The Indianapolis journal., 1883-07-26

gard to sex, and where children often sleep
in the same room with the most depraved
adults, the temptations and opportunities
for an early violation of female virture are
necessarily very numerous If statistics
were forthcoming of the number who are
caioled or coerced into sin in this city before
they know what sin is, much less have the
strength TO resist it, a condition OF affairs
would be revealed which would not only
put our nineteenth century civilization to
the blush, but would make us wonder
whether, after all, England is 3 Christrian
nation. On this subject their lordships M ust
have felt very strongly, for the penalty for
an offense against one under twelve years OF
age is penal servitude for life, or tor not less
than five years. at the discretion of the
court with the indignity of whipping
thrown in for good measure. The bill does
not rest, however, in this stern effort to pro-
vide ironclad protection for those under
twelve. 1t throws also, a determined arm
of defense around those who occu-
py the dangerous ground between
to a girl of this class is to be
visited with a penalty similar to that pro-
vided for the procurer, nor is the fact that
consent may have been given to be consid-
cred in extenuation for the assumption of
the new law is that girls of that critical age
are not competent to decide in such mat
ter. Further provisions for the protection
of those under sixteen are that persons har-
boring them for improper objects are to be
held guilty of a misdemeanor, and that JUS
tices of the peace may grant warrants winch
will authorize police officers to search Sus-
pected houses and to enter such places, by
fair means or FOUL at any hour they may see
fit. The bill further contemplates the estab-
lishment of what it calls certified homes"
to which girls under the age in question, who
have no proper guardianship otherwise, are
to be sent by the magistrates for shelter and
possible reformation. These homes are to be
licensed by one of her Majesty's principal
Secretaries of State, and from the fact that
nothing is said as to any appropriation for
this purpose, the presumption is that they
will be kept by private charity. If girl
escapes from one of them, and is found by
the police, she is to be brought back at the
expense of the institution, and is to be kept
there the full period from the time when she
went away to the time when the consenting
age of sixteen would have been reached
Those conversant with the philanthropic inn
pules of the better classes in the great tiles
of England have no fear that there will be
any delay in providing houses of refuge, and
the only wonder is that the experiment was
not tried many years ago.
AN EXCELLENT PROVISION.
A wise provision of this bill is that it gives
magistrates the power to exclude from court
during the trial of these unpleasant cases all
persons except those Immediately interested.
In some features the new law is thought to
be deficient and no doubt when it comes up
in the Commons it will receive a considerable
overhauling. In the Lords, when the clause
making it an offense for women to loiter and
importune in public places was under debate
Lord Salisbury moved to amend by making
it an equal offense for men to do the same
The amendment was lost, but it is pity
something cannot be done to check the nuis-
ance at which it was aimed. Lord Shafts
bury's motion is said to be pet hobby with
many philanthropic ladies, and who can
blame them? By very prominent worker
in the rescue of the fallen the bill is criticised
for further shortcoming, in that it provides
no punishment for keepers of dlsreputabe
houses who harbor girls over the age of six
teen. Many between this age and twenty
one, the writer affirms, leave their homes for
the most trivial causes, frequently in fit of
anger consequent upon some trfling assertion
of parental authority, and but for the fact
that there are so many who will take them
in and provide the ready means for their
ruin, they would be back in a few days,
thoroughly penitent and still pure. Shall
nothing be done to save such as these? asks
this noble-hearted woman. Shall those who
make a trade of bligh ting these fair young
lives, and who gloat over their downfall, be
still left beyond the pale of law and with
none to make them afraid? The House of
Commons will no doubt consider these ques-
tions, and some have hope of a satisfactory
answer.
Anent this subject and the interest which
the better class Of women are taking in it,
one cannot help thinking that had virtuous
womanhood proper voice in the making of
the laws some much needed reforms might
ha off cd haft tho sstn
chised would not be deferred by any false
sense of delicacy from wrestling with this
monster evil is rendered certain fro nj what
was said at the woman suffrage meeting
held last week to give support to the motion
which was made in the House of Commons the
next night for giving women the parliamenta-
ry vote. That motion, by the way only lacked
sixteen votes OF being carried, an event which
may seem strange to American readers but
which, on explanation, will appear in diff
ferent light. Between the woman suffrage
movement in the United States and that be-
ing agtated in England there is wide dis
tinction There the vote is asked for all
women, here for only few. In this coun-
try only limited number OF the men have
the franchise. In counties those only can
vote for members of Parliament who are
either freehoderS or who pay rent to the
amount of $50 annually, which is large
sum here for those living ontside the large
towns. In boroughs all male householders
can vote who are rated for the reliet of the
poor, and lodgers, the rent of whose apart
ments amount to $50 a year, can do the same.
But the franchise is considerably limited
even in these great centers, for many do not
pay rates, and few dodgers can afford to pay
the stipulated sum tor rooms With so
many men debarred from this privilege it
would have been the sheerest folly to have
asked for the universal enfranchisement
of women. The most that could be expected
or reasonably demanded was that those
women should be invested with political
rights who possessed the qualifications re-
quired in male voters Such was the sub
stance of Mr.. Hugh Mason's motion, which,
a week ago. came so near prevailing. Its
modcsty bespoke its merit and helped it into
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