Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-06-09
AN g ASTOUNDING MATTER"
The Excitement i'm England Over
the COntagiOus-Diseas Act.

the COntagiOus-Disens Act.
London Cor. New York Times.l
This discussion of the contagious-dis
eases act is approaching crisis. 1t i,
an astounding matter altogether. II
England was ever a squeamish country
she has got bravely overit. Think, if you
can, Of large public meetings being held
in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bir-
mingham, Leeds, etc., of mixed au-
diences, addressed by both men and wo-
men, going into the whole subject OF
these acts, with all its disgusting details.
AT a large meeting in the Town Hall of
Birmingham, few nights ago, where
women formed large part of the assem-
bly,, speeches were made by Methodist
clergymen, the mostindeeent have ever
seen in print, and the papers declare that
they were much worse than thus re-
ported. One of them-that of Rev. Dr.
Rule-was so outrageous that Rev. Ar
thur O'Neil, Baptist minister publicly
rebuked him, saying that if he had
known the sort of speeches which would
be made to mixed audience he you'd
have protested against holding such a
meeting.
at was" he said, "a wrong and shame
full thing that subjects such as those men
toned that evening should have been
brought before a mixed assembly; and
he doubted very much whether the priests
and monks, about whom DIR. Rule had
talked so much, ever said anything worse
than that gentleman had done. He re-
minded the reverend gentleman, by the
way that poor, misruled Ireland was the
freest from those moral impurities which
afflicted England.
And the Mayor of Birmingham pre-
sided at this meeting, and one of the AL
dermen introduced the first resolution |
But the opposition to the law and It's eK-
tension is very violent. The mob, in
cited, it must be said, by women who |
ought to know what they are about, and /
who are encouraged in turn by such phil
osophers as Mr. J. s. Mill and Professor
Francis Newman, seems determined that
nothing shall be done to purify tbs ooHn
try from one of its most deadly evils
at least that it shall not be done in the
way recommended by the elite of the
medical profession and the clergy, and
adopted, after full investigation, by the
vote of both Houses of Par
lament. Ia the meantime the associa-
ton for promoting the extension Of the
the act Of 1866 to the civil population of
the United Kingdom has Just issued its
third report, a pamphlet of ninety pages, {
in which the Objections urged against
he act seem to be triumphsltly an 1
iwered, This association consists Of ;
men of the highest position, professional /
ind social, in all parts Of the United I
Kingdom. Memorials in favor Of the q
of the act, from clergy aud Z
atty, and persons Of the highest emf '
renee and attainments, have been sent 5
0 the Legislature. The letter Of Miss a
jarrett, which. the committee says, for Z
lcid expression and comprehensive ar c
ument leaves little 90 DC desired" has
cen very widely circulated. p
"We believe" says the report, that 4
he time viii come when We shall look
ack With aatonishment at the legislation n
this country, which, almost alone G
mOng civilized nations, 70 long per X
lifted dire disease, affecting inn0osHt =
ersons and children yet unborn, 10 rage O.
nchecked through the land, and which II
Iade no efforts to resogs degradedpor- "
on Of our population, more Eilned
rainsi than SHINING, from the conse- Of
iences Of a career destructive alike to re
,dy and soul h'
And the facts presented IN this report tn
e really very terrible Forty-three per th
mt. Of the total Out-patients Of Guys 70
ospital are affeted With these diseases &c
T twenty thousand patients yearly sa
saied at the Royal Ophthalmie Hospi M
.f-fr-- ..r H.....