GOVERNMENT BY POLICE.
In 1879 her writings included two pamphlets, _Government by Police_
and _Social Purity_, the latter being an address delivered at
Cambridge. This year the Federation held its Conference at Liége. A
bright and vivid account of the meetings at Liége, from the skilful
pen of Madame de Morsier, is given in the _Reminiscences of a Great
Crusade_, which shows that these annual gatherings of crusaders from
various countries were not wholly devoted to serious discussions of a
painful subject, but became occasions for true human fellowship (even
touched with gaiety) between persons of divers tastes and experiences.
The account concludes thus: “And now, little town of Belgium, sitting
on the banks of the Meuse, surrounded with green hills, let me take
one parting look at you! We have only known you a few days, and now
you live in our memories a luminous point in the past. Many of us
arrived within your walls strangers to each other, and have parted
friends; some arrived sorrowful, discouraged, asking what would be
the end of all this? They return peaceful, and fortified with the
conviction that work is happiness, and conflict a duty. _Manet alta
mente repostum._”
The agitation in Paris against the _Police des mœurs_, referred to
in the last chapter, had been continued, and led this year to the
resignation of M. Lecour, who was appointed chief “bell-ringer” of
Notre Dame; and this was followed by further enquiries and newspaper
revelations, and the subsequent resignation of the Prefect of Police
and other members of his staff, and later of the Minister of the
Interior. In these events M. Yves Guyot and other members of the
French branch of the Federation took a prominent part. Early in 1880
Mr. Alfred Dyer and Mr. George Gillett visited Brussels to investigate
cases of English girls, many of whom were minors, alleged to be
detained in the licensed houses of that city against their will, and
with the connivance of the police. Some of these girls were rescued,
and being brought to England, were placed under the care of Josephine
Butler.
Another of the poor refugees helped by Pastor Anet to escape from
Brussels came to our house in Liverpool. She appeared to be in pain,
and on being questioned she replied that she was suffering from
unhealed stripes on her back and shoulders from the lash of this tyrant.
I drew from her, when alone, the story of her martyrdom. The keeper
of this house in Brussels, enraged with her because of her persistent
refusal to participate in some exceptionally base proceedings among his
clients, had her carried to an underground chamber, whence her cries
could not be heard. She was here immured and starved, and several times
scourged with a thong of leather. But she did not yield. This poor
delicate girl had been neglected from childhood. She was a Catholic,
but had had little or no religious teaching. She told me, with much
simplicity, that in the midst of these tortures she was “all the time
strengthened and comforted by the thought that Jesus had Himself been
cruelly scourged, and that He could feel for her.”
Before her capture she had one day seen in a shop window in Brussels an
engraving of Christ before Pilate, bound and scourged. Some persons,
no doubt, may experience a little shock of horror at the idea of any
connection in the thoughts of this poor child between the supreme
agony of the Son of God and her own torments in the cellar of that
house of debauchery. We often sincerely mourn over these victims as
“lost” because we cannot reach them with any word of love or the
“glad evangel.” But He “descended into hell,” into the abode of the
“spirits in prison,” to speak to them; and I believe, and have had many
testimonies to the fact, that He visits spiritually these young souls
in their earthly prison many a time, He alone, in all His majesty of
pity, without any intervention of ours.
Josephine Butler published in May a statement making definite charges
of gross ill-treatment of young girls in Brussels, and these charges
were substantiated in a deposition on oath, made in response to a
formal application from the Belgian authorities, under the Extradition
Act. Some months later she sent a copy of her deposition to the
editor of _Le National_ in Brussels, intending it merely to be used
in connection with evidence, which he had to give before a Commission
then sitting on the subject. He however published it in _Le National_,
and it created a great sensation throughout Belgium.
To her sister.
You can imagine that on first hearing of this I felt a little
troubled, and as if I had been “given away.” Also persons friendly
to us, such as Lambillon, Hendrick and others, who had given us
information from a good motive, were angry at seeing their names
published as having had any knowledge whatever of these evil things;
and I was pained to think of _their_ pain.
I was pondering all this one evening, when I suddenly recollected that
on New Year’s Day of this year, and for many days after, I had taken
upon me to make a special and definite request to God for light to
fall upon these “dark places of the earth, wherein are the inhabitants
of cruelty.” Some strong influence seemed to urge me to make this
request. I used to kneel and pray, “O God, I beseech Thee, send light
upon these evil deeds! Whatever it may cost us and others, flash light
into these abodes of darkness. O send us light, for without it there
can be no destruction of the evil. We cannot make war against a hidden
foe. In the darkness these poor sisters of ours, these creatures of
Thine, are daily murdered, and we do not know what to do or where to
turn, and we find no way by which to begin to act. Send us light, O
our God, even though it may be terrible to bear.” I had made a record
of this petition, and then I had forgotten it. But not so our faithful
God. His memory is better than mine! He did not forget, and He is now
sending the answer to that prayer. Then I thought of the words, “O
fools, and slow of heart to believe.” Here is the very thing I had
asked for, brought about in a way I had not dreamed of.
One consequence of these revelations was the dismissal of M. Lenaers,
the Chief of the Brussels _Police des mœurs_, followed by the
resignation of his principal subordinate. Another consequence was the
formation of a strong committee in London for the suppression of the
white slave traffic. The proposals of this committee in regard to
legislation were ultimately adopted in that portion of the Criminal
Law Amendment Act, 1885, which deals with offences connected with
other countries. The matter was still further advanced many years
later, largely owing to the efforts of Mr. W. A. Coote, by the
Governments of Europe signing the International Convention for the
suppression of the white slave traffic, 1904. This Convention has no
doubt done something towards the suppression of this traffic, but as
Josephine Butler frequently pointed out, and as was emphasised in the
discussions at the Conference of the Federation in 1908, there is a
grave risk, that in those countries, in which the authorities still
license immoral houses, the police will not honestly and thoroughly
endeavour to prevent the traffic upon which the profits of those
houses so largely depend.