The letter [click here] is, to the best of our belief, a revelation of the feelings of the class to which the writer openly declares that she belongs. Now, the singularity of the communication consists in tbis,—that the writer, who must be supposed to be tolerably well acquainted with the feelings of her associates and friends—bids us, in considering the subject, to dismiss from our apprehension all the crudities with which divines, and philanthropists, and romance-writers have surrounded it. The great bulk of the London prostitutes are not Magdalens either in esse or posse, nor specimens of humanity in agony, nor Clarissa Harlowes. - They are not—the bulk of them—cowering under gateways, nor preparing to throw themselves from Waterloo Bridge, but are comfortably practising their trade, either as the entire or partial means of their subsistence. To attribute to them the sentimental delicacies of a heroine of romance would be equally preposterous. They have no remorse or misgivings about the nature of their pursuit; on the contrary, they consider the calling an advantageous one, and they look upon their success in it with satisfaction. They have their virtues, like others; they are good daughters, good sisters, and friends, at least proportionately so with other classes of the community.
From a leading article in The Times, London, February 25, 1858.
see also J. Ewing Ritchie in The Night Side of London - click here (and throughout the book)
This Act [Contagious
Diseases Act], however, is something more than a means of imparting
health both physical and moral. It forms the commencement of a
new legislative era, being a departure from that neutral position
previously held by English law with respect to venereal diseases, and
admits that there is nothing in the nature of prostitution to exclude
it from legislative action, but that, on the contrary, it may be necessary to recognize its existence, and to provide for its regulation, and
for the repression, so far as possible, of its attendant evils. It is, in
fact, the adoption - so far as it goes - of the principle for which I have
always contended, that prostitution ought to be an object of legislation.
I believe I may claim, without vanity, to have in some measure
paved the way for, and guided the progress of, this change, and I
hail with satisfaction the advent of the time which has at length
arrived when we may contemplate work accomplished, and, guided
by the experience gained from results attained, consider what more
remains to be achieved.
Although the benefits that have resulted from the recent legislation - as regards this special class of disease - are undoubted, there
is great unwillingness in certain quarters to extend them from a class
to the nation, and a radical distinction is sought to be drawn between
the case of the army and navy and that of the civil population. Strange
as it may appear, the same arguments that were urged against interference by the legislature with venereal maladies previously to the
passing of the Contagious Diseases Bill - of whose futility that
measure is the strongest possible acknowledgment - are still put
forward with as much confidence as though they had never received
such authoritative refutation, and must still be met and answered, so far as the civil population is concerned. Opposition to legislative
interference is still based mainly on religious and moral grounds, the
risk of encouraging sin, and the injustice of curtailing individual
freedom. I yield to no man in my love of liberty and regard for religion. I am therefore especially careful in the following pages to
show that the interference which I propose with personal liberty is
unhappily necessary both for the sake of the community at large, and
of the women themselves. Such interference is, in fact, not special -
it is the extension to venereal disorders of the principle on which the
Government endeavours to act in dealing with other forms of preventable disease. Nor have the objections on religious grounds to
the course which I propose any real foundation; on the contrary,
religion is on my side.
The fresh phase assumed by the question discussed in the ensuing
pages has necessitated considerable changes and modifications on my part, and I find that much of the matter contained in my first
edition may now be conveniently omitted. The whole work has been
carefully revised and remodelled, and to a great extent rewritten;
moreover, sources of information formerly closed or unknown, are now open to me.
My statistics are no longer solely dependent on my own opportunities for investigation. I have been enabled to make use
of the researches of others, and much official assistance has been
accorded to me. I have described the actual state of prostitution at
home and abroad, and have shown the different methods of dealing
with it employed in this and other countries, thus rendering easy the
comparison between the state of things existing in England and on the Continent, and the rival systems of legislation prevailing here
and there.
It will he seen that on a great part of the Continent the necessity
for the RECOGNITION of prostitution by the State, and the adoption of
remedial and preventive measures, has long been acknowledged,
while in England such recognition has been, till within the last few
years, steadily refused, and is now conceded only in the exceptional
case of the army and navy. The Continental system, owing to the
way in which police supervision is there carried out, has been termed
the licensing system; the English, under which prostitutes are left
to themselves (except in districts to which the Contagious Diseases
Act applies)] has been termed the voluntary system.
