Humanitarian Essays: Being Volume III. of "Cruelties of Civilization."

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HUMANITARIAN ESSAYS.

HUMANITAIIIAN LeAGUE's PUBLICATIONS.

HUMANITARIAN ESSAYS.

BElSGt VOLUME III. OF

^* CRUELTIES OF CIVILIZATION."

BY

MAURICE ADAMS. - ..c-

. J ^ -A a
>» « W ^

HYPATIA BRADLAUGH BONNER.

G. W. FOOTE.

HARRY ROBERTS.

JOSEPH COLLINSON.

HENRY S. SALT. -'^ V--^ ----

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•J ^ ^ «4 w ^ ^

^ J J ^ ^ J J

Edited by HEimT S. Salt.

^ •* 'J •* > "*, ,

^^.^<Jw ^ ^ 'd -^ -^

LONDON:

7ILLIAM REEVES, 185 FLEET STREET, B.C.;

A. & H. B. BONNER, TOOK'S COURT,
CHANCERY LANE, E.C.

1897.

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LONDON:
PBDmSD BT A. BONNEB, 1 & 2 TOOS'S OOTBT^
GHANOBBT LANS, B.C.

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*>»••!

CONTENTS.

I.—The Swbatino STfimoc. By ICamioe Adams.

II. — ^Thb Gallows Asm the Lash. Bj Hypatia Bradlaugh
Bonner.

m.— Thb Shadow op thb Swobd. By G. W. Foote.

lY. — ^PuBUO CoNTBOL OF HOSPITALS. By Harry Boberts.

v.— What it GoerEB to bb Vaooinatbd. By Joseph Collinson.

VI. — The HtncAiriTiBS op Diet. By Henry S. Salt.

VII.— LiTEBA Htthaniobbs: An Appeal to Teachers.

nw^c

The following eeBays are reprintfld from the Humani-
tarian League's pamphlets of tlie past three years, and
form the third and concluding volume of "Cruelties
of Civilisation." The first part of this aeries dealt
vritb certain social questions of immediate human
interest ; the second with those questions that more
closely affect the welfare of animals. In the present
-voliune toth kinds are included, but in such proportion
leave no ground for the complaint so often
Immght against humanitariana — that, while pleading
-the cause of the lower animals, they forget that of
-their fellow-men. It has from the first been the
Xicague's purpose to show that the cause of humanity
srywhere one and the same, and that it ia iniqui-
to inflict unnecessary suffering on any sentient

HUMANITARIAN ESSAYS.

it will be well to o^Berre hovr, in tbe course of tii&
official and other enquiries into the matter, the word hoa
graduaUj defined itself. One figure loomed large in the
popular imagination of the time — the "sweater" — who
by means ol hie "Bjetem" of 8iib -contracting wrung
wealth for himself from the toil of haggard wretches
working in indeecribably filthy " dene," for next to im-
poasibly long hours, barely keeping soul and body
together with the starvation wages they earned.

It was with some such picture in their minds that the
Board of Trade, in 1887, ordered their labour oorrea-
pondent, Mr. John Burnett, to enquire into " wliat is
known as the Sweating System at the East End of London,
eepecially in the taUoring trade." In his report to ths
Board he defined the system as "one under which the
flub -contractors undertake to do work in their own houses
or small workshops, and employ others to do it, making
a profit for themselyes by the difference between the
contract price and the wages they pay their assistants."
This system he found to prevail throughout the East TTnil,
" The smaller sweaters," he reported, " use part of their
dwelling accomodation, and in the vast majority of oases
work is carried on under conditions in the highest degree
filthy and unsanitary. In small rooms not more than
nine or ten feet square, heated by a coke fire for the
pressers, and at night lighted by fiaming jets of gas,
sis, eight, ten, and even a dozen workers may be
crowded." These workers have frequently to be in the
workshop at 6 a.m. to start working, or to await the
arrival of work, and in the busy season have to work
right on to midnight with five or ten minutes for dinner,
which, said a witness examined by the Lords' Oommittee,
"we have on the chair by the side where we ue

working." Tea or coffee supplied by the master is taken
cold because, as the same witness explained, " we cannot
allow ourselves time to drink warm coffee, because the
work does not earn the price, and we must earn so
much as to get a Hving for our families." For this
labour the average wage would vary from lOs. or lis. to
158. per week. Such is the "sweating system" as des-
cribed by Mr. Burnett, and in the voluminous " Eeport
and Evidence ol the Select Committee of the House of
Lords on the Sweating System in 1890."

That this system still 0ourishes the following well-
authenticated case will show. A firm of clerical tailors give
out much of their work to a contractor, paying hi-m from 2s.
to 33. 6d. a pair for trousers. These he has made by eight
women and two men, iu a room with a low ceiling and
very bad sanitary arrangements, over a public house, for
which he pays 8a. a week. There is a coke fire and
several gas jets in the room. The workers, other than the
machinist and presaer, earn about 8b. or 9b. a week,
working from 8 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m., with an hour for
dinner and "tea anyhow." On the labour of these people
the Bweat-er lives in comfort. The following extract from
the Daily News of July 24th, 1896, furnishes even more
conclusive evidence of the continued existence of as
complete a system of sweating as was revealed by the
reports of 1887 or 1890-91.

Judge Emden, sitting at I^ambeth County Court yesterday,
ofFered some strong remarkB upon the rate of remuneration of
tadloressea. Hia Honour had before him an action in which
• clatMng manufacturer sued a tailoresa to recover 19 kharkee
coata, which she was detaining. Flaintiif stated that he took
work from wholesale manufacturers, and was now engaged
-with a large order of special kharkee coats for export to South
Africa, The defendant was among those of his employees wb(

i

;toii-holeg

did work at home. She wa« entruBted irith 19 of these ooata
for the purpose of working in them by hand five button-holes
and sewing on four buttons. The rate of pay for thia ^
per coat, or 9d. per dozen.

Judge Em<ien (surprUed) : Ninepflnca per dozen, or et

Pin in tiff- Niuepenoe per dozen, and that is the usual mtC

Judge Bmden : How long does it take to do a coat ?

Defendant : It cannot be done under an hour.

Plaintiff, with some emphaaia, informed his honour that be

only got 4id. per coat for cutting, making, button-holing,

and preasing. He had to cut things " very fine" himself or he

lost on his jobs. Defendant, he added, accepted the work at

9d. per dozen, and in many oaaes he (plaintiff) waa without any

Judge Emden : I auppoae you will say next that no one
makes a profit.

Plaintiff: I don't but the oapitaliat doea. Proceeding,
plaintiff added that he turned out as many as 500 or GOO ooats

Judge Emden : I am sorry for the poor people who work foi
yon at the rate you mention. It is said, and said very truly,
that one half of the world does not know how the other half
lives. This case affords a shocking disclosure of how Una
woman — and she is only one of a cloas^has been paid for her
labonr.

Yet although the sub-contractor figures largely in the
popular imagination, and although there ia no doubt th&t
he often makes a good living out of the toil of others,
the enquiries proved — ae Mr, LaJceman, the well-known
factory inspector, told the Lords' Committee — that there is
sweating without sub -contracting and sub-contractiiig
without sweating. In many cases the contractor works as
hard and as long ae his hands, and gets little more than
they do — in fact is sweated himaelf — ^and on the other
hand some contractors pay decent wages to their employees
and only work them diiring factory Lours.

The evidence given before the Lords' (jommittee and the

:«"eaearcliea of Mr. Obas. Booth show that "sweating"

^^xtendB beyond the " Sweating System " and that many

Tz^eople working in their own homes on their own materialfl,

02* on those furnished them direct from the manufacturer

o:x- dealer, are sweated quite as badly as the occupants of any

' * s-^reater's den." This comes out quite clearly in the

^aa.'fcJietic case of Mrs. Isabella Killick, trouser finisher,

.0 was examined by the Lords' Committee, and which is

> out of several similar cases examined before the same

Crovsiunittee, and typical of many thousands of others. She

married woman whose husband had been a boiler

:er eamiug good wages, but who was then dying in an

BK».^3jKnaary.

* * 3 have three children to support, the eldest ten years of
t^^r the youngest three. I can't earn more than la. 2d. a day
l*"-^- 1 have to find my own materials, altogether I do not clear
1B> ^ day, not after finding my own trimmings, firing and all.
*^ ^trtj up at six in the morning and never done till eight at
^'-*Si^^, I have to go for my work and take it back again.
A-'^*<S'»at three months of the year work is slaok. I am then
K'-^iS to get anythiDg to do, cleoiung or washing. I oannot ba
'"*'*aout work as I have three little ones to support."

~S- take it from what you say," ahe was asked, " that you
l»ax»age to clear 1 s. a day by your work after providing yonr
i»B,teriala?"— ''After the things." "Then there is 2b. for
ittnt ? " — ■■ Tea," " And therefore all you have is 5a. reaUy a
'"'^k to hve upon? " — " Yea." '■ And out of that you have to
V^J firing and your living?" — "Tea, firing and light." "I
^ B. berring and a cup of tea, that ia the chief of my living
""th the rent to pay and three children eating very hearty.
Aa For meat, I do not expect I get meat 1
JUDO the."

)b this case there is no sweater grinding down his hands.
Tiie poor woman goes to the dealer herself, mahes her
Qirn contract (?), brings home her work, and gets all the

8

pay herself, and yet Uns is so small that long hours ci
work barely sustain life in herself and her childrefn.

The enquiry thus changed its character from an enquiiy
into the "Sweating System" to an enquiry into those
industries into which, or into some branches of whieh,
sweating enters largely ; sweating being delBned as labour
carried on for exeeBsively hng haurs^ for very law wag$9^ and
under insanitary eonditiana. Such trad^ were found to be
very numerous.

In the lower branches of the Tailoring-trades women
were found to be working in slop-shops from 8 a.nL to
10 or 11 p.m., for from a Is. to Is. 6d. a day. ^*The
yery lowest layer of the coat trade, that work done by
women and men at their own houses, really does not pay
the contractor to take it out," said Miss Potter. In
trouser- finishing women toil, as we have seen, for the
whole week for 4s. or 5s.

The Shirt-trade is another of the sweated industries.
Women are paid 2s. 6d. a dozen for malring shirts. They
-can with difficulty finish a dozen in a day and a half,
giving some 7s. 6d. or 8s. for a week of '' ceaseless tofl."
For "making " shirts with 7 button holesy f.^., for aU the
work except the machining, women are now reoeiving
^d. each, earning 3d. a day on an average.

Work is done in the Cabinet -making trade by maa
who buy their own materials, and put their own labour
into them, selling the finished article at the end of flie
week to the dealers for whatever they can get. These
men work '' all the hours that Gbd gives them," as one
of them phrased it, in small and imhealthy worksihopf^
and do not often earn more than from 15s. to 168. a week.

The hard conditions under which the Ohain-makers of
dradley Heath earn a mere subsistence, were widely

known in 1890, when vomen from the district came
give evidence before the Lords' Committee. They
the Noil-makers of Halesowen and the neighbourhood
are sweated to a degree which it eeeme impossible to
exceed. When women do heavier work than the ordinary
blacksmith for hours, which are liniit«d only by their
physical endurance, earning thereby Ih, a day or even
less — men earning but 3s,, when they work huge hammers
called "Olivera," which often require the combined
strength of a man and woman to move, and after all
their toil are defrauded in the weight of their product,
and the quality of the material suppUed them, it aeems
OS if the force of Bweating could no further go !

And yet in the matter of wages the women employed
in the Nottingham Hosiery-trades are worse off. They
can barely earn more than from 3s. to 3s. 6d. a week, bo
that they are often partly dependent upon parish relief,
and " even this wretched wage is often paid in goods from
the middleman's shop, juat as if the Truck Act had never
leen passed."

The earnings in the Lace-trade, in the same district,
&re said to be l^d. an hour or less.

Sweating also prevails in the Cutlery and File-Cutting
tradea of Sheffield, which are still in the stage of the
moll master and the domestic workshop.

Long hours are habitually worked in the Dressmaking-
trades, and these are always liable to be suddenly
lengithened by orders coming in to be executed at short
notice. " Weddings and funerals," writes Mies E. March
Phillips, " are made occasions for excessive hours. A
ooontry dressmaker excused the employment of young-

girlfl from 7 a.m. one day to B p.m. the next. 'Uiaa

was going to get married. What could I do ? '" When

:ame to ^^H
ley and ^^H

iurhood I

L

one remembers that these long hours are worked by
young gyria in close and ill-ventilated rooms, the air in
wMcli is rendered still more noxious by gas, one can
realise the damage to health which must ensue. " A few
days of high pressure will permanently injure a child's
health," we are told. In addition to this the wages paid
are often very low, beginners and "apprentices" getting
little or nothing, so that many girls are either partly
supported by their relatives, or supplement their wages
by prostitution.

Work in the Fur-trade is generally carried on in email
workahopa, sub -contracting of the worst kind prevails,
and wages are so low, that 48. a week represents a
common wage for women, and men rarely earn more
than I3e,

Even the recently developed Bityde -mannf acture is not
free from the taint of sweating. Girls employed in
tyre-making only get 8s. for working the usual factory
hours, so that it may take the whole year's work of one
of these women to earn the amount which the fashionable
lady spends on her bicycle.

In the Mantle -making, Stick and Umbrella -making.
Sack and Eope-making, Envelope-making, Ostrich -Feat her
making, in the Brush-making, Tinware -trade, and in a
number of other minor industries, sweating is rampant.
It is in such trades as these, where the work is mostly
t'arried on in houses or small workshops in which good
sanitary conditions do not exist, and where, whether under
middlemen or "sweaters" or without them, men and
women work for wearisome hours for a wage which is
insufficient to maintain them in health and strength, that
what is technically known as " sweating " is found. ^^H

11

Sweating in the Wider Sense.

But there are numbers of workers employed in the
transport and distributive industries who toil imder con-
ations which fulfil one or more of the requirements of
"** sweating." Paid well, they may work in '' dangerous
trades " or in unhealthy surroundings, or in healthy em-
ployments they may be overworked, or may receive exces-
sively low wages, or both abuses may be combined. In this
wider sense we may safely say that a very large proportion
of the workers in this and every other civilised coimtry are
sweated. Taking a 'bus to catch the last train from one
of the London termini a few nights ago, I asked the
conductor of Metropolitan Stag^ Carriage No. — whether
1 might expect the 'bus to keep its time? "Yes," he
Toplied, ''this is our last journey, and both the driver
and I are anxious to get home." In answer to further
onquiries, he went on to say : '' I g^t home about half-
past twelve, and if the missus has got anything warm to
oat I have a little supper, that is, if I am not too tired to
oat it, and then I get to bed, about one o'clock. I am
on the 'bus again at eight o'clock in the morning. Yes !
I feel tired now after standing all day, but I feel more
tired in the morning ; you see, six hours' sleep of a night
is not enough for a man. Does standing hurt me ? Well,
J am a strong man, except my throat is a bit delicate ;
l)ut some of our men get soft leg (varicose veins) through
standing, and then they sometimes make them time-
keepers; many men get paralysis, and that's far worse.
I get 35s. for a week of seven days, about 4d. an hour.
Sundays off? No, indeed! I work twenty-three days
out of every twenty-four."

Oases of overwork still occur among the great numbers

13

of men employeiJ as guards, engine -Jri vera and firemen,
and signalmen on the railways, and the work done by
freightmen and ehtmtera ie very trying and dangerous.
Though several inventions have been patented for
coupling trucks without danger to the men, aad even
for automatic coupling, the companies still prefer to maim,
and slaughter a large number of their employees every
year to incurring the espeuae of altoi-ing the arrangement
for coupling their trucks. They do not, apparently, even
consider the matter when ordering new trucks.

It is almost unnecessuiy to refer to the hard conditions,
of life and the overwork to the verge of exhaustion for
small pay which is the lot of the vast number of men who
work our mercantile marine. Continuous work during a,
voyage ie their recognised lot. It is a joke among sailora
that the fourth commandment is superseded for them by
one which runs,

** Six days thou shalt labDur

And do all that thou art able,

And the seventh thou ahalt holystone the decks

And clean the cable."
A vivid picture of the life of the firemen on board our
splendid ocean steamers is given in the following letter b
the Daily Chroniole, May 25th, 1896, entitled,

"THE MOLOCH OF OCEAN SPEED.

" Sir, — Having just stepped off a great liner, and haviiig;'
made some efforts during mj passage to find oat something <^
the conditions under which stokers live on hoard these floatiitg'
palsces. I have been much interested in the paragraph ol yonr
issue of April ITth on the abnormal nnmber of suiddes amcmg-
men of that class.

" My interest in the subject dates front a previouB voyaga,

when the chief engineer took me down to see the workings of

■ vessel. We stood as near an we could to the door of th»

la

f[iiiisce-room,beatenbaokb; the intolerable heat if weventiired i
from under the air funnel. Here in front of the row of- hugs
furnaces stood the firemen stripped, Hlmost naked, perspiration
streaming down their bbickeQed bodies, never <
work of opening and re-opening the fomaoe doors to shovel in
fresh supplies of coal and keep the fire raked up to a white
heat. Under these conditions the men worked four hours on
and foor off at stoking, but in addition to that had to remove
their own ashes which took another hour. This chief eng^eer
himself thooght their hours too long, and the food provided
for there very poor, and he did not think it any wonder that
onoe ashore tlieir instinct was to he still and drink whisky. Aa
a man of heart he pitied them, and said so, but what could he
do?

" Aboard the far larger liner I have just left, I had oonsider-
able talk with a fireman, who was in a state of weakneaa and
exhaustion brought about by the heat and strain. Of the
«ighty men who stoked this vessel, he believed every one
drank save himself, not only ashore but afloat, for though
ag^nst the rules, each smuggled whisky bottles in his satchel.

" No doubt many of these men are of a low type, and no
doubt many of them drink. Under the circumstances is this
^rliolly a matter of surprise ? No doubt the company like to
keep down expenses ; the passengers want extra speed, and in
the odmfort of the saloon they do not reaUae the suffering of
the whit*-faced, soot-b'Bckened men far down in the burning
heart of the ship. But three things at least might be done ;
the hours of work should be compulsorily shortened, even if
Hda involves the engagement of more hands ; the food provided
should be subject to inspection and a standard quality insisted
on : while lastly the prohibition of whisky on board should bo
made a reality."

Mr. Chas. Booth, in the last volume of the "Life and
Labour of the People in London," estimtites the number
of persona employed in the preparation of food and drink
in theMotropoUe as 138,000, of whom 27,000 are women.
Many of these are sweated to a terrible extent. Cases

14

are common of cooks working in underground kitchens of

restauxants for 14 hours a day for wages of not more than
Is. 6d. a day, or even less. The public were startled a
short time ago by the charges made in some of the evening
newspapers as to the conditions under which waitresses-
were employed in the shops of Messrs, Lyons and Co.,
and other refreshment contractors, and, strange to say,
a financial paper lately devoted a column a day for two or
three days to the sweating of waitresses and barmaida at
railway station bars and refreshment rooms. Perhaps,
however, the following case at the Shoreditch County
Court offers an example of the limits beyond which
it is physically impossible to impose long hours and
diiRcult to greatly reduce wages ;

" A waitress named Dynes sued a coffee-tavern proprietor
for a month's money for work done, and a mouth instead of
notice. Plaintiff said she was employed as waitress, at 13s. a
month. On November 6th last the defendant told her to
dear out, and did not pay her her wages.— The Judge : Why
were you dismiMedf — Plaintiff; Because I was not up in time
in the morning;, I could not be. I never got to bed before a
quarter to one, and I was expected to be up again at half-past
four in the morning. — The Judge: What time did you get down-
stairs? — The Plaintiff : Five o'clock. Mr. Moore (Coimsel for the
Defendant); Isn't it a fact you came down late ? — Pliintiff; At
five o'clock. — Judge French ; Do yon call that late P (Laughter),
—Plaintiff; Defendant then told me half-a-dozen times to
go, 80 I went. — Mr, Moore ; Did he not go up and tell you to
finish your sleep ? — The Judge : Was that meant ironically ?
(Laughter.) Eeally, Mr. Moore, could any girl of eighteen
get up at that time in the morning if she went to bed at a.
quarter to one, even with this very generous allowance of two
hours' rest in the afternoon? (Laughter,) She is a young
girl , and the hours are worse than sailors' watches on board a
ship, and they are strong and hearty men. (Applause in
court). Judge French said he believed the girra version of

what took place. He gave judgment for her with costs, and
allowed her 48. for her attendcuice that mormug,"

Although Shop AssifitaiitB are euppoaed to havo " light
work," yet the long hours they are compelled to stand
about day after day, the abseuce of time for exercise, aad
the short intervale for meals (which are often far from
apjietising), together with the overcrowded and ill-venti-
lated bedrooms in which many of them sleep, and the
inaamtary condition of many shops, tend to undermine
the health even of strong young men, and are especially
fatal to delicate women and girls. If we add to this that
the wages are frequently low and made lower by all kinds
of vexatious and excessive fines, and that in very many
shops there is constant " drive," we shall agree that the
Shop Assistant is only too frecLuently the victim of sweat-
ing. In the "Eeport of the Committee of the Shop
Hours Bill, 1886," we read; "Tour Committee being
satisfied that the hours of Shop Assistants range in many
places as high as from eighty -four to eighty-five per
week, are convinced that such long hours must be
generally injurious to health, and that the same amount
of buBinesB might be compressed into a shorter space of
time." In consequence of this report the Shop Hours
Regulation Act of 1886 was passed limiting the hours of
pereons under 18 employed in shops to 74 hours per week,
or an average of 12 hours 20 minutes per day ! It is now
the law that if three-fourths of the shop keepers in any
district desire to close early one day in the week the
principal authorities are obliged to enforce the closing of
all shops in the district. But as the larger towns are
divided into districts, instead of being treated as a whole,
the Act has been largely inoperative.

Whi

in tiie fiaro^^^l

itJOQ I

I

The Tictims of sweating are those who
struggle for existence which rages among the poorer claBses
are weaker or in some way in a less advantageous positjon
than others. This may arise from vai-ious eauBes, :
most among which we may reckon bodily weakness
ill health, ignorance, want of skill in work, abeenc
organisation among the workers, and, finally, sex.
short, the sweated will be the physically weak, the
skilled, and the unorganised workers, and as women ofti
combine all these qualifications, woman is, par exeeUenee,
the sweated one,

The general want of skill and organisati
female workers renders the competition between them
employment keener than that between men. The ff
weavers in the Lancashire cotton mills are almost the
women whose labor is as well organised as men's labour^
with the result that they receive the same wages as
men. It is, indeed, only recently that any attempt
been made to organise the unskilled female workers,
these attempts have met with but slight success. AnoHu
reason for the low wages paid to women is to be found
the fact that married women, partially supported by th<
husbands, and girls living at home, compete with o1
women who have t« support themaelvea entirely, and
competition often brings down the wages of the Ia(
almost to starvation point. Again, women are i
patient of bad treatment and of long hours of labour,
are more easily frightened by their employers than :
and thus they are the greatest sufferers from acts of pi
tyranny — unreasonable and excessive fines, etc.

What oait an IxiiiriDifAL do?
Everyone who hus contemplated the horrors of sweating,
and thought of the vast numbers of ita victims ; who has
realised the intensity of the auileringa endured by those
forming the baae of the industrial pyramid, who are
unable to pass on a portion of the social pressure to others
lower than themselves, but are forced to bear the whole of
ita crushing weight — must feel troubled by his share of
responsibility for these things, and must often hnve asked
himself, "What can I do to remedy these evils?" It
is Ifl be feared, indeed, that but little can be done by the
direct action of any individual, yet we are each of us
hound to do that Kttle. Everyone is to so
purchaser of the products of Isibour, and it has often been
argued that much might be done towards the abolition of
sweating if each well-to-do person was wiUing to pay a
fair price for a good article, and to deal only with such
tradesmen as treated their assistants with consideration.
Now with regard to the first of these assertions, whilst it
ia no doubt true that very "cheap" articles are largely
produced by sweated labour, this is not invariably the
case, and if it were, it by no means follows that by paying
a high price for a good article one can be sui'e of buying
goods which are not the products of sweating, as the
following case will show. In a certain West-end shop a
lady will be charged three guineas for a well-made blouse
of first-class materials costing the dealer 25s. 6d. (1 8s. for
tie material and 7s. 6d. for the labour). These blouses are
made by seventeen girls employed only during the season.
It is said that they come back regularly to the workroom
on the first day of the season, having supported themselves
daring the remainder of the year by prostitution

of theae girlB — they are all over eighteen years of (
earn ISs. a week or Bomewhat leaa, whilst the remaining
cue is paid lis.

Some good might, no doubt, be done if the public
would boycott restaurants and refreshment rooms where
the waitresses are notoriously overworked or underpaid,
and would patronise only such shopkeepers as treat their
assistants with some degree of consideration. But it is
difhcult to know who these are. Attempts have been
made to draw up a "white list" i)f the employers who jwy
their shop people well, and do not overwork them, but
little has as yet been done. The Christian Social Union
have, indeed, drawn up a list of bakers whom they can
recommend as "dealing fairly with their employees and
satisfying the conditions of the sanitary authorities," and
of clerical tailors who adhere to the arrangement as to
hours and wages agreed upon by the Association of Lon-
don Master Tailors and the Amalgamated Society of
Tailors. They also recommend Lockhart's, the Aerated
Bread Company, " Pearce and Plenty," and the British
Tea Table Company as coffee-houses in which the wait-
resses are never worked for more than eleven hours per
day, are not fined, have opportunitiea for sitting down,
and have other advantages over the waitresses in most
refreshment rooms, though the conditions under which
they work " leave room for much improvement." The
London Society of Compoaitora (7 and 9, 8t. Bride Street,
E.G.) publishes a list of "Fair Houses," There is room
for a good deal of useful work in this direction, and we
may hope to see more accomplished in the near future.
The Co-operative Institute Society, at the depot for co-
operative productions, 19, Southampton Eow, Holhom,
sell boots and shoes, hoaiery, shii-ts, dress goods aad

19

duna, and do tailoring on their own premises. By pur-
cliasing from them one may be sure that one is buying-
g^oods which have not been made by sweated labour and
that one is aiding the co-operative movement besides.

