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would not diminish its atrocity, nor allow ourselves, even in the cause of humanity, to draw it in seductive characters, and make its hideousness radiant with false beauty; we would only calmly ask for justice, for a clear insight into causes, for the reception of truth, however unwelcome, and the abandonment of error, however timehallowed. We know that if the true cause of evil were investigated, and its proper place assigned to each influence, much that we now abhor would be pitied, while condemned.

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“Thus much of commiseration we can feel for many of the unfortunate women in London-convinced that in not a few cases it has been the sad pressure of want, joined to neglect and ignorance, that has driven them to sin; and we are satisfied that many of them may be easily reclaimed, if we have but heart to undertake the duty of their improvement. Society has too long veiled her face from her offending children. Their very existence she ignores as far as she can; their virtues she denies; their needs she does not see; to their excuses she is deaf; of their reclamation sceptical. Once to fall is ever to be prostrate; and one stain is an eternal cerecloth of shame. This is peculiarly the case with woman. One false step condemns her for life; and mercy may be extended to all classes of criminals sooner than to the frail trembling Magdalen, whose friendless condition, and whose poverty and distress have made her the reluctant victim of the wicked and depraved. Most earnestly we would advocate the reclamation of these poor outcasts, knowing well that in their vice and degradation lie dregs of bitterness of mortal agony of soul-never dreamt of by the virtuous; and that their shame is a torture to themselves, far beyond any physical pain the flesh could bear. We will give a few extracts from the experience of our correspondent, which bear us out in our remarks, and prove that these poor women suffer not less than they sin, and that they need the warm heart of pity, rather than the cold hand of justice to bring them back to that life which rejected them before they rejected it.

"No one knows the temptations of us poor girls in want. Gentlefolks can never understand it. If I had been born a lady, it wouldn't have been very hard to have acted like one. To be poor and to be honest, especially with young girls, is the hardest struggle of all. There isn't one in a thousand can get the better of it. I am ready to say again, that it was want, and nothing more, that made me transgress. If I had been better paid, I would have done better.

Young as I am, my life is a curse to me.' These were the words of a young expectant mother, for whom the coming tie of nature would be but an additional expense-no joy, no pride, no solace. ‘My child will only increase my burdens, and if my young man won't support my child, I must go on the streets altogether.' This was a young tinman with whom she went to live because she 'struggled very hard to keep herself chaste, but found that she couldn't get food and clothing for herself and her mother.' Another, a hardworking sober widow, says that she could not get a rag to wear without flying to shame for it: My wages will barely find me in food. I know that the low prices that are paid by the slopsellers make women and girls prostitutes. I can answer for myself and many besides me; and had I been better paid, been merely able to live by my labour, I should have been still an honest and virtuous woman. For three or four years after my husband's death, I struggled on, and kept true to his memory; but at last all my clothes were gone, and I was obliged to transgress.'

"The last extracts we shall give are from the evidence of a poor girl, who, says our correspondent, told her tale with her face hidden in her hands, and sobbing so loud that it was with difficulty I could catch her words.' She was the daughter of an Independent minister, and the general esteem in which she was held was exceedingly high. ‘I had a child, and it used to cry for food. So, as I could not get a living for him and myself out of my needle, I went into the streets, and made out a living that way. Sometimes there was no work for me, and then I was forced to depend entirely on the streets for my food. On my soul, I went to the streets solely to get a living for myself and child. If I had been able to get it otherwise, I would not have done so. It was the low price paid for labour that drove me to prostitution. I often struggled against it, and have many times taken my child into the streets to beg, rather than I would bring shame upon myself and it any longer. I have made pincushions and fancy articles-such as I could manage to scrape together and taken them into the streets to sell, that I might get an honest living, but I couldn't. Sometimes I should be out all night in the rain and sell nothing at all, me and my baby together. One night, in the depth of winter, his legs froze to my side. We sat down on the step of a door. I was trying to make my way to the workhouse, but was so weak I couldn't get on any further. The

snow was over my shoes. It had been snowing all day, and I and my boy out in it. We hadn't tasted any food since the morning before. All this time I was struggling to give up prostitution. I got to the workhouse that night. I told them we were starving, but they refused to admit us without an order, so I went back to prostitution again for another month.'