In considering the attitude which it becomes us to assume towards
prostitution, one fact must be carefully borne in mind: that it is no
evanescent evil, hut that it has existed from the first ages of the
world's history down to the present time, and differs but little, and in minor particulars, in this the nineteenth century, from
what it was in the earliest times. The records of the human race, from the Book of Genesis downwards, through the whole range of ancient
and medieval literature to the writings of our own day, bear witness
to the perpetual presence among men of the daughters of shame.
Kings, philosophers, and priests, the learned and the noble, no less
than the ignorant and simple, have drunk without stint in every age
and every clime of Circe's cup; nor is it reasonable to suppose that in the years to come the world will prove more virtuous than it has
shown itself in ages past. From time to time men's purer instincts,
revolting from the sin, have striven to repress it; but such efforts
have too often ended in failure, and entailed disasters more terrible
than those from which relief was sought; and it is evident that it
would be unreasonable to expect any other result. Equally irrational
is it to imagine that this irrepressible evil can exist without entailing
upon Society serious mischief; though incapable of absolute repression,
prostitution admits of mitigation. To ignore an ever-present
evil appears a mistake as fatal as the attempt to repress it. I am, therefore, an advocate of
RECOGNITION.
It is high time for us to get the better of a fear that starts at
shadows'. This word RECOGNITION may sound very dreadful, and be
regarded by many as the precursor of a coming deluge of continental
immorality. But what is the real fact? Is not recognition already
accorded by society ? Who are those fair creatures, neither chaperons
nor chaperoned, those 'somebodies whom nobody knows', who elbow our wives and daughters in the parks and promenades and
rendezvous of fashion? Who are those painted, dressy women,
flaunting along the streets and boldly accosting the passers-by? Who
those miserable creatures, ill-fed, ill-clothed, uncared for, from
whose misery the eye recoils, cowering under dark arches and among
bye-lanes? The picture has many sides; with all of them society is
more or less acquainted. Why is the State - that alone can remedy a
condition of things that all deplore - alone to refuse recognition?
The voluntary system has been tried long enough with its affected
ignorance and empty parade of hospitals, penitentiaries, and asylums. Individual efforts are powerless to effect either the cure of
disease or the reformation of the prostitute. The nation's weakness
can be assisted only by the nation's strength; and I propose to show
that concentrated effort, sanctioned by authority, can alone stay the
ravages of a contagious and deadly disorder, and that only by
methodical and combined action, and by gradual and almost imperceptible stages, can any moral cure be effected.
To the licensing system of the Continent I am as strongly opposed
for the reasons given in the text as I am to the voluntary system
hitherto adopted in England - the necessary consequence of the
neutral position assumed by the legislature. My examination of the
character of prostitution - the causes that produce [it] and the evils
that result from it - leads me to this conclusion: that the consequences of RECOGNITION
must be threefold, and embrace PREVENTION, AMELIORATION, and REGULATION. For the sake of greater clearness I have devoted a separate chapter to each of these three divisions.
Although some of the causes of prostitution are undoubtedly
beyond the reach of legislation, others are clearly amenable to it.
To these last I address myself in the chapter on Prevention. Thus I
propose to diminish the amount of prostitution by putting an end so
far as possible to the overcrowding of families, and making better
provision for the relief and suitable employment of women. With
this object also I propose to remodel the laws relating to seduction,
making the seducer substantially responsible for the support of his
bastard offspring - providing facilities for procuring affiliation orders - and assisting the pregnant woman during her confinement. Such
legislation would, I am fully persuaded, diminish the number of
seductions by increasing the responsibility thereto attaching, and
would as a necessary consequence decrease the amount, not only of
prostitution but also of ILLEGITIMACY and INFANTICIDE. With this
object, I demand that the funds of the Foundling Hospital, producing as they now do an annual revenue of the present value of
£11,000, and an assured income within the present century (according to the Charity Commissioners) of
£40,000 a year, shall for the
future be applied more in accordance with the intention of the
founder than they are at present.