In investing money, again, one should choose such
oompanies as are said to treat their employees well, and
one should then use one's influence as a shareholder ta
secure this being done. Strikes for better pay and shorter
hours, such as those of the dockers and the great striko
against sweating in the boot and shoe trade, should be
aided by every social reformer. Anyone who employs
labour has, of course, greater possibilities of giving direct
aid in the abolition of sweating. He should see to it that
all in his employment work no longer than the legal
hours, are well paid, and work under sanitary conditions.
The Bishop of Bedford, when examined before tha
Sweating Commission, pointed out that if men of business
"were content with less returns and attended more directly
to the business themselves " they might effect a consider-
able change. The answer often given when attention ta
the sweating of their employees is, he added, " Oh I can-
not interfere with that department, that is Mr. Such-and-
Such's. Mr. Such-and-Such knows that though he may
be told to treat all that are employed fairly, it will go
hardly with him at the time of stocktaking if he does not
produce as good a balance as he had last time. And those
who in my judgment very sadly neglect their duty are,
many of them, those that we all honour as most philan-
thropic and charitable people. I would rather that their
earnings were a little less, and they had less to give away^
and 80 this evil was reduced."

Members of philanthropic and zoophilist societies should
use. their influence to prevent their society from employing-

30

Bwealed labour for their prmtiiig, derieal, and other wort.
This is frequently done 'by bugIl Bocieties in order to aave
money for their special work, and thus sweating is pro-
moted by the very people moat anxious to lessen aufEering
or remove oppression.

It does not appear that we can do much more by direet
action as individuals. We must look to collective and State
action to do the greater part of the work of mitigatii
and deetroying sweating.

;a^^^

CoLLEcrrvB Action of the Wobkers.

If the isolated action of the individual becomes more
inmgnificant as society grows more complex, the union of
individuals becomes increasingly possible, and the power of
such union greater. This being the case, ninn y have seen in
<MJ-op6ration of the workers the true remedy for sweating.
Much has undoubtedly been done by a portion of the
upper section of the working classes to better their
■condition by co-operation in distribution, and of late
years in production also, and the movement seems now
to be pri^essing at an accelerated speed. But the lowest
section of the workers, whom it is most imperative to
help, seem at present beyond the reach of its influence.
Ignorant, overworked, underfed, and often working in
isolation, it is almost impossible for them to effectively
■co-operate.

There is moi-e hope in the endeavours which have lately
been made to band the unskilled workers together in
Trade Unions. Tet many of the reasons which have
rendered Trade Unionism such a potent force among lie
skilled workmen are absent in this case. The earnings
of the unskilled are so small that great difficulty is
«xperieiiced in regularly contributing even the smallest

21

sum to the Union fund; their numbers are practicall7
unlimited, so that their places are easily filled if they
strike, and this fringe of unskilled labour is added to by
the very success of the skilled artisans since their Unions-
are necessarily confined to good workmen, and the less
competent men are added to the already swollen ranks of
the unemployed or the sweated. Yet in spite of such
enormous difficulties something has been gained by union
of unskilled labourers. The Union gives some additional
strength to the worker by the coUectiye bargain with
the master; it strengthens the individual in resisting
deductions, fibies, and other forms of petty tyranny, and
it helps to develop a feeling of solidarity among the
workers, and to keep their grievances before the public
. eye. It is to this publicity, and to the growth of a healthy
public opinion, that we must look to bring about the
adoption of the only means which is strong enough, and
far reaching enough, to give really effective aid to the
sweated dass — ^viz.. Legislation for the Protection of
Xiabour.

Economic Evolution,

One of the most potent forces which are making for the
elimination of sweating is the growing consolidation of
capital and the consequent tendency for work to be carried
on in large factories ; for large shops and warehouses to
supersede smaller ones; and for transportation to be under
the control of large companies — such as the L. and N. W.
Railway (employing an army of 60,000 men) and the
P. and 0. Steamship Company. . The growth of these
large concerns favours the abolition of sweating, because it
tends to abolish '^domestic workshops," the giving of
outwork and sub-contracting, and to eliminate the small

master, shopkeeper, and dealer who had not the measB to
carry on hi§ business in such a way as to secure prop^
■oonditions for his employees. In regard to "domeetie
workshops," Mr. Laienian said in 1894 : "I shall hold to
the opinion that these domestic workshops are great evils,
for ice cannot ^ply the late to them at w» ean to other
workih^a; thoy are occupied by persons of such varied
hahits, who are recipients of a icage from the employer which
would not he offered to a worker on hit premiua, that wages
-are kept down, the elevation which one looks for in a
London factory worker, hoth as to character and position,
is lost, and the factory laws, which ensure regularity, due
time for meals, and strict leaving off, so valuable to young
persons, are never before a domeHie worker." It is, of oonrse,
quite possible for sweating to go on in a large establish-
laent, especially in such trades as have not yet been
brought under the Factory Acts ; but the workers in such
■places have more opportunities of oi^anising themselves;
the business is carried on publicly and not in holes and
comers, it is much easier to bring the influence of public
opinion to bear on the employers, and, finally, the growth
of these lai^ concerns renders necessary the extension
of the Factory, Sanitary, and Truck Acts, and their more
efficient enforcement.

Legislaiiob for thb Pkotection of Laboub,
At the end of the last and the beginning of the present
century sweating was well nigh universal. The movement
for the liberation of the worker from Feudal restrictiona
.and outgrown forms of association had ended in throwing
hini helplessly into the power of the rapidly growing
-capitalist class, with the result that he became a slave in
«vcrything but the name. Long hours were toiled by

Tnen, women, and even little children, who often worked

""unleT the moat degrading conditions and in the most

b-on-ible and insanitary Hurroimdinga. " Freedom ol

Contract " waa not then interfered with, and laiun-faire

^as the motto of the Goveminent, excepting when the

"W'oi-feing classes ventured to meet and discuss their almost

^'^tolerable wrongs, or to combine to better their condition,

^'■lien they were mercilessly suppressed. But in 1802 the

^^*^t timid attempt waa made by the State io protect little

*^«ilclren from the horrible sufferings of overwork, and

rrom that time onward a series o£ Acts have been passed

**"■ the protection of women and children, and the regula-

**oii of hours of labour in factories and workshopa,

*^**iQiinating in Mr. Asquith'a Act of last year. By this

_ *** protection has been extended to young persons, and,

Seme degree, to women working in laundries where

°*^^^ting had formerly prevailed. Outwork has at last

^^O forbidden for children, and for any women and young

^^***nnB who are employed both before and after the dinner

_ **"**»•. Registration of wortshops has been made com-

J-Sory. More stringent regulations have been made as

^ftjutation, and henceforth 250 cubic feet of space (400

^"^^ag overtime) must be allowed for each worker, to

** ^"^ent overcrowding. What is now required is the

./^*'^iier extension and development of this legislation, and

^ ^luforcement of the Acts by an adequate staff of com-

*^»it inapectora with power to levy penalties for the

T"^^^^,ction of the law. Work taken home by women to be

^^^*^lied at night, after long hours of toil at the workshop

factory, has been one of the moat common and most

"^I>'»T«Baive forms of sweating. The following incident

'^^- show how a resolute enforcement of the Act would

"^^■^jeate this form of oppreeaion.

to ,

24

"In a London workshop ^me half-dozen girls were
employed in making certain articles of apparel. They were
paid on a piece-work scale, and constantly received a con-
siderable quantity of work to take home at night, which
they were to bring back finished in the morning.
The latest Factory Act has, since the beginning of
this year, declared that practice illegal, and the circum-
stances coming to the knowledge of the Women's In-
dustrial Council, the Factory Inspector was communicated
with. An inspector called on the employer and informed
him that the practice was illegal. The employer drew up
a statement for signature by each emp]ioyee, declaring that
the work was taken home to be done not by herself but by
her relatives. The Council again informed the inspector.
The inspector visited again, and arrived just as the girla
were going home at night with work. What the inspector
said to the employer on this occasion is of course unknown,
to the Council, but the practice of carrying home work
was stopped at once. The girls working now only the
legal hours found their wages much diminished, and went
to the employer to complain that they could no longer liv&
on what they earned. The employer raised their wagea
in a proportion that seems to be from 40 to 50 per cent.
He also engaged six new workers in order to get the work
done which had previously been done at home, and is-
enlarging his work -place to accommodate them."

The Eeforms Most Urgently Needed.

1. The employer should be made responsible for the*
condition of the places to which he sends his outwork,
and should be subject to a penalty if it is performed in
insanitary places or by sweated workpeople; or, better

^till, as was snggested to the Labour Commisaion by Mr.
■*-**slcip| the employer should be compelled "to find healthy
^^'^^ convenient workshops for all working at trades that
®^® <3.one indoore."

2- ^he landlord should be held responsible for the

*-*'^^-i.tion of any house or part of a house in which any

"*"****^as of manufacture is carried on. Miaa Potter (Mrs.

*<inejWebb), in her examination before the Committee

'^"Vveatjng', said that the landlord should be " responsible

eri-ving notice to the Factory Depaitment that such-and

manufacture is being carried on, and then he

^^***toes liable by that notice to certain penalties, sup-

^ ^iHg certain sanitary conditions are not carried out."

"*v-ould rather make him liable to the penalty," she

^ '*^<i, "than have the inspector come down and tell him

, "^^s ought to be put right and that ought to be put

^**-t, ' because he n9ver does it ; but if he ie liable to

l**»iialty hia rent collector takes pretty good care that

^^ _***-iiig is going on that is wrong." By these means it

,^^ ^lit be possible to secure that, if out-work continued, it

j^-^^^^ at least performed under tolerable conditions ; but

^ would undoubtedly tend to the abolition both of

^j_^ ^— Work and of the small workshop, and would hasten

^^ ^ growth of large factories, which could be dealt with in

"^^Xore satisfactory manner.
t-_^ ^^ . The passing of an Eight Hours Bill would do much
^^^^ **nder sweating unpossible, especially sweating in the
i .__ *~^er sense, in the lighter trades, and in the transport

*- Entries.
(^ ^*^ . But not only should eight hours be the legal
K^ ■J^'~', but overtime, unless in very exceptional

working
i, should
(j^.^_^ abolished, "iii. Lokeman insisted above all things
^-5>n the abolition of overtime. He told the Lords' Com-

26

mittee : "I would allow no overtime to be worked in the
kingdom by any trade it I had my way. If overtime were
done away with sudden demanda would need more hands
and larger factories and machinery; " and in hia lant
report before his retirement he reiterated the same opinion :
"As I said to the Lords' Committee, so I repeat here,
that overtime is an evil, socially, morally and conimer-
oially." It has been objected that in seasonal trades and
such trades as millinery and dressmaking, where orders
come in suddenly, it would be impossible to prevent
working overtime. The answer to this lies in the fact that
if overtime were forbidden by law it would apply equally
to all engaged in the particular trade, and the result
would be that the customers would merely be compelled
to give their orders for goods or make their purchases in
advance. Inspector Oramp, as the result of his expenence,
declares ; "There is no necessity for this overtime; the
season trade work and the press of orders would be exe-
cuted just the same if it were illegal, and only mean the
employment of more hands," Long hours of regiilar work
and sudden stretches of overtime are found in the same
trades, whereas those trades in which only the hours
allowed to women by the Factory Acts are worked — such as
the textile industries — are free from these rushes, "In
1893, before the Boyal Marriage, large orders were re-
ceived for fabrics in special patterns. The textile trade,
which had both to design and weave these, succeeded by
dint of organisation in putting these goods on the market
within the time required without working an hour extra,
while the dressmakers who made up the stufi sent in a
special appeal for extension of hours,"'

27

5. Shop assiRtants aa well as operatives would benefit
"by the amendment and enforcement of the Truck Act,;
rendering all fines, other than those of a strictly disci- .
pljnary nature, entirely illegal and siibjecting the master ]
'who should impose such fines to a penalty.

6. The Employers Liability Act should be made mor«< I
stringent, and no contracting out allowed under any pre- -
tence whatever,

7. The Factory Acts should be amended so that their
provisions should apply to men, aa well at
young persons, and the proteotiou which they afford to
the operative should be extended to other workers.

8. The Acta for the protection of labour should bo
consolidated into one new Act, and all previous Acts
repealed ; and, shove all, the enforeem^tt of the Acts
abould be made really effective, " lu England," said
Victor Hugo, "they venerate so many laws that they
never repeal any. They save themselves from the con-
sequences of their veneration by never putting any of
them into eseeution." The history of the Factory Acts
goes far to justify the gibe of the great Frenchman.
Though the first Factory Act waa passed in 1802, no effort
was made to enforce either it or the three following
Acts. It was not tiU 1833 that any serious attempt waa
made to enforce the law. The inspectors were, however,
BO few in number and so hampered in their action that the
law remained largely inoperative. When Mr. Arnold
White waa asked by the Lords' Committee in 1890 for hia
opinion upon the administration of the Factory Act, he
replied ; " I think it is a farce." " Your opinion is that
the staff is too small 1 " he was ashed. " I think it is so
small as to be a travesty," he answered ; "
we have an Act of Parhament which pror

and tlie Act of Parliament is substantiallf a dead letter.4
At that time forty-eight inspectors, with <
juniora, had to look after all the factories and workehopa
in the United Kingdom. The district of Mr. Lakeman,
that most conscientious and hard-working of inspectors —
the Central Metropolitan — included the whole of central
Ijondon east of Farringdon Eoad, and extended to Hert-
ford ! In the inspection of this vast district, containing
nearly 6,000 factories and workshops, he had the help of
Mr. Birtwistle, of the West Metropohtan District, and
was so overworked that he told the Committee that he
never got through his work till 12 o'clock at night, and
liad " no amusement or recreation in his life." In foot,
sweating' was so much a matter of course that the Govem-
ment even sweated those whom they chai^d with i
prevention.

The three Metropolitan districts, which included thf
major part of the Home Counties, as well as the Metr
polls, and in which there were 6,479 factories and 12,6
workshops, were supposed to be looked after by i
inspectors ; five inspectors struggled with the difiicultii
of "inspecting" the 6,518 factories and the 6,166 worlc"
shops scattered over the whole of Scotland, wMlat
neglected Ireland was divided into two districts, one
of which — the Dublin district — including all Ireland,
excepting Antrim, Londonderry, and part of North
Donegal, and containing more than 5,000 factories and
workshops, was intrusted to one inspector ! Later on.
the workshops in the County of London, numbering
12,520, were separated from the factories, and were placed
under Jtr. Lakeman's supervision, aided by a staff of

29

*' Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories for 1895"— j
juBt issued— that the total staff for the whole of the
United Kingdom consistB of one chief and i
inteadent inspectors, forty-four inspectors (aided by sis-
teen juniors and twentj'-five assistants), and the four
peripatetic ladies appointed by Mr. Asqujth, who have
worked vei^ hard trying to protect the womea workers all
over the country. A backward step seems to have been
taken on the retirement of Mi'. Lakeman, for the ri
workshops in the Metropolis which had been placed under
his care are now distributed among the four Metropolitan
districts. These four districts comprise the whole of the
county of London, together with the eountiee of Middlesex,
Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, the larger part of Eases,
Hertfuid, and Buckingham, and portions of Berks and
Osfoi-d. In this large area there are 10,664 factories and
18,320 registered workshops, looked after by six inspectors
and four juniors, aided by ten assistants! It is evident
that with the best will in the world it is impossible for
these men to properly inspect all these registered places of
work, to say nothing of the time and labour involved in
seeing that work is not illegally carried on in workshops
which escape registration, and that in the vast numbers of
"domestic workshops" young persons are not worked
"beyond the time allowed by the Act,

Another great evil is the division of responsibilily
between the factory inspectors and the sanitary authorities.
In very many cases the inspector possesses no direct power
■of enforcing proper sanitation, but has to inform the
local sanitary officers of the case, who, as Mr. Hart of
Norwich reports, "dare not, in many eases, be too
energetic where shops, warehouses or factories belong to,
or are occupied by, men under whose authority they work

and by whom ttey are appointed." Very often the!
offlcers are quite ignorant of the aanitaty prov
Factoiy Acts. We learn from the inspector at Walsalll
that "after the usual notices have been sent to tht
Medical Officer of Health, or to the clei-k of the local'!
Sanitary Authority, they are in some cases sent back with
the request to be informed why euoh notices are sent to
them, and under what Act power is given to them to aot
in cases of contravention."

In fact, great confusion results from the over-lapping of'
the Factory, Public Health, Truck, and Employera*
Liability Acts, and through each new Act being merely
Act to " amend and extend " preiious Acts, which have
be referred to. Mr. Knyvett, an inspector, speaking of th(
new Act, says it " is full of great possibilitiea, which I feel
sui'e I am not alone among my colleagues in hoping will ba
welded into shape by a Codifying Act. And realising the-
importance of and the widespread good resulting from th»
tempered Socialism of EngUsh legislation, I am convinced
that the sooner the welding of the four Acts takes
the better it will be for the manufacturei-s, artisans,
lastly, for that most puzzled body. Her Majesty'
spectoi-s."

In this Eei)Ort the lady inspectors insist on the ueceseii
of 80 altering the Truck Act as to make it really what
professes to be. Women workers are great sufferers
all kinds of arbitrarj- fines and deductions from thi
wages. Examples are given of deductions from
ing women's wages such as the following : " 4d4
per week for 'room' {i.e., cleaning); 2^. a reel for^;
thread; Id. per needle; Jd. in the shilliug earned fori
power; and 3d. per week for the gas used
irona." Mies Anderson finds that very fi'equent oomplai

of

those in which not i
and to esceBsiFe toil ii
anil laundry workers a

SI

are mnde to her about these matters, and says ; " What is
further required, if fines are to be admitted at all as any-
thing^ but a violation of the principles of the Truck Act,
ia (1) publicity in the system of levying them; (2) strict
limitation of their amount; (3) that subordinate ofRcials
shall have no power to levy them or det^irmine their
amount." She also points out that the exclusion of the
smallest laundriea from the Act is a great evil, and will
lead to the multiplication of domestic laundries and of
ire than two persons are employed,
1 these. Ctnly such shop assistants
9 are under eighteen are protected
by the Act from exeesaively long hours, and a number of
complaints are made in the Report of girls employed
in workrooms attached to shops being brought into the
shop to serve customera after the workr<)oms are closed.

In spite of these and numberless other defects in our
factory legislation, one is glad to find a tone of hopefulness
running through the Reporf, and to learn that notwith-
standing the inadequate number of the inspectors, and the
difficulties they have to contend with in enforcing the Act,
they have secured 3,038 convictions for infractions ot the
law in 1895.

Tliough the difficulties attending the efficient inspection
of the vast numbera of factories and workshops scattered
about the country are very great, and a largely increased
BtafE of inspectors would have hard work in coping with
them, even if their work was lightened by the codification
of the Acts for the protection of labour ; yet it should
never be forgotten that the largest employer of labour in
the country is the Government itself. Here it would be
easy to effect such changes as would greatly benefit the
workers and entirely prevent the possibility of sweating

of an; kind. Sanitary condittone for the workers, eight
hours for all employees, a. living wage, abolition of over-
time and of out-work, should he enforced and an example
afforded, and a standard fixed for the whole country.
This woiild be especially useful in raising the tone of the
muni oipali ties, which are also large employers of labour.
In such wisei as one branch of industry after another
passed under the control of the municipal bodies or of the
central government, sweating woiild disappear, and the
work would be carried on in a manner consonant with
justice and social well-being.

Ths Ultimate Causes of SwEATUfQ.

Sweating is a disease of the body politic, arising
from arrested developmett, both economical and moral.
The sub- division of labour and the introduction of
machinery moved by steam power have given us the great
factory, with its cleanliness and thorough organisation
■of labour. In these factories adequate inspection and
efficient public control are possible. The ever-increasing
concentration of capital and organisation of labour is fast
preparing the way for the munieipalisation and nationali-
sation of industry generally.

Though sweating — in the wider sensa — may still exist
to a greater or less extent in the large factory or establish-
ment, yet the trades in which it is rampant are, as has
been pointed out, those which have not shared to any
considerable degree in tbe economic development of the
century but have remained in the undeveloped condition
of earlier times. The reaUy efficient economic cure for
sweating ia to hasten the evolution of these backward
industries and secure their organisation under public
control.

But sweating is also due to the imperfect moral derelop-
ment of the people. In th.e purely animal condition the
Btniggle for life liaa full sway, and the weakest does not
fail to go to the wall and to be efEectually crushed
out. From this condition we are moving upwards towards
a human life in which reason shall prevail ; in which we
shall recognise the Brotherhood of Man, and competition
and anarchy Ije replaced by rational organisation and
co-operation. We have now reached a stage where the
sense of a common good is still but weak, and the control of
the individual by the Whole, which is necessary for its
xealisation, prevails only in a few departments of i
life. By our laws we guarantee to the few a share in the
material inheritance of the nation, which has been slowly
gained for us through the ages by social co-operation,
whilst the mass of the people are obliged to obtain leave
irom these favoured few to work that they may ea
■or lees precarious and insufRcient livelihood. If any of
them have been allowed access to the spii'itual inheritance
of the race — to the stores of knowledge painfully acquired
in the course of centuries — they have a great advantage in
the struggle. Of such are the professional and trading
classes and Uie stilled workers. Below them lie the com-
pletely disinherited, condemned to strive for the crumbs
which fall from the tables of the classes above them, and
even these they can only get by long hours of monotonous
and exhausting toil. The misery and suffering endured
by this class, and especially by the women, is indeed
eimply appalling. Did not use and wont, and the feehng
of the powerlessnesa of the individual to alter the working
of the great economic machine, in which each of us is a
mere wheel or cog of a wheel, make us despair, it would be
impoBsible for such of us as have any knowledge of the

facts and any human fneiling to endure these thin^ longer.
As it is, tbe thought that many of the necessities snd
comforts of our life are bought at the expense of the vbt^
heart's-blood of our fellow creatures embitters onr erirt-
ence and poisons all our joy.

It ia not possible for the most callous wholly to ignor*
the solidarity of mankind, and the very growth in sensi-
bility and rfjfinement of feeling which is the highest gift
of civilisation renders us more suateptible to the suffer-
ings of others and more capable of sympathy with their
wrotchednese and woe. This sympathy, indeed, is ever
extending and deepening in intensity, yet it ia at present
but slightly developed, and its action ia for the most part
occasional, spasmodic, and not seldom irrational. We
erect vast hospitais and spend large sums of money yearly
for their support. In these the poorest may have good
nursing and the best treatment which medical science
can furnish. The most wretched victim of sweating, if"
knocked down, or stricken by illness, can be taken to one
of these hospitals and be treated as a human being and skil-
fully nursed. Should he recover, however, he is again thrust
forth into the abyss of destitution to continue his desperate-
struggle, and society troubles itself no further about him
till he once more becomes ill or commits some crime.

Sui-ely this is irrational! Let us have, we are tempted
to exclaim, either the pitiless struggle of the animal world —
which, just because it is pitiless and thoroughgoing, leads
to the survival of young, vigorous, and therefore happy
life — or such an organisation of society that the stragglo-
of man against man may be rejilaced by co-operation, and
the pitiless extermination of the weaker by los-ing care,
aided by the rational use of those means which would,
prevent disease and destitution.

35

For the fall solution of the problem of sweating, as of
all th^ other problems of social life, we must look forward
to the growth of sympathy, guided by reason, which
shall not merely shudder at tales of injustice and suffer-
ing, but shall vigorously work to discover their causes,
and, having discovered these, shall intelligently organise-
the whole of life in accordance with Insight and Love.

THE GALLOWS AND THE LASH.

THE GALLOWS AND THE LASH.

I.— THE GALLOWS.

Capital PoNisaiiEvr i

I Eight ok Wr(

L SHORT time ago I brought a motion before a committeti
'^Dtteeting of a littie society with which I am connected,
jtraying Her Majesty's Gevei-nment to abolish Capital
"P nniahtri BTit. Sonnewhat to my surprise I did not find a
-single supporter. One member, at least, was actively in
favor of death as a punishment for murder, and the rest
-dismiesed the matter by agreeing that it was a question
which they had not studied anfficientiy to be able to
ixprees an opinion.
As there may be many who have not "anfficientiy
studied" this important subject, the Criminal Law and
3PriBon Heform Department of the Humanitarian League
nested me to prepare this pamphlet. In embarking
my confiding readers upon what the old Qaarterly Meviewer
Balled " the perils of that vast speculation whether death
night not be left out of the penal code Eiltogether," I do
lot intend to make any attempt to convince by appealing
o the emotions, but what I hope to do ia, to induce
hem to convince themselves by a caJm and dispassionate
itudy of the facts I diall bring before them.

Sixty or seventy years ago— nay, thirty or forty years
igo — England was much agitated upon this subject. In
those times there were large and influential societies work-

tluit reapect had a redeetutng; quality ; but, for all that, it
was an egsentinlty unjust privilege. It aroee ia this way :
The clergy, at an early period, made a very couvenient
otaim to be free from the jurisdiotinu of lay oourts, and
suhject only to the ecclesiastical. The clerk apprehended
as a criminal was therefore delivered to his ecclesiastical
Buperiore and tiied by the bishop, or hie deputj-, and a jury
of twelve clerks. First, he made oath of innocence ; then
he called twelve compui-gatora who swore they believed he
epoke the truth ; and then witnesses were heard on his
behalf only. The accused was thereupon acquitted ; or if
convicted, degraded and required to do penance. At
worst a very mild substitute for death.' Later on Henry
VI enacted that the accused must be convicted before ha
daimed his "clergy."

At the outset this privilege was confined to those who
wore clerical dress and the tonsure, but under Edward HI
it became so extended as to include eveiy male person
who coidd read, except bigamists— not a bigamist as we

' How meqnitii'ble tbls dutuiotiao between clerk and lafman was
taaj be reali6«d from the following ease found — witli maii7 eimilBr
r^ord^ — amongst tlie aorlf archireB of the City ot London : In 131$
(Ed. III.) Thouuu Honneie of Snsaez and ThomoB de Blurtone of
lUiberdHbrigge were tried before the Major for highway robbery.
"The said Thomas and Thomaa, being asked ae to that felony how
the; will acqnit thenieelTeB, the aforesaid Thomas Humere aajB that
he U a olerk, etc. [and therefore daima beneflt of clergy, aa being
able to read] ; wherefore he ia sent back to the prison of oor Lord
the King at Neugato, until, etc. [until the fact ia certified by the
Ordinorj, and he claims his release]. And the said Thmnaa de
Blurtone saja that he is in no way guilty thereof. The jniy sppears
by John de Walthem and eleven others, who eay apoD their oatll
that the said Thomaa is gfoilty thereof. Therefore he is to bs
hanged." Charged jointly for the same offence, the lajmaa is
hangped, the clerk released.

underBtand the vord to-daj, but a, man who had twics
married, or had married a widow. Save professed nuns,
all women were excluded from " benefit of olergj."

