“What though the cast-out spirit tear
The Nation in his going,
We who have shared the guilt must share
The pang of his o’erthrowing;
Whate’er the loss,
Whate’er the cross,
Shall they complain of present pain
Who trust in God’s hereafter?”
It was in the year 1880 that we first began to see that we were
approaching a turning in the long road which we had traversed for ten
years, and were facing towards victory, the victory which we had always,
even in the darkest hours, believed we should one day see. I have
described in a former chapter the chill which fell upon our hopes for a
time in the year 1874, when the General Election of that year resulted
in the return of a reactionary or indifferent Parliament from which we
had little to hope for our cause. The seven years’ existence of that
Parliament having expired, and our principles having meanwhile gained
ground, through our unceasing efforts, in the public mind, the new
Parliament of 1880 was hailed by the Abolitionists with a hope which was
not destined to be deceived, although there were yet five years more to
run before we saw the virtual demolition of the hated tyranny against
which we had so long made war, and six years before the seal was put
upon its legal abolition by Queen Victoria’s signature to its death
warrant, given on the 13th of April, 1886.
Younger workers in other parts of the world may, we hope, be encouraged
and fortified in present or future conflicts against injustice, by a
knowledge of our seventeen years of labour, crowned at last by complete
success. A first or a second defeat sometimes causes a sense of dismay
in the minds of those who have had as yet a limited experience in such
warfare. Such may perhaps take courage by looking into the deeper
meaning of our long struggle. Had our victory been more quickly or more
easily won, it would not have been a solid or durable victory. An early
success based on a partial awakening of the public conscience would have
left us an easy prey to renewed designs for the reestablishment of the
evil system, based on the old corrupt traditions. God, in His
providence, had a far deeper and wider work in view than we had any
conception of when we first arose at His call to oppose an unjust Act of
Parliament. His purpose embraced also our own education, the education
of those who were called to the front, and for whom a prolonged and
stern training was needful to enable them to “endure hardness,” and to
become worthy representatives of the truth which was to be handed on by
them to the people of other lands and to their own descendants. He
brought them through all the trials and vicissitudes which were needful
for the strengthening of their faith, the maturing of their judgment and
the perfecting of their patience.
A Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry on the subject of the
vice-regulating Acts have been appointed by the late Government. Its
proceedings were necessarily closed by the dissolution of the Parliament
which had appointed it. Its Report was printed, which contained a
recommendation of the appointment of another and similar Committee by
the New Parliament, with the same objects in view, _i.e._, to take
evidence on the subject from all sides. This new Committee was
appointed, and some of our best friends and leaders were elected members
of it. The scope of the inquiries and examinations made by it was of a
much wider and more comprehensive character than that of any former
parliamentary inquiry on this subject.
It was in January of this year, 1880, that a deep impression began to be
made on our English public by the revelations coming to us from time to
time of the extent and cruelty of the white slave traffic between our
own country and several Continental cities, more especially Brussels,
Antwerp, and other towns of Northern Europe.
I cannot and need not here undertake to give at length the story of the
noble and self-denying enterprise of Alfred Dyer and his friend George
Gillett. Their work has already been described in a brochure[15]
published by the Abolitionist Committee of the City of London, under the
auspices of the late Chamberlain, Mr. Benjamin Scott. The two men who
undertook this difficult and heroic research were members of the Society
of Friends, men of the highest character; and it may be imagined what
such men had to suffer for their boldness in entering personally the
Belgian prison houses of cruelty and shame, with the design of rescuing
young English girls who had been betrayed by the merchants of vice, and
sold to these institutions. They not only risked their lives through the
violence and rage of the keepers of these slave dens, but bore to be
ridiculed, traduced and slandered on account of their action, by persons
in high position whose own lives and theories of life were a constant
denial of the possibility of virtue in man. I realised some of the
outward and tangible results of this courageous action (considered
independently of its far deeper moral effects) eleven months later, when
I received, at midnight, on the 15th of December, the following
telegraphic message from Mr. Alexis Splingard, an advocate of Brussels,
written on leaving the Court in that City, where a number of the
_Tenanciers_ and Slave-traders of Brussels had been tried. “All
condemned, Regnier to three years of prison, Roger two, Parent
twenty-two months, Landre eighteen months, Perpéte eighteen, Andronnet
eighteen, Mayer ten; five others to different terms of penal servitude.”
I sent this telegram the next morning to my sister in Naples,
accompanied by the following words, in a letter which she returned with
others to me: “This news will strike incredulous people perhaps a little
as corroborative of our statements concerning the cruelty and guilt of
these men, statements which, in my own case, my friends sometimes think
to be coloured by my sympathy for the victims. We are thankful to know
that some of these prison doors are now opened, and some of the slaves
set free; but alas! for the thousands who are gone, dead, murdered, who
found no deliverer!”
“Sometimes I feel like Dante, who fell prone ‘as one dead’ on witnessing
inexpressible human woe. I do not find in ordinary evangelic teaching
anything which meets this mystery of wrong and pain, this woe of the
murdered innocents, (for indeed many are innocent, mere children, having
no choice, but thrust violently into hell). But God is above all human
teachings. If _He_ would reveal Himself more clearly to me, I feel sure
I should be stronger to act. Religious teachers never lead us to hope
that God makes up hereafter to these outraged creatures of His for all
they have endured, _unless_ they have gone through a proper repentance
here below. Some day I believe He will tell me Himself what He has done,
and is doing for them. The winter is long and dark; but summer will
come, and will bring more light.”
One of the most important meetings which had been held upon our subject
in France was held in the Salle Lévis, Paris, in April of this year. The
room was crowded to excess. The following report was written by one of
the principal assistants:—“The chair was taken by Dr. Thulié, a former
president of the Municipal Council, who, in an extremely eloquent
address, explained the aim and action of the Federation, of which the
existing French Association regarded itself as a section, and showed the
immorality and utter uselessness of the Police des Mœurs.
“‘These English women,’ he said, ‘are the apostles of this great cause;
they have the virtue, the self-abnegation, and the daring of apostles.
Now, for the first time, woman comes forward to plead her own cause,
instead of awaiting the _bon plaisir_ of man. She has a right to life;
she has therefore a right to liberty. If it should be attempted ever to
apply to men the cruel and exceptional measures that are applied to
women, all the world would cry out. For one act of self-abandonment to
evil, you impose upon a woman a whole existence of torture, while you
leave man irresponsible for his libertinage. We must begin by replacing
woman under the protection of the Common Law, and thus restoring her to
her true dignity.’
“Professor Stuart spoke shortly and ironically against the Police des
Mœurs, and the stupidity, uselessness, and false pretences of those who
were always ‘going to stamp out the disease,’ but who, during the
hundred years that they had been going to do so, had never yet so much
as begun to succeed.
“Mr. Benjamin Scott said that he had been commissioned by the City
Committee to congratulate them on their having obtained the right of
public meeting; but he regretted to find the congratulation was somewhat
premature, the admission to the present meeting having been, he found,
limited to those bearing tickets. He hoped, however, that this great
right would soon be theirs; liberty of the press and liberty of speech
were as the air we breathe; without it we die.
“Mrs. Butler followed. Her speech was thus described in _La France_:
‘_It was a prayer_, an urgent appeal, to this popular audience so
accessible to generous emotion.’ ‘M. Lecour argued with me,’ said she,
‘that as the regulation of vice was established by law in England, and
we English have so much respect for the law, we were bound to respect
this law. M. Lecour spoke in profound ignorance. It is because we
respect the law that we desire to have our laws worthy of respect. This
law is not worthy of respect—it will be abolished.’
“M. Yves Guyot followed. He concluded by moving the following resolution
based on the principles of the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man.’ It
was carried by acclamation, the audience rising to their feet.
