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734 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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[ra Tina BitrAnxMitNT, as am. opinions, ...
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There is no learned man but will confess...
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THE DOMESTIC MOLOCH. (To Che Editor of t...
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(To Hie Editor of the Leader. ~ ) Sir,—-...
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Public Health. Pablia,Ment, In Its W...
and eq-tralirty '; ttaa , indeed , is tfae of nations ancient ana modern . Wealth , and established power separated man from man ; kiagcbms established , kings oppressed the nobility ; tlie nobility established , they oppressed the people ; and the people in turn , weakened or corrupted ,, either left their tyrants to the mercy of invaders , or , in strength and fttry , "by reroiiitioa baptised their wroags in blood . The power of the people first established kingdofias and empires — the ruin of the peoplev b & dily or morally , has ever preceded destruction . Eaeh nation , past and present
offer » its own peculiar history ; there may "be parallels j there are never identities ; no two peoples rose alike , or fell alike * nor ever will . Nevertheless , we may study the past to * understand the present , to predict the foture , and yet claim no credit fo-r a supernatural power of prophecy . TJnity is strength ; there cannot be unity -without sympathy . Millions , born into squalid misery , and leffe neglected to their fate , cannot sympathise with rank er with -wealth , however worthy—and the great ,, far removed from facts , feuver only an artificial sympathy with the wretcked .. Destruction is not from
without ; it is ever from within . Let our legislators ponder this , pi'oblem , let millionaires and Tory squires think over it , and we will farther inform them , that no nation , aneieiat or modern , ever contained more of the seeds of destruction than Great Britain .. Leave tliese to grow and expand , a man may safely predict the result .. Trades unions , strikes , and turn-outs are but shadows of the dark ^ cumulating thnnder-ckaids .
Monday night s debate was in many respeets curious and instructive ; those -who-only . read debates ltnow little of the spirit of Parliament—tliey miss action and manner ; they read wor ^ 3 > and wonder at votes . The words of liord Palmerston look as earnest ,, as sincere , and as imposing " , in priovt , as if spoken from as convinced mind and a full heart . The language of JLord Seymour on the occasion denotes ; mo particular feeling ; but those who saw his eye , and heard the cool tone of his
voice , will not easily forget the contrast , Lord Shaftesbury had said " the nob ] e lord must either be grossly ignorant or grossly malignant , " Not a word of reply or defence . " He , " Xord Seymour , " had the greatest respect for Lord Shaftesbury ; they had served on commis sions and committees , and he respected his goodness of heart and his . zeal , though , at times , lie disputed his judgment
& c . & c . Again , " He , " Lord Seymour ,. " did not dispute the necessity there might be- for a public Board of Health , & c . & c ., but it should not be this one . '' And then came the instances of advi « e given by the General Board of Health to G-overnnient , —which advice had been refused . The noble lord did not , however , inform Parliament and the country that he , Lord Seymour , Avaa , in fact , the person who had rendered the advice given of no
avail . On taking office his first exclamation was , "I intend to atop the Board of Health-j there stall be no move of their doings . " It mattered : not to this man that commission after commission had inquired and reported that u 50 , 000 preventive deaths take , place each year in England alone . " It mattered not that 16 liad been proved that " vast mosses of
the working-elasses are crowded in our large towns and villages , in streets and lanes , unsewered , unpavocl , and unregulated — in courts mid alloys reeking with abominations , damp , and . dark at noonday , in which no man can live out half hia days . " This is mi order of things not to be disturbed . Lord Shaftoabury wiio has sought out and soen tho terrible noglect , destituijjon , misery , and crime m which toho < people , through no fault of their own , are . steeped , and from which ho would
raise them , is " amiable , but in legislation is not safe to follow . " So have all shallow , proud , ignorant , and overbearing sceptics spoken , since the world began . Unfortunately ' , the neglect , the wretchedness , the misery and the crime , are facts no Lord Seymour -will remove . Gaols ,
policecourts , union-houses , and asylums , testify to crime , poverty , and misery . Our boasted morality may be contemplated any day or night , in our most fashionable streets and splendid gin-palaces . Strangers must say , " These English are a very moral people . " The future historian , if he writes truly , must detail a melancholy history : power—wealth
—neglect—wretchedness—misery—crime . The time has not arrived in which to write a history of the General Board of Healthto tell of its . friends and of its enemies— -of its aspirations and of its failures—to describe the benefits effected and the good hoped for ; as we write the battle rages over the fallen board—its enemies must , we presume , triumph—victory is sometimes fatal to the victorious—it may be-so in this case . Strange are the vicissitudes of this question . After a severe struggle against many enemies , the Public Health Act was established in the
year 1848 . The press , from one end of the kingdom to the other , hailed the new birth ; Ministers tools credit for it in Queen ' s speeches ; opposition seemed fairly to have vanished those who judged so have shown their- ignorance of men having interest to serve , and prejudices and passions to be gratified . These abided their time , and we se & the results . But let not the advocates
of sanitary measures despair ; let them avoid all trick , either out of Parliament or in it ; but let them speak from conviction in the light of day , openly , honestly , and fearlessly , and if men are worthy and ripe for improvement , no man , nor body of men , will stop it . The great truth all have to learn—promoters and opponents—is—truth , candour , honour , and honesty alone endure . The progress of a good measure cannot be hastened or served by improper means ; it cannot be suppressed by any means . There may have been too
much zeal m favour of sanitary measures ; there is undoubtedly enmity , for the time triumphant , ranged against . Let the people hope " there ' s a good time coming . " And let the people take care that this new Board of Health shall not be a mere job-department at the disposal of some ignorant and headless Lord Seymour , for whom the shaky Coalition is compelled , l ) y the influence of some great family , to provide a good place and ostentatious opportunity for fussy feebleness . - ZEdile .