In 1487 Henry VII made some effort to roBtrict the
piiTil^e, by enacting that a man convicted of a clergyable
felony should be branded on the thumb, and this enact-
ment shows UB how light the ecclesiastical penalties must
previously have been.

Afl the law stood, until 1487, any man who could read
might steal, or commit a murder, almost with impunity, and
for long afterwards all he had to fear was a T or an M
branded on his thumb. Elutabeth in 1576 abolished pur-
gation and enacted a term of imprisonment, not to exceed
one year, for the convicted clerk. James in 1622 allowed
"clergy" to women for larceny of goodsunderlOs. in value,
and William and Marj- (1692) put women altogether on
the same footing with men in this respet-t. Anne, in 1705,
extended the privilege of "clergy" by abohshing the-
neceesity for reading. George I (1717) made an alterna-
tive of seven years transportation for branding, and George
HI, in 1779, abolished branding, thus leaving the penalty
as seven years' transportation without alternative. This
was the statute law, but at common law there were many
capital offences which were not clergyable, e.g., high
treason, highway robbery and arson ; then later, murder-
ing his lord, murdering in churches, robbing churches,
theft from the person above the value of Is., rape, abduc-
tion without intent to marry, stealing clothes from racks,
or stealing from the king's (stores. It is curious to uote^
in this connection, that according to the doctrine and
practice of our legislatoif., the greater the facihty for the
orime the greater must be the punishment.

George IV, in 1827, abolished "clergy" altogether, and

thuB left death, without alternative, the punishmeiit for
nearly every crime, great or amall.

The Blood Sacsifios.

The number of Utcb sacrificed to the law in England

has been tremendous. It is said by Holinshed, an
Elizabethan writer, that during the reign of Tlenrj- VIII
— a period of not more than 38 years — upwards of 72,000
persons were hanged as thieves and vagabonds. This
statement is not very reliable, as there were no complete
BtatisticB of that time ; but that there should be even a
tradition of such a large number of executions, will give us
some idea of what went on in those ''good old times,"
which some people profess to bo so aniious to bring back
again. From a history of the Quarter Sessions (Elizabeth
to Anne), compiled by Hamilton from records preserved
at Exeter Castde, Sir James Stephen took the figures for
the single year of 1598, and out of 390 convicted prisoners
iu the one county in that year, he found that 74 were
actually hanged. If however, he said, we take only twenty
as the average number hanged in each county, this would
mean a total of something like 800 executions yearly in
the forty English counties. And that, of course, was at a
period when the whole population of England was less
than that of greater London to-day. To take an example
from later times, at the Lent Assizes of 178d, 242 persons
were sentenced, and of these 103 were hanged. In 1816,
Townsend, a well-known Bow Street officer, gave evidence
before the Boyal Commission that he had seen batches of
twelve, sixteen, and twenty hanged at one execution, and
onoe Biter an Old Bailey Sessions of 1783 he had seen
forty huBg in two batches of twenty each.

and I

In regard to tlie manner of execution, Laagmg was i
the only method of legal murder. Henry Vlll eaacted.
that the punishment for poisoning should be boiling to
death, but tliis law was repealed umler Elizabeth ; men
were usually hung; or hung, drawn and quartered ; women
were burned; and heretics also were burned, irrespeotive
of sex. As late as 1777, a girl of 14 lay in Newgate under
sentence to be burnt alive on a fliarge of false coinage ; a
reprieve came, but only just as the cart was ready to take
her to the stake. It was thirteen years later before the
Act was repealed under which that sentence was passed.

For sis centuries, therefore, from about 1230 to about
1H30, the chief pimiahment for crime in this country was
deprivation of life, with or without accompanying torture.

One hundred years ago there were 160 offences punish-
able by death, but by 1810 this number had risen to as
many as 223, and a story is told showing how lightly
these enactments were made. It is said that on one
occasion Edmund Burke thrust his head into a Committee
Boom of tile House of Commons, and asking what the
members were doing, was answered "Oh! almost nothing;
we are merely creating a new felony — death without
it of clergy."

BecCAEIa'b iNFLUBIfCB.

But by 1810, when c
we were approaching a
the death punishment
after this, that we s
Beccaria's influence in
took many yei

ir capital offences numbered 222,
I. important point in the history of
n this countiy, for it was shortly
w the fiist practical results of
England; although even then it
■k before anything like a

thorough -going alteration in the laws was made. Before

ISIO, signs had not been wanting to show that publio
opinion was setting against capital punishment, but the
great bar to public opinion becoming public law was then,
as 80 often happens now, the House of Lords ; and fore-
most amongst the obstnictioniats in the House of Lords,
was the Bench of Bishops.

In 176-1 Beccaria wrote hie treatise condemning the
death penalty, torture and excessive punishments of all
kinds. This little book created a profound sensation ; It
was translated into many diflerent languages and read
everywhere. Blaekstone in the following year frequently
referred to Beccaria ; and Blaeksto ne has the honorable
\ •position of bein f ; the first professional lawyer to hnd jaiilt
Iwith the frequen cy of th e death punishment in En gland.
/In 1770 a committee of inquiry, moved for by Sir W.
— / Meredith, reported in favor of the repeal of two or three

A Acts which punished certain offences with deaths-one of
\rhich was the crime of bokmgmg to.-paoplQ_whg.«£aUed
themselves Egyptians^ — but, although the Commons con-
sented to these repeals, the Lords refused to agree to them,
As the opponents of capital punishment, inspired by
Beccaria's work, grew bolder and stronger, those in favor
of it became more active and more determined, and in
1784 and 1785 books were written, advocating the iin-
flinciiing caiTying out of the laws as they stood. The
immediate consequence of this was, that in the year follow-
ing the issue of the first of these books (Madan's " ThougLta
on Executive Justice") the number of executions was nearly
doubled, and it is recorded that, about this time, an English
Chief Justice, in charging the Grand Jury for Hertford,

'wanted them that it was his intention during the circuit,
■to leave for execution eveiy person convicted of a capital
offence. He kept his word and spared no one ; what
this meant may be guessed from ono case, where he caused
foBr men and three women to be hanged out-side a hou
in which they had committed a robbery.

Sib Samttel Eomilly and Aroitdeacon Palby.
The man, who above all others, was chiefly reHponsible
for delaying any alteration in the laws was Archdeacon
Paley. The year after Madan's book appeared, he wrote his
*' Moral and Political Philosophy," dedicated to the
Bishop of Carlisle, father to Lord Chief Juatito Ellen-
borougb, in which he defended the existing state of things,
Paley condemned "the overstrained scrupulousness or
ireak timidity of juries " who hesitated to send a man to a
disgraceful death, and seemed to think it of httle import-
ance if even an innocent person should occasionally suffer.
The issue of Madan's book, however, had aroused a
powerful advocate on the other side, Sir Samuel Eomilly,
who commenced his long war against capital^
by writing an answer to Madan's arguments. This, ii
course of time, he f&llowed up by an endeavor to obtain 1
from ParUamont a reform of the criminal law. Here he
found himself constantly confronted with the influence of
Dr. Paley, and the only measure of alleviation he i
Able for some time to win, was the repeal of the law which i
made it a capital offence to steal from the person anything I
of the value of Is. or upwards, and even to this the alter
native punishment, proposed by the mercy of Lord EDeu-
borough, was transportation for life. This offence of
«tealing from the person anything of the value of thirteen

^

12

pence, was the only one for which Archdeacon Paley
seemed to think death too severe a penalty, and so it was
allowed to pass. Other Bills r epealing the death jg itfiish-
\ (^ \n|pt for stealing 5s. wo rth of goods ^fcorn a Rhtf>p, for
f 'b \ ^ "^^^^Bng from a bJeaching ground^ j m^ ^n^r .suA^i^va and
^ • .' ^ s ailors found begging, ^ y^fige. hrmight ffrrfrnril in 1810,
• "" 1811, 1813 and 1816, but although passed by the Com-

mons, they were thrown out in the Lords, Lord Ellen-
borough arguing against them in Paley's own words.

Thb House of Lords Conquered.

Sir James Mackintosh, following Eomilly, got six
measures passed through the Commons, but the Lords*
only agreed to repeal the law in cases of minor importance
which affected comparatively few persons — e, g,y gie^ w
against the^JBg^gtians. It was not until the passing of
the^ Seform Bill that our hereditary legislators were
conquered, and then the march of progress became a verit-
able gallop. Between 1832 and 1837 so many repealing
measures were passed that in 1837 onlv thirt y-^tf»vftTi
capitaljiffence8j«rerejeft.

It is not to be supposed, however, that public opinion
could await the pleasure of the Lords. The feeling of the
iniquity of the death punishment, in the vast majority of
cases, was so strong and so widespread, that, although
many were sentenced to death for the most trivial offences-
(as, for example, a child of nine in 1833, for breaking some
glass and stealing 2d. worth of paint), yet the sentences
were not carried out. In the year 1831, for instance,
1,601 persons were sentenced, but of the86""^5fiI y'^tv-tw o
wec^ executed. The law was, in fact, in most cases a
deai letter.

IS

Until 1861 there ww— Hffl f^ " Hffltadarable number ^
capital offencea left on ihe -rtdtata book, but the prac tjcfr
grew up, as we have it to-da y, of hangipjy for murd er only.
In fact, fro m 1637 onwards, thare are only five caaea of
exe cutions lor any other offence than that of murder , onft
in 1837, one in__l_839, one in 1841, one in 18 51_and one in.
1861^. Murder, treason, piracy with violenne, sBttiug fire
to dockyards and arse nals. are__all capital oflences, tut
practice confines the death penalty to murder only, and
in a largfl proportion of eases it is not carried out for
that.

Executions and Hangm

At one time the executions were held in public, but they
occasioned such scandalous scones that a Koyal CommiBsioa
was issued to inquire into the provisions and operation of
the laws, under which the punishment of death was
inflicted, and the manner in which it was inflicted. The
Commission reported against public executions, and they
w ere discontinued by A ct of l^arlianieiit in I KgS .

The Judge orders the place and time of the execution,
which must be not more than tweaty-one days, and not
lees than seven from date of his order. The king's,
aignatui-e waa formerly required to every death warrant ;
on the accession of the Queen, however, it waa felt that
there were many cases not pleasant to discuss with a young"
woman, and an Act of Parliament was accordingly passed
to render her signature unnecessary.

Formerly the hangman was specially sworn in to do his.
duty. The office waa held in such disrepute that a decent
reapectable man was unwilling to take it, and it was-
usually filled by some criminal. He was not even allowed.

I

"to enter the jjitol tn receive his wage, but wan paid c
the gate.

Calcraft — up to 1874 — was paid by the Cor(Kiration of
London a guinea a week retaining fee and a giiinea for each
■execution, he was also paid 28. 6d. for each flogging, with
-aD allowance for implemeuts. The County of Siin-ey
further paid Calcraft five guineas as retfl.ining fee, with a
guinea for every execution; he was also paid £10 for
every execution in the country.

e hangman's office was held in disrepute when capital
3ea were many; it is still held in disrepute now that
they are few. In February, 1895, a paragraph appeared
1 the papers to ihe effect that Beny, the ex-liangman,
a unable to obtain employment ; nor could any of his
I -children get work on account of the office their father had
held. And, indeed, 1 think that moat people would in-
etinetively shrink from numbering a hangman amongst
their pei-sonal friends. Hia 'jffice is generally regai'ded as
ashameful one.

Thk Object of Puuishmext.

So far, I have limited myself strictly to the history of
ijapital punishment ia this country. I have traced — as
briefly as possible — the rise and the decline of this particular
penalty in England, not merely to relate more or less
interesting details in our history, but to make our past
experience foi-m a ground on which we can base raaaons
for our future conduct.

Before we discuss the merits of death as the penalty
best suited to the most serioiiB of all offences, it will be
well to get a clear idea of what we look upon as the
■object of punishment. I may have one notion, you may

15

lisve another, and Jones in the street may have a third ;
or, on the other band, Jones in the street might be simply
astonished if lie were asked what he thoug^ht should he
the object of punishment. " Object ? Why punUhmmt of
course," he might say, "Wicked people must be
punished." This vagueness, this want of agreement is,
after all, extremely natural ; there is ao mudh confusion
Tjetween theory and practice, that the mind is distracted
from what should be, by what is. I

Bentham, in his "Rationale of Punishment," puts iti
that the main pui-poao of punishment should be the/
general prevention of crime, i.e., that the object oB
punishment should be to prevent future crime in tha
criminal and to prevent, or deter, others fi-om becomingV
firiminals. It was Hohhes, I think, who added to that that '
there should he no other design in punishment than the
correction of the nfiendor and the admonition of others.
Other writers we find putting the same idea in different
■words, and I think we may take it, that the generally
received theory is, that the main purpose of punishment is
"the security of society by the general prevention ot crime.
I will go a step beyond this, and urge that the prevention
■of crime should be not merely the main purpose but
the only purpose of punishment.

The Lkx Talionis.
I once heard a gentleman, who spoke with the authority
<if many years' experience of prisons and prisoners, put the
objects of punishment as four, (1) judicial punishment,
(2) deterrence of crime, (3) protection of society (4) the
xeformation of the criminal. Now, such an enumeration
ia more confusing than helpful, and, in fact, showed that, in

spite of his experience, his mind wae Btill in a very vague
and hazy condition on the subject upon which he was
speaking. His four objects were not really four, but two ;
ior the third, the "protection of society" is achieved when
you have succeeded in the second and the fourth — "the
deterrence of crime " and " the reformation of the
criminal." In regard to "judicial punishment," if by
that, is meant some penalty put upon the criminal other
than that which is necessary to promote the security of
society, then it must he in the nature of retaliation or
revenge. And this is the point I have been leading up to,
because it is just here that theory and practice clash.
Enlightened theories of punishment disclaim the idea of
revenge — punishment which is inere revenge is itself a
crime. As a matter of practice, however, our penal
system is not content with seeking only to deter, and to
reform ; the old law of retaliation {lex ialioni») may be
seen in its enactments and its administration every day.
Unhappily, our efforts at reformation and deterrence have
not so far resulted in any marked success, and there are
writers like Farrer who argue that, as punjaliaifiat-ifl a
complete failureTboflTas a refoimativc- and a. deterrent, we
must Took upon it as an adjustment of iiatiirn.! y^^dintiva-
neaa ; in other woi'ds, the regulatiou by so ciety of t he
vengeance of individuals. I must admit that I cannot
regard this as a veiy elevated idea of punishnient ; yet, at
the same time, I am also bound to admit that it is in
harmony with the actual state of things. It is, in fact,
what u, instead of what thould l».

Death as Puhishseent for Muedeb.
We will now proceed to consider the propriety of deatk

17

— whether by the gallowa, aa in England ; the guillotine,
aa in France ; or the axe, as in Scandinavia — an a punish-
ment for murder. We can look at it from both the
humane and the barbaric points of view. We can aak
ouxaelves, is the execution of murderers necessary for
the protection of aociety ? and we can also ask ouraelves,
is the execution of murderers necessary to satisfy the
natural vindictiveness of society? To each of these
queBtions I ahall ejiiphfltically answer "no."

In order to promote the security of society, a punish-
ment should aim at working such a change in the criminal
as wiU restrain him from committing further crimes, and
it should also be of such a nature as will deter others from
crime. Death certainly fulfils the first requisite in the
most effective way, for at one and the same moment it
removes from the criminal both tlie will and the power
for further crime. But life imprisonmiint would be found
an equally forcible restraint, if forcible restraint is all that
should be aimed at.

In regard to the second and more far-reaching quality
of punishment — the deterrence of others — I think I can
show that in thiR respect the death penalty has been a
failure wherever and whenever it has been practised.

rot) t-Xi
no,, ikai

EbSOLTS in ENOLAIfD.

We will take our own country first. It is a matter o
-common notoriety that when theft was a capital offence, I
pockets were picked at the gallows' foot. In his address \ ^^J
to the Middlesex Grand Jury in December, 1811, Mr.
Maiuwaring (the chairman) plaintively remarked that "the
sorerity of punishments ordained for particular crimes act«
•vary feebly on the minds of hardened thieves," and later -'n .

18

he deplored that "tlie peaceful inhabitants of the grsat
Metropolis cannot lie down to rest without the appre-
hension that his house may be ransacked." This was at
the time when to steal anything above the value of 408.
from a dwelling house was a capital offence.

Where death was the penalty for non-surrender or
mcealment by a bankrupt, fraudulent bankruptcy and
wncealment of property were of daily occurrence. When

I death was the penalty for forgerc, the bankers of EngTaid
petitioned PariJaTnent for Ihe repeal of the law,' o n the
gn>und that a milder punishment exec'ited with neater
certainty would prove more of a detertent than the death
penalty with its uncertainty.

But I will not dwell upon the non-deteiTent effect of
capital puniehment in the years prior to 1840. You may-
think, as I was told the other day, that those were lawless
times — those times when our fathera were young.

If we turn to the statistics of executions since 1840, we

shall find that the number of persons executed during the

t wenty j rara 1840-1859 averaged _ 10- 2 per ann um;

■.the number executed during the tetj yf-^ isfin-jBRQ

l-»veraggd_1.3'4 per annum; during the tmi yf^m iH7n-

" 187_9^J^4^,;_ during the t«n years l880JBSa,-U-9.

From tliPSQ figures, we see that there has been a steady
rise in the number of executions in this countiy since
1840; not an unnatural rise in view of the increase in.
population, but there should be no rise at all, if the fear
of the gallows has the deterrent effect claimed for it.

But it may occur to someone to think he can account for

this increase, by urging that the proportion of executions

to sentences is greater now than it was formerly, that the

law is enforced with greater stringency than heretofore.

I This argument will not bear investigation, however, tor.

19

although it is quite true that the proportion is greater to-
day of executions to sentences for all offences, in respect of
murder the difference is not very great, and such differ-
ence as there is, is in favor of increased lenienoy. Still
keeping within the past sixty years, we find that the pro-
portion of executions to sentences for murder in the
twenty-five years, 1840-1864, was 58*2 per cent., and in
the tweniy-five years, 1865-1889, it was 52*9 per cent.

These figures, if they have any value at all, strengthen
the view that there is no decrease whatever in that class of
miurder which ultimately receives the legal penalty in
spite of all possibilities of escape.

As far then as our own country is concerned, statistics-
show that the fear of a disgraceful death by the hangman's
cord did not prove a deterrent when there were a couple
hundred capital offences on the statute book, and it does-
not prove a deterrent now that there is only one.

In other European Countries.

Let us next inquire into the deterrent effect of capital
punishment in some of the other countries of Europe.

Italy, Roumania, Portugal. Holland and certain of the-

Swiss Cantons have e ntirely a bolished the death penalty.

In Italy it was aboli^ed by law in 1889, tut there have

been no executions j^UQce. 18,7jl. Italy is a country where,

\ /for some reason, homicidal crimes are very frequent, but

'^^■"a43Cording to official reports, so far from there being an

>:^.* increase of serious crime since 1874, theifi^.haa been a-

f§^^ • diminution.

%y In Portugal the last execution took place in 1846, and in
1867 capital punishment was abolished by an almost
unanimoiiirvoie. ItTs'slalEed l£iA fhere has,be$n a di-

iJjy death. ^^%
ished in 1870. I

imnution since 1867 in the nmnbei of crimeB
b gforetlia f peiTofTwoUdliaTe been piininlied b

In Holland the dniith penalty was abolis hed in 187 0.
The number of serious crimes is said to be_in_no way
augmented since that time, and public security is com-
pletely assured under the present system.

In the Swiss Cantons the subject of capital punishment
lias been made a party f[uestion, and the matter was
settled in 1879 by the penalty being retained in some
Cantons and abolished in others ; hut in the eight Can-
tons which retain it there were between 1879 and 1891
only thi-ee condemnationa to death, all of which were
oommuted.'

In Bfiumania the death punishment was abolished in
Iggfi^but in tKat~countiy, I am informe d, through t he
kindness of Mr. Tallack, the ci'ime of tou rder has shown a
tendency to increase. This however may be, and almost
irtainly is, due to causes entirely unconnected with the
nature of the punishment.

There are countries in which death is still the legal
penalty, but where it is rarely carried out ; such for
instance as Finland, where the law has bee

Loe 1826 ; Belgium, wliere it has T)e en _e

1 869 : and Norway, where there h as been no ex ecution

1876. In none of these countries has any increase

I of inu^dei^ been recorded! Then there are

r countries, sucli as France, Germany, A ustria

A'^^Jand Spain, where executions are more or lees frequent;
J^^tjjhui these countries cannot, on that ac count, TjO aaiTany
JJIX^MJUil special diminution in homicidal crime. Murder has not
been a capital offence in Russia for more than a hundred

' I un lold that dera have lieen eieontions since thai date.

21

yeare, yet the crime is not more frequent there than in
other countries.

England, by the retention of the death penalty seems to
claim for herself a lower moral standard than that of those
oountries who have abolished it. While they find im-
priaoninent answer every purpose, she uses the threat of
the hangman's cord in order to restrain the murderous
propenaitiea of her sons.

Unobrtaintt,

Having shown, as I think I have, that the death,
penalty does not deter either in England or abroad, we
will now proceed to inquire into the causes of its failure.

It is commonly laid down that for a punishment to be
effeotiTe (i) it should promptly follow the offence ; (ii) it
should be certain ; (iii) it should be proportional to the
erune ; (iv) it should not be esceHsive.

(i) We need not discuss this, as capital punishment
foUowB neither more nor less promptly than any other.

(ii) That an allotted punishment should follow its crime
as certainly as the day the night, ia a principle generally
rec ogniz ed b>" all writers on penology throughout the
civilized world, and as generally neglected in practice.
In the first place there is an uncertainty which is unavoid-
able ; many trimes are committed for which the criminala
are never apprehended, and there are undoubtedly many
crimes committed of which we remain in entire iterance,
perhaps for. ever, or perhaps until some chance reveaU
them after many years. But, apart from these last, an
enormously large proportion of recorded crimes goes un-
ptmished. Gordon Hylauds puts it in this country at 3;1,
oilier writers pat it still higher; but taking Gordon

23

BylandB* aa a fair eatimate, tlie criminal has three chances
of escape to one of being punished. It this is true tor the
average criminal, the chances for the murderer to escape
the death penalty are still greater. It has already been
pointed out that tlie number of sentencea is always greatly
in excess of the number of executions. Betveen 1863 and
1889 there were in this country 1,785 persons charged
with murder; of these 713, or less than one half, were
sentenced; and 386, or less than one fourth, were executed.
If we take the single year of 1892, in that year 156
murders were reported to the police. Fifty persons were
tried for murder, twenty-two were sentenced and eighteen
were executed. If we average one person to one murder,
ttiis means that more than seven out of eight murderers
escaped the legal penalty, and six out of seveu escaped
punishment altogether. We see, then, that not only ia
there a large number of criminals who escape conviction,
but there is a still larger number who escape the legal
punishment. This is especially so if the criminal happens
to be a woman ; in the case, for instance, of a pregnant
woman, the execution ia postponed until after the birth,
hut as a matter of practice the sentence ia never earned
out.

What is true of England as to the uncertainty uf the
death punishment, is true in even a more marked degree
in the other countries using this penalty. In some
countries not only is there a large proportion of sentences
commuted, hut there is also, as in France, a strong disin-
<;lination in juries to find a verdict of guilty in murder
cases. This disinclination is also growing in Scotland t«
such a degret', that the meaning of " culpable homicide "
—the equivalent to our "manslaughter" — is now so
fltrained that it ia aometimes difficult to aee in what respeot

it differs from "murder." In the five years 1891-96 only
lour persone were sentenced to death in Scotland ; that is
to say, one in 1891, three in 1692, and none in the thre«
remaining years. The same disinclination is seen in
England in the one particular case, at least, of illegitimate
infanticide. Here the juriea and aU. concerned are so
■convinced of the frightful injuBtioe of death as a suitable
penalty for the offence of the miserable girl — for, un-
happily, the criminal too often is a girl^that they evade
the law, and ease their conscienceB, by trying her, not for
murder, but for concealment of birth, an offence which is
•expiated by a term of imprieonment. From all this we
observe that, if certainty be a necessary quality of punish-
ment, it ia absent from the whole of our penalties, and
irom the death penalty more than any other.

PCKISHMBST J

I OFFEIfCB.

(iii) It is urged that punishments should he propor-
"tional to the crime. To me, it seems altogether an
impossibility to nicely proportion punishments so as to
meet every degree of criminality ; but as we are not
concerned with the general punishments the question we
have to consider ia a comparatively simple one. Is
hanging a punishment proportional to the crime of
murder? Consider the cases of Fowter and Millsom,
Iiung for the crime of murdering an old gentleman ; of
Neill CreEim, hung for enticing and poisoning ignorant
girlB; of Deeming, hung for murdering an inoffensive wife
and children in Englaad, having already disposed of
anotier wife and children elsewhere. In the case of such
criminals, I cannot regard the three weeks' agony (to put it
At its longest and its worst) endured in anticipation of the

24

bangman'e cord &8 at all proportionate to their ofienoea ;
norwill the taking of one man's life inanywaycompenaatft
for the taking of another's. On the other hand, there 3r&
other cases where the disproportion is just aa extreme in
the other direction^ — such, for instance, as that of the Man-
chester Martyrs, where three guod lives paid for one.

(iv) Lastly, it is justly urged that puniahment should
not be excessire. How shall we form a judgment ^n thi»
point? What guide shall we take? Beccaria says "The
limit which a legislator should affix to the severity of
penalties appears to lie in the first sigue of compassion
liecoming uppermost in the minds of the spectators." If
we take this as a tt'f indicator, then surely capital
punishment mufit at once stand condemned as excessive.
In almost every case, after a death eentenoe is passed, a
feeling of compassion hegina to leaven in the mind of the
public ; the inii^uity of the crime is lost sight of in pity for
the criminal, and petitions are got up, signed by thousands
of persons, praying the Home Secretary to re-try the case
in his studj', and find the prisoner less guilty than he was
found in open court. Not only is the public moved to-
compaasiou, but it is not infrequent to read in reports of
murder cases that the judge and other officials of the
oourt were " visibly afiected." H, then, the awakening of
feelings of compassion for the criminal be regarded as a
test of tiie undue severity of a punishment, then the
gallows is undeniably too severe.

