was not to prevent it, and that the vice they sought to check increased
in spite of their efforts, ran, at one impulse, to a contrary extreme.
Formerly no public women were allowed, now they were created as a
class; formerly no brothels were permitted to be kept by private
individuals, now a huge brothel was instituted by the authorities. A
large hotel was hired, was fitted up for the purpose, and opened to
all the city. A number of unfortunate women were expected to inhabit
this licensed resort of infamy, and it speedily overflowed. A code
of regulations was framed for the government of the place; but the
barbarity of this discipline prevented the scheme from succeeding.
Prostitution, however, had been recognised by law. Therefore, though
the government brothel was abandoned, others were multiplied in its
place; and vice, which had rioted under a mask, appeared in her
proper form, among the citizens of Stockholm. Nevertheless, numbers
of the restaurants and houses of public entertainment still retain
their original character as the secret resorts of prostitutes and
their companions. One great cause of the immorality prevalent in
Stockholm was, that no woman who could afford to do otherwise, or had
any of the wretched pride of respectability, would suckle her own
child. Wet nurses, therefore, were in great request. Unmarried girls
were absolutely preferred, because the family was not troubled with
their husbands. Their own offspring were meanwhile transferred to
the foundling hospital, which remains another licence to immorality.
There are in Stockholm two of these institutions, where the children
are educated, on payment of a premium varying from five to ten pounds
sterling of English coinage. In 1819 there were born in Sweden 14,000
illegitimate children, being nearly a seventh of the births. M.
Alexandre Daumont says, that there was in Woesend, a canton of Finland,
a special law which, granting to women equal rights of property with
the men, improved the character of their morals. But no institutions
will improve the manners of a country like Sweden, until the national
sentiments are purified, for the example of the court and the nobility,
says Mr. Laing, have instructed the people so far, that it is only a
moral revolution which can reclaim them.
There is in Stockholm a separate hospital for the treatment of
syphilis. It received in one year 701 patients, 148 being from the
country and the rest from the city itself. In that year (1832) the
number of unmarried persons, of both sexes, above the age of fifteen,
was 33,581. Consequently, 1 person out of every 61 was afflicted by the
venereal disease.
The condition of women in Sweden is low in comparison with the other
countries of Europe, and offers a strong contrast with that which we
discover in Norway. Tasks are assigned among the humble orders to the
female sex against which true civilization would revolt. They carry
sacks, row boats, sift lime, and bear other heavy labours. Among the
middle classes they hold an inferior situation; but among the higher,
though little respected, they are comparatively free[87].
OF PROSTITUTION IN NORWAY.
Living under ancient laws and social arrangements distinct in their
principles no less than in their forms from those which discipline
society in the feudal countries of Europe, the people of Norway are
among the most singular and interesting in the world. Their peculiar
institutions, which never admitted of an hereditary nobility, have
distributed property among all, so that nowhere is there less poverty,
or more abundance of the necessaries of life. These circumstances have
exerted a powerful influence on the moral character of the Norwegians.
It is consequently important to inquire into their manners, since the
solution of many social problems may, by such an investigation, be
assisted.
There are in Norway two classes of checks upon the rapid increase
of population--one arising from their public economy, the other
artificial, and under the influence of law. In all countries where the
poor possess the land, provident marriages prevent the growth of a
pauper population, and this is the case in Norway. So far the results
produced are wholly beneficial; but here other restraints are imposed,
which, being somewhat extravagant, miss their object, and exert bad
effects on the moral tone of the community.