734 The Leader. [Saturday,
734 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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There Is No Learned Man But Will Confess...
There is no learned man but will confess ho hath rrmch profited by ronding ; controvoraica , hia aensca RWftkonea , find hia judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to road , why should it not , at loasfc , botolorablofor hia adversary to write . —Mil / row .
The Domestic Moloch. (To Che Editor Of T...
THE DOMESTIC MOLOCH . ( To Che Editor of the Leader . ') Sir , —In common with nil who ronlly have at heart the social amelioration of our fellow-countrymen , I havo greatly admired y our moral courage in dealing with questions of a delicate and almost domestic nature , and I cannot bub think that tho diiily papers would do woll to dovoto a portion of tholr columns to tho investigation of such matters . It may , very possibly , be more ngreeablo to saunter through tho ample and varied Hold of politics , and to play the statesman in tho editorial chuir j but there am topics of not less importance , and of more immediate interest , to bo mot with in the common walks of life Of those none more nearly affects tho present
Kencration , and those that are to follow , than the one which you have taken in hand under the appropriate title of " the Domestic Moloch , " It is rain , it is positively wicked , to ignore the existence of an evil of such terrible magnitude merely because a remedy is hard to be found , or because it is indelicate to talk about it . Such nicety is altogether misplaced , and Swift has well said that " a nice man is a man of nasty ideafc" If -we would save the slumbering maidea from the flames that envelope her abode , we cannot stop to knock and ask admittance at her chamber door . So , prithee , good Mr . Editor , do not falter in well doing . Continue to call . a spade a spade , and you will offend none but those whose vices you lay patent to the eye of day .
I cannot recognise anything but monstrous evil in public brothels , however refined may be their outward appearance . With these the legislature should deal promptly and peremptorily . Every house of the kind ought to be at once put down . And for this purpose the police should be directed to enter such places , and to carry off all -whom they may find there , whether male or female : for this is a . worse vice even , than gambling . The publication in the papers of the names of all visitors would soon deter others from running the risk of being " gibbetted" in like manner , and a fine or imprisonment might toe added at the discretion of the magistrate . But whatever be the means adopted , there is no doubt of the practicability of putting down the nuisance in its worst and most dangerous form .
With regard to private prostitution , I ana inclined to tliink that foreign * governments act more wisely than our own . I cannot see "tirhy the vices of evildoers should not be made to pay for their indulgence . What more appropriate fund could there ie for the establishment and support of Magdalen , asylums than a direct tax upon those for whose benefit they are instituted ? Nor do I think it a trivial matter that some care should be directed to the greater health of the community ; and all who are acquainted wit ! the-police regulations that prevail in France and other foreign countries will "know to what I allude . But for the present :- ' I must not further encroach upon your limited space , except to express a hope that you will not remit your attacks upon " the Domestic Moloch . " J . H-
(To Hie Editor Of The Leader. ~ ) Sir,—-...
( To Hie Editor of the Leader . ~ ) Sir , — -In commenting on the case of Marmaysce , and in other articles relating to tho same subject , you have justly shown the absurdity of considering that ; such matters should be hushed up , such cas « s- excused as ' 'being , exceptional , and their details deemed " unfit for publication . " If cases of the kind are true , and not the invention of novelists , it is but right that they should be exposed , and that society and ; the world in general should not remain calm with a hidden pitfall beneath their feet . I would that the attention of parents could be called to the unbounded existence of that -vice in tho
nary . A youngster enters the service at the age of twelve or thirteen , either fresh from a private school ; where he has learned blasphemy and indecency , filthy stories and filthier rhymes enough to stock awarehouso , or he comes from homo with no knowledge of the world , believing that vice is confined to lying and stealing ; perhaps as ignorant of the import of the seventh commandment as young Loyola , Wl > en this youth joins a ship , hia fond and anxious father bringing him on board , ho is placed under the especial charge of some mate or senior midshipman , who at once commences to " squeeze tho milk out of him . " Ho is mado an adept in premature profligacy ero he has been a week in one of hex Majesty ' s ships or vessels of war . This scene froi » life will doubtless show what evils ducss wnat
a youngster may expect . uom snow evus a youngster may expect . Fancy ' an old mate on shore in Plymouth or Portsmouth' with a youth in his keeping . Tliey go into a very decent house , remarkably clean and neat , find some moat agreeablo young women inside , whom the youngster finds much more colloquial and kind than cousins Jane and Agnes , and take some glasses of gin with them . An elderly lady is one of the pmrty r more respectafilo than Mrsw Gump , but quite a motherly personjige . Sho draws tho mate aside and gives him a card . " This is my card , sir . I am about to open a young ladies' seminary in a few weeks , and Bhall be happy if you will call , and bring your young friend with youII !"
I may leave the readers to guess tho sequel of this interesting conversation . Lives shortened , diseases multiplied , ;\ ivX handed down to posterity with the blood of their ancestors , are those the solo evil 3 that spring from " t ! w > JDomeBtio Moloch" yowr papar i » denounced for alluding to ? Moreover , a youth who endeavours to rutuin some sonso of honour and decency , is porpotunlly sneered at , and subjected to far more bullying than that of which IJknUorvant Perry complains . When any senior midshipman promiues to act as a father to a youngster , the only way ir * which he rodeo ins hia pkdgo is by ondoixvouring to become n grandfather into tho bargain . Your » , & c , JLatw a . MiDi > r .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 5, 1854, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_05081854/page/14/
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