Less Severe thah Life iMFBisoTmEiT,
Yet I shall argue — somewhat paradoxically it may seem.
— that, although hanging is thus to be condemned as
too severe, yet vevy often— looked at relatively — it is

not severe enough. The whole puniBhineiit ie com-
pressed into three weeks ; the three weeks of antici-
pation, and a cooHiderable portion of that time will be
ahsorbed in the hope of remission, The agony of
.awaiting a shameful death may be great, but it ie
short ; and a great pain for a short time is much nini-e
easily borne than a less pain extending over a longer
period. Death in respect of severity atands far below life
imprisonment. To quote Bentham once more, if death
deprives of all pleasures, it equally deprives of all pains.
How many a man intentionally risks his own life!
Often, it is true, he risks it for a great purpose, or driven
by the need of earning a livelihood ; but often also, for a
trivial purpose, to satisfy a mere passing fancy. How
many a man, not merely risks his life, but voluntarily
seeks death ! How many more, with more or leas sincerity,
wish for death to put an end to their woea and sufferings !
But I never yet heard of the man who wished for life
imprisonment, nor can I conceive of the possibility of
fluch a wish. The daily endurance of the unutterable
monotony, the servitude, the hardships of prison life ; the
daily anticipation of hardships to come ; the daily regret
for past pleasures ; must surely outweigh the short agony
«ndured in the anticipation of death.

Therefore I should urge that the death penalty is at
once too severe in appearance, inasmuch as it provokes
ftompassion, and not sufficiently severe in fact, inasmuch as,
■while we let the lesser criminal go on and suffer his daily
round of pain, we step in and cut off all that would
accompany the life of the greater criminal in confinement.
Even the pain of disgrace is left to be home by hia kindred.

;t I will I

Not Exuibsibli.
But outside and beyond all this, there are
nient« against capital puoishmeiit which were good when
Bentham wi'ute them, are good to-day, and from their
very nature will be good for all time. Were they all th at
could be said against it, to me they would be conclusive.
The arguments are not of equal importance, but I will
take them together. Fii-st, the_deattL-pfiaaltjLi8 jet
I mjgsible; and n est, J^jiestvojs one source of ti
j proof. Ab Fagin says in " Oliver Twist " ; —

" What a fine thing capital punishment U ! Dead
repent. Dead men never bring awkward stories to light. Oh !
it's a fine thing for the trade ! Vive of 'em strung up in a row
and none left to play booty, or turn white-livered."

Tliat human judgment is fallible is a simple truism;
and there are many well -authenticated cases of the-
fiinviction of innocent persona. If these persons are
alive, the injury of a wrongful conviction can be to
some extent I'epaired ; if they are dead, the wrong done-
them ia wholly irreparable. The case of the young
man Habron will be known to most of you ; the juilge
and jury were perfectly satisfied that the evidence proved
him guilty of murder. He had friends, however, and
moat energetic efforts were made to obtain a eonunutation.
of his sentence. These efiorta were successful, and then,
after he had passed three years in prison, happily for him.
Peace confessed to the murder. If private individunU.
had not interposed and the law had been allowed to talc»
ita course, Peace's confession would have
There is also the case of Jonathan Bradford, who
executed, but was afterwards proved innocent.

Is 1893, as many as seven persons were granted a

i

ar

pardon on grounds afEecting their original conviction— t.*.,
that fresh evidence waa forthcoming, which either estab-
lished their innocence, or afforded reasonable doubt of
their guilt. These were not murder cases, but judges and
juries are no more infallible when they are trying men
on a capital charge, than they are when trying them for
burglary.

I>r. Faley thought that innocent people who were
executed in this way ought to be considered as victims to
the system necessary to secure the safety of the com-
munity;' but I can hardly imagine that this thought
would carry much oonsolatiun to the relations of the

So far, then, I have argued that capital punishment fails
to justify ita position as the estrerae penalty of the law, on
the grtumd that it is not deterrent ; that it is not certain j
th&t it is Beldom proportionate to the offence, being some-
times too mild and at other times excessive ; that it is
too severe in appearance and— looked at in relation to
other punishments — not sufficiently so in reality ; and,
finally, that it is not remissible.

Ake MuiiUEREBs THE Worst of Criminals?
But we must look at this question in still another light.
In this country wo award death as the penalty for murder;
but are murderers just the people who, beyond all others,
should suffer the exlreme penalty of the law? In a very
laii^ number of cases, murderers are not the worst ot
criuiinals. Often the fatal blow is struck in some moment

' "Hs who (&I1b by a miBtaken gentenoe may be oootiiilered aa
falUogforluB Donntrj-" ("Moral and Politioal PhiloBophy," oh. ii).

of passion, or is the outcome of pasaion, and is not the

vork of the recidiriat, of that class of men of clearly
marked crimitial tendencies, called by Eume writers in-
stinctive crimiiittls. Often, too, what a hair's-breadth differ-
ence of force or direction divides the mere assault from
murder — but what a difference in the penalty. A para-
graph I saw some time ago in a daily paper gives
a case in point. A yoimg man, Arthur Branson,
was chained with brutal cruelty to his child. He
had flung the baby at its mother and broken its
thigh ; he had so beaten the little thing that its body
was badly bruised and its eyes blatkened. The child was
only eight moatha old. The prisoner was sentenced to
two month's Lmjirisonment. Had the blow struck the
child in a vital part the sentence would have been death ;
as it was, despite the murderous intent, two month's im-
prisonment was cjmsidered a punishment proportionate to
the offence.

Murder is often the result of gi' eat p i-o vocation , but
the legal penalty is always death. Again, take the
<;a8e of two persons who agree to commit suicidci
together; one dies, the other survives — is brought back
to life, perhaps with great difficulty, and being brought
back to life is liable to be tried, and put to daath for the
murder of his companion. If both die they are " tem-
porarily insane ; " if one survives, he is a criminal.
I Prince Kropotkin, writing of Eastern Siberia, whither
Jmurderere are deported after having completed their term
id imprisonment, says that there is scarcely another
I country in the world where you oould travel or stay with
greater security.

As a matter of fact it is necessary that we should revise
our opinions, and cease to look upon murderers as the

"vileet class of criminitla, and a
severe punishment.

euch, deserving of the most

The Aroumbnt of Economt,

Iiot UB turn for a moment to the arguments in favor of
Ihe retention of the death penalty.

First, that it ia a deterrent. I have already shown by
iacts and figures fhtiE this is a fallacious idea, and will
therefore not further labor the point.

Next, that it i s economica l. The roadieat objection of
"the average Englishman to any reform comes from the
pocket. He is a curious person, this average Englishman,
Jie does not mind spending four or five millions on such a
piece of stupendous folly as the fortification of London, he
does not mind spending thousands on the preservation of
homicidal lunatics, but he "must draw the line some-
■wiere," and he draws it here. Anyone might think that
this particular reform involved a tremendous outlay ; an
outlay which might be indulged in by wealthy counbies
fluch as Italy, Portugal, Holland, Finland and Switzerland,
but which is altogether beyond the means of poverty-
atricten England. As a matter of fact it would involve an
-additional espenditure of £300 or £400 per annum. The
«ostof an ordinary criminal is about £25 § jear — much less
than the cost of a criminal lunatic — multiply this by
£fteen and we get a total of £375 ; a sum which may be
iarther reduced by deducting the hangman's salary.

Mr. Jufitioe Stephen was in favor not only of the reten-
tion of capital puniBhment, but of its extension. What,
Jie asked, is the use of keeping a wretch alive at the
public expense ? But to carry this argument to its logical
conclusion you must conduct the criminal lunatic and the

liabitual thief to the lethal chamber side by side with th&
murderer. I will not aay that this would not be a. more
merciful fate than a sucuesaion of sentences of imprison-
ment, going right through a man's U£e, from the early
years of his boyhood until hie old age. I will not say
that it would not be wiser in the interests of the com-
munity generally. But such a course would probably
involve some hundreds of executions yearly, and that I
take leave to say ia an idea which ia difficult to contem-
plate with equanimity.

ThK ALTERNAXrVE PUSISHMBMT.

I may be asked, If the death penalty is abolished what
ihould be the alternative punishment in cases of murder?

Ithuik that a term of imprisonment long er or shorte r
according to the degree of triminality would be su fficient.
Henry Eoniilly urges an unalterable life sentence, but
under our present system 1 would not wish perpetual
imprisonment to anyone. And, in spite of all our failures
BO far, I should be very sorry to see the law itself shut
the door on all chances of reforming the criminal ; and
without hope of liberty, there can be little real reform.

At some time, in the not too distant future, I am hoping-
to see an experiment tried in this country of indeterminate-
sentences for first offenders; this would probably include —
at the very lowest estimate — one-half the murderers.
This, however, is only a hope for the future: for the
present the penalty I would assign to murderers would be
imprisonment for a term in the discretion of the judge.
This alternative is not without objection from the humane-
point of view, but it is a thousand times better than
execution or perpetual imprisonment.

»

If it ahould be oouBidered impoe«ible to persuade that
House of Compromise, commonly known as the House of
Commons, to agree to eo downriglit a measure as th.e total
abolition of the death penalty— thus giving fo England, in
common with those otlier countries I have mentioned, a
bloodless code of laws — still it might perhaps he not so
difficult to persuade the House to suapeud the operation of
the penalty for a given period. Such a course would put
it to the proof, whether wonld-be murderers are so much
more numerous and so much more desperate in England
than they are in other lands, that they can only bo
restrained from laying violent hands upon their fellowmen
by fear of the gallows.

A Deobadisb Pvnishmemt.

From the discussion of capital piiniBhment, one naturally
turns to the (itioBtidu of flogging, the only other form of
■cor]ioral punishment now practised in England. Many ol
the arguments against the use of the gallows are equally
sound against the use of the lash. Both ara brutal
punishments, legacies from a barbaric age, which seek to
intimidate the criminal from further crime rather than to
work any real reform in his moral nature. In both cases
the State hires an official to do that within the prison gates
"which, if done by the individual outside, would be a crime
punishable by the utmost rigor of the law.

In England a man convieted of garotling or of robbery
with violence may be sentenced to so many lashes with the
cat. Flogging is also a prison punishment; that is, a
punishraeut which may be ordered by the prison autho-
rities to be inflicted upon a prisoner for some violation of
the prison regulations.

Whac flogging is like in prisons may be learned from
a description, written by Mr. Owen Pike, a barrister of
Lincoln's Inn, of a case be witnessed in Newgate thirty or
more years ago, but which is a perfectly fair description of
a flogging to be seen in any of our prisons to-day.

" The prisoner," says Mr. Pike, " is fastened to a triangle
so that he uan move neither hand nor foot. His back is bare.
The man who wields the lash shakes out its nine thongH, nusea
it aloft with both hands and deab the oriminal the first blow

33

across the shoulders. A red streak appears on the white skin.^
A^^ain the thongs are shaken out, again the hands rise,
again the whips are brought down with full force, and the-
streak on the skin grows redder and broader. A turnkey
gives out the number as each stroke falls; and the silence
is broken only by his voice, by the descent of each
successive blow and by the cries and groans of the sufferer.
.... [But] the man who has been guilty of the most
atrocious cruelty will do his best to conceal the smart which he
is made to feel himself ; and if any sound is heard at all it
proceeds from an involuntary action of his vocal organs which
he strives his utmost to check. After twenty lashes he will
retain a look of defiance, though almost fainting and barely^
aiUe to walk to his cell.

" Any one who has witnessed such a scene may be permitted to
aak to what good end it is enacted; anyone who has not
witnessed it can hardly be competent to judge its good or ill.
effects.''

To this Mr. Pike adds these significant words :

"It is far from an agreeable task to watch the face and.
figure of the flogger as he executes his sentence."

It is a point that should not be lost sight of, that the use of
the lash as a punishment is irredeemably debasing to all
who have to take part in it; to him who receives it, to him
who administers it, and to those whose unfortunate duty
compels them to witness it. I am told that it is an
absurdity to talk of ^' degrading " the criminal, that he is
past that, he is already so degraded. If that unfortunately
be true in some cases, it is not true in all. And the worst
of it is, that you cannot possibly coniGbEie the degradation of
flogging to the criminal ; besides the one who is flogged,
there is also the one who flogs, the one who stands by to see it.
done, the one who orders the flogging, and, beyond all that,
there is society who approves it. The whole moral tone-
of the community is lowered by violent punishments..

How nauseating the sight in, was testified at the lueetin^
of the International Penitentiary CongresB, 1872, by a
governor' of one of our English prieous, who, obliged to be
present whenever corpoTal pnniehment was adiiiinist«red.
in his jail, wnfeaaed that the sight always made him ilL
But, for all that, he was so accustomed to rely upon it that
he could not believe that discipline could be maintained in
the prison without the aid of this sickemng punishment.

Dobs it Refoem?

Let ua proceed to put tlie test questions in regard to the
lash that we have done previously in regard to the gallows.
Is the punishment of flogging necessary for the protection
of society? That is to eay, (i) does it reform the criminalP
(ii) does it deter others from crime ?

(i) At the International Penitentiary Congress, Sir E.
Du Cane defended the use of the cat as a prison punish-
ment, on the ground that it would be impossible to
preserve discipline without the fear of it. He defended
it as a general punishment by urging that " when crimi-
nals abstained from the use of their fists or of deadly
weapons, flogging might be remittod, but till then it
could not ba given up. Moreover, he had known prison^v
acknowledge that hut for flogging they would not have
become tractable and reformed characters," Sir Sdmund
Du Cane's argument is more curious than convincing.
Save in the two instances of capital and corporal punish-
ment, the nature of the penally is never made to coincide
with the nature of the oflence ; the judge does not order
the burglar to be robbed, nor the swindler to be cheat«d.

Major Pnlford, for 33 ye&n Oovemor of SUflbrd jail.

85

Tiar false money to be passed on the ooiner ! Why then
flhould yiolent men be punished by yiolenoe ? The confi-
dence shown in the ''tractable and refonned" characters of
"the prisoners, who could ascribe this change in their dis-
position to the application of the cat-o' -nine-tails to their
backs, was worthy of a better cause. Such an acknow-
ledgment has too strong a savor of hypocrisy to
altogether commend itself to the unprejudiced mind.

At this same Congress Mr. Clarke Aspinall, of liver-
pool, said that wife and woman beaters deserve the lash
Euid in the majority of cases no other punishment has any
^ect. This argument addresses itself in the first place to
the spirit of vengeance. When anyone says that this or
ibat criminal deserves to be hung, or to be flogged, they do
not mean that flogging is a punishment calculated to deter
him and others from crime, but that they would inflict
pain on him in retaliation for the. pain he has inflicted
upon others. With the second part of the argument we
need not concern ourselves, as wife-beating is not punish-
4ible by the lash.^

A Question op Govebnobs.

Mr. Shepherd, for forty years governor of Wakefield
-prison, which had an average of 1,000 inmates, stated
that for thirty years no corporal punishment was inflicted
in that prison. He advocated total remission, and his

' ' AUlioiigh a judge may not sentence the wife-beater to corporal
pnniflhnieitt, he may so sentence a man who has forged the seal or
propeae ol the County Court, or a man who has solemnised a marriage
without a licence or in an unregistered building. That ** the law is
« haas" evetjane knows, but such leg^islation goes beyond even
quinine stupidity.

experiance was that nearly every prisoner who had been
flogged returned to gaol again. Mr. F. Hill's experience
confirmed Mr. Shepherd's as to the needlessneas of flog-
ging as a prison punishment, and remarked that thetQ
could not be a better conducted prison than Wakefield.
Comparing this conflicting evidencre as to the need of the
fear of the lash to maintain discipline in prisons, one is
bound to arrive at the conclusion that it ia all a question
of governors and government. Some governors preserve
discipline admirably by means of the luaviUr in moito ;
others, having only tried the forliter in rt, imagine they
can not get on without it. The last look only to the
immediate visible consequences of the punishment they
administer, and do not consider the hardening offect it
must neceraarily have upon the prisoner's character.

LOKD NoTtTON.

(ii)WhatiB the evidence that the fearof corporal puj

^

ment acts as a deterrent? A vague and rambling article-
by Lord Norton, published in the Priiotu' Strvic* Esview
for February, 1697, probably represents the view of tho
"average Englishman" on this matter, I will pass
here so much of it as refers to the whipping of
juveniles, for although I am against that as heartily as I
am against the flogging of adults, it is nevertheless a
problem which needs to be looked at from a different
point of view. In the case of juveniles it is a choice of
evils that ia offered ua, the stigma of the prison or the
degradation of the birch ; in the case of adults it is not a
choice of one or the other, flogging is a punishment
additional to imprisonment. Lord Norton says :

" For those of more reaponaible a^, guilty of higher crimei

trDa motiveB of Tiolent pasdon, tove of doing mischief, or
ptojient desira for notoriety, we have recent full experience of
the lash's efficacy in the way of counter-motive,
the annual ehootingB at the Queen ; it arreated frequent
OMwgeB to works of art in the National MuBeums, it saved old
S^ntlemen from being garotted for their watches; and it
'"'ght have ignomiuioualy extingnished the heroiam of the
dpamitardB."

IJord Norton makes several Btatemeats in the short
paragraph I have quoted, but he does not refer to a single
™t or a single figure in support of them. Periodic
"•Wtings at the Queen, and frequent injury to works of
*rt. oould only be the work of persons who were more or leas
""Wne, and I do not believe that there is a single lunatio
saylum to-day in which the responsible physician would
•"dar the patients to be flogged. Disordered brains
cannot be whipped into order.

The Gabottinq Fallaot.
"1 regard to the garotting fallacy, it always strikes me
•■ curious tliat those who believe that flogging stopped
8*wtliiig never pause to wonder why garottera as a claos
•tionJi have been specially amenable to this particular
""ni ol punishment. As a matter of fact, garotting was a
*"*' of robbery practised almost entirely by a pai-tioular
8*Dg whose operations were carried on chiefly in the
''^bwpolis in the Autumn of 1862. When the gang of
'^'Dinals was captured, the crime disappeared. In
November, 1862, twenty-seven persons were indicted for
B'^'tling at the Criminal Court, and of these twenty-ona
**« oon-ricted and punished. In the following January
"■^Becorder congratulated the jury on the cessation of
F*Wting, and in July, 1863, that is to say, seyeral months

^

after the suppiesdon of garottiag, a Flogging BUI waa intro-
duced into the Honee of Parliament. The late Mr. T. B. IiL
Baker a few years after Btated, as though a matter iritliiD
his knowledge, that the police were instructed to go rotind
to the tieket-of-leaTe men known to be in London and
inform them that if the garotte continued their tjcketa-of-
leave would be cancelled. This, he said, put a sudden
Btop to garotttng eave for an oeoadonal attempt by

FAtrra AND FiomtBB : The Ubttbd Kjfodom.

Lord Norton gave neither facts, nor figures, in support of
liis contention that flogging deterred from crime ; it is un-
fortunately only too easy for me to quote both to prove
that it is not a deterrent.

Since 1890 there has been steady increase in the num.ber
of persons sentenced to corporal punishment ; the use of
the lash had been preyiously falling out of favor,
although there had been jndges, such, for instance, as the
late Mr. Justice Stephen, who not only approved of
flogging but thought it should be made more severe.

The number of adults sentenced to be fiogged in 1890,
was nine; in 1891, seventeen; in 1892, eighteen; in 1898,
forty-six; and in 1894, sixty-five.

Between 1677 and 1894, 418 persons were sentenced to
be flogged, of these two only were punished for gatotting,
the remaining 416 were sentenced for rotbeiy. Side by
side with this increase of brutal punishment is a decided
and undeniable increase in serious crime, a faot whioh

89

'anyone can renty for himself by referring to tlie judicial
statiBtios.

This, then, is how the case stands for England: the value
-of corporal punishment as a deterrent is based on mere
Tague assertion alone ; a careful investigation of the facts
proves that it is no deterrent whatever.

In Scotland, corporal punishment is not used. In Ireland,
it is legal, but rarely employed.

Eaots and Fioubes : CoNTINENTAIi OoUlTTItlES.

Let us next turn to the records of other European
«oimtrieB, and see if we can leam anydiing from them.

Atjstbia. — The lash was abolished in 1866, '^ experience
having shown that it was demoralising," as Dr. Frey (the
■Government Bepresentative) told the Penitentiary Con-
gress of 1872.

Bavabia. — Corporal punishment abolished. Dr. Mar-
-qiiardsen (Qovemment Bepresentative) stated to the
Oongress that discipline had been fully maintained
without it, and no prison authority desired the revival of
ihe practice.

Bblgium. — ^No kind of corporal punishment; it is ex-
pressly forbidden in prisons.

Fraitoe. — ^No corporal punishment.

Geemabty.— Corporal punishment is used as a prison
punishment, but does not form part of the penal law.

HoLLAWD. — No corporal punishment. Flogging also
prohibited in the schools.

Italy. — ^No corporal punishment since 1863.

BxrssiA. — ^Used as a prison punishment, but is not part
of the penal law.

40

SoAFDiNATiA. — ^TTsed as a prison pxmifiliment, but is not
part of tlie penal law.

At the International Penitentiary Congress, Mr. M. S»
Pols, the Gk>yemment Bepresentative from the Hague,
spoke eloquently and convincingly against flogging as a
punishment. '' This was not a sentimental question," he-
said; '4t concerned the true interests of society and the
state. It was not out of sympathy with ruffians, but it was
out of sympathy with honest people that he urged the total
abolition of corporal pimishment. It was his conviction
that it was whoUy inefficient as a means of social defence ;
that it engendered cruelty; and that it was far moro
injurious and degrading to sodeiy, which imposed it, than

it was to the criminal who suffered it The popular

feeling which called for the infliction of corporal punish-
ment, stripped of all well-sounding phrases, was based on
these grounds — ^horror of crime, fear of its repetition,
revenge and the wish ^ to strike terror into others-Hsenti-
ments which no one dares proclaim as the basis of penal
law." Mr. Pols told how flogging, although not formally
abolished in the army, yet had not been resorted to for f oriy
years, and its cessation had been followed by a decrease
of insubordination. Since the prohibition of flogging in
the prisons there had been a sensible diminution of disci-
plinary prosecutions. Finally M. Pok asked were the
ruffians in Holland ^Uess hardened and less dangerous
than those of London? Did the latter alone require
corporal punishment to keep them down ? "

OONGLXrSIOB'.

The result of our investigations into the practice of
other countries shows us conclusively that flogging is an

41

absolutely loimecesBary punishment. Garotting is onknOT
in Ireland; in Scotland priBon discipline is maictaiaedwitli-
out the lash. The Dutch do not require the fear of phy^oal
pain to restrain them from annual shootings at their Queen,
taiA in Borne works of art do not require to be protected by
the cat-o'-nine tails. It is only in England, in happy
England, in the land of a Free Press and a Free Platform,
that the oriminal classes are eo desperate that they must
needs be driven by the fear of the vhip and the fear of
the hangman's cord, and the non -criminal classes are bo
apathetic that they do not feel that the isolated pomtion
occupied by their native country, in regard to brutal
punishments is a disgrace to their oommon humanity.

^^^^^^^B ^^^^^^1

APPENDIX L ^^^^^^

year from 1840 to 1894 iaclndTe: with aveiage of the numb^^^^H

for each 10 yeara. '^^^^t

Seatenoed

for Eie-

for Ei8-' 1

Yeu. Murder, ontod.

Tear. Murder, ontad. 1

1840

. ... 18 9

1860

16 13

1641

20 10'

ISSl

86 15- J

1842

. .. 16 9

1862

28 15 1

1843

. „ 22 13

1S63

23 ^^M

1844

. .. 31 16

1864

19 ^^M

1843

. .. 19 13

1865

7 ^^M

1846

13 6

1866

12 ^^M

1847

. .. 19 8

18ST

10 ^^M

1848

33 12

1868

13 ^^M

1849

. .. 19 Ifi

1869

10 ^^M

AVUBAGSFOB

AVBEAOEPOE ~^^H

10 Ykasb 19-0 11-0

10 Tears 24-3 14-4 ^^^

1850 .. .. 11 6

1870 .... 15 «

1851

. .. 16 10'

1871

13 4 a

18S2

16 9

1872

Ifi ^^H

1853

. .. 17 8

1873

11 ^^H

1854 .

. .. 11 6

1874

26 16 ^^M

185S .

. .. 11 7

1873

IS ^^M

1896 .

31 16

1876

32 ^^M

1857

. .. 20 13

1877

S4 22 ^^M

1858 .

16 11

1878

Ifi ^^M

1869 .

18 9

1879 -

34 16 ^^H

1 AVBRAGE FOB

AVERAOBPOB 1

1 lOYKAlta IS-7 9-4

IOYkabb 25-6 14-6 "

1 ■ One person eieonted for some other offence than minder. ^^^B

48

Sentenoed

for

EX6-

Year.

Mnzder.

oated.

1880 .. .

28

13

1881 .. .

23

11

. 1882 .. ,

22

12

» 1883 .. ,

23

13

1884 .. .

38

15

1886 .. ,

25

12

1886 .. .

35

19

1887 .. ,

35

21

1888 .. ,

36

22

1889 .. .

20

11

AVKKAGE E

OB •

10 YSABfi

1 28-5

14-9

Sentenoed

for

Eze-

Year.

Murder.

oated.

1890 ..

24

14

1891 ..

19

12

1892 ..

22

18

1893 ..

28

15

1894 ..

29

16

>>

• >

»»

The last exeontioii for Coining took place in 1828.

„ Forgery „ „ „ 1829.

,, Horse-stealing „ „ 1829.

Sheep-stealing „ ,, 1831.

>>

99

fi

>>

>»

Bape

>9

>>

1834.

Attempt to Murder „ 1861.

44

APPENDIX n.