“‘Considering that the principles of 1779 form the basis of our Common
Law:
“‘That the proclamation of the rights of man applies equally to the
rights of woman:
“‘That article 1 of that proclamation declares all citizens equal before
the law:
“‘That article 5 declares that no action that is not forbidden by the
law shall be interfered with officially:
“‘That article 7 declares that the law shall be equal for all, whether
it protect or punish:
“‘That the same article 7 declares that no one shall be accused,
arrested, or imprisoned, save in such cases as are specified by the law,
and according to the forms prescribed by the law:
“‘That those who solicit, facilitate, execute, or cause to be executed
any arbitrary act, are liable to punishment:
“‘That the creation of all or any exceptional laws being contrary to the
principles of the Common Law, it is _a fortiori_ impossible to tolerate
those police regulations which are in flagrant violation thereof:
“‘That the Common Law is sufficient to repress all violations of public
morality or order:
“‘This meeting, approving the objects of the Association for the
Abolition of Regulated Prostitution, requests the representatives of the
people, Municipal Councillors, Deputies, and Senators, to put an end as
speedily as possible to the system known as the Police des Mœurs, a
system illegal in its origin, arbitrary in its application, and immoral
in its effects.’”
“This resolution was voted with an enthusiasm, which sufficiently proves
that the abolition of the Police des Mœurs interests a large portion of
the honest and industrial population of Paris.
“The Prefecture of Police comprehends this, and attaches the greatest
importance to the meeting of yesterday, they having sent to it a
considerable number of their agents. Lurking behind a pillar was the
_sous-chef_ of the Police des Mœurs, Remise, taking notes and listening
with an impatience he could not dissemble. A certain number of his
agents were in attendance.
“The Chief of the first brigade of the detectives had sent the Inspector
Guyot de Lencleuse, who M. Brissaud had formerly charged with the
surveillance of the _Lanterne_. The second brigade of detectives was
represented by the Seigneur Antonny, who took more than twenty pages of
notes. There were other police officers of lower grade scattered over
the room. If M. Andrieux did not obtain the most completely detailed and
faithful accounts of the meeting, he had, nevertheless, taken all the
precautions for that purpose.”
The distinguishing event of this year was our second great International
Congress, which was held in Genoa at the end of September. In August the
Hon. Depretis, Italian Minister of the Interior, issued from Rome a
Circular to all the Prefects of the Kingdom, requiring them promptly to
“send in their observations as to the results of the provisional
regulations now in operation, in order that they may be considered in
the compilation of the permanent regulations.” So, “a month before
representatives of the civilized world,” said one of the Journals of
Rome, are to assemble in Congress to prove by facts that every form of
Governmental regulation of vice is noxious, the Hon. Depretis proposes
suddenly to enforce a new regulation in Italy by a simple royal decree.
The _Dovere_ of Rome published the following eloquent defiance addressed
to the Minister:—“From the 27th of September to the 4th of October next
a Congress will be held at Genoa to discuss the principles of the
Federation. You, sir, hold in your hands and at your orders the
countless phalanx of those interested in the revolting system of
officially regulated and patented vice. Despatch all those persons to
Genoa at that epoch, bid them take part in the Congress, and bid them
defend the system which you are still striving to uphold. Let them
advocate your cause, and to them will make answer those men and women of
conscience and of science who have sacrificed time, thought and labour
to this great question. The conscience of the people will decide between
the two, and, be assured, that to the decisions of that conscience you,
whether you will or no, will have to bow down sooner or later.”
The _Liberta_ of Genoa and the _Nazione_ of Florence had articles or
addresses to the Minister in the same spirit.
A delegate to that Congress wrote to friends in England as follows:—
“It would be impossible to give you within the scanty limits of a letter
any adequate idea of the really imposing character and the splendid
success of the second Congress of the Federation. Full details will be
furnished later, which will afford you the means of publishing matter of
deep interest to our friends in England. There can be no doubt that a
great step in advance has been made, and that a real international
progress must have taken place in public opinion before so unanimous a
declaration of principles could be formulated—one might almost say
without discussion—inasmuch as the complete accordance of principles
which existed among the delegates from Associations and Committees of so
many distinct nationalities was evident at the first great public
meeting—and not merely in the Executive Committee and the Conseil
Général. The formal public declaration of those principles at the
popular meeting in the vast Hall of the Carlo Felice Theatre, was voted
over again by acclamation by the people. The Federation found itself in
a city of friends and believers in their principles. It was unnecessary
to argue those principles out in detail. The various orators who
ascended the tribune in turn were greeted by the Genoese as old and
tried friends, whose services they were met together, not to discuss,
but to approve. It was almost confusing to those who had gone to the
meeting prepared to prove their case to find it already understood and
judged by a public as intelligent as it was enthusiastic.
“You are probably aware that the Syndic and Municipality of Genoa had
already freely granted the use of the huge Opera House to the Italian
Committee of reception, and that the Syndic himself was among the first
to inscribe his name among the Genoese adherents to our principles.
“The various _ordres du jour_ will give you a general idea of the course
of the proceedings on each day, but I have only time to tell you now of
the winding-up. The Government appears to have become alarmed at the
vast concourse of people from all parts of Italy that had signified
their intention of thronging the theatre on the last morning. Delegates
from the Working Men’s Associations of all the towns of Italy were to
arrive and join the Working Class Associations of Genoa in procession
with their various flags and bands of music, and the Prefect at the last
moment forbade the opening of the vast theatre of the Opera House to the
public. It soon appeared that this was an injudicious act on the part of
the Prefect; for the demonstration was far grander in consequence. The
Hall of the Carlo Felice Theatre opens upon an enormous stone balcony,
the whole length of the building, which looks upon the largest square in
Genoa. To that square the crowd proceeded, in perfect order, each
Association arriving in turn, with flags flying and trumpets sounding,
and ranged themselves in a compact mass underneath, awaiting the public
announcement of the final Resolutions of the Congress. All the members
of the Federation went out in a body on to the long stone balcony; a
platform was hastily improvised for Professor Bovio, Deputy of the
Italian Parliament, whose magnificent voice could be heard from one end
to the other of the immense piazza, and absolute silence was maintained
while he read, one by one, to the people, the Resolutions which had just
been voted in the Hall within. Each Resolution in turn was voted by
acclamation by the multitude with deafening cheers, which ceased as if
by magic when he again held up the paper in his hand as a sign that he
was about to read again.
“He then addressed a few stirring words to the people, and on his
retiring, Signor Brusco Onnis—the oldest living friend of Mazzini—was
called for. He is a great favourite with the people, whom he has done
much to educate in the principles of true equality and morality. Mr. and
Mrs. Butler took the opportunity of going down among the people during
Signor Brusco’s speech, and on their return reported that so perfect was
the silence and order maintained that every word he uttered was
distinctly audible to the furthest extremity of the immense square. A
business meeting of Delegates was held on the morning of the 4th, and a
friendly banquet of the Foreign Delegates, the Commissariat and the
Members of the Italian Committee took place on the evening of that day
in the Restaurant of the Café Roma, a pleasant conclusion to a week’s
work which will not soon be forgotten by those who had the privilege of
sharing in it.”
Our President at this Congress was Signor Aurelio Saffi, who had been
associated with Mazzini and Armellini, the Triumvirate who governed in
Rome for a short time after the Revolution.
