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and equality ; this , indeed , is true of nations ancient ana modern . Wealth and established power separated man from man ; kingdoms established , kings oppressed the nobility ; the 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 fury , by revolution baptised their wrongs in blood . The power of the people first established kingdoms and empires — the ruin of the people , bodily or morally , has ever preceded destruction- Each nation , past and present ,
offers its own peculiar history ; there may be parallels ; 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 Mature , and yet claim no credit for a supernatural power of prophecy . "Unity is strength ; there cannot be unity without sympathy . Millions , born into squalid misery , and leffc . neglected to their fate , cannot sympathise with rank or with wealth , however Worthy- —and the great , far removed from facts , have only an artificial sympathy with the wretched . Destruction is not from
without ; it is ever irom within . Let our legislators ponder this problem , let millionaires and Tory squires think over it , and to will further inform them , that no nation , ancient or modern , ever contained more of the seeds . joif destruction than Great Britain . Leave these to grow and expand , a man may safely predict the result . Trades linions ,: strikes , and turnouts are but shadows of the dark , cumulating thunder-clouds .
Monday Bight ' s debate was in many respects curious and instructive ; those who only read debates know little of the spirit of Parliainenfc—they aniss action and manner ' j they read words , and wonder at votes . The words of Lord Baltnerston look as earnest , as sincere , and as imposing , in print , as if spoken from a convinced mind and a full heart . The language of Lord Seymour on the occasion denotes no 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 noble lord must either be grossly ignorant or grossly malignant , " " Not a word of reply or defence . " He , " Lord Seymour , " had the greatest respect for Lord ShafbeBbury ; they had served on commissions and committees , and he respected , his goodness of heart and his zeal , though , at times , he disputed his judgment , &c . &c . " Again , "He , " Lord Seymour , "did not dispute the necessity there might be for a public Board of Health , < fce . < &c ., but it should not be this one . '' And then came the instances
of advice given by the General Board of Health to Government , —which advice had been refused . The noble lord did not , however , inform Parliament and the country that he , Lord Seymour , was , in fact , the person who had rendered the advice given of no avail . On taking office his first exclamation was , " I intend to stop the Board of Health ; there shall b © no more of their doings . " It mattered not to this man that commission after commission had inquired and reported that " 50 , 000 preventable deaths take place
each year in England alone . " It mattered not that it had been proved that " vast masses of the working-classes are crowded in our large towns and villages , in streets and lanes , unaewered , unpavocl , and unregulated — in courts and alleys reeking with abominations , damp , and dark at noonday , in which uo man can live out half Iub clays . " This is an order of things wot to be disturbed . Lord Slmfteabury who has sought out and seen tlxe terrible neglect , destitution , misery , and crime in which the people , through no iaulfc of their own , arc atoeped , and from which ho woul (
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There ia no learned man but will confess ho hnth much proAted by reading contraveraioa , his senses nwakonod , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him tp road , why should k not , nt least , he tolerable for his adversary to write . — -Mii , ton .
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THE DOMESTIC MOLOCH . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sin , —In common with all who really have at heart the eocial amelioration of our tallow-countrymen , I have greatly admired your moral courngo iu dealing with questions of a delicate and almost domeatie nature , and I cannot but think that ; the daily papers would do well to dovotoa portion of their columns to the investi gation of euch matters . It nmy , very possibly , be more agroeablo to saunter ' through the ample and vaxicd field of polities , and to pluy the statesman in tlio editorial chair ; but there am topica of not lees importance , and of more immediate interest , to bo mot with in the common walks of life . Of those nono more nearly affects the present
generation , 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 vain , 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 ideas . " If we would save the slumbering maiden 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 spado a spade , and you will offend none but those whose vices you bay patent to the eye of day .
I cannot recognise auytliiag but monstrous evil ia 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 be 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 am inclined to -think that foreign governments act more wisely than our own . I cannot see ¦ wh y the vices of evildoers should not be made to > pay for their indulgence . What more appropriate fund could there be for the establishment and support of Magdalen asylums than a direct tax upon those for whose benefit they are instituted ? 3 \ Tor 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 with thepolice regulations that prevail in iPrance 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 . IT .
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( To the Editor of the Leader . * ) Sir , —In commenting ontlie case of Marmaysce , and in other articles relating to the same subject , you have justly shown the absurdity of considering that such matters should be hushed up , 6 uch cases 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 bo called to the unbounded existence of that vice in the navy . A youngster enters the service at the age of twelve or thirteen , eithor fresh from a private school , where he lias learned blasphemy and indeceucj-, filthy stories and filthier rhymes enough to stock a warehouse , or he comes from home -with no knowlodge of the world , believing that vice is confined to lying and stealing ; perhaps as ignorant of the irnport of the sevonth commandment as young Loyola . When this youth joins a ship , hi 6 fond and anxious father bringing him on board , he is placed under the especial charge of some mate or senior midshipman , who _ at onco oommencoa to " squeeze the mi He out of him . " He is made an adept in premature profligacy ere ho has been a week in one of her Majesty ' s ships or vessels of war . This scone from life will doubtless show what evils a youngster may expect .
Fancy an old mate on shore in Plymouth or Portsmouth with a youth in his keeping . They go into a very decent house , roniarlcably clean and neat , find some most agreeable young women inside , whom the ? youngster finds much more colloquial and kind thnn cousins Jane and Agnes , and take so » mo glaeses of gin with thoin . An elderly lnd } ' is one of the party * more respectable than Mrs . Gamp , but quite a ukh thcrly personage . She draws the mate asido and gives him a card . ¦> " This is my card , sir . I am about to open a young ladies' seminary in n few weeks , and shall be happy if you will call , and bring your young Iriond with you I !!"
I may lenvo the readers to gnoss tho sequel of this interesting conversation . Lives shortened , diBeaecs multiplied , und handed down to posterity with tho blood of their ancestors , aro these the sole evils that spring from " the Domestic MolocU" your pupor is denounced for alluding to ? Moreover , a youth who endeavours to retain some sense of honour and decency , is perpetually sneered at , and aubjocted to far more bullying than that of which Lieutenant , 1 ' erry complains . When any senior midshipman prouMteos to act as a father to n youngster , tUo only way in which ho rodcums his pledge is by endeavouring to become a grandfather into tho bargain . Yours , &c , Lath a . Miuur .
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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 peoplo . " 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 Health- — to 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 184 i 8 . The press , from one end of the kingdom to the other , hailed the new birth ; Ministers took 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 see 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 , openl y * 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 in 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 tho shaky Coalition ia compelled , by the influence of some great family , to provide a good place and ostentatious opportunity for fussy feebleness . JEdile .
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734 , THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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C * -N THIS DKI'ARTMKNr , A 3 A 1 . 1 . OPINIONS , IIOWKVEK XXTKRMK , Alllfl AM . OWKO AN l ' . XlMlliSSION , TUB 1 CUITOK J 4 UOBSSAIII 1 . X' H 0 U > H H 1 MSKI . If ltUSPOHSIUI . lt l'Olt NOMC . J
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 5, 1854, page 734, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2050/page/14/
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