Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-09-19
LoNDoN's WORST GRIMES.

In the October number of the
" North American Review there is
printed an article on Inhuman
Crimes in England by Cardinal
Manning, relating especially to those
forms of wrong that have been ex-
posed by the Pail Mall Gazette.
After speaking of similar exposures
made by the commission of 1881 and
the failure of Parliament to pass the
bill intended to check the traffic in
young girls, he goes on to say that
"this heartless delay, full of fatal con
sequences, of decentralization and
wreck and ruin to the innocent, the
helpless of our people, justly arouses
the indignation of those to whom
justice and mercy are more dear than
the redistribution of seats or the dis
reimbursement for medical relief"
and prompted the action of the Pail
Mall Gazette. the substance of which
ais intrinsically just and mercif'ul."
"The incidental evils which may
arise,' he says, are of a lower
order, and depend upon the use or
abuse which individuals may make
of these terrible revelations"
Cardinal Manning refers to the
fact that in the United States and on
the European continent laws far more
stringent and adequate exist for
the punishment and repression OF
criminal vice, and adds:
By our present legal code girl can
not give her consent to marriage
before the age of q, but she is re-
garded as capable of conserving to
her own ruin at the age of IL years.
The man who marries her before 81
is punishable by law. The man who
ruins child of 13 escapes with i'm
purity. She may ruin herself at 10,
but can not marry, for defect OF con
sent, till q. Ifany one should know
that his dog or his cat were detained
in any house the police with all ex-
petition, could search for his proper
ty. But if he knew that bis child
were detained in the house neither
he nor the police could enter it. His
only remedy would be by writ of
habeas corpus, which could not be
obtained for many hours, and per
haps for days; but the ruin of his
child might be at any moment.
Once more | say, children of Is,
and all girls above that age, are
supposed to be free agents. and capa-
BILE Of consenting to their own ruin !;
thus he who ruins them for life es-
capes with impunity on the rule
F." Volenti non fit injmria."it has been,
therefore, solemnly argued by men
who have great legal reputation that
the abOmlnable and inhuman trade
of the procuress cannot be punishable
at law, because the end to which their
hideous traffic leads is not illegal.
Here we have another legal dictum:
The accomplices are not punishable,
because the principals are Within
the rights of their liberty.
The moral sense ofhis country has
been profoundly aroused. Our pub
lie newspapers in the provinces, with
out number, have written with great
ardor and indignation, and forty.one
public meetings in such places as
parts of London, Liverpool, Man.
chester and Sheffield have been held.
In thirteen days the immense pres
sure brought to bear upon the Gov
has compelled it to promise
that the Criminal Law Amendment
bill shall pass into the statute book
before Parliament is prorogued. If
it were to be defeated by any of the
means which have wasted the last
few years no one can foresee what
might he the popular excitement
and the Indignation in the country.
Most assuredly at the next general
election, when 100000 new voters
chiefly the fathers and sons of the
working classes, shall appear at
polling booths, all those who have OBJ
structed the bill to protect the chill
dren and the girls of this country
will meet with no liberation.