is almost impossible to pass down certain streets of this large city without having thrust into one's hands indecent and filthy publications which ought not to come before the eyes of any decent man or woman. The cause of this is the present impunity for disseminating such indecent literature, and I think your Lordships will agree with me that it is very desirable that general powers should be given to the magisterial body for the purpose of putting in force the enactments and dealing with this evil. At present, my Lords, we have no law which enables any one to take action against persons who advertise their specifics against a certain class of diseases of a nameless character. In introducing this matter to your Lord- 1762 ships, I have to do so under great disadvantages. I have, I may say, one hand tied behind my back, for it is quite impossible that I can bring before your Lordships' House all the evidence I have to show the need of such legislation. Various pamphlets and papers which have been published and circulated might be read, and if in introducing this subject I do so in somewhat weak terms, your Lordships will not suppose that it is because I have not a very good case and a mass of evidence behind me, but simply because it would be quite impossible for me to refer to all the evidence which might be read to your Lordships for the purpose of making an impression on your Lordships' minds. But whatever the difficulty may be, it ought to be encountered, and some steps taken to prevent such inducements to promiscuous sexual intercourse, for at present there are no means of preventing the dissemination of such filthy literature. The only thing that can be done is to charge a person who is circulating it with causing annoyance. My Lords, it may appear very strange, but such is the fact, that a person tendering such a publication can only be given into custody for causing annoyance in offering such a paper or pamphlet, and as there is no law to properly punish him he will only be fined a small sum, which his employer will pay. Literature of that kind is a great evil, and its circulation, I think your Lordships will say, should be prevented. My Lords, what I propose to do by his Bill is to embody the principle of the general law in force under local Acts in particular districts. In doing so, your Lordships will be following the principle of a measure which has already obtained the approval of this House, and I hope your Lordships 1763 will not stultify yourselves by refusing the Second Reading of this Bill. The Bill further proposes to put a stop to circulars of a class by which thousands of young men have their prospects in life destroyed. It may be possible that some of your Lordships may think I have exaggerated this matter; but you will hardly say so when I tell you that within a few years a person who is connected with one of the societies interested in this subject has received 20,000 papers of different sorts bearing upon it. They have been thrust into his hands whether he wished it or not. Those papers are thrust not only into the hands of men, but into the hands of women. They are often sent by post, and the persons who receive them, especially young women, are, of course, too much ashamed of having received them to complain, and the public, in consequence, does not hear of those eases. My Lords, I do not desire to detain you at any greater length on this unpleasant subject. All I can say is, I hope you will not consider it unworthy of serious thought and consideration, and that you will do your best to free the country from this stream of pollution, which is contaminating the minds of the young, and which it is, I believe, your firm intention to put a stop to if you can. My Lords, I have only now to ask your Lordships to read this Bill a second time.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I suppose we all most heartily sympathize with the object of this Bill. I do not rise with the purpose of advising your Lordships to reject the Bill altogether, but I certainly should be very sorry to affirm that the Bill, without very considerable amendment, should pass into law. Most of your Lordships are aware of the class of advertisements to which the noble Lord refers, and I entirely agree with him that many of them are obscene and indecent. They are not included in other parts of the Bill, which applies to advertisements of any sort or kind of an indecent or obscene character, though those advertisements are of themselves condemned by the first part of the Bill. With regard to the provisions as to advertisements for treating 1764 diseases of a particular kind, although your Lordships will see what the noble Lord meant, I think there is great difficulty in enacting what should be held obnoxious to such a provision. My Lords, just let us see what it comes to, putting all these provisions together. Advertisements which are neither obscene nor indecent, treating of a painful or secret disease—and many diseases will occur to your Lordships which come within that description which are not in the least referred to by the noble Lord—might be sent as a sealed document, and yet the postman who carried it would be liable to the penalty created by the section. It would be no defence to him that he did not know what was in it; but if he conveyed it when sent by post, he would be liable to prosecution. There are, I think, serious objections, my Lords, to the comprehensive nature of the proposed legislation, though I entirely sympathize with the object aimed at by the noble Lord in the earlier part of the section, because, from what I have seen in the public newspapers of the class of advertisements to which the noble Lord refers, there is not one of them which would not come within the designation of obscene or indecent literature, and they would, therefore, be liable to prosecution. The value of legislation of this kind is that it is prompt in its operation, not merely making subject to a pecuniary penalty those who engage in such transactions. I think, my Lords, subject to what I have said as to the Amendments which might be suggested when we reach the Committee stage, the Bill which the noble Lord has introduced might be made a very useful addition to the legislation in the Statutes.

§ THE EARL OF ABERDEEN
My Lords, I agree that the subject is a most important one. The point is, that the evil against which this legislation is directed is an increasing one. It is impossible to approach the vicinity of certain neighbourhoods in London without seeing gates and posts placarded with advertisements of the description mentioned in this Bill. Things of that kind do an immensity of harm to young people. The broadcast distribution of this pernicious literature has a very bad effect in counteracting the education of the school children. Some 80,000 children go through our Board Schools 1765 every year. They go to work in factories and workshops, and in the evenings their only resort is the streets. No efforts of City missionaries, however industrious, can counteract the evil done by literature of this sort. By such means public attention has already been drawn to this subject far more effectively than could be done by any discussion now upon this Bill or any Act of Parliament. I do not wish to trouble your Lordships further on this subject. I will only say that I shall be glad, with the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack, to assist the measure; and, subject to certain variations which I think would make it workable, I am entirely in favour of its object, that object being the suppression of mischief of a most insidious kind.

*THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
My Lords, I am glad that this Bill has been introduced, and I thank the noble and learned Lord for pointing to very necessary amendments. It is, of course, exceedingly important that in pressing forward measures of this kind no injustice should be perpetrated. At the same time, few people are aware of the underground prevalence of this evil, which may in large measure counteract the good done by education. The child leaving school is supplied with literature of this kind to an astonishing extent. Indecent papers, professing to be of a medical character, are scattered broadcast, and the noble Lord himself must have found that even the recreation grounds with which he had supplied the poor of London were defiled by literature of this character, and thus turned into a propaganda of evil. The country is strewn with these abominable papers. There is no religious Society which operates, by the distribution of leaflets and pamphlets with the vigour of those who circulate these publications. I may give your Lordships an instance which happened the other day: While some girls were taking their recreation in a meadow attached to their school, two men drove rapidly by in a gig and flung over the wall two packages of literature of the most horrible description. Fortunately one of them happened to fall at the feet of one of the mistresses, and the mischief intended was not done. But it is impossible to imagine the mischief that is done by 1766 the distribution of this stuff. It is difficult, my Lords, as matters stand, for the greatest efforts on the part of head masters of public schools wholly to check the flood of evil, and summary legislation of this kind would help in the most beneficial manner.

THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY
My Lords, I am quite sure that everybody who knows what these publications are must share in the desire that steps should be taken to counteract the evil that is done in this way. At the same time, I would point out that under the second clause as it stands it would be illegal to introduce a copy of "Aristophanes" or "Boccaccio" into a house. Extreme care, therefore, will have to be exercised to prevent abuse of the Act if it passes. That, of course, cannot be the intention of the author of the Bill. It cannot be intended that that should be made a penal offence. I simply mention that for the purpose of pointing out the care which will have to be taken in carrying out the measure.