"Has society the right to brand with shame these poor wretches, to whom it left but this one mode of escape from starvation? Could we expect the woman's pride of virtue to be stronger than the mother's heart? Most earnestly we hope that these details of deepest misery will not fall on barren ground, when they sink into the hearts of our virtuous women. These have a duty in life, hitherto left unperformed, or so badly performed as to be almost useless. Magdalen Societies, Houses of Refuge, Sanctuaries, where these poor creatures can flee for repentance, for virtue, and for life, are what are wanted; places where society shall repair its neglect, not act the part of judge, condemning those offences which its own negligence has occasioned. Let us look at vice honestly, and see if we ourselves have not been to blame, and if the first cause does not lie nearer to us, and farther from the offender, than her own innate depravity. Let us lift up our poor sisters from the dust where they lie, and place them where they may be warmed by affection, and reclaimed by love; and where they may have an opportunity of redeeming the errors of the past, and preparing themselves for a happier world than they have found the present. Charity to the criminal will never sully the virtuous; our chastest matrons will shine only so much the more brightly, as angels of a gospel of peace, if they stand bravely and lovingly between the prostitute and her shame, and recall to virtue, by love, the erring but suffering soul. The highest example given to us has set us this lesson to learn; and most truly shall we deserve the name of Christians, when we follow most diligently the life of CHRIST in its mercy, its charity, and its forgiving reception of the sinner and the outcast."

We fear most lay themselves open to the application of that censure which Milton applies to the fair sex:—

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The question recurs-What is to be done with our criminals? This, one of the most important questions of the present day, has been discussed by Mr. Pearson, in a pamphlet which commends itself in no light terms to legislative notice, and is receiving an extensive and useful circulation. On this theme we have been wise behind-time. We trust, now and for ever the ticket-of-leave movement will be annihilated. It is passing strange, that the selfsupporting, and economical, and health-improving system has not received earlier attention. Mr. Pearson grapples with the subject in a lucid, concise, economical, and practical manner. Away with the sedentary, rotatory, and recreative relaxations, and other temporary expedients for the debris of our isle!

How much more effective will be the manly, self-sustaining system now developed. Mr. P. would turn all the labour of the criminal to a profitable account; and society has a right to compel them to employ all their confiscated time to defray the charges incident to their position: at the same time, justice would be done to the rate-payer: and instead of working in an artificial atmosphere, by out-door labour the physical, moral, and social stamina would be materially improved. Mr. Pearson truly observes-"As I denounce idleness, so I disclaim compulsory slave labour, as an instrument of prison discipline or reformatory punishment. I would make, it is true, bodily labour a condition precedent to bodily enjoyment. Labour should be made to feed the appetite, or the appetite should be made to enforce the labour. In nine cases out of ten (Mr. P. truly remarks) the irregular indulgence of appetite will be found either the proximate

or remote cause of both the commission of crime, and the suffering of punishment, amongst our prison population. Appetite has been to the criminal outside of prison both a tempter and a traitor: within the walls, it should be made his teacher or his tormentor. The criminal should be practically taught to balance accounts between the organ of appetite and the organ of labour: the right hand of industry, long neglected and despised by the idle criminal, will then be taken into his confidence, as the only friend that can save him in the hour of his distress. Hard fare and a hard bed should be the zero enjoyments of the idle criminal who refuses to work, and requires to be fed at the expense of honest industry.

The views here enunciated commend themselves to the judgment of all true patriots, philosophers, and philanthropists, being in antagonism to the soul-subduing solitude, and enervating crushing circularities of the old plan, deteriorating alike the physical, moral, and mental powers. Let it be said "I see looming through the chasms and rents made in the feudal order by civil war, the giant image of a free people."

It was wisely said by the Duke of Wellington,"Take heed how you educate; without religious training you will only make clever devils." It may serve to point a moral and adorn a tale, here to name that Hannibal's army fell less by the arms of Scipio, than by the wines of Capua; and the inebriate Hero of Macedon, after slaying his friend Clytus, and burning the palace of Persepolis, expired at last of intoxication in his 33rd year. The only fountain in the wilderness of life, where

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