I could hardly have avoided, had I wished to do so, alluding to
the kindred subjects of ILLEGITIMACY, BABY-FARMING, and INFANTICIDE, following as they do, with prostitution, in the wake of seduction. It seems to me that all these forms of evil, germane to and
dependent on each other, should be the subjects of legislation, and I
have gladly availed myself of the opportunity of pointing out the
direction which that legislation should in my opinion take. It seems
to me that the mischiefs attendant on SEDUCTION, PROSTITUTION, and ILLEGITIMACY,
require careful and comprehensive handling. These
evils are all to a certain extent preventable, and the agency to which
any one of them is amenable is capable of dealing with all the rest. I
propose the formation of a GOVERNMENT BOARD, to which might
be intrusted the working of the amended bastardy laws and the
Contagious Diseases Act, the care of illegitimate children, and
the amelioration of fallen women. By this means the various evil
consequences of seduction would be subjected to that methodical
and organized action which it seems to me essential to provide, if
we desire to deal effectually with evils too vast and too difficult for
private enterprise. To the preventive measures advocated in the
following pages I apprehend little hostility, as it is agreed on all
hands that the temptations to adopting a life of prostitution should
be removed as far as possible; but when I insist upon the duty of REGULATION and
AMELIORATION, I find that my more timid friends
fall away from me, and accuse me of countenancing sin, and of
encouraging people in immorality by making the consequences of
their evil ways less painful and degrading. I repudiate this unjust
accusation as a cruel calumny, and am sure that no impartial reader,
after examining my proposals, and the reasons by which I support
them, will consider it to be well founded. It seems to me vain to shut
our eyes to the fact that prostitution must always exist. Regret it as
we may, we cannot but admit that a woman if so disposed may make
profit of her own person, and that the State has no right to prevent
her. It has a right, however, in my opinion, to insist that she shall
not, in trafficking with her person, become a medium of communicating disease, and that, as she has given herself up to an occupation
dangerous to herself and others, she must, in her own interest and
that of the community, submit to supervision. My proposals go to
this extent, and no further - viz., to make the evil that we cannot
repress as little injurious as possible. I desire to protect both society
at large, and the individual, from the permanent injury at present
inflicted by a highly contagious and virulent disorder. I desire also to
heal the sick prostitute, and to cleanse her moral nature. The State
must moreover set its face against anyone, man or woman, making a
profit of another's prostitution. I may here observe that it unhappily
appears necessary to extend toleration to persons who keep accommodation-houses; otherwise hotels, coffee-houses, and other places
of public resort will become debased.
If, in spite of all the precaution that can be taken, the woman
becomes a prostitute, our next object should be to attempt to
ameliorate her condition, so as to enable her to pass through this
stage of her existence with as little permanent injury to herself and
as little mischief to society as possible. This is the more important
because I prove that the great mass of prostitutes in this country are
in course of time absorbed into the so-called respectable classes, and
I maintain that in proportion as they are assisted or neglected during
their evil days will they assume the characters of wives and mothers
with a greater or less degree of unsoundness in their bodies and
pollution in their minds. Notwithstanding the incalculable importance of working such reformation as may be possible in these unhappy women, no adequate effort in this direction has ever yet been
made, and it is a lamentable fact that while the penitentiaries and
asylums on the one hand effect but little good, and are at once
expensive and useless, on the other the present hospital system is
inadequate to the task of coping with the diseases incidental to
prostitution.
To give access to and control over the woman whose amelioration
we desire to accomplish, it seems to me absolutely necessary that the
Contagious Diseases Act should be extended to the civil population,
for by means of its machinery alone can we discover and detain till
cured the women afflicted with syphilitic diseases, and in no other
way that has occurred to me can the supervision necessary for enabling us to work a gradual improvement in their lives be obtained.
In our efforts to ameliorate the prostitute, we must doubtless tolerate
much that we would willingly discountenance, but of two evils we
must choose the least.
In the consideration as to the advisability of extending the above-
mentioned Act, the expenditure that must be thereby incurred,
though not a primary [element], is undoubtedly an important [one].
I have entered fully into the necessary calculations, and I believe
that the figures which I have placed before my readers will convince
them that the expenditure will be moderate, when weighed with the
benefits obtained.
The reader who is a conscientious parent must perforce support
me; for, were the sanitary measures I advocate once in operation,
with what diminished anxiety would he not contemplate the progress
of his boys from infancy to manhood? The statesman and the political economist are mine already, for are not armies and navies invalidated - is not labour enfeebled - is not even population deteriorated
by the evils against which I propose we should contend? The sympathies of all who can look kindly upon the sick, the sorry, and the
fallen, must gain new impulse from the study of the facts, figures,
and deductions, possibly new to them, which I have here marshalled
for their use.
