Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1885-08-08
THE PAIL MALL GAZETTE SUS-
TANNED.
IFrom the New York Sum-.

FROM the New lOIh quill
The commission instituted to review
the proof of the atrocious traffic in young
children carried on bv the purvevors
to patrician vice in London has finished
its Investigations, and pronounces the
statements of the Pail Mall Gazette
substantially true. 1t is we'll to
recall the character of the Commission
and the reason for its creation.
That the charges, if founded upon
facts, revealed a state OF things
demanding the most stringent legisIa-
ton could not be disputed, and accord
ingly the truth of the assertions was
persistently denied. The recent action
of the authorities in the case OF the
notorious Mrs. Jefferies had made it
evident that no government inquiry
would be ventured on, lest it should
unveil too much. In order, therefore,
to defeat the conspiracy of denial and
detraction which strove to break the
force of the Pail Mall disclosures, re-
course was made to arbitrator possess
ed of incontestable claims to the respect
and confidence of English-speaking
Christians. On this board of volunteer
inquisitors, perhaps the most imposing
and authoritative ever convoked in
England, the Established Church
was represented by the Archbishop of
Canterbury and the Bishop of London,
the Church of Rome by Cardinal Man
ming, and English non-comformists OF
all sects by Mr.. Samuel Morley, the
eminent reformer who has long been a
power in the House of Commons, and
who refused but yesterday a seat in the
House of Lords. By this Board, after
the revolving testimony had been closely
| scrutinized, the terrible indictment
launched against the British aristocracy
is in gravity and substance proclaimed
we'll founded.
Even before the verdict of the Com
mission was announced, b tide OF
public opinion in Great Britain had be-
gun to set with overwhelming force
toward the position taken by the Pail
| Mall Gazette, that the atrocious tribnte
levied by the opulent and titled on the
young children of the poor could be
done away with only by merciless ex-
posture. Notwithstanding the adhe-
renee of the great London newspapers
to their policy of u%nfriendly silence, the
feeling of the people was revealed not
only by the deluge of signed letters
GIlaU1LlIlO lEOLl liz SOuiluCSI aiiu Pui OoI
sections Of the English community, but
by the almost unanimous expressions OF
the provincial press. Here, again, as
at the crisis preceding the last general
election, the London journals have been
taught that they cannot warp the reason
and the conscience of the British nation.
In the extracts from newspapers pub
lished in the great centers of manufac-
turing industry and of Radical FREEDOM
nance, which are nov quoted daily in
the columns of the Gazette, we observe
that the writers never lose sight of the
decisive point, namely, that a ruthless
publication of the facts was absolutely
necessary to compel amendment to the
shameful law which permits a virgin
of thirteen to be outraged with impu-
nifty. 1t is net true that the Pail Mall
exposure was super1uous, because sim
liar evidence had been collected by the
house of lords commission three years
before. That evidence was withheld
from publication, and therefore the
criminal amendment bill was eve
passed. While nothing was known
nothing was done. 1t is not true that
the present government would, without
newspaper agitation, have carried
through the necessary reform. The
last session of this parliament was near
ly over, and MIR. .Cavendish Bentick
had just resorted successfully 10 the
same process of shelving an obnoxious
measure that had proved effective in
the two previous ears. Moreover, the
purport OF the bill betrayed Indifference,
if not ill-will, on the part of the gov
eminent, for its power of succor had
been seriously mutilated since it came
down from the lords. The age of legal
consent, at which a child may barter
her innocence and acquiesce in inexora-
BILE ruin, had been privily cut down
from sixteen to fifteen years.
But, thanks to the Pail Mall Gazette
and to the voices crying shame! which
i S disclosures have called forth from
The sound-hearted masses of the English
population, the Salisbury cabinet has
pledged itself not only to redress the
shocking defect Of the present law, but
to do this in a trenchant, uncompro-
missing way that will go far to stamp
out the enormities by which London
has been cursed.