Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/22

12 Chairman of the Surrey County Sessions; Messrs. Arnold and Morgan, Superintendents in the London Police Force, etc., all men of exceptional experience. The following facts are proved by the testimony of these competent witnesses, viz.:

(1.) Coffee-houses and taverns are often used as brothels and assignation places, and registry offices as decoys. See numbers 886, 824, 858, report 1.

(2.) Even the very young are left practically defenceless. They are corrupted in infancy, and vast numbers of children are encouraged in vice by their parents for the sake of gain; 811-15, 579.

(3.) The streets are filled with vicious men and women, native and foreign, plying a vile trade, and tempting the innocent; 152-3, 732-75, 88-96, 915, 12.

(4.) The police are left without instructions, by their superiors, to arrest individuals when they find them actually engaged in the most demoralizing acts; 718, 652-4.

(5.) The magistrates seem often to be without sufficient power (or are not sufficiently stimulated by public opinion) to punish offenders when the offence is a sexual one; 224, 244.

(6.) Brothels are treated as inviolate, except in searching for unlicensed liquor; 230-31.

(7.) At Somerset House certificates of birth are given without hesitation and inquiry, even when it is