Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/71

Rh parentage. Then the devastating disease of licentiousness gradually disappears.

The first imperative duty of every community, therefore, is to say, with authoritative command, to the vicious adult, "Hands off our children," and to punish with the utmost severity any corruption of minors.

The obligation of a nation to protect inexperienced youth, necessarily ignorant of the far-reaching effects of individual action, has been widely recognized in past ages by the Common Law of all civilized countries. It is only the modern decline of Christian civilization which violates this dictum of Common Law. According to French and other Continental Common Law, no minor boy or girl, up to the age of twenty-one, can legally consent to his or her own corruption—i.e., the adult who debauches is held responsible, is subject to punishment, and can not plead the consent of the minor as a fact in justification.

Notwithstanding the efforts always made under the Female Regulation System, to evade the Common Law by municipal ordinance, the Common Law exists, and it is owing to its existence that some of the actors in the Brussels and Bordeaux infamies were condemned to punishment.

But in England, at this day, a child of thirteen years old can give legal consent to debauchery. The vicious adult can plead this consent, and escape punishment.