ABSTRACT
In treating of what is called the moral section of the Report, I shall touch upon some minor points before going to the great principle upon which our opposition to State regulation of vice rests. At page 24, the Majority say of the 504,607 examinations which have been performed under the Acts, 457,243 of which had ended in returning the women to the streets as fit and safe for intercourse with bad men.—“ It is to be borne in mind that the examination is conducted with a scrupulous decency.” I fail as completely to see how an examination, made for such purposes as the Acts contemplate, can be decent at all, as I fail to see how there can be an honest theft or a truthful lie. It is also to be remembered that this “scrupulous decency” is claimed for the examinations when the Majority had it in evidence before them which could not be overthrown, that one of the examining rooms was visible from the public footpath, and all that went on inside it could be seen by passers by. No doubt that shameful exhibition is now withdrawn from the public gaze, but it is none the less indecent and immoral when done “in darkness;” and its withdrawal is entirely owing to the attention drawn to it by an opponent of the Acts. It is one more repulsive feature hidden away because Abolitionists have pointed at it the finger of indignation; so the printed order, which was the women’s certificate, has disappeared; so the “warning-up” is disappearing; so the excesses and oppressions of the police have been reduced to perhaps their minimum; and so the former harsh treatment of the women by the doctors has been exchanged for apparent kindliness; but, although our action has saved the system from the offences which would probably have destroyed it amid the execrations of the people, we dare not desist from our work. Even a bad thing must be rightly destroyed.
