Prostitution : considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities and garrison towns : with proposals for the control and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton.

  • Acton, William, 1813-1875.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prostitution : considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities and garrison towns : with proposals for the control and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    impose duties, is the Language of the seducer; he will be somewhat startled when he finds his words more true than his intention ; and it may be, the experience may serve as a salutary check upon his future proceedings. When the hardened conscience, dull intellect, and indul- gent will, case up the man as in triple brass against moral persuasion, an appeal to his pocket is not unlikely to prove an irresistible argument. By the aid of this compensating medium, it is not unreasonable to expect that my proposal, so far from inducing mischiefs greater than the disease, will, if adopted, prove an unmixed good and a marvel- lously moralising agent. Before I pass on from the question of seduction, I may make one further suggestion. Under the present bastardy laws the mother must, as we have seen, be the applicant for redress, and the interference of others, either in her interest or in that of the ratepayers, is not tole- rated ; while the right allowed her of claiming, previously to the birth of the child, the assistance of the magistrate, is seldom or never acted upon, and virtually a dead letter. The advantage that would accrue from the exercise of this right is self-evident; so great is it, that it should not merely be permitted as a right, but imposed as an obliga- tion. That the person interested in concealing the birth, and desirous of screening the father, even to her own and her infant’s hurt, should be the only one by whom action can be taken, is a gross absurdity. If the injury consequent on her silence recoiled on herself alone, it might be unfair to take from her the opportunity for self-sacrifice; but she cannot suffer alone; her helpless babe, and the whole community, suffer from her mistaken lenity. The right to set in motion the ma- chinery of the law against the father should be extended to other persons. There are few women more exposed to temptation to immo- rality than domestic servants, especially those serving in houses where men servants also are kept; if the pregnancy of any such servant comes to the knowledge of her master, he should have the right allowed to him of making her condition known to the magistrates, and taking the steps necessary for insuring the detection of her paramour—nay, more, the adoption of this course should be made obligatory upon him, and he might be made answerable for any miscarriage of justice arising from liis wilful default by being himself made chargeable to the same extent as the putative father would have been but for his neglect. The same principle might be adopted in the case of shopkeepers and other employers of female labour. Such a course would obviate the evils arising under the present system; a -woman found pregnant is usually dismissed from her employment without a character; and yet the adoption of this course is ruin to her, and affords her seducer an additional chance of escaping the consequences of his wrong-doing. Were her dismissal accompanied by the further action here sug- gested, her first false step would be no longer irretrievable, and the author of her shame would be made a partner in her responsibilities. We are too apt in this utilitarian and self-seeking age to forget that incidental, as well as direct, duties attend the different social relation- ships. The duties of man to man, the personal obligations and mutual responsibilities of life, formed beautiful and attractive features in the