The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1885-10-01
London Vice.

Cardinal Manning, III the October
number of the North american Reuiew
sustains the charge of the Pail Mall
Gazette, about the infamous crimes Of
London. Speaking of the existing
law of England the Cardinal thus
shows how they encourage inhuman
crimes
"By our present legal code a girl
cannot give her consent to marriage
before the age OF q, but she is regard
ed as capable of consenting to her
own ruin at the age of 13 years. The
man who marries her before q is
punishable by law. The man who
ruins child at the age of Is escapes
with impunily. She may ruin her.
self at Is, but cannot marry, for de-
feet of consent, till 81. If any one
should know that his dog or cat were
detained in any house, the police,
with all expedition, could search for
his property. But if he knew that his
child were detained in the house,
neither he nor the police could enter
it. His only remedy would be by writ
of hGbedS corpus, which could not be
obtained for many hours, and herhaps
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 consenting to their own
ruin; thus he who ruins them for life
escapes with impunity, on the rule
'Volenf non fit inIuria.' 1t has been
therefore solumnly argued, by men
| who have great legal reputation, that
the abominable and inhuman trade of
the procurer and the procuress can.
not be punishable at law, because the
end to which theis hideous traffic is
directed is not Illegal Here we have
another legal dictum; the accompli.
ces are not punishable because the
principals are within the rights oi
their liberty"
After stating how ever effort to
amend these infamous laws was per.
sistently defeated "for five long years,
the Cardinal then refers to Mr.. Stead's
assault:
"This heartless delay, full of fatal
consequences of generalization and
wreck and ruin to the innocent, the
helpless Of our people, Justly aroused
the indignation Of these to whom jus
tice and mercy are more dear thar
the redistribution of seats or the dis
franchisement for medical relief
Prompted-I might say stung-by an
indignant impatience, the editor Of The
Pail Nall Gazette, and other like-mind
ed men, defying all antagonists, enter
ed upon their warfare against the do
minion Of cruelty and lust. have
said elsewhere, that many of those
who profoundly sympathize in tn,
motives which induced the Pail Nal
Gazette to take up the question nigh
have desired its modes and expires
sions to have been revised and chas
tened; but that in such matter 0
moral life and death. and above all
when the obloquy and calumny Of tn,
bad, and hasty and shortsighted cen
sures of some good men, were heape'
upon those who entered the furnace
to save souls, ! should hold it to b
not only ungenerous, but cowardl,
and cruel, not to stand between tn
handful OF men who, for the moral lif
of England, dared this courageous &C
ton, and the whole world Of their cen
sors. The substance OF this action
intrinsically just and merciful. TIL
incidental evils that may arise are G
, lower order, and depend upon th
, use or the abouse which individual
may make OF these terrible ievela
tions."