The miinber of Adults sentenoed to be flogged In England
from 1877 to 1894 :

1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885

8

1886

18

1887

14

1888

8

1889

15

1890

18

1891

36

1892

23

1893

17

1894

26.
36
26
24
9
17
18
46
65

Total number 418, of whom 2 were sentenced for garotting
and 416 for robbery.

THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD.

THE SHADOW OF THE SWOED.

The man-eatiiig mooBter of fiction is terrible enough to
Tomantio jonng minds under the epell of the story-teller,
but he is almoet genial and harmless in comparison with
the real ogre of war. Oeseration after generation this
frightful monster gorges himeelf on human flesh and blood,
solacing his intervals of satiety with the wine of human
tears. And every time he prepares for a fresh repast, h»
demands a larger provision for his ravenous appetite.
What struggles in previous hiatotr equalled in slaughter
the contest between Korth and South in America, or tha
later death-wrestle between France and Oermanj? Or how
could the fiercest combats between ancient empires, even
that of Home and Carthage, rival the fight between
England and Bussia which only a few years ago we
were encouraged to begin with a light heart? Such a
struggle would have Mndled the Sames of war from
^dla to the Baltic, and probably set all Europe in an
nnparalleled blaze. Surely the Devil's cauldron was
never before heated and stirred with such levity. A
crowd of grinning apes playing with fire in a powder
factory were not more grotesquely terrible.

Awful as is the ogre's blood tax, his impositions
between meals are even worse. In the palmy days of the
Eoman Empire, less than four hundred thousand troops

preserve the peace of the world ; and, if we
eicept petty frontier tuaeles with barbariauB, they often
did BO for thirty or forty yeara together. But Europe
hoB now its staudiDg armies whose total is reckoned in
millions, and the peace is broken three or four timea in
half-a-century. Let it also be remembered that the
Goman aoldier was a worker ae well as a fighter, helping
to carry the practical civilisation of Home wherever her
eagles floated. Our high roads, the arteries of pedes-
triaa and vehicular circulation through England, were
first made by the imperial legiona who iiaed the pick and
the spade more frequently than the aword. But the
armies of modem Europe are aU idlers. Their sole
buainesB is destruction. In peace they consume withont
producing, and in war they devour like the loouat and
the caterpillar. They are not the lame, the blind, the
maimed, and the imbecile, but the youug fiower of the
male population, withdrawn from productive industry and
the refining influence of domestic discipline, and supported
by the labour of othera while they " learn the art of Vill'Tig
men." We ahaU oonaider this economical aspect of the
subject more fully presently ; meanwhile let us deal with
the causea of war.

"A background of wrath," saya Garlyle, "wMoh oan
he stirred up to the murderous infernal pitch, does lie in
every man, in every creature." True, and this fierce
instinct may be held to account directly for the combata
of animals, for primitive human fighting, for duels among
" civilised " peoples, and for street fights and all personal
brawla. But it accounts only indirectly for modem
warfare. "Civilised wager of battle" is the game, not
'Of peoplea, but, to use Eail Beaconafield's phrase, of
" Bovereigna and statesmen ; " though sometimes, it mnat

be oonf eased, the people are egged on by what ar&
perhaps the vilest specimens of the human race — truculent
jaomalists, who gain fame and profit by pandering ta
the most disgusting hatreds. Oowper long ago remarked
fhat war is a game which kings would not play at were
their peoples wise. The fact is, our brute instincts, racial
prejudices tind national vanities are systematically traded
on by our rulers. Nothing is so cheap and easy as a
'' foreign policy," as nothing is sahard as a domestic one ;.
and nothing so diverts attention from difficult home affairs
ae the simple expedient of a foreign broil. If declaring war
lay with Parliament, the juggle would be more arduous. But
it does not. The Qovemment hurries us into war before we
can discuss its policy, and when the matter comes up for
debate, not only have things gone too far for interference,
but the question resolves into one of confidence in the
ministry, instead of approval of the particular measure.
By that time also the beast in us has tasted blood. The
flavage thirst for morb is upon us. Illustrated papers and
daily war correspondence familiarise us with slaughter,
and the sane voice of the keepers of reason is drowned in
the clamour of the wild beasts of pEussion, scenting carnage
and carrion.

Society is now too complex for the simple rules of
interpretation which apply to primitive quarrels. The
Grim^an war, for instance, was not fought because
Englishmen and Bussians were animated by mutual
hatred. Dynastic and political reasons, as usual, played
the chief part in the prelude to that bloody drama. Had
Louis Napoleon, after usurping the French throne, not
required an alliance with some old European monarchy
to rehabilitate his name and veil the fact of his being
a parvenu emperor, the struggle of thirty years ago might

never have commenced. Aa for Italy's share in the war,
it is notorious that Cavour urged the King of Sardinia
into action simply to gain a military reputation for the
kingdom, as a firet step to the unification of the peninBula
under a native sovereign ; and the AuBtro-Italian war
naturally followed the success of theee tactics. Even
before the Franco-German war, notwithstanding the cry
of d Berlin raised by hired mouchardt in the strtiotB of
Paris, it IB not true that every Frenchman waa yearning
to grasp a German throat. The mass of the peasantry
were criminally hoodwinked. They voted "Tea" for the
Empire, thinking it meant Peace, and fancying, as they
were told, that the Eepublioan opposition wished to drive
the country into costly and periloos foreign adventures.

Let xm go back still further, and we shall see evidences
of the same truth. Eighty years ago Nelson told his
seamen that they had but one duty — to love old England
and hate every Frenchman like the devil. Buch a senti-
ment was of course loudly aochumed, but it was after all
a cultivated sentiment. When Fitt began operations
against France he found it necessary to time the pulpit,
I and bribe and intimidate the press in England. In due
time his policy was successful. The people were grossly
abused, and after a few years' fighting, when their blood
was up, they were ready for anything in the shape of
war. France merely stood to them as a synonym for
enemy. They cursed and hated Frenchmen with the
spirit of a bull rushing at a red cloak, the canning
matador wbo flourished the scarlet having his own ends
to serve through the creature's madness.

We may consider it a fact that war is the game of
" sovereigns and statesmen." Grimly and strongly, as is
his wont, Carlyle has expounded the modem meaning of

9

in a &moxL8 passage in Sartor Resartus, Let us
him:

** What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net-
^^^^ "^nport and upshot of war? To my own knowledge, for
^^^Kunple, there dwell and toil, in the British village of
^-^Onmdmdge, usually some five hundred souls. From these, by .
' Natural Enemies ' of the Frenoh, there are successiyely
Elected, during the French war, say thirty able-bodied men.
-^fcOmndrudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed
; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up
manhood, and even trained them to crafts, so that one can
^^^eave, another build, another hammer, and the wea.kest can
'^dtand under thirty stone avoirdupois. Nevertheless, amid
^^nuch weeping and swearing, they are selected ; all dressed in
'Sred; and shipped "away, at the public charges, some two
"thousand miles, or say only to the south of Spain; and fed
"there till wanted. And now to that same spot in the south of
Spain are thirty similar French artisans, from a French
Dumdrudge, in like manner wending; till at length, after
infinite efibrt, the two parties come into actual juxtaposition ;
and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his
hand. Straightway the word * Fire ! ' is given ; and they
blow the souls out of one another ; and in place of sixty brisk
usefnl oraltesmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it
must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any
•quarrel P Busy as the Devil is, not the smallest ; nay, in so
wide a Universe, there was even, unconsciously, by commerce,
some mutual helpfulness between them. How then ? Simple-
ton I their Gk)vemors had fallen out ; and instead of shooting
one another, had the cunning to ma.ke these poor blockheads
«hoot."

Oarlyle is right. That is the truth about modem war.
Democracy has appeared on the scene of politics, but it
has not folly assumed its rdU, The drama is still played
by the old aotors of the upper classes, and will be so,
untfl the new oompany is properly formed and cast for
the TttriiouB parts. Eren in France, although the empire

la gone, the old ruling clasees are atiU in power. Thay
defer Bomewhat to the Democracy in home affaire, but in
forei^ matters they treat it with contemptuoua diisregard.
They carry France into all sorts of adventures for their
own benefit. The Empire went to Algeria, and tho
Bepublio goes to Tunis. Louie Napoleon sent anniea to
Mexico, Jules Ferry sends them to China, and someone
ebe to Madagascar. The motive is the same in all cases ;
the French deputies are cajoled and manceuTred in the
aame way ; and the French people are fooled and plundered
with the same easy impudence. It requires a Herculea to
dean out an Augean stable. When a leader of Qam-
betta's greatness and force arises again, there may be
Bome hope, if he turns his back on the selfish exploiters
of society, sets his face resolutely to the people, and
stretches out his hands to them for salvation.

The world's peace will never be secure until the
Democracy takes the reins of power into its own hands.
Parliaments will be leas ready to declare war than Govern-
ments. Men win vote against war when the decision lies
with them, who would not vote against their party when
hostilities have begun, and it is too late to undo the mis-
chief without overturning the Ministry. The formalities
of public debate would also allow a pause for reason to
assert itself. The first passionate impulse of revenge
would have time to subside, and wisdom, justioe, and
humanity would gain a hearing.

At present we are " rushed " into war. The SovereigD
has the power of declaring war, and In many cases it is
beyond doubt that royalty is largely responsible for the
inception and development of international quarrels. Was
it not Lord Falmerston who had to threaten the late
Evince Consort for intermeddling with the negotiations

11

between Englaad and Eussia ? And was it not the Oourt
party, as well as the bondholders, that incited Mr. Glad-
stone to begin military operations in Egypt, in order that
the Duke of Oonnaught, safely sheltered under Lord
Wolseley's wing, might earn a little cheap glory and win
a few bastard laurels? This is the kind of backstairs
influence which our effete monarchy now wields, to our
perpetual loss and disgrace. The constitutional power of
the Sorereign to declare war is, of course, never exercised
without the ad-vice and consent of her responsible ministers ;
in other words, the Queen no more actually declares war
than she actually appoints bishops. The Cabinet is really
supreme, and these officials take advantage of a constitu-
tional fiction to carry matters with a high hand. In
domestic business they are obliged to consult Parliament
1)elore they can move a stop ; in foreign affairs they act
first and consult it afterwards. Even then it is only be-
cause they need its endorsement for their acceptances^
A veto of censure may be moved and may be passed upon
them, as we all know ; but what Ministry fears such a
contingency? Earl Beaconsfield did as he pleased until
the country flung him from office, and he smiled at Par-
liamentary votes of censure. Mr. Gladstone was just as
little terrified by them. He knew that '^ the party " would
stick to him through thick and thin. They do not like
the expense of an election ; they trust to the chapter of
accidents to pull the Government through its troubles
before the fateful day of reckoning ; and meanwhile they
pacify their consciences by a few timid, ambiguous
speeches, and a trimming side-voto of entirely harmless
protest.

All that remains to Parliament is the '< power of the
poxBe-strings," which is a ghastly sham, for what Gk)vem-

12

ment that can defy votee of oenBure need fear a stoppag'B
of supplies ? A few Badicals might challenge a diviaioa,
and their action might produce a coneiderabla moral effect
on the country, but there it would end. They could no
more check the Government than a road-stone checfea the
cart-wheel. There is a jolt, liut down comes the wheel
BgEtin, and steadily revolves its course. Ths fact is, the
" the power of the purae-strings " is one of the worst of
the many shams of our boasted constitution. It meant
something when the Sovereigii really did declare war,
and solicited money from the people's representatives to
carry it on ; but it is absolutely meaningless now that the
leaders of those very representatives perform that function
under a thin disguise.

Before long this question will emerge into the field of
practical politics, and become a burning one indeed. It
may be true, as Burke said, that " Statesmen are placed
on an eminence that they may have a larger horizon than
we can possibly command." But .the extraordinary
growth of the modem press, and the spread of education
and intelligence, since Burke's time, have greatly
diminished that advantage. The lime has gone by for
the "confidence trick" in politics. Secret- service money
and old-fashioned diplomacy will soon have to go together.
Democracy will demand that all its business be transacted
in public. It will not permit a handful of polittoianB at
discretion

"To open
The purple testament of bleeding w»r."

It will insist on that power being vested in the whole
nation, through its elected representatives. And sunh a
wise and just change wilt be one of the best guarantees of
peace.

Following Carlyle, Mr, Buakin has impeacliod the
governing claaaeB in respect to war, ]n the second letter
of Fori Clacigera, he stjleil tihe upper cliiaaeB the great
Picnic Party, and inquired what they had done for the
"lower orders" they lord it over with such
audacity. ''They have," he said, "spent four hundred
tniUions of pounds here in England withia the last twenty
years— how much in France and Germany I will take
some pains to ascertain— and with this initial outlay of
capital they have taught the peasants of Europe — to pull
«ach other's hair."

No doubt the upper classes furnish good fighting n
just like the lower classes, for brute courage is common
«uough, and, as John Bright said, any quantity of it can
b» got for a shilling a day. Tet Tommy Atkin.s dies aa
well as his officer, only he has nothing to do with the v
except risking his life, all the direction aud all the glory
and profit resting with his superiors.

Go through the Peerage and see what an enormous
number of military and naval posts are held by Its s
They command oiir forces, they get the lion's share of pay,
they Bhine in the Gazettes, and they receive all the honours
and rewards worth having. Poor Tommy Atkins dies
iinannaled and unknown, or, if he survives, has to content
liimself with the refleotiou that virtue is its own reward.
His wife and children (if the celibate rule of the anoy/o^
privates allows him those luxuries) are left to semi-starva-
tion or vice or crime, unless they gravitate to the work-
house. Tommy had much better be at home earning an
honest living, as he himself generally knows; but he
^oea abroad to fight the battles of the upper classes
beoftuse their villainous laws have starved him into the
able-bodied citizen's

i

14

Those apper classes, bom the highest to the humblest
member of Society (with a capital S), being divorced from
honest industry, are natiu'ally predatory and nomadic in
character, and they are ever seeking to gratify their tastes
in person or by proxy. They inherit from feudal times
the prejudice in favour of fighting men. They love
Militarism and hate Industrialism, which has been sup-
planting it for centuries, and will finally extinguish it. A
salient, and in some respects a superior, type of them wa»
the late Colonel Bumaby. This " dashing " fellow
slipped o£E to the Soudan without leave, and fought there
without a Dommiasion. He had no more business with
OUT troops than the most perfect stranger. He was driven
there solely by his love of fighting. His motives were
no more respectable than a tiger's. One of his ambitions
was to enter Parliament, where the fighting interest is
already represented by more than a hundred mem-
bers. Add to this that a still larger number of
members are connected with the Peerage by birth
or marriage, and you will easily understand how Eng-
land is 80 frequently pushed into war. Bemember
too that Her Majesty, with what is said to be a feminine
weakness, has a passion for soldiers, and that when sho
breaks the monotony of her seclusioa, it is usually to-
review her troops or decorate a few " heroes " who have
distinguished themselves on the battle-field.

Mr. Bright once said that without declaring all wars
unjustifiable, he would like to see a single war justified.
It was a request very difficult to comply with. Every war
we enter upon is perfectly righteous, but somehow the
historian afterwards writes them all down as crimes or
mistakes. Self-defence is a natural instinct ; it never can
be eradicated, and it never should. But it implies an.

aggreasor; and consequently all justificatioi

tlie one side only serves to heigliteii its guiltinesa c

other. A great conqueror is only another i

great criminal. Nature quietly bariee and conceals every

• trace of his ravages. Would that the world could as soon
forget him, or remember him onlj to condemn.

Priests may consecrate our banners, without regard to
the merita of the side on which they are ranged, or the
awful scenes over which they float ; every regiment may
carry its cbaplain for ghostly succour; and the Church may
solicit God's bleBsing on every bloody enterprise we engage
in. But the teachers of religion cannot decree right and
wrong, nor have they any magic to transform crime into
virtue. " The primal duties shine aloft like stars" beyond
the reach of chance and change, however momentarily
obscured by clouds of incense from a thousand altars.
And if the ministers of the Prince of Peace cannot
see the monstrous wickedness of war, there happily
remains enough instinctive justice and mercy in the
breasts oE heretics to brand it as a capital crime against
humanity.

Alaa ! how few realise the horror of war. The Romance
of War is more easily imagined — the glowing uniforms,
the shining arms, the prancing steeds, the martial music,
and heroes contending for glory ! And pulses thrUl on
reading feata of arms, and blood glows at the record of a
" splendid charge." But, as Dickens wrote —

■ ' When the ' spleiidid charge ' has done its work, and paased
by, there wil! I>e found a sight very much like the scene of a
fcightful railway accident. There will be the full complement
of baota hrokpn in two ; of anus twisted wholly off ; of moi
impaled upon their own bayonets; of legs smashed up like bite
of firewood ; of bettds sliced open like apples ; of other beads

orunohed into soft jelly by thi; iron hoofa of horaes ; of faces

16

trampled out of aU likeness to anything human. That is what
skulks behind a ' splendid charge.' "

Now let us turn from the graphic novelist to the
experienced journalist. This is what Dr. Bussell, the
famous Times war correspondent, wrote from the battle-
field of Sedan : —

*'Let your readers fancy masses of coloured rags glued
together with blood and brains, and pinned into strange
shapes by fragments of bones. Let them conceive men's
bodies without heads, legs without bodies, heaps of human
entrails attached to red and blue cloth, and disembowelled
corpses in uniform, bodies lying about in all attitudes with
skulls shattered, faces blown off, hips smashed, bones, flesh and
gay clothing all pounded together as if brayed in mortar,
extending for miles. . . . and then they cannot, with the most
vivid imagination, come up to the sickening reality of that
butchery."

the glorious Bomance of War! Listen! Thirty
thousand skeletons of Eussian and Turkish soldiers wer&
shipped to England in 1881 as manure !
Well does Byron sing of war :

" Lo I where the giant on the mountain stands,
His blood-red tresses deep'ning in the sun,
With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands.
And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon ;
Restless it rolls, now fixed, and now anon
Flashing afar — and at his iron feet
Destruction cowers, to mark what deeds are done."

The poet's image is daring, yet how true ! Destruction
might cower indeed at the atrocities of a battle-field. For
they are more than slaughters — they are unspeakable
agonies. Happy, thrice happy, are the dead in com-
parison with the wounded. Imagine the fate of these after
a ** glorious victory." The fallen, not slain, of both sidea
are mingled in a common hell. They were enemies a few

17

liinirE ago. but now how fearfully akin! A yotmg
husbaad — as his life-blood ebba away, and cold steals

upon the citadel of hie heart —sees a vision of eyes and
lips that he will never kiss again. A son thinka of the
old motber, whose dwindlicg lite is wrapped in hia, who
will never more lean upon his strong arm, but falter
downward to the grave. A father wonders what will
happen to hia brood at home — how the mother will
support them — what future is now in store for the bright
boy who was his pride, and ah ! what future for the baby
girl, whose delicate soft flesh he seems to feel as when he
took her from her mother's arms in that last embrace.
Theee are the real tragedies of a battle-field — sonl-
tragedies, as Browning would call them. And if we
multiply them a thousand fold, and add every conceivable
circumstance of physical su£[ijring, we shall be able to
estimate the true value 'tf that fatal " glory,"

War is ju^it in self -duf once, or in defence of a neighbour
unjustly attacked. We are not of those who believe in
the refusal of aid between nations in all circumstai^ces.
The sword may be, for some time yet, as necessary as the
lancet, but it should never be drawn except against the
enemies of mankind, "The blood of man," said Bnike,
" should never be shed but to redeem the bloud of man.
It is well shed for our friends, for our country, for our
kind. The rest is vanity ; the rest is crime."

When any of these great duties call us we should be
ready to defend them ; and if ever Eugland were menaced
hy a brutal invader, the most peaceful citizen might well
wieh her to be animated by the same brave spirit that
whipped the pride of the Armada and drove the hectoring
I>utch fleets from the English seas. Nay, to defend the
nation's liberties in the dark hour of extreme peril,

1

might hope that her sons would make ramparts of their
bodies, and if they could not make a pact with Tictory,
make a pact with death ; that her daughters would gladly
resign their dearest in the spirit ot the Spartan mothers
of old ; and that the very children might, like Hamiibat,
be dedicated to a righteous revenge.

We are then far from loving peace at any price. But
there is little need to denounce such an impossible doctrine.
It is not that way our danger lies. Our fighting instincts,
inherited from eavage Hncestors, are too strong for us to
submit tamely to aggression, even if the law of self-
preservation did not prompt us to defend our own.

National defence was not the origin of our modem
standing armies. They are legacies from Feudalism.
The retainers of feudal nobles became the king's soldiers
as the power of the Crown strengthened over its vassaJe.
Disguise it how you will, the institution of standing
armies etill savours of its origin. The military forces of
Europe are the instrumenta of tyranny and the support of
privilege. During the last fifty years they have been as
often employed in suppressing liberty at home as in
fighting the foreigner abroad. Ferhapa England and
Switzerland are the only exceptions to this rule. The
notion that armies are the servants of the people is
extremely recent. Fighting for his kin^ was the soldier's
recognised vocation. That spirit atill half animates our
British troops, as it wholly animates the troops of £ussia.
In Germany the idea of the Fatherland may have over-
shadowed that of the Emperor, though he still talks con-
sumodly aboat "my army"; but little more than a
century ago Frederick the Ureat's army fought at his
absolute command ; and Frussia, like every other German
State, was ruled on the same patriarchal principle.

Democracy U Tery teceat, and has not had time to
mould its own institutione. Those who are not con-
versant with history do not understand that the inetita-
tions which esiat are relics of monarchy. And of t
the worst is a standing army.

This fact has some bearing on the morality of a soldier's
profeaaion. A French Badical said the other day, in the
epigrammatic way of his nation, that the business of an
army is to defend the frontier. An admirable sentiment !
But that is not the soldier's view. He goes with cheerful
alacrity wherever he is sent, and if he is ordered to the
other side of the globe he feels that brisk stirring of the
blood which accompanies novel adventures. French
soldiers, drafted from the citizen army of a Bepublic
where the conscription is universal, set sail without
misgivings for Algeria, Tunis, Madagascar, or China.
"Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do or die."
Does not all this show that Democracy has had but little
if any effect upon the army ? When men enter it
they become possessed by its spirit. And that spirit is
military, authoritative, monarchical.

The English army is composed of volunteers, and is in
a sense mercenary. And what are the motives that impel
men to join it? " Generally," says Bacon, " all warlike
people are a little idle, and love danger better than
travail." The description applies admirably to our upper
classes who supply the army with officers, and no doubt
it fits some of the lower classes who supply it with
privates. For the rest, men enter the army as they
engage in other professions, for a living ; and, after a
certain allowance for ties of blood, they care as little on
which side they fight as a lawyer cares on which side he
pleads. It is hardly fair to define a soldier as a man who

20

engages to kill anybody for a shilling a day, for this losea
sight of the fact that he undertakes to be killed as well
as to kill for that figure. But the definition, although
not accurate, contains a dreadful element of truth. It
would be unfair to visit on the individual soldier the
whole odium of the institution to which he belongs.
True, and the hangman is scarcely responsible for capital
punishment ; yet we should shrink from his company at
our tables. Perhaps the wisest plan is to hate the insti-
tution and pity its members.

Mr. Buskin, many years ago, justified the soldier's
trade, or at least exalted it : —

" Philosophically, it does not, at first sight, appear reason-
able (many writers have endeavoured to prove it unreason-
able) that a peaceable and rational person, whose trade is
buying and selling, should be held in less honour than an
unpeaceable and often irrational person, whose trade is slaying.
Nevertheless, the consent of mankind has always, in spite of
the philosophers, given precedence to the soldier. And this is
right. For the soldier's trade, verily and essentially, is not
slaying, but being slain. This, without well knowing its own
meaning, the world honours it for. A bravo' s trade is slaying ;
but the world has never respected bravos more than merchants ;
the reason it honours the soldier is, because he holds his life at
the service of the State. Reckless he may be — fond of pleasure
or of adventure —all kinds of bye- motives and mean impulses
may have determined the choice of his profession, and may
affect (to all appearance exclusively) his daily conduct in it ;
but our estimate of him is based on this ultimate fact — of
which we are well assured — that put him in a fortress breach,
with all the pleasures of the world behind him, and only death
and his duty in front of him, he will keep his face to the
front ; and he knows that this choice may be put to him at
any moment, and has beforehand taken his part — virtually
takes such part contiaually— does, in reality, die daily."

The element of truth in Ru skin's eloquent defence of the

Boldier we have already atkoowledged ; the rest we deenb
faiioiful and mistakeu. Minere and colliers Tiek their
lives daily, but who calls them heroes ? Policemen often
carry their liTea in tlieir hands, hut who worships them ?
Sailors incur on the average greater danger than soldiers,
but who chants their praises? The fact is, they have no
share in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious
war. It is our fighting instincts that throw a glamoor
round the soldier. Our intellecte approve industry, but
OUT inherited feelings consecrate militarism. In the same
way, long after the Jews had settled down to agriculture,
.they instinctively adored the nomadic character, and all
their legendary heroes came from the pastoral state.

A soldier holds not only his life, but his conscience, at
the service of the State. Buskin dofs not notice that.
But, as civilisation advances and morality refines, the fact
vrill become more obvious. Hosea Biglow is not so
el(i([uent aa the author of Unto this Lniit, yet he utters
many a sound truth in quaint language.

" Ef you take a sword and dror it.

An' go stick a feller thni.
Ghiv'ment ain't to answer for it,

God'll send the bill to you."

What does Ruskin say to that ? AVe laucy it would grate
harsh truth through his most melodious cloqueixce.

Our inherited fighting instincts account also for the-
applause with which we greet the upper classes when they
reward successful generals at our expense. Sir Beau-
champ Seymour was made a lord for bombarding
Alexandria, and received a present of £2.5,000. Lord
"Wolseley had a grant of £25,000 for the Ashantee war,
the only remaining trophy of which is Kiog CoSee's
mabrella ; and another £30.000 for his Egyptian victories.

oil for another Swift to satirise this monstrous absurdity!
In. tlie sixteenth number ol his Examiner, that splendid
wit conipared the rewards, amotiEtiag to over half-a-
million, heaped ou Marlborough, with the rewftrd gireu
to " a victorious general of Home, in the height of that
Em.pire." Nearly a thousand pounds might have been.
spent on a triumphal arch, a. aacrificiiil bull, and other
features of public cplebration in honour of the general ;
but the only IMng he actually' received was a crown of
laurel worth twopence, and perhaps an embroidered robe.
The laurels of a modern general are more costly. He
fights for solid pudding, not for empty praise.