William Acton, Prostitution, Considered in its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects, 2nd edition 1870
The attitude assumed by the law towards prostitution may be
briefly stated as follows:
It requires the police to repress flagrant acts of indecency and disorder in the streets and places of public resort;
It restrains the opening of theatres and places of amusement or
refreshment without a licence, which must be applied for annually,
and is continued only during good behaviour, thereby making it the
interest of managers and proprietors to discountenance gross disorders, and to maintain so far as possible the outward forms of
decorum in their establishments;
It prohibits the opening of refreshment houses during certain
hours of the night, a prohibition imposed, notwithstanding the
hardship thereby inflicted on some classes of workmen, for the purpose of putting an end, if possible, to the shameless debauchery
nightly exhibited in the Haymarket and its environs;
It encourages the prosecution of keepers of brothels and other
disorderly houses;
But it ignores the existence of prostitution as a system, exerting
its authority in those cases only which, by open contempt for order
and decency, obtrude into notice and demand repression. Men and
women are, in fact, left in this matter to their own consciences; and
so long as they respect public decency, their private conduct passes
unchallenged, while the different parishes are left to decide for themselves whether or not they will permit known prostitutes to find
shelter within their borders. How far this state of the law is wise and
right will form the subject of consideration in a future chapter.
William Acton, Prostitution, Considered
in its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects, 2nd edition 1870
I have now accomplished my task, but
before taking leave of the reader I would press most earnestly upon his mind and
conscience the duty of reflecting seriously on the subject to which in these
pages I have called attention. We have in the midst of us a great and fearful
evil, whose existence is acknowledged and deplored by all, while to the
consideration how best we may deal with it, all seem to give the go-by with one
consent. I ask, is this right? If I am told that it is a matter that must be
left to itself to work its own cure, that as the world grows older it grows
wiser, and that the progress of education makes virtue more loved, vice more
detested, I ask, is this really so? Does anyone in his heart of hearts believe
it? Does the course of passing events lend credit to the hope? Is society
growing more virtuous? is it not quite the reverse, and patent to everyone that
there is a change passing over it, and that not in the right direction? Lest I
should be considered a prejudiced witness, let me call on my behalf one of the
most popular journals of the day. In the Pall Mall Gazette for the 16th
of April, 1869, appeared the following remarkable commentary on the sights to be
witnessed daily in the very centre of fashionable life:
The Ladies' Mile. - Although up to this period of
the season the people who ride or drive in the Row have not been distracted by
any specially sensational ponies under the direction of anonymous ladies,
questionable broughams and horsebreakers have even thus early appeared in Hyde
Park in excess of the number with which the assemblage is usually enlivened. But
it is not so much of this circumstance, however, that we now write. In itself it
is bad enough, but it is difficult to see how such people could be kept out of
the Parks. There is a significance, however, in another social aspect of the
matter which is more important. Until very recently there was no such thing as a
demi-monde in London, using the term in its imperfect meaning, as understood
here. The wretched women went down rapidly from one stage to another without
being encouraged or systematized sufficiently to form a regular set - having
establishments and holding receptions such as distinguish a corresponding class
in Paris. But within a very brief period - not much more than a year, perhaps -
there has been a change among us. Previous to that time, indeed, moralists in
the press complained of the frank terms which young men of fashion held with
such women in places of public resort. This familiarity is now so much on the
increase (as anyone who watches what goes on in the Ladies' Mile can perceive)
that it calls for some remonstrance.
Formerly Aspasia and her associates were passed with a nod,
or only spoken to by men who were indifferent to notice because they were
themselves unknown, or, at any rate, if they recognized such women they were
cautious where it was done. At present the yellow chignoned denizens of St
John's-wood and Pimlico draw up their carriages or horses close to the rails,
and are chatted with as candidly as if they had come from some dovecot in the
country watched over by a virtuous mother. The audacity of these reunions is
unprecedented. A notion seems to prevail that the loose women of our own day are
undistinguishable from the women of virtue. The superstition is preposterous. In
the Park, at least, there is no difficulty in distinguishing the carriage that
anybody may pay for, or in guessing the occupation of the dashing equestrienne
[horsewoman] who salutes half a dozen men at once with her whip or with a wink,
and who sometimes varies the monotony of a safe seat by holding her hands behind
her back while gracefully swerving over to listen to the compliments of a
walking admirer. Of course the men who talk with these women of the highway are
perfectly aware of what they are about, and a London lady tempered in the
atmosphere of one or two seasons learns discretion enough not to ask relevant
questions when she meets in a ball-room the same gentleman she has observed tête-a
-tête with Aspasia in the Row: If things go on, however, as they seem likely
to, this sort of reserve will be tested with unusual severity in the months of
May and June.
