that if suppressed, or powerfully limited, seduction, rape, adultery, and other unnatural ways of satisfying the sexual desire should be indulged in. Admitting this last view of the necessity of its existence, the author draws from it a most damaging accusation against modern civilization for not having provided arrangements for the natural union of the sexes.

It must be admitted that the satisfaction of the sexual desire, as practised by prostitution, is unnatural in the highest degree; disgusting to the woman, who in most cases of prostituting herself feels no desire for a natural satisfaction of the sexual propensities, but must, moreover, have an aversion to go with a man whom she does not know, and who may, perhaps, infect her with the venereal disease, if she is not already infected with it. From the part of the man resorting to sexual intercourse with a prostitute the same apprehension of infection must exist, but is generally overcome by the irresistible power of the animal desire, seeking satisfaction in a most unnatural manner, under apprehension of infection, fear of subsequent ill-treatment, dread of robbery, assault, and murder, and other disgusting and alarming circumstances.

Looking, then, at the two factors of the production of this infamous practice-gain on the part of the woman, and irresistible longing for the satisfaction of the sexual instinct on the part of the man-the author enquires into the means by which woman can be put into a position where she shall not be able to receive, or be anxious to obtain, money or any valuables for lending herself to the embraces of man, and where the man shall have legitimate opportunities of soliciting sexual intercourse with women; for it must be admitted that coition is only natural, when it is desired and enjoyed by both sexes. Taking this view of the question, the social reformer even condemns as unnatural the exercise of a right that husbands assume, under the protection of matrimonial custom-to satisfy their sexual appetite by embracing their wives when the latter do not feel the least desire, or enjoyment in this kind of forced coition sanctioned by a supposed right acquired by the conclusion of matrimony, which the man can enforce, but not the woman, as she is entirely powerless to satisfy her sexual desires should the man not acquiesce in the act of coition.

* "Now all married pairs, with a very few exceptions, are living a state

то

CHAPTER III.-CELIBACY.

the shame of prostitution and tyrannical coition in the matrimonial bed, there must be added the still greater evil of celibacy, arising from the obstacles that the present social state puts in the way of the natural and legitimate union of the sexes. How many young maidens in all classes of society have to suffer inexpressible torments and pangs from the secret longing after the satisfaction of the most powerful of all the natural instincts implanted in man.* Overpowered at last, they yield to the imperative demands of nature, under conditions and situations which induce them to produce abortion and commit infanticide, mostly for the sake of hiding from the world a transgression to which, under proper social arrangements, no blame whatever should be attached. On the contrary, the social reformer can foresee a time when there will not remain the slightest reason for a woman to conceal her pregnancy, to conceal childbirth, or to destroy her offspring by murder. He can foresee the time when the pregnant woman will be treated with the greatest respect and courtesy, and when the period she passes in childbed will be used as a fit occasion for congratulations, kind visits, and suitable pre

of the most degrading prostitution, enforced upon them by the human laws of marriage."-ROBERT OWEN.

"However brutal a tyrant the wife may unfortunately be chained to-though she may know that he hates her, though it may be his daily pleasure to torture her, and though she may feel it impossible not to loathe him he can claim from her and enforce the lowest degradation of a human being, that of being made the instrument of an animal function contrary to her inclinations."-JOHN STUART MILL.

* Louis Blanc, in "Organisation du Travail," relates a most touching account of the feelings of Cælina Annette Brown, when unmarried, and a young worker at St. Maur; and gives the description of her sufferings in her own words, as follows :-"When I was young, I worked at St. Maur; and on fine evenings I rambled alone into the fields, towards the voûte St. Maur, to a charming place where I was surrounded by verdure and flowers. There, often have I wept at my own fancies. In my solitude, I loved a supernatural being whom I knew not, whom I saw not; but to whom I spoke, in whose presence I believed, who slept by my side. Then I gathered flowers and scattered them around him, and I whispered, 'He is there, my faithful one!' Oh, yes! I loved well, I wept, I / was happy in my visions, and every day I renewed them."

sents, in consideration of the great pain the woman had to endure, and the danger she had to pass. How terrible is, on the other hand, the spectacle disclosed to our view by the fact that there is registered in England the annual number of 42,000 births of illegitimate children; and one shudders in thinking of the feelings of anguish the poor unmarried women undergo during the time of pregnancy, the attempts of concealment they make, and the means many of them prepare for the destruction of their offspring and their own lives,which at last, too often, culminate in tragedies of the most terrible kind, like the following infanticide and suicide, committed in the year 1856, at No. 5, Belinda Cottages, Canonbury Square, Islington, by Mary Ann Gerard, twenty-one years of age, who had for some short time been in the service of Mr. J. E. and Mrs. Williams, at the above-mentioned address, where not the slightest suspicion was excited that she was enceinte. One evening, according to her usual custom, she went upstairs to dress, but being a much longer time than was considered necessary, she was called by one of the family, who received her answer that she would be down presently. Not making her appearance, another messenger was sent up, and found the door fastened. The family became alarmed, and had the door forced open, when a frightful spectacle met the view. newly-born infant, of which she had recently been delivered, was found with its head nearly severed from the body, while the unfortunate mother lay extended in a pool of blood, and lifeless.

