Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/83

Rh thus carefully considering—the Mother land, whose course of thought runs parallel with our own—has taken another step in the right direction. The animated debate in the House of Commons on the 20th of April, leading to the adoption, by an overwhelming majority, of a resolution clearly recognized as the first step toward the abolition of the Regulation Acts, is thought by many to plainly foreshadow their future fate; and the great moral and religious uprising, evinced by the multitude of petitions pouring in from the various religious bodies, from the laboring population, from societies of earnest men and women devoted to Moral Reform, show an intensity of feeling throughout the country which will probably render such measures impossible for the future.

The practical good sense, as well as the moral and religious feeling of England, is arraying itself against immoral legislation. What England casts out with indignation and contempt, America will never stoop to pick up.

Let us not be behindhand, then, in resolutely striving for the extinction of evil by the wiser method of united and vigilant repression, and careful guardianship of the young. Let us feel that we have individually and collectively a duty laid upon us, in regard to this matter. Every child in our midst will be to us a source of danger and disgrace if abandoned to evil, or a bulwark of safety and honor if rightly educated and protected as a wise government should protect the children upon whom its future welfare depends.