His presidential address was very eloquent, philosophical, and closely
argued, its colouring here and there heightened by flashes of personal
recollections of the years of exile he had spent in England, and by
touches of deep emotion. Among his closing words were the following:
“Let us arise, let us arise, with the courage that wins every battle
against this doctrine (of the necessity of vice), the accomplice of
tyranny, and against the guilty policy of those Governments who have
made use of it to legalise their false authority. Let us arise, in the
name of humanity, to protest against such abominations as those which we
have recently seen to be sanctioned by the vice-protecting laws of
Belgium, which permit base wretches to corrupt innocent, betrayed
children. Let us not permit the power of truth and the sense of right,
the fire of Prometheus, to be extinguished in the soul at the bidding of
the high priests of vice and the pontiffs of tyranny. Let us fight
against them to the death. The protest of a single victim of the guilt
and selfishness of the whole world has, in the end, more influence on
the course of human affairs than all the crimes—armed and decorated
though they be—which outrage and crush all that is immortal and sacred
in the human being.”
Several recollections of those bright days in Genoa stand out in my
memory with a vividness of which, perhaps, they may not seem quite
worthy, when compared with the great and serious work done at that
Congress. The weather was brilliant; the beautiful city was bathed in
unbroken sunshine; and the hearty welcome given to us by our Italian
friends was cheering and grateful beyond words. Numbers of the poor
industrious Ligurian working people, as well as some of the sunburnt
seamen and captains of merchant ships lying in the harbour, managed to
find time now and again to attend our meetings, following with
intelligent interest all that was said.
I recall the devotional meetings, morning after morning, in the Church
of the Scottish Minister, a warm friend, and the words of encouragement
and inspiration spoken there by my husband and M. George Appia, of
Paris.
The brilliant appearance of the city was enhanced by the enthusiasm
aroused by the fact that Garibaldi was then staying at his daughter’s
house in Genoa. He invited the leading members of the Congress to pay
him a visit there, as he was then failing very much in health, and
unable to move without the help of his faithful servant, a tall, dark
Nubian. He received us in his room, with some of his children around
him, and spoke to us cheering words concerning the ultimate triumph of
our cause, which was the cause of truth and justice. It was his habit to
take a daily drive, reclining in a large easy carriage. One day he
passed thus along the Acqua Sola, and down the Via Nuova. The streets
were a living mass of human beings, every window filled, and even the
housetops covered with people, eager to see and greet the old hero. On
this occasion his carriage stopped for a moment in front of the Hotel
Isotta, where some of the English members of the Federation were
staying. One of my sons, who was at the window of our salon, said to me,
“I think he is asking for you, mother.” I went to the window, and
Garibaldi, looking up and smiling, raised his poor crippled right hand
with a movement of salutation. He was disabled in almost every limb by
rheumatism.
On returning one evening from one of our sessions, we found around the
door of the Hotel Isotta a group of women of humble rank, some with
babies in their arms. The Master of the Hotel said that this was a
deputation, which had waited for more than an hour to see me. He bade
them enter the hall, where these poor women presented to me a formal and
neatly written petition, evidently prepared with extreme care, and
slightly ornamented. This was a respectfully worded request that I
would, before leaving Genoa, come and address them in their own
“People’s Hall.”
Wishing to know more particularly the object of the request, I asked
them if they desired that I should speak to them on the subjects which
were before the Congress. [Some of them had been at our meetings, and
had caught some words of sympathy concerning the wrongs of the daughters
of the poor.] One of them came forward, and speaking for the deputation,
replied: “We beg, Signora, that you will come and speak to us of the
_Man of Nazareth_.” “Of Christ our Saviour?” I asked. “The same,” they
said, bowing their heads. There was a patient, grave self-restraint, and
a look of trouble in those poor faces which went to my heart. It was not
in me to resist such an appeal, and I said I would come. Some evenings
later two workmen came to conduct me, the Countess de Precorbin and
Signora Schiff, of Milan, to their Hall. I find a letter, in which I
wrote of that meeting as follows:—“It was an excellent meeting, and in a
certain sense more practical than any of the others. Though I had been
invited to address women, when we arrived we found a number of men also
gathered round the door. One of the women said, ‘Many of our brothers,
husbands, and sons are waiting outside, and are very desirous to be
allowed to enter with us to hear your words.’ Too gladly did we welcome
them; I always prefer mixed meetings; and among the working people,
separate meetings are never asked for, nor desired. The audience
understood perfectly the question dealt with by the Federation. There
was no need for us to point out to them the cruel injustice and shame of
the vice regulations. They knew all that only too well; and in a
conversation with a group of them afterwards, we felt that many a story
of wrong and woe lay behind the quiet tears that were shed. I did not
forget their special request, and took as the basis of my address
several incidents in the life of Jesus, in which he especially showed
himself as the great Emancipator, the friend of womanhood, and of the
poor and the weak; the only absolutely Just One, the Saviour of all. The
faces of the poor women evidenced deep but quiet emotion. At the close
they all, men and women, crowded up to the platform to pour out their
pennies on the table. There was quite a little mountain of pennies, and
of little soiled papers of _Una Lira_. This was a contribution towards
our Federation work. I often observe how much more readily in general a
poor audience offers a contribution than a richer or higher class
audience. I was much touched by it. They then wrote out and passed
unanimously a resolution of adhesion to the principles of the
Federation, which was signed, later, by the whole assembly.”
I must not omit to record that the whole of the Catholic Press of Rome,
and almost of Italy, wrote that week in support of our cause.
The imposing and affecting demonstration of sympathy given by the
concourse of representatives of Operative Societies from every part of
Italy was one of the most striking features of the Genoa Congress. This
result was mainly due to the missionary efforts of Giuseppe Nathan, and
to the confidence in and love for him which prevailed among the people
of his country. He wore himself out in the cause; his whole heart and
soul were in it. He died only a few months after the Congress of Genoa.
He had been already suffering and weak before the Congress. We had
written from England to his mother, Signora Sarina Nathan of Rome, to
ask her to use her influence with him to persuade him to take greater
care of himself. Her reply was worthy of a true Roman matron of the old
times: “The cause comes first,” she said, “my son’s life second.” She
did not long survive that beloved and revered son.
And now we are still waiting to see this yoke of legalized vice removed
from the necks of the people of that beautiful country. They have been
deceived again and again by promised or partial reforms. In some parts
of their country the system is falling to pieces through its own
corruption. But the victory is not yet. Revived energies and a leader
are wanted. Poor Italy! when troubled about her I recall the words of
Dr. Commandi of Florence, who, after speaking of her poverty, her
weakness and her many difficulties, said, “But we know that our God will
have the last word, and that word will be _Salvation_.”
I must turn to a darker page in my memory of this year’s events.
On the 1st May, 1880, I published in England a statement which was
afterwards reproduced in French, Belgian, and Italian Journals, in which
occurred the following words:—“In certain of the infamous houses in
Brussels there are immured little children, English girls of from ten to
fourteen years of age, who have been stolen, kidnapped, betrayed,
carried off from English country villages by every artifice, and sold to
these human shambles. The presence of these children is unknown to the
ordinary visitors; it is secretly known only to the wealthy men who are
able to pay large sums of money for the sacrifice of these innocents.”
There followed a recital of incidents which had been sworn to by
witnesses, but which I need not repeat. I concluded with the words: “A
malediction rests on those cities where such crimes are known and not
avenged.”
Much indignation was felt by certain persons, and especially by some of
the chiefs of the police in London and Belgium, at the audacity of these
assertions. Many of my friends cautioned me not to publish such
statements, declaring that all sensible persons would say that the
writer of them was mad. I persisted, however, in giving them publicity.
In the autumn after the appearance of these statements, M. Levy, a “Juge
d’instruction” of Brussels, instigated probably by the police of that
city, challenged me to prove a single case in Brussels of outraged
childhood in any house of the kind referred to. This challenge was sent
through the “Procureur-Général” to our Home Secretary, Sir William
Harcourt, and took the form of a demand that I should be required, under
the Extradition Act, to make a “deposition on oath” before a magistrate.
