Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/21

Rh with their innate love of liberty toward license. These opposite national characteristics, with their results in what may be termed the "let alone" and the "female regulation" systems are here instructively revealed.

The first method to be considered is that of "letting social vice alone" to run its course unchecked. This is the system employed in London.

No systematic and efficient action is taken to check public manifestations of licentiousness. The great Metropolis is not kept in decent order day and night. Solicitation by men and women is not treated as a nuisance in the public thoroughfares, but the streets are allowed to become the assembling places of vicious persons, openly plying a disgraceful trade. Brothels are allowed to flourish, the most abominable acts are left unpunished, and infancy and youth become the prey of every species of corruption.

The facts which reveal the condition of the Metropolis are furnished by unimpeachable witnesses. They are given by such men as Sir James Ingham, the Chief Magistrate of London, a Magistrate of thirty-one years' experience; Mr. Dunlap, Police Superintendent during fifteen years; Mr. Hardman,