The manner in which what again, for want of a more convenient
phrase, we must call the demi-monde class, has been freshly developed among us
is not unknown. There are certain perfumers' shops at the West-end notorious for
enterprises not immediately connected with bloom for the lips and glitter for
the eyes. It was from one of these establishments that a well-known photograph
and its original were, so to speak, floated. Here loungers turn in, and are
invited to balls, for which cards are given them. Thence spring intimacies of
which we say no more than that the acknowledgment of them should be suspended
before virtuous women in the Park. The ladies have a remedy in their hands which
they deliberately abandon when they pretend blindness to what is as obvious as
the Duke's statue at the Corner. And, of course, if they choose to encourage the
open and flagrant disrespect to which they are treated there is no help for
them.
I appeal with confidence to everyone acquainted with London
life, and ask if this statement is not strictly true? but in that case, what
becomes of the notion that the mischief, if left to itself, will work out its
own cure? I appeal to those who fear God, and reverence His laws, and who
therefore refuse to recognize, lest by so doing they should be supposed to
countenance, vice, and I ask them to consider whether this attitude of
indifference is not open to a construction far different to that which they
themselves would put upon it. May not those who follow evil courses say, 'We
know that our lives are obnoxious to censure, that the finger of scorn is
pointed at us, but the law will not touch us, and why? because it dare not; and
it dares not, because whatever good people may think or say to the contrary, our
sin, if sin indeed it be, is committed in obedience to natural laws; surely
nature's teaching is at least as good as that of religion.'
And so it comes to pass that men consider the sin as a thing
that everybody practises, though nobody talks much about it, until to abstain is
looked upon almost as a mark of want of manhood, and the natural consequence is
that what everybody does nobody feels ashamed to acknowledge participation in,
and if such is the state of public feeling, who can be surprised at the
condition of things to which attention is called by the article above quoted.
Now, I say the time has arrived when serious men should give to prostitution
serious thought. It can no longer be ignored. The evils attendant on it are too
great and too much on the increase. Evil agents are active and stirring, and
those whose lives are pure, who love their country and their fellow men, must
show an equal diligence. The field of inquiry may be repulsive, the problems
that meet us difficult of solution, and my fellow labourers must expect for a
season at least to have only their labour for their pains, and for their only
reward an approving conscience. But we may trust that the time is approaching
when the justice of our cause will be acknowledged. It cannot be that the people
of this country will for ever ignore the misery to be found in their midst. Nor
even to human ears can 'the crying of the poor and the sighing of the needy' for
ever appeal in vain.
It is absolutely impossible to exaggerate the suffering
entailed by a life of prostitution. Instead of the scorn so freely lavished on
the poor lost daughters of shame and misery, I plead for a little pity - nay,
far more than pity, I plead for justice. If unequal laws between man and woman
compel to a shameful and a hated trade the helpless and shuddering victim of
seduction, whose fall, though it has soiled and stained, has not utterly
polluted her, I charge those laws with cruelty, and I say further that her blood
is on the head of those who know the injustice of such laws yet will not help to
alter them. If human beings are left to herd together with indecent
indiscriminacy, because in this rich and luxurious city they can obtain no more
fitting shelter; if they are allowed to grow up from childhood to youth, and
from youth to adult years amid scenes of depravity and sin, I ask on whose
shoulders does the blame really rest; whether on the victim's, reared to a life
of infamy, or on society's, that leaves them to a fate so awful. If in this wide
world, teeming with abundant supplies for human want, to thousands of wretched
creatures no choice is open save between starvation and sin, may we not justly
say that there is something utterly wrong in the system that permits such things
to be? If the traffic in human flesh and female honour is not repressed by the
arm of the law, may we not justly accuse the law of falling far short of its
duty? And if all this be true, is there not abundant cause of prostitution that
is capable of removal? Is it too much to say that by amending the bastardy laws,
by improving the dwellings of the poor and keeping the young from haunts of
vice, by encouraging and promoting emigration, and resolutely putting down so
far as possible the great body of night-house keepers and brothel-keepers
throughout the country, the number of prostitutes will be greatly decreased?