There was considerable hesitation amongst my friends as to whether I
ought to accept this challenge or not, as the legality of the demand
made by the Belgian authorities was questionable. I quote the following
from a letter written to my sister in Naples: “We are still in suspense
about this affair. There is a doubt as to whether I should submit to the
Home Secretary’s demand, and answer all the questions, or whether I
should refuse to answer, and so incur the full legal penalty. On
Saturday last my husband, travelling to Oxford, met in the train Mr.
Stamford Raffles, the stipendiary magistrate before whom I should have
to make my affidavit. Mr. Raffles appeared very nervous about having to
take my statement. I was not well that evening, and retired to rest
early; but I was not allowed to be quiet very long, for before 5 o’clock
in the morning I was awakened by a loud knocking at our front door. It
was a confidential messenger from the Chamberlain of London. He said he
had travelled down from London through the night with a sealed packet,
containing a message for me, which it was not desirable to trust to the
post, and which was to be delivered as quickly as possible. It was quite
dark. I lighted my candle to see to read the letter, and Jane made a
fire downstairs and prepared some tea, etc., for the messenger, who was
shivering with cold. He was to return to London again by the first
train. I felt a little confused in the cold and dark morning, reading a
mysterious letter from the Guildhall, which contained also a telegram in
cypher from Brussels, warning me that there was some trap being laid for
us, and probably some collusion between the police of London and that of
Belgium. I do not think that this latter is the fact, but I suspect that
certain enraged Belgian authorities have prompted this arbitrary act on
the part of the Home Office with a malicious purpose, and also, no
doubt, in the desire to clear themselves from the charges of the crimes
which we have imputed to them, and with which I mean to continue to
charge them. I am sure that neither at our Home Office nor at Scotland
Yard, shall I or our cause meet with sympathy. This early-morning
letter, which enclosed several communications from friends in Brussels,
implored me to refuse to give evidence, adding, ‘it would, if you
declined, be worth everything to the cause for you to suffer the full
legal penalty of refusing to answer. This would arouse the public as
nothing else could.’ I appreciate this point of view, but on the other
hand, if I refuse, the Belgians and our opponents elsewhere would
naturally say it was because I had no positive charges to make against
them. Moreover, I am longing to make known in the most public way, those
terrible cases. We wish these iniquities to be known. It has been said
to me several times, ‘You may be prosecuted for libel,’ but my Counsel
says, ‘Who are the persons who would prosecute? Not the keepers of these
houses or their clients. Perhaps the Procureur du Roi on their behalf,
but would he dare to do it? I scarcely think he would.’
“Such days as these must come, we know, sooner or later, for us or our
successors, and it is not for us to draw back. M. Humbert writes to me
beautifully as follows:—‘The father of lies will employ all his strategy
in order to parry the blows of your denunciation. I am persuaded that at
Brussels the police have strict orders to cause all the proofs
(including persons) to disappear which could afford justification of
your statements, and those of Mr. Dyer. In the face of all, advance
courageously, even into the jaws of the dragon if need be, and even if
the monster is concealing himself in the sacred precincts of the Hotel
de Ville or the Palais de Justice. It was inevitable that this phase in
our history should arrive. Primitive Christianity itself needed, in
order to become known, that its adherents should be dragged into the
Judgment Hall and before the Tribunals.’
“Mr. Scott had received a carefully sealed letter from a friend in
Brussels; who wrote, ‘Do you know that you are walking into the jaws of
hell?’ Mr. Scott answered, ‘I know it. How is it possible but that hell
should be moved to its depths, now that its right to swallow up its
thousands of yearly victims is questioned?’
“M. Bosch, a good man and honourable magistrate in Brussels, said to our
colleague, Pasteur Anet, ‘Oh, take care what you do, especially in the
matter of the children found in these houses. You know not the depths
and bitterness of the infernal hatred you are rousing against
yourselves.’ This is true, but then the cry of the children is sounding
in our ears, and also those words, ‘Take heed that ye offend not one of
these little ones.’
“The words of the 94th Psalm come often to my mind:—‘They slay the widow
and the stranger; they murder the fatherless; yet they say, the Lord
shall not see it.’ And also the tenth chapter of Isaiah:—‘Woe unto them
that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have
prescribed; to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the
right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and
that they may rob the fatherless.’ When half awake at night, I feel
anxious and sad; and sometimes I am impelled to get up, in spite of the
cold, to arouse myself, and kneel and pray; and then sometimes a great
calm takes the place of the waves of troubled thought, for I see clearly
that God is working, and that we are only like little flies, so very
small, though His instruments, in the midst of the great events which
may be about to be evolved.
“I am writing to try and encourage Mme. Splingard; her son Alexis has
been with us, and has returned to Brussels. His life has been
threatened, and he might one day be a victim to malice.”
I made my deposition in the month of November, in the Room of the Chief
Magistrate. There were present, besides my husband, half a dozen of the
most solid and honourable citizens of Liverpool, who were deeply
interested in the whole matter, my Counsel, Dr. Commins, and a reporter.
My deposition was forwarded to Sir William Harcourt, and by him to the
Procureur du Roi, at Brussels. _From that time forward there were no
more attempts to deny the charges I had made._ The proofs of everything
I had said were too strong to be set aside, while Mr. Dyer’s action, and
the facts cited in my deposition, produced results in Belgium for which
all the friends of Justice were thankful.
Besides the facts which I stated on oath, others had been published in
Belgium, in spite of efforts to hush them up; among them was the
following:—
“On the 19th January last, two persons, Constance Delvaux and Catherine
Reniers, were brought before the Correctional Tribunal of Brussels,
charged with the offences indicated in the following narrative:—Madame
P——, of an honourable family of Brussels, had placed her little daughter
at a school in that city. She was accustomed to call for her child at
the end of the week, and to take her home to spend the Sunday with her.
On a certain Saturday she called as usual, and on asking if her daughter
was ready, she was met by a look of astonishment from the ladies at the
head of the establishment, who replied, ‘But, madam, you sent for your
daughter some days ago, and she went to you, accompanied by your
messenger.’ It transpired that a woman had called, bearing a letter,
apparently signed by Madame P——, saying that owing to special
circumstances she wished to have her daughter at home that week, and
had, therefore, sent a servant to bring her. This letter was a forgery.
It was proved in the trial that the Baron de Mesnil Herman, of the rue
des Arts, No. 17 (why should I spare him the publicity he deserves, and
had attained?), of forty-three years of age, had somewhere set his
adulterous eyes upon this child, and that he had engaged the women above
named to bring her to him. The child was taken to the notorious Café
Riche, a place of assignation much resorted to by gentlemen of high
society, councillors, diplomatists, military officers, etc. Therèse
Daubremist, called as witness, said that Constance Delvaux had asked her
to write the fraudulent letter; ‘I thought she was the child’s mother; I
wrote the letter.’ Constance Delvaux replied, ‘I caused the letter to be
written in order to oblige the Baron de Mesnil.’ Catherine Reniers
stated, ‘I had gone previously to the school to ask for the young girl,
but the directress required that a letter should be brought to her from
Madame P——. It is so natural that we should wish to oblige Monsieur le
Baron de Mesnil.’ The Public Prosecutor commented on the depth of
immorality revealed by the conduct of the two women, and demanded a
severe application of the law. The two women were condemned to seven
months of prison. _The Baron de Mesnil was not even summoned as a
witness at the trial?_ The poor child, after having been introduced to
‘indescribable scenes’ at the Café Riche, was sent with one of the women
above named to Aix-la-Chapelle. Her mother went immediately in pursuit
of her (this lady is a widow), but her child had been hastily removed
thence to some other city, and no trace of her could be discovered.