A marriage in Norway is an occasion, not only of long and formal
ceremonies, but of considerable expense. This circumstance has
two opposite tendencies on the character of the people. It is not
considered respectable to marry unless some grand display takes
place, with a liberal festival, the distribution of presents, a long
holiday, and other means of expenditure, which create a provident
spirit and prudent habit, which stimulate industry, and contribute to
the general happiness and prosperity. Spending on their wedding-day
what would support them during twelve months, many young couples do,
indeed, commit acts of injurious extravagance in emulation of their
neighbours; but in accumulating what they thus lavish, they have
acquired the custom of saving, the necessity for which puts off the
period of marriage. The Lutheran church also holds another strong check
upon improvident and ill-considered marriages. It compels all within
its communion to observe two separate ceremonies--one the betrothal,
the other the wedding. The first must precede the second by several
months at least, and generally does by one, two, three, or even four
or five years. This interposes a seasonable pause between the first
engagement, which may have sprung out of a temporary passion, and its
irrevocable ratification, which may be the prelude to a life of misery.
It has been calculated that the practical result of this interval
between the period when a girl becomes naturally, and that when she
becomes legally marriageable, checks the growth of the population by
four or five per cent. Maintained within just limits such social laws
are found to act beneficially, and tend in every way to improve the
condition, manners, habits, and morals of the people.
In Norway, however, they have been pushed beyond the frontiers of
moderation, and in many cases cause more evils than they cure. For it
is found impossible to put a bridle on human nature. Powerful impulses
attract the sexes to intercourse, and it frequently occurs that the
betrothed girl becomes a mother before she becomes a wife. Up among
the high districts of the interior, it is said that the peasant girl
rarely marries until she has borne a child. Throughout Norway, indeed,
the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children is about one
to five, and in some parishes, where the restraint upon marriage is
greatest, the average lies far more towards the side of immorality.
In one of these districts, where there are no other obvious causes of
profligacy, such as the resort of shipping, the cantonment of troops,
the neighbourhood of a great manufactory, or any other of the usual
demoralizing influences, the proportion of illegitimate children is
nearly one to three.
This by no means implies, however, a profligate disposition in the
Norwegians--male or female. The woman who bears offspring by a lover is
almost invariably married to him afterwards; it is impatience of the
restraint put upon them by the law which impels them to this illicit
communication. The evils of illegitimacy are also, in a great measure,
counteracted by liberal and wise regulations. Subsequent marriage of
the parents removes the stigma of bastardy from their children. A man,
even, who feels inclined to marry another woman, when his first friend
has died or become indifferent to him, may legitimatize his former
children, by a particular legal instrument. This, in such cases, which
are rare, is commonly done, and all, consequently, share alike in their
father’s inheritance. Some neglect to perform this act of justice,
but instances seldom or never occur of a man leaving his offspring
desolate when he has any means or opportunity of providing for them,
which in Norway almost every person has. Women in Norway occupy a
position of superior honour. They have, perhaps, more to do with the
real business of life, and more share in those occupations which
require the exertion of intellect and study, than in England. They
enjoy less compliment, but more respect, which all the sensible members
of their sex would infinitely prefer. She, indeed, who provides for a
household, under the peculiar domestic arrangements of the country,
and presides over its economy, is held in high estimation. Women, in
fact, hold a very just position in the society of Norway, having that
influence and participation in its affairs which develope their mental
and cultivate their moral qualities. Yet it is far from true that they
occupy themselves entirely with the sober business, paying no attention
to the elegant arts of life. Many of them adorn themselves also in
those lighter accomplishments which gracefully amuse a leisure hour;
but they certainly do not exhaust on song or dance, or the embroidery
frame, the most valuable powers they possess. The able and observant
traveller, Laing, supplies a true picture of their character and
position, observing that among the wealthier merchants the state of the
female sex is less natural and less to be admired than among the humble
classes, which compose the general mass of society. Generally speaking,
therefore, women nowhere play a more important part in the affairs of
social life than in that remote and romantic part of Europe. Among the
poor the division of labour between the sexes is excellent: all the
indoor work is assigned to the women, all the outdoor labour to the men.
Travellers, among whom Mary Wolstonecroft is one, have nevertheless
complained direly of the situation women hold in Norway. One gentleman
condemns the national character, because the ladies in respectable
houses often wait at their own tables; but this is a national
peculiarity, hereditary among the Norwegians. It is a voluntary office;
no compulsion is used to impose this or any other task upon them. All
that we can infer from such a custom is, the dissimilarity of ideas on
points of propriety which prevail with different nations. The English
pity the women of Norway, because they sometimes wait at their own
tables; the Norwegians accuse the men in England of ill-breeding,
because they do not take off their hats whenever a female appears in
sight, and because they dismiss the ladies after dinner.