Before we leave the morality of war let us print the
last century's butcher's bill. It is an edifying document :

TEAJtS.

LOSS OF MBH

1793 to 1813

England and France

. 1,900,000

1828

Russia »ad Turkey . .

120,000

1830 to 1849

. Spain and Portugal

160,000

1830 to 1847

. France and Algeria..

110.000

1848

. Civil Strife in Europe

60,000

1834 to 1856

. Crimean Wni-

784,000

185S

. Franco- Austrian War

63,000

1863 to 1865

American Civil War

800,000

1S6S

Aiiatro-Prujsiaa War

51,000

France and Mexico

65,000

1864 to 1870

Brazil and Paniguay

330,000

1870 to 1871

Franco-German Wat

290,000

1876 to 1877

. EusBo-Turkish War

130,000

Total

. 4,913,000

This prodigious slaughter- bill does not include those killed
in the various English and French expeditions. M.
Beaulieu estimates French losses alone in these at 65,000.
Overjwe milliotM of huh saerifiued to the Moloch of War in
'eae than a century ! Imagination shrinks appalled.

23

What a hecatomb of Ticdms to "low ambilii
pride of kings."

If this sort of thing must go on for ever, one
feel inclined, with Haxley, to welcome the approach of
any comet that could sweep this earth, and its millions of
peatilent cutthroats, iato eternal oblivion. No wonder
the great, strong, implacable genius of Swift brought in
■war as one of the worst vicef of the Yahoos. Gulliver's-
master, among the Houyhnbnma, thought he must be-
saying the thing that was not, when he counted the
number of those who had been killed in battle. And
when he described the weapons and maniBUvreB of war-
fare, and related such incidents as "plundering, stripping,
ravishing, burning, and destroying," the Houyhnhnm
commanded him to be silent, and expressed belief that
the Yahoos did not really possess any reaitin, but only
" some quality fitted to increase their natural vices."

The wickedness of war is only eieeeded by its folly. Of
the Crimean War, Mr. Einglake says that "it brought to
the grave a million of workmen and soldiers, and
consumed a pitiless share of the wealth which man's labour
had stored up as the means of life." Yet what advantage
did it bring anyone ? The treaty of peace which closed it
has been torn to shreds ; every provision in it is a dead
letter. What a glorious result after sacrificing a million
Uvea and wasting three hundred and forty millions of
money ! The myriad graves in the Crimea are tenanted by
murdered victims of ia haute politique ; and the churchyard
of Sebastopol is as great a mon^lme□t of criminal folly as-
the pyramid of skulls erected by a Tamerlane or an Attila.

What should we think of a man in private life who-
whipped out a sword every time he quarrelled, and tried
to cat his opponent's throat ? He would soon be relegated

and the- ^^^^
[e might ^^^

24

to the prison or the asylum. What, also, do we think of
a man who sticks to his opinion, however rash it may be,
and refuses to abandon it because he has once taken it up
—as though his infallibility were the chief thing in the
universe, to which all else must be subordinated ; and who
would sooner be ruined than confess to a mistake ? We
consider him a dolt, a mule, a vain idiot. And if he
refuses to submit his di£Perences with others to friendly or
legal adjudication, we regard him as still worse; for we
naturally think with Grotius that ** the party who refuses
to accept arbitration may justly be suspected of bad
faith."

iS'ow, what pecidiar logic is there that can render the
folly of an individual wisdom in a nation, or transform
private wickedness into a national virtue ? We have not
the slightest doubt that quarrels between nations will
eventually be settled as quarrels between individuals are
settled now, by appeal to an acknowledged tribunal. That
is the certain tendency of our age. Even Prince Bismarck,
the man of blood and iron, assisted it by playing the part
of ** the honest broker."

Tho Geneva Arbitration of 1872 on the "Alabama"
dispute was the inauguration of a new era. The arbi-
trators' award mulcted England in £3,000,000, but that
sum is trivial to what the dispute might have cost us had
it rankled into a war. Since then a score of international
disputes have been settled in the same way.

Napoleon himself, in the solitude of St. Helena,
dreamed of " the application to the great European
family of an institution like the American Congress, or
that of the Amphictyon in Greece ; " and he asserted that
''this agglomeration of European peoples must arrive,
«ooner or later, by the mere force of events." How many

25

•eminent men have since expressed the same view.

Victor Hugo uttered the right great word **The United

States of Europe." A recognised international tribunal, a

liigli court of nations, would allow of a great reduction in

ihe armies of Europe. Public opinion would restrain th^

fractious ; or, as Tennyson says, *^ then the common sense

-of most would hold a fretful realm in awe." Even the

most selfish State, in its moment of intensest excitement,

-would shrink from violating international law if the

outrage brought upon it swift punishment by the armed

oomity of Europe. Gradually, with the cessation of wai

and the growth of peaceful sentiments, Europe would

become ashamed of its barbarous past ; and we might

xeasonably hope that the benign process would continue

" Till the war-drums throbbed no longer, and the battle-
flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world."

We promised to say more on the economical aspects of
-war. Take the following (1885) list of European States,*
-with the cost of their armies and navies, and the interest
•on their national debts :

OOTTNTRY.

Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Prance . .
Germany
Great Britain

ARMY AND

NAVY.

£13,400,000

1,900,000

1,000,000

35,500,000

18,200,000

28 900 000

INTEREST ON
NATIONAL DEBT.

£21,400,000

4,100,000

500,000

47,000,000

13,400 000

30,000,000

Carried forward £98,900,000

£116,400.000

^ The figfores for 1885 may stand, as they were taken en bhc from a

t r ustw orthy source — the * * Finanoial B«f orm Almanack. * * I have gone

tliroQgh ih» current ** Statesman's Year Book,** and I find that there

2ias been an increase of thirteen miUiont in the European war budget*

\

Holland
Italy ,.
Norway
Portugal
Roumania

Switzerland
Turkey . .

1.000,000
2,700,00()
19,000,000
460,000
1.400,000
1,100,00(1
33,000,000
3i0,00()

)8,001)

IHTBBBST CWf

NATIONAl E

£116.400,000

8-&.000

2,700.000

20,000,000

270,000

2,9C

2,000,000

2», 500,000

310.000

10,730 000

600.000

78,000

12,330,000

jEl71.»ue,000 £197,713,000

Here is a grand total of three hundrtd and sevenltf
spent every year on war preparations and on acoonnt of

Let it aUo be noted that the annual war-bill of nearly
every country goes on inoreMtng. England ia no exception.
Mr. O-ladstoue started well when he took the reins from.
Earl Beaconsfield, but his military and naval eipenditura
went up year by year, until his twenty-six milliona grew
to thirty, to say nothing of the £9,451,000 vote of credit
he obtained to put him in a position to play the game of
brag with hie old friend the Czar of Eussia.

Now take the cost of i
thirty years :

Crimean War . .
ItaUan War (1859) .
Auierioun Civil Wai' .

few great wars during the last

£340.000,000

(iO.OOO.OOO

1,400,000,000

Carried forward £1,800,000,000

iOBK 1

■ Thia was the oost to tho NartlieTB States alone. The cost to t
SonCbem States would pcobablf briug the total bill up

27

Bronght forward . ,
Aostro-Pnissiaii War
Franco -PmHaian War
RuaHO-TarWRh War , .
Zuln and Afghan Wars

£1.ROO,000.000
tJO.OOO.OOO
500,000,000
210,000.000
30,()00,000

£2,600,000,000
This would allow £2 for every man, woman, and child on
tlie globe. It would make two railwaja round the earth
at the rate oi £50,000 a mile. It would provide every
adult male in Europe with a freehold farm of 100 acres
in the United States of America.

Daring the present century England alone has spent on
her army and navy, and the interest of her national debt,
aearly lix thousand milliom. A third of that sum would
buy up her whole soil from the landlords, restore it to the
people, and settle the Land Question for ever. Out of
every pound of taxes we now pay, I6s. l^d. goee for War,
War Debt, or preparation for War, and only Ss. lOJd, for
all other purposes. And as the chief part of our national
income is raised by indirect taxation, it follows that the
main burden of war falls upon tiie shoulders of the
Fkopls.

Compare with the colossal sum we spend on War the
paltry amount we spend on Education,' and then ask
whether we are not afflicted with insanity. Buiikin once
inquired what was the proper view of a rich householder
vho expended ten pounds a year on his library and five
Imndred on policemen to guard [his shutters.

England's National Debt ia over teven hundred milliom,
Wwad nearly every penny of it has been contracted by our

BDditn

1 Army and Kavj is, roughly.

•Our

3,000,000 ; our expeoditore on Natjonal EdocatioD is less than

tt,ooo,ooo.

28

class- government since the "glorious revolution" of 168^^
solely for the purpose of maintaining "the balance o^^
power " in Europe, which simply meant interfering wit^^
other people's business, or sharing in their quarrels. W^^
began, at the accession of William HE., with a paltr^^
debt of £664,264 ; but small^as the sum was, it acted like^
a vital germ, from which was developed a huge system oi
financial corruption. When the taxes of the country were
once pledged, it was easy to draw further drafts on
posterity for the conduct of enterprises that would never
have been undertaken if their expenses had to be borne
at the time. Accordingly, we find that, at the accession
of .Queen Anne, the Debt amounted to £12,767,225.
Marlborough's campaigns nearly trebled it, for at the
accession of George I. it had increased to £36,175,460.
Under that imported monarch it rose to £52,523,023;
and under his successor to £102,014,018. Then came
George in., who was for a long while mad and always
blind ; and under his perverse and foolish rule the Tory
government involved us in a wanton war with our brethren
in America, and afterwards in a mad war with the French
Bepublic. The result was that, when George m. departed
to whatever place is reserved for his like, the Debt
amounted to the prodigious sum of £834,900,960.

At this moment the male population of England — that
is, every actual or potential head of a family — ^is indebted
£85 4s. 8d. to the national bondholders, because preceding
governments, without obtaining or soliciting the people's
consent, went fighting at large in Europe and America
wherever an opportunity for a scrinmiage presented itself.

This National Debt handicaps us with an initial burden
of over twenty-two millions a year in the shape of interest.
Our fathers danced to a sorry tune, and we have to pay

29

^^ exorbitant piper. And as most of our taxation is

'^S^ed indiredlyj it follows that this yearly interest is a

l^^i^ennial burden on our national industry. During the

Present century, to go back no farther, we have paid in

^'^^'UreBt alone the terrific sum of nearly two thousand five

^'^*nired miOions. Surely a visitor from a distant planet

\8ay Voltaire's Satumian) on learning these facts, would

Buppose that he had lighted on a race of madmen.

Who can point to a single particle of good which our
lavish expenditure on war and warlike preparations has
conferred on any human being, except generals, eamj
contractors, and bondholders? When the little boy, in
Southey's poem, wants to know what the battle of
Blenheim was all about, and what benefit resulted from
the rival armies leaving their empty skulls as memorials
to future ages, old Kaspar is nonplussed.

*' Why, that I cannot tell," said he,
** But 'twas a famous victory."

A famous victory ! Yes, the adjective is thrown over it
to hide the misery and folly. '' Glory " is the bait on the
despot's hook ; the gilded fetter on a strutting slave ; the
plume in the helm of a mailed freebooter. True and
lasting glory is only won by the victories of peace.
^' These are matters so arduous," as Milton told Cromwell,
" that in comparison of them the perils of war are but the *
sports of children."

People still talk of '^ glory," but wherein consists the

true greatness of England? In the noble language of

Landor:

** The strength of England lies not in armaments and in-
vasions ; it lies in the omnipresence of her industry, and in the
vivifying energies of her high civilisation. There are provinces
she cannot grasp ; there are islands she camiot hold fast ; but

30

there is neither island nor province, there is neither kingdonci
nor continent, which she conld not draw to her side and fix
there everlastingly, by saying the magic words Be Free.
Every land wherein she favours the sentiments of freedom,
every land wherein she forbids them to be stifled, is her own ;
a true ally, a willing tributary, an inseparable friend. Princi-
ples hold those together whom power would only alienate.*'

There are at present only two coiintries in Europe that
cherish a constant friendship for England. One is Greece,
whom we aided in her gallant struggle for emancipation ;
the other is Italy, who remembers our sympathy when she
revolted against the Axustrian yoke.

Meanwhile, let it be noticed that our governing classes
always keep a bogey to frighten us with. Long ago it
was France ; now it is Eussia. Earl Beaconsfield traded
on that bogey, and Mr. Gladstone followed suit ; in fact
he nearly involved us in. a war with Bxussia through a
squabble over an Afghan outpost. England is perpetually
warned against the stealthy advances of '^ Eussian
aggrandisement." But are not our shocked feelings a
little amusing? Eussian conquests during the last
hundred and thirty years amount to 1,642,000 square
miles, with a meagre population of 17,135,000; while
England's conquests in the same period amount to
2,650,000 square miles, with 250,000,000 people. Our
Jingoes appear to think that England may steal sheep,
but Exussia must not catch a rabbil;.

All over Europe the same game is played. Peoples are
filled by their rulers with a blind and passionate hatred
of each other. Austria glares at Exussia, and Etuasia at
Austria. France and Germany vie with each other in mili-
tary organisation, waiting with feverish blood and panting
breath for the next death-wrestle. Italy prepares herself
to strike in the combat as it suits her interest. And the

81

smaller States, like Switzerland and Belgium, tremble lest
their neutrality should be violated in the bloody strife.
Ohxistendom is armed to the teeth ; and as Sir Henry
Maine too truthfully observes, '' During the last quarter
of a century, a great part, perhaps the greatest part,
of the inventive faculties of mankind has been given to
the arts of destruction." The workman in the factory and
the peasant in the field know that they may at any
moment be summoned from their peaceful vocations by
the trumpet of battle. They know also that war has
become more and more scientific, that horrid explosives
have made it more ghastly, and that they would be
marshalled for hideous slaughter, where each man sees
the comrade fall at his side but not the enemy that strikes
him dead. Some of them who sicken at the prospect, not
with coward fears but with manly disgust, might almost
csry with Shakespeare's Northumberland :

" Let heaven kiss earth ! Now let not Nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confined ! Let order die I
And let this world no longer be a stage
To feed Contention in a lingering act ;
But let one spirit of the first-bom Cain
Beign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead ! "

Europe is the modem Damocles. The ancient bearer ef
that name envied the wealth of Dionysius of Sicily, who
jestingly gave him a taste of royal pleasures. Damocles
ascended the throne and gazed admiringly on the wealth
and splendour around him. But looking up, he perceived
a sword hanging over his head by a single hair. The
sight so terrified him that he begged to be removed from
his position. Europe likewise sits at its feast of life, but

32

the fatal weapon suspended overhead mars its felicity.
Serpents twine in the dance, arms clash in the song,
the meats have a strange savour, there is a demoniac
sparkle in the wine, and a poisonous bitterness in the
dregs of the cup. All is darkened bj the Shadow of the
Sword,

PTJBLIC CONTROL OF HOSPITALS.

PUBLIC COKTEOL OF HOSPITALS.

The Problem Stated.
" The poorer the gueet, the bettev pleased he ever is with
being treated," philosophised the Vicar of Wakefield;
and the aphorism which he applied to his poor relations
is eqaally true of those who come under medical care.
Thus is explained, or at any rate partly explained, the
long silence concerning hospital management on the part
of those who have been inmates of these refuges for the
sick. Concerning these, however, like so many other
previously uncriticised institutions, the public voice is at
last beginning to demand, and in somewhat c|uerulous
tones, that more information be given, that more light
be thrown on their inner working.

In this paper I propose to state, as briefly as may be,
the facts which, from the point of view of the layman,
demonstrate the advisability, or rather the necessity, of
taking the control of the hospitals out of the hands of
the present governing bodies and placing it directly in
the hands of the people's representatives. And here I
vould lay stress on what may appear a truism to any but
those interested, namely, that the laif point of view is the
only one to be considered. There cannot be any rational
discussion of " the professional point of view " of which
we have heard so much. Hospitals should exist solely
tor the good of the people, and aot in the least for th&

aggrandisement, amuaement, or scientific adrancemeiit ot
any claes of specialists.

In offering, then, any criticiBm of existing management,
or considering any scheme for new management, we must
«samine into these ixuestiona :

1. How most economically to provide adequate treat-

ment for the sick.

2. How beat to provide for the greatest benefit and

comfort of such of the public as would derive ad-
vantage from hospital treatment.

3. How most advantageously, without in the least

involving the second question, to provide for the
technical training of new generations of surgeons
and physicians.

The Extent op Thb Hospital System.

The treatment of the sick in modern England is a very
much more organised and rational affair than the old
Babylonian method of laying the sick in the public
squares, on the chance that someone might pass who had
formerly suffered from the same ailment and had die-
covered a cure for it. Nevertheless, so early as 4,000
years before Christ, the Egyptians seem to have had an
extensive system of public hospitals in connection with the
temples, with medical schools attached to the hospitals.
But, in a later age, Egypt appears to have reckoned science
above humanity, and Celaua says of them that "They
procured criminals out of prison by Boyal Commission,
and dissecting them alive, contemplated, while they were
yet breathing, what natiiro had before concealed." We
find a marked contrast in the more humane customs of
the followers of Buddha, as is seen from this extract from

4

ery I

an edict of the Hindoo emperor Asoka, who was crowned
almnt 270 B.C. and founded hospitals throughout India
and Ceylon : —

" Everywhere within the conquered provinces of Kaja Piya-

■dati, the beloved of the gods, as well ob in the parts occupied
hy the faithful, such as Chola, Pida Satiyaputra, aud Ketala-
patra, and even as far as Tambapanni, and moreover within
the dominion of Antiochns the Qreei (of whii-h Antioohus's
generals are the rulers), everywhere the heaven- beloved Baja
Fiyadasi's double system of medii;al aid is hereby established ;
both medical aid for men ond medical aid for animals, together
with medicaments of all sorts which are suitable for men aud
suitable for animals."

In England, to-day, the extent of the variooB instru-
ments for the collective treatment of the sick poor ia even
more enormous than ia usually supposed. Thus, in the
Zaneet for November 0th, 1889, Dr. Bentoul calculated
that 4,000,000 persoEB receive free medical relief in Eng-
land yearly. He said further ; " I think if one said that
one person in three waa provided with practically free
medical relief in this country a very near approach to
accuracy woxild be made."

It is said that about 8,000 petsons are emphiyed
throughout the year in tending the sick "paupers" of
Iiondon. The infirmaries of London are provided with
about 14,000 beds, whilst the thirteen Loudon hospitals
to which medical schools are attached have nearly 5,000
beds, and the Fever hospitals of the Metropolitan Asy-
lums Board about 3,500. The number of beds gives but
a small idea of the number of the patients attended.
Thus the thirteen large London hospitals above alluded
to provide treatment annually for over 51,000 in-patienta,
and over 660,000 out-patients, in addition to attending
more than 15,000 maternity cases in the patients' homes.

UoreoTer, tlie demand for hospital treatment is graving
erery year. Tbua, whereas the number of out' patients
treated in Birmingham in 1867 waa 67,000 ; twenty years
later it had grown to 166,000, The annual income of the
various voluntary hospitala in Qreat Britain amounts to
some one and a half millions, of which the London
general hospitala absorb about one third. Of this half a
mil li nn, something over £200,000 is derived from dividends,
invested property and grants, about £80,000 from legacies,
£46,000 from subscriptions, and £54,000 from donations.

Surely such an esteDsive system is composed of
mutually helpful and thoroughly inter-related parts ;
and is not left in the hands of a number of competing
groups of almost irresponsible persons. Tet, as a matter
of fact, so unrelated are the various hospitals that even in
matters of finance we find no common ground. Thus, to
give but one instance, whereas the annual cost per bed at
St. George's Hospital is only £88, at St. Bartholomew's it
is nearly £130; whilst in the Infirmaries it only aniounts
to some £30 or £40. Surely there must be either absurd
extravagance or meanness somewhere. Even the Hos-
pitals Committee was obliged to report its " regret that
there does not seem to be any genuine wish for co-opera-
tion between the Tarious kinds of medical Institutions.
They are of opinion that much more might be done than
at present by the hearty co-operation between the special
hospitals and general hospitals, between dispensaries of
all kinds and general hospitals, and between general
practitioners and general hospitala." ^H

Patients on " Clinicai. Material " ? ^H

Concerning the inhumane treatment of hospital patients
a great deal of unwise and exaggerated stuff has been

B 'written. To read some of these rag^ue denunciatorj out-

Pponrings one would imag^ae that every c[iiaMed medical

in the country naa a sort of diseaRe-Bpreading devil,

I vhoae whole mind was ever devoted to diacovering some

[ new pain to inflict on his fellow men. Anyone with his

[ «yea open, who is at all acquainted on the one hand with

I hospital life and on the other with the home of the

I average hospital patient, must eee that to hundreds of

I thousanda of poor people the hospitals as at present

worked have been a veritable godsend. In the very great

L majority of all serious cases the patients are well fed and

1 well nursed, and receive the beat skilled treatment obtain-

f able. But, while we are glad to allow this much, we

I must not forget the other side of the matter. There is,

f beyond all doubt, a great deal of abuse consequent on

I the almost unlimited powers of the medical staS, This

I power is especially misplaced when we remember the

motive which makes men anxious to get on the staff of

any of the great hospitals. The Londiin hospitals do not

for the most part pay any salaries to their staffs, either

■visiting or resident. The resident staff of house surgeons,

house physicians, and obstetric officers, consists as a rule

of students ol the particular hospital who have recently

■ obtained qualidcations, and ore anxious to get some real
I experience before leaving their alma mater ; whilst the
I visiting staff consists of men with h'gh qualifications who
I are desirous of obtaining more esperience on the one
) hand and of becoming known to the profession and

■ 4>utaide world on the other. Thus, in the BritiaH Medical
I Jtmmai Dr. Hickman is reported as saying in all cuidoor
f-that

" the large and increasing number of hogpitalB and dispensaries
not an evidence of the intense interest taken t)y the pro-

fessioii in the poor, nor was the Urge araoimt of time I
labour gjatuitouaty devoted to their service simply an index ij
the diBintereated philanthropy of medical men. The object of
this int«reat and these serrioes was not the benefit of the poor,
nor of the profession, but the partiiMilor benefit of the indi-
vidual, who looked forward to be amply repaid in the future
by increased experience, enhanced reputation, and the legiti-
mate advertisement of himself, which was ahnosl the only
opening to high-class practice and high-class fees."

The profeaaion, moreover, is far too prone to regard the
hospitals merely as departments of the medical schools.
Thus we find Mr. Timothy Holmes, one of our most
eminent Burgeons, saying'
"that the chief use of hospitals was that they should teacli

practitioners of medicine and surgery Firstly, a

hospital should be a place for medical education ; secondly,
for the relief of suffering; and, thirdly, for the training of
nurses ; all of which objects should be considered in due
projiortion by those eiercising the management."
Again, Dr. Carter, the then President of the Medical
Society,' speaking at the Mansion House in 1886, said : —
" The greatest use of hospitals is to promote the advance-
ment of medical science, and to afiord us improved
methods of recognising and treating disease."

It ia obvious that to delegate the control of our hospitals
to men holding these views is an absurdity beyond defence.
No wonder the suspicion begins to show itaelf that the
" human viyiaeetion " of Veaalius and Fallopius, of
Eraaistratus and Herophilus ia being, or about to be,
revived. For this suspicion there is of course some
foimdation. We are getting familiar with proposals for
vivisecting criminala, idots, and such ; and the distance

' Sritiih Medical Jbuntai, Aprii,
> Laaal, June 26, ISBS. (P. 12fi0).

a crimiaal and a pauper is ub uallj easily traversed
by the wishful. Of course, anything which could be
legitimately described aa dangerous or painful experimen-
tation on hospital patients must be fat from common in
this country. Probably a majority of surgeoas and
physicians would discountenance anything approaching
it. But at the same time there is do excuse for the
auper- critical air which Mr. Haveloclt Ellis assumes in
his book on "The Nationalisation of Health," where he

"I doubt whether many people realise the auapicion with
whioh a certain section o[ the more ignorant classes regard
hospitals. Indeed, even among the more inteUcctual classes.
the criticii of medicine are in England, as a distinguished
French Burgeon has recently said they are in France, frequently
conspicuous for their enormous incompetence. Charges of
gross neglect, charges of treating patients as subjects for
eiperiment, are freely and fiercely expressed, and occasionally
they gain a prominent position in the newspapers and novels. On
investigation these charges usually turn out to be ridiculously
devoid of foundation; and anyone who is familiar with the
working of our large hospitals knows that such accusations ara
BO absurd that it is difficult to consider them seriously."

The Medical Pbofession amd VivisEcrrioN'.
But one finds it far less difficult to consider them
seriously when it is borne in mind what is the practice
and doctrine of the men against whom these charges are
made, and their colleagues, in the allied matter of animal
vivisection. I say allied, because both animal vivisection
and experiments on human beings are baaed on the same
scientific fetish of misunderstood utilitarianism, namely,
that the few and the weaker may wisely be used for the
greater benefit of the many and the strong. We knoir

10

that those whose time is largely occupied with the
slaughtering of cattle in the primitiye and brutal maxuier
which is still the almost universal one in this countxy axe
more prone than their neighbours to commit assaults
on their fellow men. In the same way, it is fair to
expect that men accustomed to subject animaTs to
pain, primarily, it may be, in order that their fellow men
may ultimately profit, but subsequently and more usually
in order that some new scientific fact may be discovered,
and consequent honour and glory be their's — ^it is fair to
expect that such men will be somewhat apt to use the
€ick pauper who chances to be suitable for the purpose to
further the progress of science, even if such use is detri-
mental to the individual thus treated. Such an inference
implies no suggestion that doctors are naturally any
worse or less humane than other people, for such a
suggestion would be absurd, but is simply based on the
ordinary well-established laws of training and habitude.

