The Sun.
London, England, 1821-11-02 00:00:00

GUARDIAN SOCIETY.

Yecterday the fifth Annual Meeting of the
•
GUAR lAN SOCIETY for the preservation of the
Public Morals was held at the Egyptian Hall,
Mansion-house) the Right Hon. the Lotto MAYOR
in the Chair.

Mr. JAMES read the following, which was the
fifth Report of the Meeting :

The fteport stated that the Society was insti-
tuted in 1812, for two objects;: of which one was
to discover the best means of diminishing the
number of those wretched fem'ales who frequent
the public streets of the metropolis, and the other
to afford with promptitude refire and relief to
such of them as were entirely destitute, and ap-
peared to need only a temporary asylum to pros-
mote their reformation. After stating the assist-
ance which the Society had received from the
Lord Mayor, Magistracy,- and CorVoration of
London,
.and also the measures which it" had
taken to give efficacy to that assistance, the R'ei
port added, that the Society, finding itself un-
able to put down the evil which it sought to era-
dicate, applied to the Legislature for relief ; and
that in consequence of such application, the Com-
mittee appointed by the House of Commons to
inquire into the state of the Police, instituted an
examination into the nature of the evil complained
of. The result of that examination was to establish
the following facts :—That the evil exists to a
most distressing and alarming extent ; that houses
of the worst possible description are established
in various parts of the. metropolis, daring and de-
fying all attempts to put them down ; that their
agents and instruments are incessantly at work,
disguised in various ways, labouring with the ut-
most ingenuity of wickedness to ensnare the ig-
norant and unwary ; that the streets of the me-
tropolis are thronged day and night with females
who are in intimate union with thieves of all sorts,
and are associated with depraved characters of
every description ; that of these unhappy creatures
the average .age is from 18 to 22 ; and that the
,period during which their life of wretchedness
and sin continues (owing to irregular hours, ex-
posure to the weather, and frequent. intoxication,)
is generally not more, than from two to three
years. Lastly, it was.established, that the law,
as it at present stand, is wholly unequal to the
punishment. of the guilty, or the protection of the
innocent ; to remove the evil, or to check its
growth. The report; likewise affirmed that
though all this haa been substantiated four yi.ars
ago before a ComMittee of the House of Com-
mons, nothing bad since been either done. or at-
tempted to remedy the deficiencies of the existing
laws, or to diminish the evil against which they pro-
fess to be directed; and then proceeded to point out
the melancholy consequences which were likely
to result from this inefficient state of the law,
not only to the unfortunate females themselves,
but also to Society at large, for which it referred
to the proceedings of our criminal courts, and
the mournful events that frequently follow them.
It'then added, that where, from the strength of
natural corruption, and the inadequacy of human
law, little could be comparatively effected in the
way of prevention, it was the duty of both.
.sexes to do every thing in their power to heal.
the wounds which sin had opened. To encourage
the Members of the Association to continue iii the
course,they had already begun to pursue, the report
stated, what had , been the benefits derived from
it during the last year. From this statement it'
appeared .that there had been Under the care of
the Society in that time 127 females ; of whom'
46 we.:e in the house when thelast Report was
made: since which period eighty-one had been
admitted to the Asylum : of these, twelve had
been provided for in service ; 20 had .been
stored to their friends; two had been sent to
the parishes to which they belonged ; one had
died ; 40 had been discharged or had withdrawn ;
and 52 remained under: the care of the Society=
making a total of females received into the asy-
lum, since the formation.of the Society, of 653.
Of whom 165 had been placed in service ; 158
bad been restored to their friends ; 34 had been
sent to' their respective parishes ; 8 had (lied ;
236 had been discharged or had withdrawn ; and
52 'were now under the care of the Society. The
Report (heti acknowledged the .kind assistance
of the Mercers' Company, in the donation of 501.,
and of the Clothworkers' Company, in a donation
of 30/. ; and stated the income of the Society dor-
int,' the past year to have been 1,0531. 16s. 7d.,
and the 'disbursements 1,3601. Os. 1-1(.1.--The
RePort concluded. with a paragraph to the fol-
lowing effect .

" It is painful to be obliged thus tamake known, that there
has been tmexcess in the Society's expenditure beyond its in-
come in the past year; and had it not been for the persevering
kindness and liberality of their treasurer, the asylum could
not have been continued on its presen-i scale. A debt of grati-
udi. they are willing to owe and to acknowledge : it is due from
them and from the public : but they are exceedingly anxious
thm.t an effint should be made to discharge another debt of a
pecuniary nature. This, indeed, cannot wiih any propriety be
allowed to continue; and yet without the increased support of
the public, to whose kindness they already owe so much, the
Committee have no means of extinguishing it, but by the ex-
clusion of those who seek a refuge in the as-yluM as their only
way of escape from the path of. the destroyer."