With respect to the actual morals of Norway, we may assign them
the highest rank. The number of illegitimate births can scarcely be
described, under the circumstances we have noticed, as indicating
an immoral disposition in the people. Nowhere is adultery less
frequent. The matrons are almost universally above suspicion, while
street-walking and professional prostitution are almost unknown.
The most profligate class of females appears to be the domestic
servants[88].
OF PROSTITUTION IN DENMARK.
In the laws of Denmark in 1834 the position of the sexes, the
regulations of the marriage contracts, and the restrictions on public
immorality were sought to be fixed, with every distinction of detail.
A man was declared under tutelage until the age of eighteen, and
under a modified authority until twenty-five, after which he attained
independence in all the acts of his life as a citizen. The woman was
declared to remain under tutelage all her life. Even the widow must
place herself under a guardian, without whose consent she can do
nothing; but this person she may choose herself. She may place herself
under the direction of one or many, and even distribute authority among
them, but is never allowed to assert an independent existence.
To contract marriage a man must be at least twenty years old, and the
woman not under sixteen. The system of legal and binding betrothments
was abandoned in 1799; but previous to that period the ceremony of
affiancing the bridegroom to the bride was important and almost as
absolute as the last ceremony itself.
To contract a legal marriage, it is essential that both persons shall
be free from the ties of any other legal engagements. Persons who are
related to each other in an ascending or descending line are prohibited
from marrying. Brother and sister, says the code, may not marry; but
brother-in-law and sister-in-law, uncle and niece, may. A man who
desires to marry his mother’s or father’s sister must obtain a special
permission from the government.
It is necessary before marriage to procure the consent of the parents
or guardians of both parties; but if they refuse, their refusal may be
complained of, and the judge, reproving them, may order the union to
take place in spite of their opposition. At twenty-five years of age
the man is released from this authority.
According to an ordonnance passed in 1734, promises of marriage may
be written or verbal; a promise of marriage by written agreement must
bear the handwriting, seal, and signature of him who makes it. It must
be certified by two witnesses, respectable men, before there is any
communication between the man and the woman. The verbal promise must
also be spoken aloud in the presence of two respectable men, before any
intercourse is allowed. Such engagements are binding, and the man who
breaks one may be prosecuted at law.
There are, however, certain descriptions of persons whom the law does
not allow to invoke the faith of such promises. Widows, who desire to
act against their guardians’ consent, and women of bad reputation, are
in this manner excluded. A servant cannot plead a promise of marriage
against her master, her master’s son, or any person dwelling in the
same house. A man may also repudiate, by a formal oath, the accusation
of a pregnant woman who pretends he has promised her marriage, and that
he is the father of the child she bears in her womb, unless she can
prove her allegation by sufficient testimony.
Divorce is permitted, and may be pronounced immediately when legal
cause is proved against one or other of a married pair. It may be
demanded in the case of simple abandonment during seven years, or
malicious intentional desertion for three years, in the case of
condemnation to perpetual hard labour, of impotence existing previously
to marriage, of the venereal disease contracted previously to marriage,
of insanity supervening upon marriage, and of adultery. Divorce may
also take place, without any judgment from the public tribunal, when
both parties equally desire it.
In this case, after the married persons have declared their intention,
they must be entirely separated in bed and at table during three years;
when, if they persevere in their desires, the separation is legally
complete. If, however, at the expiration of that period, one of them
refuse to abide by the agreement, the administrative college may order
it to be fulfilled, notwithstanding all such opposition. Lastly, the
king may always allow a divorce to take place, for any or no cause,
according to his royal pleasure.
Inquiries into the maternity or paternity of children are permitted.