Silence on the subject was for a long time maintained by the press, on
account of the high position of the Baron de Mesnil. Then there came a
rumour of the young girl having been found in Paris, whence, it was
said, ‘the police will return her to her native land.’” Return her! but
in what condition? I republished this story in an appeal to the mothers
of England, in which I said :—“Reflect what it would be to you, to have
one of your pure and tenderly cherished darlings returned to you, after
having been forced to witness and take part in such unspeakable
horrors—ruined in body and mind, the poor young brain never more able to
get rid of the spot blacker than death, which no tears from the heart,
nor even a mother’s love, can efface! Reading these things, you will not
be among those who blame me for ‘wounding the susceptibilities’ of
persons in high office, perverted judges, luxurious livers, who condone
and even take part in such horrors. If we mothers were to hold our peace
the very stones would cry out.”
Similar revelations of this kind began to come to us from France and
other countries. I wrote to my sister:—“The present time resembles an
era of incendiarism, in which fires are breaking out with lurid light on
all sides, north and south, east and west. We have scarcely taken breath
after hearing of one tragedy before the post brings us tidings of
another. It is well it is so. For long years past the slaughter of the
innocents has been going on. We knew it not, or only had a partial
knowledge of it. Now we know, and before God we are responsible for that
terrible knowledge.”
From Bordeaux, in France, there came to us a terrible story of the two
little children Delemont. The scandal in this case was so great that
several gentlemen of high position were arrested and tried, among them
being Commandant A——, a man of advanced age, and another, a Colonel C——.
The former was condemned to ten years’ imprisonment. The latter was
acquitted, on the ground of his having fought bravely at Metz. The
Minister for War, M. Ranc, however, did not deem it a brave action to
have taken part in the destruction of a little child, and shortly
afterwards expelled him from the army. The evidence given by the
children was tragic and heart-rending. They identified the criminals at
once when they were brought before them with a number of other men. Very
awful must have been the steadily pointed finger of those innocent
victims for any culprit not wholly reprobate. These men, however, were
past shame. But a judgment day awaits them, when the pointed fingers of
the children will be worse for them than the heaviest judgment of any
earthly tribunal; for
“The child’s sob curseth deeper
Than the strong man in his wrath.”
In the late autumn, the trial to which I have before alluded took place,
resulting in the condemnation of large numbers of the slave-dealers and
slave-owners of these modern times. The evidence brought against them
was of the most awful kind, showing that the exaggeration with which we
were sometimes charged had had no existence; and, in fact, no words
could have been strong enough in which to describe or denounce the
atrocities perpetrated in these bastilles of shameless vice. One young
girl, having escaped from one of these houses in Brussels, came to us,
and was a refugee in our house for some time. She was taken with another
English girl to Brussels, under the kind care of Mrs. Steward, to be
witnesses against their tormentors. I was not present at those trials,
but was told that they gave their evidence with firmness, and sometimes
with an indignant _brusquerie_ which was not unbecoming. These events
certainly had a purifying effect for a time on the moral atmosphere of
Brussels, and the publication of the sentences pronounced on the
culprits conveyed a kind of electric shock throughout the infamous world
of slave-dealers, both in Belgium and other countries, which we believe,
for a time at least, to have materially lessened the evil.
The Public Prosecutor wrote kindly concerning our poor young English
witnesses, saying that Pasteur Anet and Mrs. Steward would have
permission to sit by their side in the Court. One of these girls, on
returning to my house, told me that the brutal creature Roger,
afterwards imprisoned, meeting her in a passage of the Court, fell on
his knees before her to beseech her not to give evidence concerning his
violent treatment of English girls, of which she had been both a witness
and a victim.
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 called
in our physician, Dr. William Carter, of Rodney Street, Liverpool, to
certify to the truth of her declaration; and, in very deed, we found the
livid marks of the stripes of which she had spoken. We seemed to stand
before a victim of some cruel overseer of slaves in the cotton
plantations of one of the Southern States of America in the past times.
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.
And yet we continue to mass all these victims under one great ban of
social excommunication; to treat them as a _class_, to make exceptional
rules and laws for them; and in our various police codes we continue to
call them all by the ugly name of _prostitute_, and to pile on fresh
penal clauses in order to deal with them more and more severely, in the
idea that we are “repressing vice.” The Judgment Day will reveal some
astonishing things.
At the close of the year I wrote to my sister in Naples as follows:—“I
received some weeks ago a letter from the Editor of the _National_, of
Belgium, telling me that he was summoned to give evidence before the
Commission now sitting at the Hotel de Ville on the complicity of the
police in the crimes divulged in the late trials, and asking me to send
him all the information I could, and especially, for his own use, my
deposition made before the magistrate. I sent him this, having already
sent one copy to the Bourgmestre of Brussels. I imagined he would make
use of it in some way, but not exactly as he did. He took this document
to the Hotel de Ville, read it all through before the Commission, and
next day published it entire in his paper, with all the names. I had had
it printed, you understand, simply for private or judicial use. It seems
that the editor of the _National_ is an enterprising man, and no doubt
he would like to gain some notoriety for his paper, as I have been told
he wishes to become a _Grand Seigneur de la Presse_, but in a good
cause. I dare say his motives are somewhat mixed. He gave the whole
evidence, with a fine summing-up on the principle. 60,000 copies of his
paper were sold before the evening; a second edition was called for, and
the next day 20,000 more were sold. Of course, at once his life was
threatened, pistols were levelled at him, prosecutions for libel were in
preparation, of which he is the object, as the publisher in such a case
is prosecuted and not the author of the accusations; his office was
besieged, and is still so, by people threatening him, and by a yet
greater crowd of persons pouring out their griefs and wrongs which they
have suffered through the Police des Mœurs, revealing many terrible
tragedies. For the moment this editor is a great man, and the agitation
throughout Belgium is considerable. About two-thirds of the Press of
that country, they tell me, are now warmly on our side. The _Journal de
Mons_ thanks the English for this ‘chastisement.’ All honest and decent
people are aroused, many are indignant, many more are incredulous. The
_Courrier de Bruxelles_ speaks of ‘profound emotion,’ and of ‘the
conscience of the people being aroused as by a thunderbolt.’
“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 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 habitations 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.
‘We cannot ask the thing that is not there,’
‘Blaming the shallowness of our request.’
“The Journals speak of that number of the _National_ as ‘a flash of
lighting,’ and use almost the language of my own soul about it, and I
bow my head in thankfulness, seeing the hand of God in all.
“M. Humbert wrote to me in the early days of this year:—‘I begin this
year under a sense of awe; I _can but hold my pen obedient to the
dictation of incalculable events_.’ It is interesting to know that some
of these slave-owners of Brussels shut up their houses and fled on
reading the accusations in the _National_. ‘The wicked flee when no man
pursueth,’ but only the echo of a far-off woman’s voice! M. Humbert
quotes a German proverb, ‘_the dead fly fast_.’ Long-lasting corruption,
when ripe for dissolution, is not slow in suiciding. But alas! the
poison has spread far and wide. There is an infection in the presence of
deathlike corruption which even the best can scarcely escape; and we may
ask, ‘Can these bones live?—Ah, Lord God, Thou knowest.’
“I have been a little troubled by an article published in a Brussels
newspaper by an ardent young Belgian friend, who makes it seem that his
own generous, but too violent, and even fierce expressions convey my own
feelings. One cannot be too indignant or too full of scorn in such a
case, but I never in my life spoke of _physical_ force! ‘Our weapons are
not carnal, but spiritual, to the pulling down of strongholds.’
Nevertheless I can forgive people longing for pistols who have not
experienced the superior power of moral weapons. Indeed, at some moments
I do also!
