our sympathy and charity would at once be raised to such a degree that we would immediately devise means for the speedy alleviation of the evil.

*

It cannot be denied that much charity is exercised in the relief of the poor, that an immense number of them are supported by poor-rates, in almshouses and hospitals; but the social reformer looks on all these remedies as being inefficient to grapple with the great amount of open and hidden poverty, and he is bold enough to assert that if the great number of poor now confined in workhouses and other charitable institutions were let loose upon society, and if their number were further increased by the number of those who bear poverty in silence and resignation at their own homes, their conjoint presence would probably multiply by tenfold the povertystricken aspect of the populations of our large towns, and bring most effectually into disrepute the vaunted civilization of our times.

Modern society hides its plague-spots, but the social reformer traces them to their hiding-places, and uncovers them in their hideousness. He lays open the social imperfections, and points out the vicissitudes that escape the observation of indifferent or prejudiced lookers-on. He sees in the haggard faces, in the emaciated frames, in the shrunk stature of the greater part of the lower classes of society, and especially of the population of large cities, a degenerate state of the human race, greatly resulting from the evils of poverty; and he becomes the more impatient for a radical change, as by the extinction of pauperism a sudden regeneration of the race would be effected. The hollow cheek, the pallid complexion, the flabby muscle, would soon disappear, and the aspect and look of the common people would again present a striking picture of health and strength.

* Mr. Fairlie Clark writes in Macmillan's Magazine :-" The number of free hospitals and dispensaries in the metropolis is just over 100, and the applicants who annually apply to them for relief cannot be estimated at less than 800,000; in all probability they are nearer 1,000,000. But these figures do not represent the total number of the sick poor. When the country is prosperous, it is surely very serious, if not alarming, to find so large a proportion of the lower class making no provision for themselves in anticipation of the time of sickness."

CHAPTER II.-PROSTITUTION.

IF poverty is for the most part a hidden sore of modern society, prostitution is decidedly its open cancer. Impudent prostitutes parade the streets of modern cities in thousands. They would, however, scarcely be recognized as such, were it not for their importunate solicitations; for in matter of dress they equal the best-dressed ladies of the middle and upper classes of society, and conform to the latest fashions. The ruin effected by prostitution is lamentable. The healthiest constitutions are in numberless cases undermined by the venereal disease propagated through prostitution; frequent and easy opportunities are by this vice offered to theft, robbery, and even murder in the haunts into which it allures its victims. But most appalling of all the evil consequences of prostitution is the moral degradation of the young and mostly beautiful persons who, for the sake of gain, and in order to avoid the hardships of honest labour, resort to this infamous trade, which, in a very short time, destroys their beauty, undermines their health by a loathsome disease, annihilates their power of conception, and in many cases only serves to enrich the keepers of brothels, or swell the profits of other traders † in human flesh, who entice innocent young women, and even girls under age, into the infamous dens of vice and crime, reared and supported by prostitution.

This great social evil is by some considered a vice that takes its origin in the general depravity of the human race; others describe it as a ready and easy means for the satisfaction of the sexual instinct, in case other legitimate means should not be procurable, especially on the part of men; and in this latter instance it has even in this country been regarded as a legitimate trade, or an evil that must be tolerated, for fear

* The late Bishop of Oxford estimated the number of prostitutes in London at 80,000; the magistrate Colquhoun at 50,000. These figures lead to the following curious inference. If each of only 20,000 prostitutes obtains but one customer per week, 1,000,000 cases of prostitution must take place in the course of the year.

+"St. John describes the spiritual Babylon as the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, and represents her ruin as lamentable, especially to the merchants, who traffic with her in many beautiful and desirable articles, but above all in 'souls of men.'"-JOHN RUSKIN.

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

Το

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 Caelina 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. A 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.

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