If a girl accuses a man of having been the father of an infant to
her, he can only rebut the charge by taking a solemn oath that he had
intercourse with her at the period presumed to be the date of her
conception. She may then prove, if she can, by any means whatever, that
he is swearing falsely; but such evidence being difficult to complete,
so as to produce legal conviction, many individuals escape the burden
which justly attaches to them.
He who acknowledges or is proved the father of a natural child is
bound, until it attains its tenth year, to maintain it according to
his rank in life. Should he refuse to pay what he has promised, he may
be imprisoned on bread and water. Every twenty-four hours thus spent
acquit him of about half-a-crown of his liability.
Illegitimate children have no claim upon the inheritance of their
father’s property; but to that of their mother, or even of their
mother’s parents, they are absolutely entitled. A natural child may
be adopted or legitimatized by subsequent marriage, in which case it
loses all the disability which attached to its former condition. In
1831 the proportion of illegitimate children in Denmark was one in nine
and three-fifths. In Copenhagen, however, the frightful proportion was
exhibited of one to three and a half.
The law adjudges to the child killer death without mercy. She is
decapitated, and her head fixed upon a spike. The woman who does
not take proper precautions before the delivery of her offspring is
accounted guilty of infanticide should the infant die.
Notwithstanding the severity of the law infanticide is a very common
crime in Denmark, although it contains foundling hospitals, at least in
Copenhagen. Angelot saw in one of the prisons of that city a man, who,
after having flung his four children into the water, went immediately
before a magistrate, declaring that he could not provide them with
sustenance, and had consequently thought it better to send them to God.
Another of these murderers was a woman, who had cut the throats of two
of her children, and was engaged in attempting to kill the third, when
she was arrested. Superstition and misery, combined with the looseness
of morals in the capital of Denmark, were the chief causes of these
fearful crimes against nature. The criminals are condemned to the
death we have mentioned, but their sentence is usually commuted to
imprisonment for life in a house of correction.
The punishment denounced against unnatural crimes was formerly that of
burning alive; but it is now softened to that of perpetual exile or
forced labour.
The husband may be prosecuted for adultery, as well as the wife, and
it is an offence which, says the code, may be punished by law; but
authority seldom interferes. The ancient Danes visited the crime with
death, and that at a period when murderers were only condemned to pay
a fine. At present the penalty is fixed, for the first offence, at
confiscation of a tenth part of the guilty person’s property; for the
second, banishment. For the third repetition of the crime the adulterer
may be tied up in a sack and drowned. The law, however, has now become
obsolete through long disuse.
Women may take to public prostitution if they receive permission from
the authorities. They are not troubled afterwards unless they offend
against peace or decency, or bear more children than may legally be
born. The code declares that any unmarried woman who becomes the
mother of two children may be prosecuted, fined, and committed to
prison. Custom, however, in this, as in many other instances, is more
considerate than the law, and no woman is troubled who has not born
three children by three different men; even then a permission of a
special character is necessary before the prosecution can be carried
on. No doubt these restrictions encourage women to procure abortion,
or destroy their offspring when born. Prostitutes are very numerous,
and the vexatious restraints upon marriage appear to produce much
immorality. In Copenhagen, however, the corruption of society cannot be
altogether, or even chiefly, traced to that cause; for the manners of
the city are, in a general sense, profligate.
The appearance of the women belonging to the lower classes in
Copenhagen, as in Stockholm, is remarkably modest and unpresuming.
Neat and tasteful in their costume, they preserve in their own homes
a freshness and a comfort which indicate that they enjoy a position
of some honour; for where women are not well treated, they never have
a pride in keeping their clothes, habitations, or persons clean and
elegant.
It seems that the condition as well as the morality of the sex has
improved since the laws of the country have become more polished by
civilization. The code we have described belonged to a period several
years back. Since then a new constitution has been established; the
nation has become more free; the penal laws, especially, have been very
considerably modified; the relations of the sexes have lost some of the
rudeness which characterized them before; and though civilization still
remains at a low ebb, public manners have certainly undergone great
improvement.