In order to give an idea of the way in which animal
vivisection is regarded by men who are reckoned at the
head of the profession, the following extracts may serve.
In answer to a question from the Chairman of the Boyal
Commission of 1876, "What is your own practice with
regard to the use of anaesthetics in experiments that are
otherwise painful?" Dr. Klein, F.B.S. (Lecturer on
Physiology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital), said: —

** Except for teaching purposes, for demonstration, I never
use ansBsthetics where it is not necessary for convenience. If
I demonstrate, I use ansBsthetics. If I do etzperiments for my
inquiries in pathological research, except for convenience sake,
as for instance on dogs and cats, I do not use them.

** Chairman : When you say that you only use them for con-
venience sake, do you mean that you have no regard at all to
the sufferings of the animals ?

11

regard at all. I think that with regard to an experi-
B. man who oonducts special Tesearali, and perfor

baa no time, aa to speak, for tkinking what will
the animal feel or suffer, His only purpose is to perform the
experiment, to learn as much from it as possible, and to do it
as quickly as possible. For my own purposes I disregard
entirely this question of the auffmng of the animal ia per-
forming a painful experiment. I regard it for demODstration
because 1 know that there ia a great deal of feeling against it
in this country, and when it is not necessary one should not
perhaps act against the opinion or the belief of certain in-
dividuals of the auditorium. One must take regard of the
feelings and opinions of those people before whom one does
the experiment."

How the more cautious and time-serriDg experimenters
must regard such candid statements aa the loUowing by
Dr. Charles Eichet in the .Revue dea deux Maudes (Feb. 15th,
1883) may perhaps be imagined. Thus Dr. Eichet : —

"I do not believe that a single experimenter says to himself
■when he gives curare to a rabbit, or cuts the spinal marrow of
a, dog, or poisons a frog ; ' Here is an experiment which will
leKeve or will cure the disease of some man.' No, in truth, he
does not think of that I He says to himself, ' I shall clear np
an obscure point, I will seek out a new fact.' And this
scientific curiosity, which alone animates him, is explained by
the high idea he has formed of Science. This is why we pass
our days in fmtid laboratories, surrounded by groaning
oreatures, in the midst of blood and suifering. bent over
palpitating entrails."

As showing how the ordinary prejudices of mankind
against ruthlessly causing pain to sentient creatures may
.be overcome, and how the pain or disgust whijh moat
people Bsporience in the presence of mangled bodies of
living animals may be converted into exuberant joy, the
following extract from the " Methodik " of FrofesBor

Oyon (Lecturer on Phjmology at the University of St.
Petersburg) may be of melauQholy interest : —

"The true Tivisector must approach it difficult vivisectton
with the same joytul excitement, with the same delight, with
which a surgeon undertakes a difBcult operation, from trbich
he expects extraordinary consequences. He who shrinks from
oQtting into a hving animal, he who approaches a viyisection
as a disagreeahle necessity, may very hkely be able to repeat
one or two vivisectiona, but will never become an artiat in
vivisection. He who cannot follow some fine nerve-thread,
scarcely visible to the naked eye, into the depths, if possible
sometimes tracing it to a new branching, with joyful alertness
for hours at a time, he who feels uo enjoyment when at last,
parted from its surroundings and isolated, he can subject that
nerve to electrical stimulation ; or whew, in some deep carity,
guided only by the sense of touch of his finger-ends, he
ligatures and divides an invisible vessel— to such a one there
is wanting that which is moat neceaaary for a succesaful
vivisector. The pleasure of triumphing over difficulties held
hitherto insuperable is always one of the highest delights of
the viviseetor. And the sensation of the physiologist when
from a gruesome wound, full of blood and mangled tissue, he
draws forth some delicate nerve-branch, and calls back to life
a function which waa Eilready extinguished, this sensation
has much in common with that which inspires a sculptor,
when he shapes forth fair living forma from a shapeless mass
of marble." ^^H

" Corpora Vilia." ^^H

We need not now be surprised to hear tbat a tendency
towards experimentation on human beings is not such an
impossibility ae Mr. Ellis would liave ua believe. The
recent exposure of the Chelsea Hospital for Women by
Dr. Louis Parkea should open our eyes a little, and the
folloning extracta from the semi-official organs of the
profession and etandaid medical text-books may prerent

13

m from closing quite bo tightly again. But firet of
■ell let ua clear the way liy reading the following letter
*om Dr. Arroand do Watteville, M.A,, M.D., B.Sc. (until
leceatly on the staff of St, Mary's Hospital), which ap-
jieared in the Standard of November 24th, 1883 ;—

To the Editor of " Tke Standaed"
Sir, — a few days ago an anonymous letter appeared in your
-«oluiniiB which, emanating (as the signature, "M.D.," appeared
~^M show) from a medical practitioner, ought uot to he allowed
"to pass without an energetic protest. As far a« I cau see, the
-writer intends to bring a charge against a distinguished
3nember of his own profession, a physician who by bis labours
-In the field of therapeutics, has done eminent service to
medicine, and has been instrumental to the rehef of much
^huinan suffering — a serious charge, I aay, viz., that of having
-used patients in a hospital for other purposes than those tend-
ing to their own direct benefit.

Now I should hke to ask ' M.D.,' wbether his whole career
-&E a medical student, from the day he handled his first bone to
that on which be passed his last clinical eiamination, did not
involve abuses very similar to those tor which he now joins
the unfortunately ever growing pscudo -humanitarian outcry
against the methods of rational medicine?

" What right had he to trample upon the feeluigs of othera
in dissecting the bodies of people whose sole crime was to have
been poor, and, still more, to acquire his clinical experience at
the expense of, perhaps, much hutnan shame and aufiering ?

" 1 think we, as medical men, should not attempt to conceal
from the public the debt of gratitude they owe to the corpora
vilia — for such there are, and will be, as long as the healing art
exists and progresses. So far from there being a reason why
moral and pecuniary support should be refused to hospitals on
the ground that their inmates are made use of otherwise than
for treatment, there is every ground why more and more
should be given to them, in order to compensate by every
poanble comfort for the dis-comforta necessarily entailed by
"the edttoation of succeeding generations of medical men,

aad the improvements in our methods ot coping with
disease.

" No amount of hystsrical af^tation and so called humani-
tarian agitation will alter the laws of nature, one of the
plainest of which ia that the tew must suffer for the mnnjr.
SentimentalistB who think they know bettor, who uphold the
abstract ' Rights ot Man,' and want to push them to their
logical conaequences, have no other alternative in the queation
now before us than to condemn the modem course of medical
studies, and ti'uat themaelvea into the hands of bookmen whose
tactua eruditus will have to be formed at theit expenae. The
fundamental question at issue ia not whether in this or that
instance improper use waa made of a hoapital patient, but
whether the manipulations and obeervationa indispensable for
the acquisition and extension of medical knowledge are to be
made in a connected and enlightened manner in public insti-
tutions and under the eyes of experienced men, or to be left
to the isolated haphazard and groping efforts ot necessarily
ignorant men upon the persona of any who may be found to pay
them in the hope ot benefiting by their medical skill.

"Whilst defending the moral grounds upon which experi-
mental medicine rests, I allow that there are Kmita, narrow
limits, beyond which it would be imprudent or criminal to go.
But I most emphatically proteat against the tendency of men
nowadays — and I am ashamed to observe that a few are to be
found within the medical profession itself — who act upon the
supposition that the public at large form a proper tribunal to
decide upon what constitutes a tranagreasion of those limite.
Those alone are competent judges who are able to form a
correct opinion on the one hand of the ultimate utility, on the
otiier of the proximate consequences of any investigations in
eorpoTt vili."

"We will next consider a few extracts from an osceed-
ingly well-known and highly respected test-book, the
" Handbook of Therapeutics," by Dr. Sydney Einger,
Physician to University College Hospital. The editioii of
this book which I possess is the eleventh, published in 1 886.

15

[, I have made ^^^f
Qiuacariu on the I

Oa page 490 we read : —

"In conjunction with Mr, B. A. Horahead, I
some investigations concerning the s
'bxaaa.n body. Our observations were undertaken to ascertain
whether its action on man is the same as on animaJa. We have
made thirteen experiments on four men, seven, three, two, and
ODe respectively. These men, it is well to state, were not in
good health ; three were in a delicate aniGmic state, the other
had slight fever from some obscure cause, though his pulse was
not quickened."

*' It contracts the pupil, excites profuse perspiration, free
salivation, r unnin g at the eyes and nose ; it purges, sometintaa

«xcites nausea and vomiting The perspiration stood in

large drops on the face after the larger doses, the nightdreaa

became soafeed, and the skin felt sodden In five the

drug produced a frequent hacking cough."

Elsewhere we read ; —

4

" To test the effect of gelsemium .
thirty-three series of observations c
induced the full toxic effects."

And again : —

" In order to teat the effects of gelae'

. the circulation, I made
whom we

1 doses sufficient to pro-

Later

6 told :-

" One patient experienced paiu over the occiput, with a sen-
sation as if the crown of the head were being lifted in two

pieces Giddiness was another prominent and early

symptom. . . . When well marked, the patients staggered,
and were afraid even to stand, much leaa walk. So giddy was

one patient that he nearly fell off the form In every

case the sight was effected,"

In another place Dr. Binger reports : —
" In conjunction with Mr. Bury, I have made some investi'
gations concerning the action of aalidne on the human body.

■llA in nffpn von '

oaing healthy children tor oar experimeitta.

does sufficient to produce toxic symptoms.

And he further tells us that " the headache ia often very

severe, bo that the patient buries his head in the piUaw."

" Our flrHt set of experiments were made on a lad aged ten.
.... He was admitted with belladonna poisoning, but our
obaervations were not commenced till aomo days after his com-
plete recovery. . . . Though a very lively boy, he became
very dull and stupid, lying with his eyes closed, and answering-
questions slowly. He complained of tingling like pins and
needles in his right ankle, and flufiVred from very deddad
muscular weakness, soon accomx>auied by muscular twitcl
and tremblings of the legs and arms

Concemiag the therapeutice of lead Baits we read ;-

"There, too, ia tie fact, in further confirmation of
GaiTod's discoveries, that it to a gouty person, free at the
time from an acnte attaclc, a suit of lead is administered, it
develops acute gout, with its aooompanying symptoms of severe
pain and high fever. The author baa repeatedly verified this
fact."

Before we leave Dr. Ringer, mention may be made of
the well-known report by himself and Dr. Murrell, of
Weatminster Hospital, on the action of nitrite of sodium.
The report appeared in the Lancet for November 3rd,
1883, and from it the following extracts are taken,

" In addition to fheae experiments we have uiade some obser-
vations clinically. To eighteen adults, fourteen men and four
women, we ordered ten gniins of the parti nitrite of sodium in
one ounce of water, and of these seventeen declared that they
were unable to take it. They came back protesting loudly
and required no questioning as to the symptoms produced.
They seemed to be pretty unanimous on one point, that it was
the worst medicine they had ever taken. They said it they
ever took another dose they would expect to drop down dead,
and it would aerve them right. One man, a burly atrong
fellow, auffering a little from rheumatiam only, said that after

voided

f D^^^

17

taking the first dose be felt giddy, as if he would go off
sensible, Hi£ lips, face and hands turned bine, and lie had
lie down for an hour and a half before he dared
heart fluttered and he suffered from throbbing pains in the
head. Ho was urged to take anotlior dose, but declined on the '
ground that he had a wife and family. Another patient had '
to sit down for an hour after the dose, and said that it took all
bis strength away. He, too, seemed to think that the medicine
did not agree with him. The women appear to have suffered
more than the men ; at all events, they expressed their opinions
more forcibly. One woman said that ten minutes after toking
tbe first dose (she did not take a second), she felt a trembling
sensation all over and suddenly fell to the floor. Whilst lying
there she perspired profusely, her face and head seemed swollen
and throbbed violently until she thought they wou'd burst.
.... Another woman said she thought she would have died
after taking a dose, it threw her into a violent perspiration,
and in less than five minutes her lij)s turned quite black and
throbbed for hours ; it upset her so much that she was afraid
she would never get over it. The only one of the fourteen
patients who made no complaint after taking ten grains was

powerfully affected by fifteen The effect on these

patients was so unpleasant that it was deemed iinndvisable to
repeat the dose."

Dr. W. E. Gowers is the author of what is probably
the moat valued work on Nerrous Diseases, and was tbe
Qulstoniao lecturer to the Eoyal College ol Physieians in
1880. From the report of one of these lectures we
extract the following : —

" A very interesting fact has, however, been ascertained by
Dr. Pamskill, viz., that picrotoxine in large doses of from
fifteen to eighteen njilli grammes will almost invariably produce
a fit in twenty or thirty minutes.

" In one patient, for instance (according to the notes of Mr.
Broster, wtio carried out the experiments), the dose was daily
increased, and when more than five milligrammes were iojectod
a sensation of giddiness followed similar to that with which

the attacks comtuenued. The same effect followed larger in-
jectioua, and wlieu the doBB reached eightecii milligramiiies
a aerere attack ocaurred thirtjr miautes later, and an attack
always followed the injection of this dose. In another patient
a similar progresaive inciease of the dose was followed by
giddineu and headache when eight milligmmmes were in-
jected. When the dose of fifteen milligraiumes was reached
a severe epileptic fit followed. Next day a second dose of
fifteen milligrammes did not cause a fit, hut eighteen milli-
grammes, two days later, caused a fit in half-au-hour. After
a week's inteniiission twenty-foiir milligrammes were injected,
and a severe fit occurred in tweuty-five minutes. In a third
patient a fit occurred after one injection of eight milligrammea,
but ten milligrammes next day caused a fit in fifteen minutes.
Seventeen milhgrammes next day caused a fit in thirty
minutes. In a fourth patient a single dose of eighteen milli-
grammes caused in ten minutes giddiness and slight dazzling
before the eyes, and in thirty minutes there occurred the usual
aura of an attack — a sensation of something creeping up the
right ana to the top of the head, and numbness and twitching
iu the right thigh, but no fit followed, although the j
was stupid and dull for a time as after a fit." — Lancet, i
10th, IflSO.

It IB therefore quite idle to protest that i
mentation ia performed on patients in hospitals, quitfl
apart from any possible good which might result to then!
from such treatment. It is seen that drugs a
ally givOD without the patient's condition being in thfti
least considered; in eome cases being gi
healthy persons. Whilst it may be urged that 1
oxperimenta are never carried to such an extent i
England as seriously to endanger life, it ie obvious tl
much BufEering is caused, and the line of demarcati<n
bntweon causing suffering and placing a patient in dai
is not a very clear one, and ie easily overstepped. E
experiments as those whose records I have quoted e

IS

'be clearly marked o£E from another form of experiment,
namely, tlie trying of a new drug with the sole idea of
benefiting the patieut on whom the trial is made ; though
even then the nature of the experiment should be clearly
explained to the subject. The some distinctiDu must ba
made between dangerous surgical operations petformed
to give a man a last chance and similar operations per-
formed to relieve a condition of less danger than the
operation itself. This distinction is often overlooked by
the sentimentalists vho occasionally air their well-meant
but somewhat ill-founded views in the columns of the
daily papers. Operations performed etherwise than for
the good of the patients I believe to be very rare. At
the same time they are not unknown, and we find Dr.
C^on, from whose work I have already quoted, saying
that

■ ■ many a surgical operation is performed less for the benefit of
the patient than for the service of science, and the utility of
the knowledge aimed at thereby ia often much more trifling
than that attained by vivisection of an animal."

Again, we may quote from the report of Dr. Farkes on
the fatal operations performed at the Chelsea Hospital for
Women; —

"The aim of the majority of these operations is to mitigate
pain and discomfort, and not primarily to save Ufe; the diseased
conditions, for the relief of wMcli such operative treatment is
applied, being for the most part chronic in their natures and
by no means tending to an early fatal termination. It is
evident, therefore, that the question of the justifiability of snch
operations must arise, unless it is possible to reduce the risk of
fatal issue from such operations to on extremely low figure."

Further comment on these extracts is unnecessary. The
talk of experimentation in English hospitals, though often
absurdly exaggerated, ia thus seen to be not without

20

faimdation. Though, as haa been stated, thia kind of
tiling is comparatively rars, yet the more fact of its
oocaaional esiatenoe, without producing any signa of dis-
approval on the part of other members of the profeaaion,
la Bufficient to nfloeaaitate the limitation of the power of ,
the medical atafl. J

Faith and Charity. ^

But there are many other grievances almost equally
serious and much more common than direct experimenta-
tion. The ordinary method o( conduoting extern obstetric
prEictice in comiection with the hospitals is one which
urgently requires reform.

Most of the London hospitals to which medical schools
are attached arrange for the medical attendance on a large
number of maternity cases in the patients' homes. These
cases are almost entirely attended by students, and very
rarely is any precaution taken to ensure that a stu den
has any practical, or even theoretical, acquaintance
with midwifery. Often a student attends his first case
entirely alone. It ia true that an overworked resident
obstetric officer (just qualified) is attached to eaoh
hospital ; and to him the student may send in case of
emergency if he recognises it. The wasted pain and
subsequent injury which such unskilled treatment entails
must be something enormous.

Nor is the present system of out-patient relief adopted
at the hospitals much more satisfactory. Sir William
Gull, at a meeting of the Charity Organisation Society,
characterised it as "a disgrace to any civilised com-
munity," and the British Medical Journal (May 4th, 1878)
writes that : —

" It is a notorious fact that a fractional part only of the

21

outpatients who crowd the London hospital doora can obtaio
more thau a. few hurried words of advice from the medical staff,
let alone careful diagnosiB or treatment ; yet so rooted ij tie-
conviction among the poorer and uiioducated classea that
skilled medical treatment ia to be found at the hospitals only,
that thither they flock, often after a weary and paintuS
journey, necessitating the loss of a day's work or the neglect
of household duties, only to receive instructions to return, for

treatment some other day As a consequence of this

excess of numbers, the poor are made to wait an inordinate
time for the advice given ; and snch advice, when obtained, ia
often hurried and worthless."

Quite apart from the question of pliyeical good treatment,
ia another matter which requires remedying. Xbia ts th&
custom of regarding hospitals aa charitable or pauper-
ising institutions, although one medical man who gave
evidence before the Royal Commission on hospitals re-
gretted that they were not looked upon more in this light.
He " regarded it as unfortunate that people should accept
hospital relief without feeling that they were paupers."
As a result of this way of regarding the patients, they
are often troated with the greatest insolence by students
and members of the staff. It is a fairly common way of
displaying his otherwise inapparent superiority, for an
out-patient surgeon or physician to subject a nervous old
woman to a bullying cross-examination such as few
barristers would apply to a criminal. This kind of thing;
would not be tolerated but for tbe fact that the patient is-
receiviog charity, and that so much power rests in the
hands of the medical oiEcers. In this connection, I raay
quote from a little book called " What to Ask ", written
for the guidance of young practitioners by a London
physician. Dr. Milner FothergiU :

" Hie student sees a patient in the hospital : he is a number

in a ward ; bis friendB are people whu come bothering Etskiiig
qnestaons, or w&ntmg to see him at iaconrenient hours. When
he gojB to private practice he is apt to carry a good deal <jt thn
hospital house -surgeon about him— I am cot insiiiuatiiig that
this is wrong: but certainly it h sometimes injudici'
hospital patient is the recipient of charity, and must
his feelings, unless flagrantly outraged."

call in the other doctor.

A private patient c:

tsan^^H

What is Wanted.
As to the remedy ior this maltreatment of patients
waate of money, little more than main lines o( reform can
be suggested. The most important reform of all will
pTobatly be the last, namely, the humanising of medical
education. The superior position which abstract science
holds over humanity or respect for life, is a great draw-
back to eueeessful hospital reform. The important part
■which vivisection plays in present-day medical teaching is
of itself a very serious foe to humane habits. But still,
much may be done. In the first place the hospitals
ahould be taken over by the various County Councils
within whose jurisdiction they happen to be situated. It
would probably be found advisable for the Council to
elect a board, the majority of which should consist of
members of the Council and the small minority of eminent
surgeons and physicians elected by the hospital staff.
This Board would take the place of the present Boards of
management, and would appoint instructors and salaried
resident officers instead of the present unskilled resident
staff who are there to learn, and the unpaid visiting staff
in search of ambition and a job. It would supervise the
financial arrangements of the hospitals, and all complaints
might safely be made to it. The hospitals should be

tltrown open to all who cared to use them, provided they
were ill enough, regardless of elasa or character. The old
"charity" fetish woiild thua die, insolence would become
impossible and experimentatiou dangerous. A coroner's
inquiry should be held on all deaths in the hospitals, so
as to render reckless operators somewhat mora careful.
The money wasted in advertising', and the other necessities
of the competitive system would be saved, and beds would
never have to be closed for waat of funds. The hospital
rate would become as natural a thing as the school-rate
or the library-rate, and would in reality bo a sort of
insurance against illness, The hospital would, moreover,
come to have a considerable educational influence on its
inmates, — rich and poor, educated and uneducated, idler
and worker, mixing together for once on terms of equality.

To any form of public control of the hospitals the
strongest opposition will come from the medical pro-
fession. Thua we find Mr. Burdett, in hia " Hospitals of
the World," writing such antique stuS as this :

" Anything more opposed to the beat interests of the people
than the substitution of State hospitals for the voluntary

hospitals as they at pre^nt exist cannot be imagined

There is a loss to the whole comaiunity in the lessened moral
sense which State institutions create. The voluntary charities
afford an opening for the expression of the best of all human
feelings — sympathy between man and man. They a^ive to the
rich an opening for the display ot consideration towards
the poor which is fruitful in results. They create a feeling of
widespread sympathy with those who suffer, and impress upon
the population the duty of almsgiving to an extent which no

other charity can do They provide a field of labour

wherein some of the most devoted and beet members o£ society
can cultivate the higher feeling'i of humanity and learn to
bear their own sufferings and afflictions with resignation and
patience."

i Hm effect OB InA pBitica: iritOst the
t &v iBJBMim ts Os poor a atdv Oat tho woD-

UalaH the defenders
«# Iho TolMBlaij o j i l BM hK«» aaaa afao^er srgiiineatB
Am Ihooa ti Mz. Bsrdott, v« vay mardy hope for
Ae ca^ attuuMSit of tbe reforms adTocxled in this

WHAT IT COSTS TO BE VACCINATED.

WHAT IT C0ST9 TO BE VACCINATED.

What it coete to he raccinated ? Why surely, Bome law-
abiding Englishmaii will say, it costs no more than an
ordinary doctor's fee, and it you are poor, the public
vaccinator will do it for nothing ; but, oi course, ii yon
defy the law, you may he fined or impriHoned. That is
true ; but unfortunately it is an error to suppose that
vaccination, evea public vaccination, is entirely gratuitous,
Tou may depend on it that whenever anyone, child or
man, is vaccinated, it eoati gomtho^ somtthing. Pecuniary
fMst is not the only thing, nor by any means the chief
thing, to be considered ; there are other costs than.
those which are pcud in money. There is the cost of
parents' self-respect and happiness, when they are com-
pelled, as is often the case, to submit their childrens'
health and purity of blood to what they believe to be a
foul and stupid contamination. There is the coat of the
ill-health that is induced in the child, which frequently
shows itself in a permanent injury to the system. Thera
is the moral coat, to the nation, of allowing its statutft-
book to be disfigured by a law which has always been
intolerable to the instincts and good sense of the people,
And, finally, there is the coat of the countleas sufferings
infiitted on the lower animals by the twin acienoes of
Vaccination and Virisection; for we may he sure that for
«veiy human whu ia compuleorily vaccinated, some non

human has been the subject of murderous esperimentation-
TeB, certainly, it coats Bomething to be vaccinated ; and it
is the object of this pamphlet to indicate what are these
paiuB and penalties of a cruel and tyrannical law.

A CivnjBED Heathknibm.

In all agcB the epidemic difieasee, which come and go,
and which at times are so tei-ribly in excess of their usual
visitation, have been considered as suitable for the appli-
cation of superstitious preventives or remedies. Thus
charms, and potions, and vows, and sacritices of hunma
and non-human beings — and from the earliest tim.ea down
to the present day inoculation comes under the head of
these procedures — have been used as more or less powerful
means of appeasing the gods who sent the epidemics. But
as civilisation spread and deepened, the superstitious
means employed were all outgrown, excepting the practice
of inoculation, which, curious to relate, has of recent
years, in its various forms, more than ever been pressed by
the medical profession. But this unique form of old world
medication, this dangerous relic of ruder and savage times,
this, too, is destined soon to follow the rest of its kind
into oblivion.

The theory of inoculation for disease is wrong in science
AB it certainly is in morals. Society can only escape from
^sease by removing the causes; these are drunkenness,
impurity, slums, dirt, injustice that makes men work for
starvation wages, and through which they drag down with
them their wives and children. The humanitarian re-
former has vast fields for work in this direction, and if
he will ouly be in earnest he will, in striking- at these
evils, remove disease thereby. Meanwhile Sir Benjamin

rords to his ^^^1
i Bays ^^^1

Ward Richardson haa uttered some timely 'words
medical brethren. Speaking of inoculation, he

" If it be true thst we of phyaic have really, for well-nigh a
c«ntiiry past, been worshipping an idol of the market-place or
, even of the theatre, why the sooner we cease our worship and
, take down our idol, the better for us altogether. We have set
'Up the idol and the world has lent itself to the idolatry,
because we whom the world trusted, have set the example, but
the world now-a-days discovers idolatries on ita own account,
and if we continue the idolatry it will simply take its own
oouTse, and leaving us upon our knees will march on while we
■petrify "—(^(JepW, December, 1889).

Jennek, Vaccdiatioh, and 8mau.'Foz.

The dieeaee I shall speak of is small-pox; none other
concerns ua here.

The great lesaou we learn from the history of thia
subject is that no possible manner of cheating the disease
by unnatural methods has ever been successful. To use
filth or other enchantments or ehamia against small-pox is
to mock Nature, and fly in the face of pure living and
cleanliness. This truth, which we teach, but for which
we are treated as fit subjects of penal law, has been thus
expressed by the late Dr. Farr, than whom there is no
higher authority. "What is wanted in himaan dwellings
is sweetness and cleanliness Then follows the de-
struction of alt the fever dena of the land " (1870
"Keport," p. 27.)