“Events have followed each other rapidly. M. Lenaers, the famous Chief
of the Police des Mœurs in Brussels, and his second in office,
Schroeder, were both summoned to the Hotel de Ville, and at a secret
sitting of the _Echevins_ Schroeder was censured. These two worthies,
however, instituted a prosecution against the Editor of the _National_
for libel, on account of the statements regarding them. The Editor was
jubilant. He took no advocate, but pleaded his own cause, and accepted
the whole responsibility of his publication of my accusations. I asked
myself, ‘Will his jubilance endure if he is condemned to imprisonment,
poor man?’ We have the Catholic Press largely on our side, but our best
individual champions are not Catholics. His Majesty the King looks on!
Parliament has taken up the matter. Reuter’s telegram announced in our
_Daily News_ that “the Minister of the Interior had been questioned on
the misconduct of the Police des Mœurs.’ A short debate took place. M.
Jacob, a deputy, spoke gravely and well ‘amidst a deep and significant
silence.’ He solemnly called on the Minister to take a bold step and
dismiss certain functionaries. The Minister replied that the accusations
published in the _National_ were ‘probably a libel,’ whereupon a great
hubbub arose in all the Journals of the two following days.”
“One evening, before her departure for Brussels, Mrs. Stewart was with
us, and when we were gathering for family prayer she asked, ‘Shall we
not pray for those wretched men now in prison? What must their thoughts
be, waiting for the earthly judgment, in anticipation of the awful
judgment to come?’ My husband replied, ‘Yes, we may indeed pray for
mercy for them;’ but his heart bleeds, as mine does, for their victims.”
A Memorial concerning this traffic in child slaves had been drawn up at
the Guildhall by the City of London Committee, addressed to Lord
Granville, our Foreign Secretary at that time. The City Committee
commissioned me in October to present a similar Petition to the
Bourgmestre and Echevins of Brussels, enclosing also a copy of the
Memorial to Lord Granville. I went with these to the Hotel de Ville,
where I was courteously received. After presenting the Memorials I
ventured to request the Bourgmestre to dismiss the officials and other
persons in the room, which he did, looking a little troubled; for my
heart urged me to speak to him face to face concerning his own
reponsibility in all this matter. It proved to be rather an affecting
interview—rather terrible even. I think I trembled, and the Bourgmestre
covered his eyes with his hand. He treated me with courtesy and
gentleness.
Some time later, two or three official personages, to whom these
revelations of evil had come forcibly home, found that the state of
their health required them to visit the South of France. In one case it
was found necessary greatly to prolong this residence in the south, for
he never returned; ‘his place knew him no more.’ MM. Lenaers and
Schroeder, Chiefs of Police, were dismissed from office. But the system
of Government-patented and regulated vice _continues to exist_, and the
friends of Justice continue to work and to wait.
Looking back over the ten or eleven years of our crusade, and observing
the admirable organisations which had arisen in that time, I felt
impelled to point out a danger, which often threatens the success of
vital work, though seldom recognised as a danger, namely, the tendency
to lean too much on a perfected organisation, which sometimes in itself
cramps the life within it. I sent out a circular to my friends on this
subject, in which occurred the following, which I reproduce, because the
same tendencies may arise again. “This international work of ours seems
to have entered upon a phase through which all movements of the kind are
liable to pass, and to point to the danger which there is even in the
attainment of a high and satisfactory organisation. This high
organisation is often reached at the expense of individual initiative
and independent personal effort. We are now incurring the risk of
substituting stereotyped office work for the vitality of missionary
zeal. M. Humbert lately wrote to me that he considers our propagandist
activity is at the present moment somewhat paralysed, and I think we
must ourselves confess that the individual activities of the members of
our League are not on the increase at present. Some of the prominent
members of our Central Committee are unable to give more than a small
fraction of their time to our work, being heavily charged with other
business of a public or political kind, and this necessitates to a great
degree their reliance on the regular machinery and steady work of a
bureau.
“In the winter of 1874, taking counsel only with my own heart, I
started, as you know, on a mission for our cause to the Continent. In
the summer of 1876 our two able comrades, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Gledstone,
went forth to America, to stir up a spirit of watchfulness there. More
recently, Mr. Dyer and his friend undertook a difficult and hazardous
enterprise in Belgium. I cite these incidents as cases in which there
was no danger of sacrificing missionary zeal to system. These missions
and others of a similar nature have proved to be very fruitful, and I am
deeply convinced that our cause will cease to make such rapid progress
as heretofore if individual propagandism of this nature is altogether
abandoned, while we, sitting at home, or largely absorbed in other
business, leave the cause mainly to the working of office machinery, and
expect its triumph to be achieved by agencies established in London and
in Switzerland, however perfected those agencies may be, and however
skilled the agents. It is not by official machinery that we shall
conquer, though that is necessary _as a scaffolding of operations_, but
by self-sacrifice and unwearying missionary zeal, without which no great
cause was ever won. I have observed that we are sometimes even betrayed
into the error (unconsciously probably) of discouraging the initiative
of honest and humble persons who have been filled with the desire to do
something independently for the cause. Their ardour must have been
checked rather than stimulated by being directed to follow in the path
of a centralised organisation, the very existence of which tends to make
people think their own personal efforts are not required. We cannot, of
course, dispense with our valuable organisations and bureaus, but it is
quite possible at the same time to welcome the efforts of every
individual, however humble, and to stimulate independent activity on all
hands. We need missionaries in all countries. The discovery of these,
and the impulse to be given to them, must greatly depend on the
maintenance of a vigorous correspondence of an informal, personal kind,
wherever there is an opportunity for it; and when such persons are
found, a generous confidence as well as prudence may well be exercised
in the amount of encouragement given to them to go forward, even if
their plans and methods may not be wholly familiar to, or approved by
us. The essential is that they should have a clear grasp of our
principles.”
CONCLUSION
“Being in the line of Duty, and realising my oneness with Omnipotence,
I cannot possibly fail of success; for Omnipotent Love is pledged for
the accomplishment of _that for which I trust_. The zeal of the Lord
of Hosts shall perform it. ‘Thou shalt decree a thing,’ He hath said,
‘and it shall be established unto thee.’ There is no room for doubt.
Because of the imperativeness of duty and the faithfulness of God, I
am fully equipped with power to fulfil that duty.”
In concluding this volume of personal reminiscences, I am reminded of
the survey of the work of the decade which expired in 1880, which I was
asked by our friends to bring before them on the occasion of the Annual
Meeting of the “Ladies’ National Association” of that year. The thoughts
which rose to my mind then, come again vividly before me now. I may
fitly close this record by some extracts from that address, as follows:—
“The fact that a Select Committee of Parliament is now sitting to
inquire into the working of the system which we oppose, produces a
certain lull in the more public and demonstrative action of the
Abolitionist movement. Our question is again placed _sub judice_ by the
House of Commons, and our Parliamentary leaders consequently have their
lips closed. For five years past successively, we have had the support
of the eloquent voice and powerful arguments of Sir James Stansfeld, who
always on all occasions asserted that, amidst all his convictions, deep
and strong on this question, he had none deeper or stronger than
this—that women must continue to stand in the forefront of this battle,
and that, if they should cease to do so, the battle would be lost. Mr.
Stansfeld is now, however, a member of the Parliamentary Committee of
Inquiry, and cannot be with us here. Sir Harcourt Johnstone, our
Parliamentary leader, is in the same position, being also a member of
that Committee.
“We are this evening called once more, therefore, to plead publicly our
own cause; and this happens to be the case just at the close of a decade
of labours, as if to call us, as women, to look back and record what God
has done for us, perfecting His strength in our weakness, in these past
ten years.
“These circumstances seem to prompt us to an attitude of grave
retrospect, and of calm and deliberate preparation for the future.
