The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-19 00:00:00

THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES' ACT.

"Justina," in the Pall Mall Gazette takes excep-
tion to Miss Garrett's figures, as shewing that con-
tagious diseases are much less prevalent on the Con-
tinent, where legislative measures for the sanitary
control of prostitution are resorted to, than they aro
in England. The writer says even Mr. Acton, Miss
Garrett's authority, States that truth compels him to
avow that however much the virulence of disease
might be abated and the health of the Brus-
sels garrison improved within twenty years,
there is no marked improvement in the
general tone of morals - there. Speaking
of the legal recognition of prostitution, "Jus-
tina" says that it would be the strongest pos-
sible, -because a thoroughly practical, denial of
Christiar.ity. It would, she contends, be the
national despair of moral and social progress
expressed in an Act of Parliament. It wOutil
pronounce the inevitable and •continuous degra-
dation—generation after generation—of a largo
proportion of her sex. It would suffuse the dawn-
ing minds olthe youth of England with the accursed
doctrine that the sin in question is necessary for the •
preservation of their health. Further than this she
argues that • it would virtually sanction,
a 3 well 'as! facilitate, - the most unrestrained
indulgence of the passions divorced. from
the halowing influence cf affection. Finally, while
really increasing, instead of decreasing these physical
diseases, which are developed and diffused by pro-,
miscuous and unbridled indulgence, it wotdd, she
submits, stifle all aspirations after a higher state of
social existence, and would contaminate, corrupt,
and deaden the moral life of the .whole community.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN LONDON.

The anniversary festival of theßenel;lentSociety
of St. Patrick was held at Willis's Rooms, St.
James's. The Duke of Abercorn was in the chair,
and amongst others present were the Earl of Erne,
Lord Crichton, M.P., Lord Blayney, Lord Dunsany,
Lord Claud Hamilton, Lord Claud John Hamilton,
The Earl of Darnley, and the Earl of Bective. The
report showed that there were nearly 450 boys and
girls of Irish parentage receiving from the society
the advantages of a plain useful education, and
serviceable cothing, together with the midi-
Cone' comfort of a breakfast of bread
and milk on school days during the winter months.
After dinner the Duke of Abercorn proposed " Pro-
sperity to the Benevolent Society of St. Patrick."
He observed that there was one thing which he
thought invested this society with a peculiar charm.
It was this :—By its arrangements and regulations
it knew nothing of exclusiveness. Its charities were
given indiscriminately, without regard to sect or
denomination. It was to him a source of the
greatest satisfaction that even one neutral ground
like this was left to Irishmen on which they could.
unite and feel a common interest. On that ground,
in the consciousness of promoting a national object,
they could meet with the mutual satisfaction
of being partakers in a good work,

THE THORNCLIFFE RIOTERS.
True bills have been returned by the grand jury
at the York Assizes against the Thorncliffe rioters,
and the trial will commence this morning. Mr. Justice
Smith, in charging the jury, express3d pretty strongly
his idea of the nature of the offences committed by
the prisoners. Outrages of this kind, he said, wero
in open defiance of the law, and int3r-
fered very seriously with the welfarq, of the
nation and the whole framework of civil society.
No objects should be allowed to be harried out by
violence and clamour. The freedom of the subject
must be preserved by the Government. The wording
of the charges, throe in number, indicates a proba-
bility of the case going hard with those prisoners
who may be convicted ; and certainly the
fact of a fresh outrage having just been committed
on a non-unionist miner by fourteen men, will not
tend to turn public opinion in favour of men who cart
be guilty of such crimes.

Y ~r

ASSISTANCE TO EMIGRATION.

Mrs. Gladstone, the wife of the Premier, has
taken up a case of self-help on the part of a body of
men wishing to emigrate. Twenty-one Lana-,
beth workmen, who represent fifty people (men,
women, and children), in the midst of great
distress from the want of constant work, have
saved about £3 a head, and placed this in a fund for
emigration. ThV desire to emigrate at once, but
£2 a head, say £l2O, is needed, which Mrs. Gladstone
thinks will be immediately forthcoming when the
self-denying struggle of the men is made known.