Prostitution we cannot prevent, but we can mitigate the misery entailed by it,
and can do much, if we will, to prevent women becoming prostitutes. The evil
cannot be done away, but it may be lessened, and that to a very great extent. We
cannot do all we wish: is that a reason for doing nothing? Let us do what we
can. The mischief that must always exist will have more or less intensity
according as we regulate it, or leave it to itself. The women will become more
or less depraved, according as good and healing influences are brought to bear
upon, or withheld from them. The numbers who resort to a shameful trade will
lessen or increase according as the causes of prostitution are removed or
neglected. The neutral position has been fairly tried, but the nation is
certainly not improving. Let us assume a position at once more manly and more
humane. The evils to be overcome are too intense for individual effort to cope
with, but the good which scattered philanthropists, earnest and self- devoted
though they be, cannot achieve, is not beyond attainment if wise, discriminating
and concentrated power is enlisted in the cause. While men stood with folded
arms aghast at the evil which appeared of too long standing, and too stupendous
for human power to cope with, the filth of the Augean stables continued to
accumulate, but when resolute will, high intelligence, and manly courage took
the task in hand, and let loose upon the filthy stalls the cleansing waters, the
mischief was removed. Laugh not, neutral reader, at the old classic tale, mutato
nomine de te fabula narratur'.
William Acton, Prostitution, Considered
in its Moral, Social and Sanitary Aspects, 2nd edition 1870
They used, in the brave days of George Edwardes and Harry Hitchins, to say that the lounge at the back of the dress-circle of the Empire was the best informal club in the world; indeed, it was the Cosmopolitan Club of Empire.
It was like the terrasse of the Café de la Paix in Paris: if you sat
there often enough you would see pass everyone you wanted to meet, all your
acquaintances. Your so-called man-about-town dropped into the Empire after
dinner as a matter of course and very seldom did he trouble himself to take a
seat: he paid five shillings and could roam about: he roamed from one bar to
another, and from that to look for a moment over the rows in the dress-circle at
Adeline Genée or Katie Seymour. And so did the returned tea-planter, the soldier
home on leave, the seasoned undergraduate from Oxford and Cambridge, the racing
man, the voluptuary and the man who without being a sensualist still every now
and then was glad of the opportunity of temptation. And, naturally, there were
at least as many women to supply the presumed wants of these easy patrons. I
suppose these ladies paid to come in! I was never sure. Their usual fee was a
"fiver". If the poor girl wasn't successful in meeting an old pal or making a
new friend at the Empire, she would go on to the Continental in Lower Regent
Street, which stood where British Columbia House stands now; or if she was of a
slightly lower class she would go to the Globe in Coventry Street, a supper
restaurant long since swept away, or to "Jimmy's", of which I have already
written. The scenes at the moment of closing-time outside these various places
of resort would astonish people to-day, but they had the quality of being
picturesque. Manet might have painted one or other of the little groups - Manet
or Toulouse-Lautrec or Felicien Rops. Grant Richards, Memories of a Misspent Youth, 1932
Some ten years ago-so scant even then was the provision made for those who were longing to escape- a weary wanderer of the streets sat for twenty-four hours at the door of a certain refuge in London. In answer to her appeal, "For Christ's sake take me in!" she was told it was impossible, for means were wanting, and not a foot of room was to be had in the poor over-crowded place. She went away, and turning the corner of a dark and wretched street, her face covered with her hands, as if to exclude the sight of that to which she must descend, she cried in a voice, shrill with agony, "God! God! There is no door open to us but hell's." Are those who look coldly on efforts made to withdraw women from public abuse prepared to face the echo of that cry in the day when every whisper in corners and in dark places shall be proclaimed upon the house-top; when those passionate words shall prove not to have fallen merely on indifferent bystanders, but also to have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth?
It may be well to explain with clearness that the complaint uttered here of the wrong done to fallen women, from the earliest times till now, is not based on the assertions which are made, sometimes with exaggeration, that woman is most frequently the victim of seduction, betrayed, and abandoned. We are not at present considering the chief causes of her fall, nor is our imagination dwelling on pathetic tales of individual wrong, innumerable though such wrongs have been since the beginning of the world. Neither are we complaining of the fact that women whose profession is infamous are kept apart by society. That it should be so inevitable-is right; for to weaken this barrier, confound this class with the rest, would be to introduce into society an evil worse than that which at present exists. God forbid that we should wish or ask for these poor women that they should stand in the place of the pure while they remain what they are; that to any one of them it should ever be granted that without repentance, she should be accepted and indulged by society as a man who may be her equal in guilt is accepted-a doubtful privilege surely, an uncertain gain, for the avenger is non the less terrible for his delay, and there is no statute of limitations to bar the recovery of the debts of God.
Josephine Butler, Contemporary Review, 1870
full text available from The W T Stead Site