“We must remember that the principal labours of a great movement do not
consist in those public demonstrations and exciting parliamentary
debates in which they culminate. Thought leads, after all, and the
intellectual battle must continue to be waged by solid argument, by
repeated assertion of principles, and by the unwearying pursuit of the
multifarious fallacies and falsehoods to which a retiring cause
inevitably betakes itself. Above all, ours is a spiritual warfare, and
the victory must be won by the deepening of our own convictions, by
increased faith in the permanence of the eternal principles of justice,
and by a more absolute trust in Him in whose cause we are engaged.
“Since our first uprising in 1869, we have been gathering around us an
increasing number of adherents of the medical profession, the breadth of
whose views has led them to take a foremost place, not only in our
crusade, but in the ranks of scientific teachers; they have set forth,
not only the true medical aspect of this question, but also its far
higher scientific aspect, in its relation to ethics and jurisprudence.
“The Society of which Elizabeth Fry was a distinguished member was, as
we might naturally expect, among the first to welcome the public action
of women in this matter; and the earliest public meetings addressed by
women on this question were held in Quaker meeting houses. I cannot
refrain from expressing my gratitude to those who, while most persons
were scandalised by women’s action in those early days of our conflict,
frankly gave me the right hand of fellowship, asking for no credentials
whatsoever, except my own assertion that the cry of the oppressed and
the voice of God within me were calling me to this work.
“It would be impossible for me, in this brief hour, to enumerate the
succession of conferences, debates, mass meetings, and stormy election
conflicts in which we have taken part during the last ten years; and my
address to you this evening is not in any sense a report of work done,
but only a most brief and imperfect survey of the rapid expansion of our
cause....
“Let me lead you on to the spring of 1874. At that date we became aware
of a vast enterprise, conceived and planned by the advocates of
regulated vice,—an enterprise which involved a world-wide scheme for
bringing under this degrading system all the nations of the earth. In
order to meet this international action, it seemed to us that we must
ourselves make an appeal to all the nations of the earth.
“A few of us—very few—met in York in June, 1874; our small number seemed
utterly incommensurate with the vastness of the scheme before us. Faith
enough was found, however, in that little band to welcome the suggestion
of one member of it that she should go whither God would send her on the
Continent of Europe.
“On the eve of her departure a company of friends assembled at
Birmingham to commend to God this mighty enterprise in its small
beginnings. The conference of that evening began by the reading of those
prophetic words—for, in fact, they proved to be prophetic—‘I will say of
the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust;’
‘He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy
ways;’ ‘Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder’ (violence and
treachery).
“The history of that winter’s journeyings and labours is known to you,
as well as something of the subsequent progress of the work on the
Continent. This being the anniversary of the Ladies’ National
Association, I may fitly mention that women on the Continent are
faithful to the call they have received. Indeed, the hearts and
consciences of women, especially of women of the humbler classes, bear
the same witness in every land, concerning this question. At a meeting
of women lately addressed by the Baroness Stampe and the Countess Moltke
in Copenhagen, the poor women crowded up to sign their names, and pay
their little contributions as members of our great League. One, who was
very poorly clad, said, ‘If I have to sell my shawl in order to become a
member, I will do it.’ If every woman in the more favoured classes of
life were willing to make a sacrifice in proportion to this which the
poor Danish woman was ready to make, we should have a mighty force added
to our army.
“Another important feature of our progress is that of the establishment
of a branch of our work in the United States of America, to prevent the
encroachments of the Regulationists there, who are making constant
efforts to introduce this system. Every great cause is propagandist in
its spirit. Mr. H. J. Wilson and Mr. Gledstone went over as delegates
from England to America, to arouse the lovers of virtue and freedom
there. The seed they sowed has been very fruitful.
“The great event of the Geneva Congress, in the autumn of 1877, is well
known to you all. I may remark, however, that an important element in
our success has proved to be the importation into England of Continental
opinion on this subject, opinion which is the more weighty as our
Continental neighbours have had a prolonged experience of the regulation
system, which has been comparatively recently introduced here. We have
now in our hands a powerful weapon to employ for this work; I mean the
published _Actes_ of the Congress of Geneva. The conspiracy of silence
of the press has done us this service—in that it has forced us to create
a literature of our own.
“If we ask ourselves what are the results which we have gained, in the
form of the actual abolition, in any part of the world, of the
regulations against which we contend, we must confess that they are
small. But the approach of victory is signalised not so much by the
definite results which we are able to record in the shape of abolition
as by the attitude and manœuvres of our opponents, accompanied by the
progress of public opinion everywhere, on the question of morality and
of the equal application of the moral law to both sexes. The Spartan
general Brasidas, surveying the ranks of his enemies, said, ‘I see by
the shaking of their spears that the rascals are preparing to run.’ We
see as clearly by the ungraceful and eccentric dance now being performed
by our opponents that they are preparing for a forced retreat from the
position they have so long and so proudly maintained. The whole army of
Regulationists have changed their front during these past ten years,
having introduced the most extraordinary alterations in their tactics;
and, as is generally the case when a bad cause begins to fall, they are
introducing changes in the most opposite directions; on the one hand
exaggerating all their pretensions and demands, and on the other hand
making concessions, with the hope of prolonging their own existence.
“I may enumerate the concessions which have already been made to the
advancing force of public opinion in the form of committees or
commissions of special enquiry into this question: First, the Royal
Commission appointed in 1870, the report of which was contradictory and
inharmonious, resembling the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel.
Secondly, the Italian Parliamentary Committee, which sat in Rome, and
which, at the close of its inquiry, proposed some kind of compromise.
Thirdly, the Commission of the Municipal Council of Paris, now sitting.
Fourthly, the Hong Kong Commission, which reported unfavourably of the
Government establishment of vice in that colony, but gave way
practically to the urgency of medical men in maintaining an amended form
of the system. Fifthly, the Parliamentary Committee actually in session
in London.
“Through all the cycles of human history, certain crimes and cruelties
have in a great measure succeeded in hiding themselves, but now the
fierce light is bursting in upon them on every side. The horrors and
agonies of sensual sin are appearing in view. We continually receive
from all parts of Europe revelations such as men had never guessed of
before. The international slave traffic in human souls (that _necessary_
adjunct of State-organised vice) has prospered in silence and secrecy;
but _it_ also is now coming to the light; it has been and is carried on
on a larger scale and in more horrible ways than is generally suspected
or can be easily conceived.
“It is possible, even probable, that the most anxious and difficult days
of our struggle are yet to come; that when the upholders of the existing
regulations of vice in various lands shall see it necessary to abandon
their present position, they will come to us with offered compromises;
and then there will be a sifting-time; our principles will be tested,
and our integrity severely tried. That such compromises, various in kind
and more or less subtle in their nature, will be proposed, and that they
are already being concocted, I cannot doubt. We shall require clearness
of insight to discern their nature, and firmness of purpose to deal with
their propositions.
“We have experience enough to demonstrate that, whenever a practical
victory awaits us, we may look for a corresponding attempt on the part
of the Regulationists to re-establish the evil principle in, it may be,
an extremely modified form or in a misleading guise; hence the supreme
importance of clearness of discernment on our part, of wisdom and
penetration, of skill to separate the old leaven to its last particle
from every plan for the future, and to reject, at the risk of being
deemed vexatious irreconcilables, every proposal which bears within
itself the theory that prostitution is a necessary evil, and the
consequent admission that a certain number of God’s creatures are
doomed, also by a fatal law of necessity, to be transformed into mere
instruments for the basest and most unholy purpose.”
1897.
And now, my dear Friends and Fellow-workers who have followed so far
with me this record of our first ten years of conflict, my concluding
words shall be addressed to you.