The Rev. D. ltotict.,rosesto move that the Re-
port be received and agreed to. He spoke in the
highest tein-o:pf the excellence of this inslitur
tion, and pointed out-the great moral advanta-
ges which must ficow from the diffusion. of its re-
formatory principtes. He alltided' to the various
opportunities which his-,situation as Chaplain for
the. County of Middlesevafforded hint of seeing
the-numerous practical advantages which flowed
from asylums for the unfortunate : without them,

he asked, how was the discharged criminal to be
prevented from relapsing into his former habits
of vice and lidlenesS,? He had known a variety
of instances in which those who had erred in the
path of life, eagerly sought the benefit of re-
establishing their character, through the means
afforded. by the timely protection of a humane
and charitable asylum.
The Rev. THOMAS MORTIMER seconded the
motion for adopting the Report, and called upon
the Meeting to contribute with their sympathy
for the great objects•of the Society, the equally
necessary-pecuniary means for giving their good.
intentions effect. He regretted' that his. awn
means limited his' aid at pre.s.ent to one guinea,
which he laid on the table.

The Rev. J. MonntsoN declared his cordial
concurrence in the objects of this Society, which
he deemed of the greatest utility, -and entitled.
to the support of every Christian wto valued the
divine precepts of • the Founder of their holy
' -

The Rev. J. CAIWYDC.Lx. ,vas to bea-r
his best- testimony 'to the good- practical effect
which attended the progress of the • labours of
this Society. When he •was Some years ago exa-
mined before a Committee of the House of
Commons upon education,: he Was particularly
interrogated upon two. points:—one' Was, the
supposed influence of education' upon the wretch..
ed poor in the vicinity of London, and' the other
the effect which he had observed education to
produce among savages. He was•not at the time
of his examination as competent to speak upon
the effect of education' among the savages as he
now felt himself, owing to the eXperience which
lie had acquired since that .period. He remem-
bered when in one of his journeys about 300
miles in the interior of Africa, he met the Chief
of a tribe of savages 'who eagerly. sought from
him the instruction which white men have ; that
was the way in which he made his request. He
Visited the town of this Chief on the following
morning, and saw the wretched state of the
place. Every thing lay exactly in the same state
as when Noah's flood left it.—(A laugh, and
cries of " hear.")--Not a spade appeared to
have penetrated the ground since that remote
time. The men and women had no covering but
a few black rags like sheep skins. None of the
males appeared ever to have been washed since
the time they were born. They were all igno-
rant even of the name of God ; -and the oldest
of them confessed he knew nothing more than
the beast. He immediately sent 'an instructor
among these poor people, and the most ample
success attended his labours. In ascending
the same country, after an absence of five
years, how great was the change which
.he
had the happiness of contemplating' His ex-
pectations had, -it was true; been raised high by
communications respecting the improvement which
had taken place by the labour and example of
one man, but what he saw greatly surpassed
all,that he had previously expected upon the oc-
casion. The people he met all knew him and
recognised him : they called his attention to for-
mer occurrences, or else he could. not have be-
lieved them to be the same people whO were so
lately immersed in savage life : .he found they
had encompassed their town with a strong and
substantial wall in imitation of brick; and abOut
two miles nnd a half in circumference. 'They
had erected two streets ; vegetatiOn of every
kind had grown up about them ;- and both males
and females were as neatly dressed in the Euro-
pean style; as the general class of sf.srvants in
England. The diSplay of the advantages of
industry in a practical manner, was, he
thought, the only way of civilizing savages;
to attempt to civilize barbarians by philosophy,
was like fighting Goliath with a feather. It was
because he thiAt;ht the Guardian Society went
the proper way to work moral reformation among
the idle and the dissolute, that he cordially ap-
proved of their principles, and had uniforstily
devoted to them his support.—(Applause.)
'Mr. STRATTON, in coming forward to propose
the next resolution, said, that he concurred in
the different eulogies which had been passed upon
the objects of this Association by the speakers
who had preceded him. He had heard the Re-
port which had been 'read to them with consi•
derable pleasure ; but it appeared 'to him that it
wanted one appendage which had been tacked
to their last Report—he meant a collection of
facts. Facts, which were upon all occasion's of
importance, were of more importance 'on occa-
sions like the present than upon any others, ,be-
Caitse they carried conviction along with them
More certainly 'than the most eloquent Speeches
or the most laboured arguments. The facts
which were contained in the Report of last
year proved beyond all doubt that this SOciety
Was entitled to the support of every Christian.
Charity was of two sOrts-4uinan end religious :
the former principally. exerted itself in healing
the diseases of the body ; the latter in healing
those of the soul. The charity'exerted by this
Society partook in its nature both of religious
and human charity, and therefnre was partiCu-
larly.deserving of the adOptiOn" of every Member
of the community who wished well to the inte-
rests of htiMinity. The Worthy Gentleman; after
calling on the Meeting to subscribe liberally to
the objects-of its proposed the thanks of the
Meeting to the Duke of StiSse.k and the Duchess
of Wellington, the Patron and Patronesi of the
SocietY. - •

The Rev. JABrz BUitTING seconded the reso-
lution, whichwas put from the Chair, and car-
ried unanimously.' Thanks were then given to
the Lord Mayor, who 'replied to them in a short
and eloquent speech.: after which the Meeting
dispersed.