A

The following case of child exposure is both strange and painful; resulting in the death of the child, and putting the life of the mother into great peril. On the 1st October, 1873, a farmer's daughter, twenty-three years of age, was put under police surveillance at Truro. She lived with her family near Chakewater, and, unknown to her relatives, was on the eve of confinement when she left the house. Her state being suspected, protracted search for her was made, but without avail. Meanwhile, the girl went to the neighbouring plantation, and there gave birth to an infant, remaining in the wood all that day and next night alone, without food or drink; when she walked six miles to the house of an old nurse of her family, at Truro. There she was found; and on being interro

gated, admitted the facts, adding that the infant was stillborn, and would be found in the plantation, covered with leaves. The body was found, but, unhappily, at the coroner's inquest, the medical man declared, unhesitatingly, that it had lived independently, and had died from neglect and exposure. The night the girl was in the woods was cold and stormy, and that she survived was indeed marvellous.

The frequency of child murder in London is a well known fact. At an inquest held at the Coroner's Court, St. Pancras, on the body of an unknown female child, which was pronounced to have been wilfully murdered, the coroner said that there were three such cases every week throughout the year (or 156 annually). A juryman said the English were getting as bad as the Chinese, who murdered their children and threw the bodies into the roads.

Not less, and in many cases even more, intense is the feeling of shame the parents of the unhappy woman undergo when she is delivered of an illegitimate child. All these evils, all these feelings and apprehensions of approbrium and shame, the social reformer sees suddenly changed into joy and honour by a true and humanitarian organization of society. He also anticipates the time when, by a better regulation of sexual intercourse, a stop will be put to what is called unnatural offences.*

In leaving the subjects of prostitution, celibacy, abortion, concealment of childbirth, and infanticide, the author would remark, moreover, that, owing to a conventional shyness of most people to speak about sexual relations and functions, these important matters have been left without any serious investigation on the part of physiologists, lawyers, legislators, and even social reformers.

* During the three years 1859-60-61, no fewer than forty-one persons were, in England, sentenced to death for sodomy; but capital punishment being in every case commuted into penal servitude of long duration, none of these criminals were executed.

CHAPTER IV.-MATRIMONY.

"The law of servitude in marriage is a monstrous contradiction to all the principles of the modern world, and to all the experience through which those principles have been slowly and painfully worked out. Marriage is the only actual bondage known to our law. There remain no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house."-JOHN STUART MILL.

IT

will readily be admitted that the present state of restrictive union of the sexes under the matrimonial law is productive, not only of the most outrageous acts of ill-treatment husbands and wives inflict upon each other, but also that it is the frequent cause of murders and suicides, and that not rarely the innocent children of these unhappy matrimonial alliances are cruelly immolated in the destruction of a condition of life in which fury, rage, and despair, arising from an unnatural and forced union of the sexes, break their bonds by murder and suicide. Thus it comes that criminal statistics reveal the sad fact, that of all kinds of capital crimes wife murders are the most numerous. In the year ending the 29th September, 1872, out of the total number of fourteen capital sentences carried into execution, ten were for the murder by men of their wives and of women with whom they had cohabited. Of the whole number of twenty murders of which the perpetrators, being persons of the male sex, were convicted, twelve were crimes of the kind described. In nine of the cases the victims were married women. In only three of the cases does infidelity, or the suspicion of it, appear to have come into play. One of the murderers had fourteen children by the wife whom he destroyed on quarrelling with her about his dinner; and most of the offenders had passed the period of life in which strong passions are ordinarily looked for, their ages being respectively, 25, 42, 58, 60, 28, 43, 34, 50, 38, 31, 67, 39.

True it is that divorce may be obtained and that voluntary separation may take place; but, in the first case, cruelty must have been practised to a dangerous degree, and, in the second instance, the sad prospects of leaving children behind, of the difficulty or even impossibility of finding another home,* and

* On January 20th, 1875, Winifred Green, a middle-aged woman, was charged at Lambeth police-court with attempting to commit suicide by jumping into the Grand Surrey Canal. Police-constable 81 stated that a muff belonging to her was found near the canal, and tied to it was a