The prostitutes of Copenhagen live, some in a kind of hotel, where
they take part in mixed entertainments, to which the dissolute persons
of the city congregate; some in a sort of boarding-houses; others in
private dwellings of their own; or they lodge in small rooms, and go
with their companions to houses where temporary accommodation may be
had at various charges. Their numbers would appear to be considerable;
and their habits do not differ in any peculiar manner from those of the
same class in other cities of the Continent, which afford materials for
a more complete description[89].
OF PROSTITUTION IN CIVILIZED STATES.
INTRODUCTION.
We have inquired into the history of the female sex under the social
laws of antiquity, under the rude codes of barbarian races, and under
the Mohammedan and Hindu systems. It will now be interesting to trace
it through the dusky period of modern civilization from the rise of
Christianity to the middle ages. Many writers afford the materials
for a view of the prostitute systems of Europe during that era, and
M. Rabuteaux especially has combined their researches in one wide and
broad view.
The Christian Emperors of Rome endeavoured to suppress prostitution,
but with little success. Constantine, Constantius, Theodosius the
Younger, Valentian, and Justinian took up the task by turns, denounced
penalties against offenders--those who debauched others, and those who
prostituted themselves; but though the world changed its aspect, it did
not change its vices. Among the northern barbarians, indeed, austere
principles ruled over the people, and women occupied a higher place
than is accorded them now. They were companions of the men, not toys
for their pleasure, or bagatelles for their amusement. Called, at a
later age, to the functions of maternity, they previously learned the
use of reason, and succeeded from a virtuous maidenhood to the dignity
of matron. The chastity which Tacitus describes among the barbarians
of Germany continued long to be their characteristic; but their penal
customs became milder as they received better maxims of social policy.
A woman who debauched herself was expelled from the city--a sufficient
punishment. She had no more any family. Even the ties of paternity were
broken. Gradually, however, the barbarian conquerors of Europe bent
to the attractions of a corrupted society, and though the laws of the
Visigoths forbade prostitution, men were found to encourage and females
to pursue this infamous occupation.
The free woman who prostituted herself was, for the first offence,
punished with 300 strokes, and for the second reduced to slavery, given
to some poor man, and prohibited from entering a town. Parents who
connived at the vice of their children were flogged. If the offender
was already in bonds, she was whipped, shorn of her hair, and returned
to her master. Should he himself be the accomplice of her sin, he lost
her, and suffered an equal penalty of the rod. Prostitutes who walked
the streets and fields were flung into prison, scourged, and fined. A
decree of Theodoric, king of the Goths, declared death against all who
gave an asylum or any encouragement to infamous persons.
The epithet of “lost woman” applied to one of honest character was an
insult punishable by law--generally by fines. A maiden or a widow was
especially protected against such imputation. In France the female who
accused another of infamous habits was condemned to pay five sous,
or to walk in penance, only clothed in a light shift, while a matron
followed, and thrust a fine-pointed instrument above her thighs, more
as a humiliation than an injury. The Spanish code also recognised this
offence, as well as that of general defamation.
The church was the universal censor of public manners in the middle
ages. No sin was more severely denounced by the Christian law than
that of licentiousness; yet it inculcated no savage persecution of the
fallen. Good men could never forget, that a courtezan had washed the
feet of Christ, and accordingly a humanizing spirit presided over the
social code of the early fathers. They received into their communion
any woman who renounced her evil life, married, and was faithful to her
husband, or remained single without prostituting herself again.
Everywhere, indeed, Christianity tolerated prostitution. It was
impossible to eradicate vice, and it was better one class should make a
profession of it than that all should follow it as a secret occupation.
Suppress courtezans, said St. Augustine, and you confuse all society by
the caprice of the passions. Nevertheless, efforts were made to check
the evil, though the principal rules of this “police of manners” were
applied to confine the prostitutes of every town in a separate quarter,
and to force on them an uniform apparel, that their shame might not
be concealed, and that other women might be safe from the address of
brutal libertines.