As I look back through our long warfare there rise before my mind not
only our united band in untiring conflict with injustice, but many
pleasant adventures, social gatherings, and sweet friendships, taking
their rise in a common aim, cemented by fellowship in trial and in hope,
and ripening, year by year, for the higher communion of the life to
come. Many pleasant memories are revived, and some sorrowful ones. Ties
have been riven, ties so dear and so familiar that when they vanished
our weak hearts were rent. Fair households amongst us have been
scattered. Some who were active in the work are now disabled by
permanent physical weakness or approaching age; and we daily feel that
our dearest communion fronts the hour of death. We have mourned together
when some of our ablest helpers and boldest champions fell in the heat
of the battle. But we have had strength given us to rise again, to put
on our armour, and to turn our face to the foe.
We are of those (it has been said) who represent the imperishableness of
principles, one of the many assurances of immortality. Let us be of good
courage, then! He who has helped us hitherto will be with us to the end.
More than twenty-seven years ago, while we were but a small, feeble
company, and few cared to give ear to our appeal, much less to join in
our aggressive action, we may have said in our hearts, ‘Who will rise up
for me against the evil doers, or who will stand up for me against the
workers of iniquity?’ and, indeed, I may say for myself, ‘Unless the
Lord had been my helper, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.’ But the
heavy curtain of darkness was lifted up at last, and we now see that
there were celestial warriors on our side, and more for us than against
us. The event foretold by Christ is coming to pass; the secret sins of
Europe are beginning to be proclaimed from the housetops; the light of
truth is already falling upon the dark places of the earth, full of the
hideous habitations of cruelty; the hidden things of darkness can escape
the dreaded light no more.
Looking forward, as we must, to another term of conflict, and
considering what may, and probably will be, the special trials which
await us, I counsel you, Friends, to be strong. Cultivate a sound
judgment. Take this question into the solitude of your chamber; let the
light from God’s presence penetrate your inmost thoughts; see clearly
and act firmly.
Let this be all our care
To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds
Judge us perverse.
God forbid that we should ever trifle with the righteous conditions of
success, for we know that every compromise is a loss of power, and would
force us to begin all our work over again! May He grant us the
disciplined conscience whose unfaltering logic shall hold its own
against every fallacy, and continue to pierce through an iniquity which
has corrupted more or less all the Governments of Europe, and blinded
even the Churches, in which there can be no real health until they have
openly taken their stand on God’s side in this matter.
Our opponents continue to tell us that ‘something must be done.’ True!
practical effort is wanted on every side, economical, industrial,
social; legal reforms are required, as well as moral and spiritual
forces. We do, in fact, already combat, from all these sides, by means
of the many collateral organisations which have gathered around us, the
great evil of prostitution itself. It is true we had long neglected this
work; but let those who blame us look round now, and survey the array of
forces and agencies which have sprung up in many countries during these
last twenty-seven years, animated by our protest, and working hand in
hand with us. Let them regard these efforts and their results, and say
whether we have not fully recognised the fact that ‘something must be
done,’ and whether we have not faithfully endeavoured to do that
something. But what some men mean when they call for something to be
done, is that some provision of some sort must be made, whereby impurity
may be divested of its unpleasant physical consequences,—that some
organisation must be planned, based on the recognition of prostitution
as a necessity of our social condition. To these we have but one reply:
while it is our turn to remind those persons that ‘something must be
done,’ and that that ‘something’ is that men must learn to live
virtuously; that is the only possible remedy for the physical plague.
But there are men who do not like to hear this; they will try everything
rather than this. The end, however, will be the failure of their every
effort to separate the moral and the physical laws of the universe, and
the confirmation of this truth—that the only cure for the evils which
they so much dread is _purity of life_.
O! that men would turn from the evil of their ways, for then, though
their sins should be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, and
they shall find themselves in the hand of a Saviour who is able to save
_to the uttermost_!
Let holy charity continue, dear Friends, to be the inspiration of all
our work. Pity for the suffering; justice for all; the oppressed to be
delivered; the slave to be set free; the moral law to be obeyed to the
last tittle; the soul of the poor to be delivered from the hands of the
spoiler; and the Governments of the world to be warned of that logic of
retribution whereby men and nations reap as they have sown. Such has
been our programme in the past; such it will continue to be in the
future.
THE END.
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
-----
Footnote 1:
The members of the Commission were: the Right Hon. William Nathaniel
Massey, the Right Hon. Viscount Hardinge, the Right Rev. the Bishop of
Carlisle, the Right Hon. Sir John Pakington, Bart., M.P., the Right
Hon. General Peel, the Right Hon. W. F. Cowper-Temple, M.P., Sir John
Salisbury Trelawney, Bart, M.P., Sir Walter Charles James, Bart.,
Vice-Admiral Collinson, C.B., Charles Buxton, Esq., M.P., Major
O’Reilly, M.P., Peter Rylands, Esq., M.P., A. J. Mundella, Esq., M.P.,
Professor T. H. Huxley, the Rev. Canon Gregory, M.A., the Rev.
Frederick Denison Maurice, the Rev. John Hannah, D.C.L., S. Wilks,
Esq., M.D., John Henry Bridges, Esq., M.D., T. Holmes, Esq., F.R.C.S.,
George E. Paget, Esq., M.D., Holmes Coote, Esq., F.R.C.S., George
Campbell, Esq., D.C.L., George Woodyatt Hastings, Esq., Mr. Robert
Applegarth.
Footnote 2:
Psalm xci.
Footnote 3:
One of the utterances of the defeated candidate did, perhaps, more
than anything else to turn the working men’s votes against him, viz.,
this: in a public document regarding his Governorship of Malta, Sir
Henry Storks had stated that he much regretted his inability to bring
soldier’s _wives_ under the degrading and disgusting tyranny of this
legislation.
Footnote 4:
Unhappily a _Projet de loi_ which has since been proposed in Brussels
as a substitute for the actual system contains all the old evil
principles in a more veiled form. The sincere men who had embraced the
Abolitionists’ views had more or less retired from public life, and
the work of so-called reform fell under the influence of experts who
are not sincere in their aim.
Footnote 5:
Dr. Schneider, Report of the Vienna Congress, p. 49.
Footnote 6:
We had gained, up to this time, the abolition of the system in the
Cape Colony, and in Bombay; also in St. Louis, U.S.A., a victory had
been won.
Footnote 7:
Alluding to the Bill proposed by the Home Secretary, Mr. Bruce, which
would have been practically a repetition of the Regulations.
Footnote 8:
Mr. Benjamin Scott’s “A State Iniquity.”
Footnote 9:
These lines were written while our revered friend was still living and
at the post of honour among us.
Footnote 10:
See the book of Lecour, “La Prostitution à Paris et à Londres.”
1782–1872.
Footnote 11:
“Recollections of George Butler.” Arrowsmith, Bristol.
Footnote 12:
_Shield_, 1877.
Footnote 13:
Owing to the great pressure of time at the close of the Congress, and
to the variety in the laws in this respect in different countries, the
Section was unable to give an exhaustive discussion to this question;
but several members of the Congress, after the framing of this
resolution, signed and handed into the Bureau at the Public Meeting
the following declaration:—A Congress which has, at the outset,
admitted the principle of equality of the two sexes before the law
has, in virtue of that admission, affirmed the equal responsibility of
the man and of the woman in respect to their illegitimate offspring.
Though it may defer for the present the consideration of the possible
and practicable means of establishing the right of affiliation, it has
in reality already admitted this principle.
Footnote 14:
One of the largest iron foundries in Belgium.
Footnote 15:
“The European Slave-trade in English Girls. A narrative of Facts.”
Dyer Brothers.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
● Renumbered footnotes and moved them all to the end of the final
chapter.
● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.