Small-pox is a disease of exceeding great age. I
remember a print shown me by Mr. Alexander Wheeler,
of Darlington, who haa followed this intricate controverey
■of vaccination for upwards of thirty years. It represeni«d {

13

tbe Indian of QindooBtan worshippitig a special deity, ib»
goddess of small-pos ; and this superstition still has its-
tliouBands and thousands of devotees in almost every
province of India, How far back in the prehistoric period
must we place the rise of the gmall-pox deity is a question.
From these supernatural observances it was easy to pass
to the equally superatitioua idea that the best way to
combat amall-pox was to perpetuate the disease by inflict
ing it upon the young. This idea has obtained all ovei
the world at difEerent times, Mid is still extensively
followed, even in our own dominions.' The practice in
itself is quite akin to vaccination, tor, as I have ab'oady
hinted, the vaccine mode is nothing more than a perpetua-
tion, in another form, of the emall-pos inoculation.
Jenner, the inventor of vaccine (who alone gets all the
credit of the system), was himseU inoculated in his
childhood with small-pox, and had a very bad time of it.
It was the remembrance of this that led him to look for
some substitute lees disagreeable. This he claimed tO'
have found in cow-pox. Jenner's attention was first
attracted to the subject by the legend of the Gloucester
daiiy-maids of the safety of the cow-poxed as against
attacks of amall-pox, comparatively modem at that time.
For thirty years, we are assured by Jenner's ardent and
unscrupulous admirer, Sir John Simon, he incessantly
thought and watched and experimented, and at last his

' Snall-poi inoculation was made a penal offence in Eagland in
1340, 80 that we are pretending' to prevent in one oonntiy Qie disease
we allow the full dJBBeinination of in the other. The same thing
oconis nearer home, for while in France the vaocination of the people
is being pushed to an extraordinary extreme ; in Algeria there ie the
Bpectacle of the smaU-pox being inoculated and TaooinaUoo being-
floated liy the old Arab population.

dnced that ^^^1
n deBcribes ^^H

that amall. '

''patience and caution and modesty,"' produced
masterpiece of medical induction, as Sir Jo}in
Jenner's "Inquiry," the point of whicli was tliat small-
pos in man and cow-pox in the cow had a common origin i
in the grease of the horse.' Doctors diflered over this and
other connected matters, experimentation on both men and
t\nimB,1a was greatly resorted to, but in the end, by "sly
and impudent tales," by deceit and lying, and by dexterous
diplomacy and influential friends, including the King and
his Prime Minister, he extracted from Parliament first
£10,000, and subsequently the House of Commons, in
«d to him an additional grant of £20,OUU.

The Wabs akd Prbvb;

i Disease.

What then was the small-pox ?

It is one of a set of fevers, and the reason that it was
selected for special treatment by custom or law no doubt
was because it affects the face of its victims. There is an
immense amount of literature declaring that the disease
was a pestilence as destructive as the plague, but there
was absolutely no truth in such statements. The plague
was a disease that decimated the people in times past ; it
produced a death-rate of fearful proportions. But small'

1 In his " Natoral History of Cow-pox and Vaociiisl SjpMUs," Dr.
Charles Creighton sajB of Jetiner'a methods : "He was never preciaa
when he could be vagoe, and was never etraigfhtforward when he
-oauld be BecretiTe."

' la Bsjoq'b "Life of Jenner," lit vol., page 254, we find that
" Dr. Jenner was in the practice of using equina matter with com-
plete iaixene. He supplied mjself (Dr. Baron) and many of bis
medical frieudH from this source. He transmitted it to Edinburgh,
where it produced the genuine cow-poi." See also Jenner'a
■" Inquiry," third editton, page 2 — pahlidied in ISOl.

pox tad never in recoi-ded historj- done thia in Europe^
' OB far as I can find in Asia either, and the stoiieB of
its having done so in America must he taten with a grain
of salt. Small-pox showed none of the large increases of
mortality which the plague showed. It was a compara-
tively steady thing. And more than this it must be
remembered that the small-pox had begun to decline
before vaccination was adopted.' The reason for that
ilecline waa that the country as well as the continent of
Eui-ope was emerging from a long and disastroua series
wars in which there had been utter disregard for the
welfare of the masses of the population, and only the-
bntto determination to carry on a war of extermination
against a people across the channel. For nearly a hundred
trs there had been continuous wars carried on by thia
mtry, and there was in consequence a condition of
thinga that might be compared to national exhaustion.
Tlie whole resources of the land and the energies of the-
people as well as their treasure and life-blood had been
spent on these wars, well-nigh to the ruin of
land. It was this long series of wars that brought about
famine prices for food, retarded the progress of trade and
(^jmmerce, and made a population at home that wa
poor and as stricken in its resources as the poorest of the
European countries of our day. Then came the grim
follower of all this madness, disease; following on dear

I Dr. Tan shows that this tmproTemmt waa untscedent to vaa
tiOD. Hia own words in "U'CDiloch'B StatisbicB of the Bi
Empire" itre : " Small -pox uttained itti maiiniiun after inocnli
was intiodaced. Thia disease began Id grow less fatal before vi
nation was ilist^overed, indioatiiig, together with the diminntio
ferer, the general improfementa in health then taking place. Fever ,
has declined in nearly th^ Bame ratio as small-poi-"

food and bad food and no food, came tf-phus and small-
pox, and consnmption, and other evile all of wMoh are
preventable diseases.

The Usklkssness o? Vaccikatioh.
Vaccination was first made eompulBory by Act of Parlia-
ment in the year 1853. The Act was further amt^nded
and made more stringent in I8C7, and again in 187K
Jenner bad declared to Parliament, when pleading for
a reward, that vaccination would leave one "
after secure against the contagion of the small-pox." And
to-day, simply through the practice having been rendered
compulsory on parents, despite years and years of the most
incesBant and active propaganda, thousands of people in
this country still believe that " the discovery of Jenner has
undoubtedly saved tens of thousands of lives, and almost
banished small-pox from the civilised portions of the
globe." This claim has no foundation in fact. In the
midst of the greatest small<pox epidemic of this country
on record, after thirty-one years of parochial and
seventeen years of added vaccine compulsion, the Lanett
of July ISth, 1871, thus delivered itself:

" The deaths from small-poK have assumed the proportions
of a plague. Over 10.000 lives have been sacrificed during the
past year in England and \S ales. In London, 5,641 persons
have died of small-pox since the beginning of the year. Of
9,392 patients who have been admitted into the smoll-pox
hospitals under the management of the Metropolitan Asylums
Board, no leas than 6,6S4 had been vaccinated ; that is, nearly
73 per cent. Taking the mortahty from small-pox at 17'j per
oent of those attacked, and the deaths this year in the whole
country at 10,000, it will follow that more than 122,000
vacdnated persone have suffered from amall-pox. Ought we ta
be satisfied with this alannimg state of things ? Can wa

16

greatly wonder that the opponents of vaccination should
to such statistics as an evidenae of the failure of the sfHt«inF
It is necessary to apeak plainly on thia important matter."
The Eegiatrar- Generals returns show that in the first
fifteen yeai-s after the passing of the eompulaory Vaccina-
tion Act, 1864-68^ there died of small-pox in England and
Wales 55,204 people; in the second fifteen years, 1869-63,
under a store stringent law, under which the Government
claimed to have secured the vaccination of 95 per cent.
of all children bom, the deaths rose to 66,979 ; total for
thirty years 1-22,183.

Nothing is changed as to vaccination in its relation to
small-pox. Eeeent returns of the Asylums Board show
that the eufierers continue to be the vaccinated ; they are
found to be the majority of sufferers in all places,
there is this notable exception — the Board has a
boasted of a reduced average fatality. This, be
marked, has been due to a moat vicious arrangement for
tabulating the sufferers in small-pox. The diBoaso is the
only one so affecting the skin as to cover up the yaecina-
tion marks ; and yet it is the only time when a person,
a rule, has to show his marks of vaooination to pn
whether ho is or is not vaccinated. This has been derid<
and set aside, but the Report of the Board for
first time, shows that eveiy word ■
source of error in the classifying of the vaccinated
been correct. The Table B. shows that of twenty-six
patients, thirteen of whom died, vaccination " could not be
asserted on account of the abundance of the eruption
the small-pox. To give the facts, these thirteen de
must be added to the forty-two vaccinated deaths,
then the averages as to the vaccinated fatality
upset, and will be largely increased — for all were

for II

17

-raccinated. This is the secret out at last, and authorita-
tively stated. The so-called unvaocinated are not un-
Taccinated — they are vaccinated, for the most part, I
firmly boliere. And the statistios we liave had all along
are without any esception open to this vice — they es-
* aggwate the unvaccinated, and decrease the vaccinated
fatalities, by making thi? clasaification on a principle
irhich is faulty and inaccurate.

So that we see that the vaccination for which Jenner got
his "thirty pieces of silver'" is a grotesque failure for the
purpose for which it was designed ; made the :
monstrous in that the Acts to legahse and enforce it n
lobbied through Parliament by the most disgusting
•chicanery.

Eb- Vaccination also a Failtikr.
The same confident prophecy is now made of re-vaccina-
tion which Jenner and the Royal College [of Physicians
made of vaccination. Medical officers of health have
from time to time mRmoralised the Local Government
Board on the subject, and repeated vaccination is urgently
recommended by various medical ]'oumals, led by the
Lancet ami Mr. Ernest Abraham Hart, the editor of the
BritUh Medical Journal.'

' Jenner wa^ tnken into the Committee'rooin in 1 802, and the
printed minutea of evidence seem to show tliat he only hunded In bu
■l/eady printed Petition and then withdrew, not having been asked a
Bolitarj qaeatioD.

> Mr. Hart and a ooramittee of medical fossils aotuallj sug'getit in a
recent pamphlet tliat antd-vaocinista who pnblioly speak •
against the practice of vaccination shonid be prosecuted as ai
TSx. Hart also suggests — the refoaal of free edncation te nnvaooinated
ehOdren, the reqnirements of edncation still operating, bnt at the cost
<i the parent ; and the proeecntion of employ era of labor who give
woA to aaj bnt re- vaccinated persona.

i

Our re-Taocinated army ib said to be "perfectly pro-
tected." The facts of the case fumislied by the Army
Uedical Department Beporta do not exemplify this state-
ment. From tliB Report for 1893, themoat recent published,
we leam that there were fifty oases of small-pos, and
four deaths from the disease, during the year, among'*
our re-vartinated fwldierB, Our army was compoaed in
1893, of 202,125 men all told in England, her colonies,
and dependencies. The small-pox attacks were, therefore,
at the rate of one case per 4,043 men. On this showing',
the advantage of re-vaccination is not very apparent, tot
we gather from the Local Govemmeat Eeport for 1893-
that there were 11,135 caaes of small-pox in the country
in that year. And as the population is given as 29,731,100-
by the Eegistrar-Generol, you have one ease (case mind)
tor every 2,670 of the population, of all ages, tn/antt Hi-
liudfi. Our army, therefore, though composed of picked
men in the prime of life and vigour, surrounded by good
sanitary conditiona, and in an average way a. healthfxil
clasB, fare little better, though vaecinated and re-vaccinated
as to Government mark, than the general population, which
includes the lame, the halt, the blind, life in overcrowded
dwellings, and lite in the worst possible sanitary environ-
ment, which has not been protected by re- vaccination. It
has been shown that in India the case against re-vaccina-
tion is even stronger. There, in the same year, our men
numbered 69,865, and they had thirty-three caaes of small-
pox, or one case for every 2,116 men. If the ttrmy agt is
taken, we find the death-rate nearly double that of the
correaponding nge in the jmpulation at large.' Wherein,

' Dr. J. H. C. Dalton, b pro-vacoinatian authority, in the Midieat
Chroniiilt, Odtober, 1E93, gives ttblea showing that the pFotection bj-
• TMfdnstlon ia equallj ephemeral with priinai7 TaooiiiatiDii. For

then, lies the value of this re -vaccination, may I ask its-
medical champions at the Local Gtovemmeiit Board? Thia
question will, of courae, never be answered, for the best
possible answer would reflect no credit on its advocates.

The Immumitv c

A word as to hospital nurses. The nursing staffs of onr
fever hospitalH, we are assured, do not take amall-pox,
because they are protected by re-vaooination. This is a
sweeping statement that has not been allowed to pass
unohalleDged. But the secret of the thing is, partly,
that many people are not susceptible to small-pox,
and that in those who would, perhaps, escape under
ordinary circumstances, fear plays an important part in
making them susceptible to the disease, and there is no
proof because a nurse is re-vaccinated and does not take
small-pox, that the re -vaccination is the protecting in-
fluence. The very nature of a nurse's calling is evidence
that she ia no ordinary person, and her constitution
becomes immune to small-pox in very many instances, just
aa it does any other kind of fever. We read in the Third
Report of the Lords' Committee on the Metropolitan
Hospitals, p. 345 : " The nurses are engaged on a three
years' agreement ; their health is said to be good, and not
one has died within the last ten years. Their number is
about twenty." And so also in the course of the evidence
we have Dr. Hopwood, Resident Medical Officer to the-

he citea OBaes of smoll-pox occnrrin^ I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, B, 9, 10, 11,.
12, 13, U, IT, IS, and 32 days after reoent vaocin&tioii, fourof wMolt
were fatal ; and SI mtses of small-poz at intervals of I, 2, 4, B, 6, 7,
3, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 20, 25, 30, and 40 years after re-vaooinationf
(but of whieh were fatal.

London Fever UospitaJ, stating : ■' Do you know what the
mortality amongst nurses has been in the last tea yeara^
— There has been no one who has died," Then there
the further imjjoi-tant consideration that the ranks of
nurses are more or less recruited from among tlie
pox patients: at the Highgate Hospital thja is ah

s f ar a

yg.

jihh

lat the

yeara^^H
lere i^^^|
of ti^^H

The Iftte Mr, P. A. Taylor asked the medical authorities
again and again to explain how it was that among the Paris
and Dubhn nurses, no case of unre-vaccinated small-pox
was discovered. But of eourse the truth is that re-
vaccinated nurses do sometimes aufier. Br. Colin, speak-
ing of the attendants in the small-pox hospital in Paris,
says two hundred were re- vaccinated principally under his
own eyes and yet fifteen were attacked with small-pos
and one died. On the other hand, the same authority
speaks of forty attendants and physicians at Bicetri who
did not take small-pox, although they neglected to be
re -vaccinated. Mi'. Wheeler showed in his evidence before
the Hoyal Commission that in the Sheffield visitation,
the nurses came ofE worse, proportionately, than the rest
of the population.

Usv

Cbildben.

One of the well-wiim arguments of the vaccinists ia that
of unvaccinated children being so much more liable than
vaccinated ones to die of small-pos. If vaccination
statistics prove anything they prove this, we are told.
Well, here is a recent case which disproves the claim. It
is at Grays, in Essex, and the small-pox was in 1893.
The outbreak was introduced by an unvaccinated child,
the source of whose contagion was never discovered. The

31

a this child, and also in a brother, "was strikiiigly
mild, being in fact exactly' like a. case of small-pox modi-
fied by vaccination. The disease was not recognised, and
the children were allowed about, when a neighbour, a
in, aged 40, took the disease, and bad a very seTBre
attack." This attack at Orays is useful in many ways.
Here is a summary ot it : —
" Unvaccinated."
1st case, unvaccinated ahild, mild .
40 years old woman, severe . .

Children

Vaccinated.
Children , . . . . , ,

Two ot 9 and 13 years

Adults (many hod good marks)

Oaxfs. Dtatht.

Three were coses of amall-pox a second time,
ises, 27 vaccinated, and 2 deaths among them, and S
inated " and no deaths. (Beported by Dr. Sidney H.
Snell, Medical OfBcer of Health for Grays, Essex, — Briiitk
Mtdkai Journal, 19th May, 189-1.)

There is a further consideration. Medical men do not
and daro not vaccinate all children. It is a risk that
neither doctor nor statesman will undertake. There are
always a good many cases declared " unvaccinated " which
have been rejected by the vaccinator because they were
sickly, bad subjects to touch, and it is no sort of wonder
that they do take small-pox, just as they are the first to fall
victims to any prevailing epidemic. In the Sheffield epidemic
several of the "unvaccinated " were little mites who were
bom of mothers who had been vaccinated, and had the small-
pox at the time the children were bora ; and yet these chil-
dren were classed in the official Report as " unvaccinated."
Forty-four of the Sheffield "unvaccinated" are dsscribed.

"by words beginning "vaccinated," but as it goes on to
Bay, too early, or too late, or too little, etc., they are
ditmiaaed from the vaeeinattd. But in no case have the
authoritiea attempted to check the hospital classification
by the vaccination officer's book. Vaccinated is one thing
and the medical "vaccinated" is another. A child may
have been vaccinated and be declared in the hospital to
be " un vaccinated." Doctore dassiiy by a method which
18 totally different to that by which the vaccination of
children is determined. Small-pox is a ekin disease. The
worse it ia, the more the skin is affected. And in the
worst cases the vaccination marks do not show ; and when
by the small-pox the vaccination marks are eaten out
the subject is classed as either " unvaceinated " or as
"imperfectly vaccinated." All such cases as those in-
stanced at Sheffield are a poorly lot, and aU those certified
as " unfit " for the operation of vaccination — the very
children who fall a prey to the epidemics that they meet
in their lives — make a very considerable number among
the unvaccinated. All those of this class should be
"legally exempt" in the books of the hospital doctor.
But any stick is good enough to beat an anti-vaccinist
with, and they go on as if such children were merely
unvaccinated by opposition of the parents and healthy
subjects.

A CwHiors IixvsioH.
The disappearance of pock-marked faces is a favourite
argument for vaccination. People eay a great change has
been wrought by vaccination, for when they were young
such faces were common, whilst now they are rare. To
deal with this argument, we should know when the
^jieaker was young. Was it in 1821 ? If bo, what shall

"be said of this passage from the annual Heport of the
National Vaccine EHtablishment, for 1822, prmted by
■Older of the House of Commona :

" Aa a proof of the protecting influence of vaccination, we
appeal confidently to all who frequent crowded assemblies, to
admit that they do not discover in the riiiing geneiatiou aay
longer that disfignrement of the human face which was obvious
everywhere some years since."

That was upwards of seventy years ago. Coming down
to 1831, we find Dr. Epps, director of the Eoyal Jennerian

Society, writing : —

" Seldom are persone now seen blind from small-pox. Seldom
is the pitted and disfigured face now beheld ; but seldom do
mankind inquire for the cause. It is vacdnation. It is
lation which preserves the soft and rounded cheek of
, and the still more captivating form of female
loveliness."

Thus pock -pitted faces were seldom seen in 1 831 ,
more than sixty years ago. Now, at that time vaccination
bad not been applied to ten per cent, of the English, and
was wholly inadequate to account for this diaappeai'ance.
When people at this day talk (as they do) of the fre-
quency of pock-marked faces when they were young,
they are indeed labouring under some illusion. To
those who keep their eyes open there are unhappily too
many cases still to be seen, so there is not much leas
illnmon in the extreme rarity ascribed to small-pox dis-
figurement. Thus, nearly twenty years after vaccination
was made compulsory, the Lancet, of June 29th, 1862,
lamented, concurrently with the iUusiou —

" The growing frequency wHfa which we meet persons in the
ftreet disfigured for life with the pitting of small-pox. Young
men, and still worse, young women are to be seen daily whose
'Oomeliness is quite compromised by this dreadful disease."

We need not hesitate to allow that when emaU-pox was
oommon and cultivated (as it was hj smaU-pox inocula-
tion), pock -marked faces were numerous. "Small-pox
will never ha subdued," wrote .Tenner, "so long as men
tan be hired to spread the contagion by inoculation ; " and
inoculation was for many years the established medical
practice. "We must not forget, moreover, that whether a
small-pOK patient ia marked or not marked is much a
matter of treatment, Dr. Birdwood, auperintfindent of the
smaU-pos hospital ships, moored off Dartford, aaya ; —

" No disease better repays a good nurse in rapid recovery
and in complications avoided. So much depends on tlie nnrae
that I am confident if all my nurses were as good as the best,
the returns would show a reduced mortality, the case-book
fewer eyes lost, and fewer patients detained by boils for

So that, really, improved treatment is the probable cauae
of what deorease in face disfigurement is credited to
vaccination, The treatment of small-pox in former timee
was atrocious. " I have seen above forty children," says
Dr. Buchan, "cooped up in one apartment all the while
they had the disease, irithout any of them being admitted
to breathe the fresh air." If, under such circumstances,
the sick were restored to life pock-marked, what wonder !
Now that certain precautions are observed, many at this
day pass through amaU-pos, and even severe small-pox,
and escape unmarked. The whole thing therefore re-
solves itself into a mere hallucination. Jloreover, I
venture to say, that if anyone sufGciently interested in
the subject will make careful inquiries, aa I have done
several times myself, he will find almost invariably that
such disfigured people have been vaccinated, and somo of
item repeatedly.

Geite ma Appailino Eiskb.
The vacciaation anuole in ever; coimtiy in Thiolt th9
practice of vaccinatioa liaa heen enforced are uniquely rich.
in poignant episodes of injustice, cruelty, disease, and.
death — the oft-recurring results of compulaoiy vaccination.

A great many doctors continue to pour ridicule upon the
practical danger incurred of transmitting diseasea through
the medium of vaccine lymph, other than the dii
the vaccine itself, and learned books have been written to
prove that this very grave charge is erroneous and un-
founded. But facta are facta after all, whatever verbiage
may be expended to spirit them away, Mr Jonathan
Hutchinson, the great syphilographer, says: "It is im-
poBsihle for the moat careful and experienced doctor
always to tell when syphilis is present " in vaccine lymph.
Sir Thomas Watson, the great surgeon, has described the
danger as "a ghastly risk." Mr Brudenell Carter,
F.E.C.S., thinks "that a large proportion of the oasea of
apparently inherited syphilis are really vaccinal."

The saddest thing in the yearly Eeports of the Registrar-
Qeneral, and one which does not show any noticeable signs
of improvement, is the record of deaths " from cow-pox and
other effects of vaccination.'" What amount of the "other

4

' " From the retuma just pnbliuhed by the Begiatr&r-OeiieHtl, it
appears tiat in 1894 thirteen persona died from hydrophoMa, and
fifty from ' cow-poi and other effects of vaccination.' Thus for every
Hing'le victdm of rabipB there were almost four whose deaths were
directly due to the oareleBSness of the paid medical men who vaodnated
them. [PBraonally, I do not think oareleaanega is the sole cause of the
'deaths from cow-poi and other etteota of vaodnatlon, ' for the opera-
lion to one without any given precision, and death may resnlt from
oow-pox itself, which is a matter quite apart from the vaccinaton'
skill,— J. C] Why is it that we hear so muoh, so very mnoh, of the
thirteen victims and so Uttle of the fifty ? Is it because some int«FeEt>

effects of vaccination " is made up of syphilitic contamina-
tion is not told ; neither are a good many " other effects of
vaccination " recorded at all. Bat the bare statement of
what i^e Oovemiuent Is responsible for in the way of
vaccinal slaughter gives an average of fifty-two deaths
annually, or one a week. In June, 1882, four children were
killed at Norwich by vaccination, all in the course of one
morning's work.' In 1886 three children died from vacci-
nation at Sudbury. At Misterton, near Gainsborough,
«ight children died from vaccination in 1876, From
Parlinmentary returns, we know that whilst vaccination
was voluntary (1847-53), the deaths from skin diseases
amongst children in the first year of life averaged annually
183 per million born ; during the period of obligatory, but
not strictly enforced vaccination (1853-67), the number
became 258 ; imder strictly enforced vaccination (1867-78),
it riaea to 343. The same periods and the same clasei-
fieation for scrofula will give the figures 351,611, and
908 respectively; whilst from syphilis the corresponding
figures are 564, 1,206, and 1,738 respectively; this last
showing an increase among infants of more than 300
per cent.* It is generally understood, I heheve, amongst

and tliat a very powerful and nbiquitoiiB one, is at wort in the foimei
-oaae to procUim on the housetopa every real or supposed deatli from
nAies (and so prepare the way for PnBtenrisin), while the same interest
is equally concerned in Binoliierin^ and keeping ont of eight every
-oase of death from the ■ effect ot vaooination P ' "— Zoophilist, March,
189S.

' "The purity o£ lymph," said Dr. Guy, tie public vacoinator of
tliese children, in the inquitj whioh followed, " can only be taated by
reanlts " !

" These deaths From syphilis in infants reached their highest point
In the year 1883, the top point of raooinatioaB, and then fell to a
nnoh lower level as vaccinations fell from that jeat forward.

27

"veterinary surgeons that horses afEected with grease have a
tendency to conaumption of the InngB. If that ti
it not account, in a great meaaure, for the rapid increase in
pnhnonary consumption in London after the introduction
of vaccination ? In the Midieal Times and Gaxette for
•January Ist, 1854, we find it stated that the deaths from
consumption for the ten years ending 1853, for London
alone, were 68,304 victims. Erysipelas, again, due to
vaccination, is a frequent cause of death. Says the Britith
Midieal Journal :

" In addition to the fact that people are ill after vacoination,
it is important to remember that people die after the operation.
if not from the disease itself, at least from its sequelie, notably
•erysipelas."

By various authorities the recrudescence of leprosy is
attributed to contagion, the consumption of putrid iiah,
and other alleged causes ; but there is an utter absence
of demonstrable evidence. Only when we come to the
'q^uestion of inoculability does there appear to be any
approach to a consensus of opinion. Most important
evidence on this head is to be found in Mr William Tebb's
remarkable work on " The Eecrudescence of Leprosy and
its Causation," wherein are brought together for the first
time some of the most incriminating facts, comprising some
100 pages of closely marshaUed testimonies, nearly all
medically certified, as to the communication of leprosy
by means of vacc^iue lymph. Several of the authoritiea
quoted by Mr Tebb, while admitting that vaccination is
capable of transmitting the ravages of leprosy, did so with
reluctance, and with apology to the faculty. The points
which Mr. Tebb establishes beyond the possibility of doubt
-are the following : —

(1) That leprosy is transmitted in the vast majority of

i

i

cases by inoculatioD, that la, by tlie introduction of
m&terial from a leprous person into the
aQOther person.

(2) That in a very considerable number of definitely
aeeertained instancee the inoculation with leprosy has
been brought about by meana of vaRcination, tbe vaccine-
matter having been taken, knowingly or unknowingly,
from a leprous source and containing the virus of both
diseases.

(3) That partioular outbreaks of leprosy have followed
unusual activity in vaccinating in the face of amall-pox

Thbkk IB jfo "Pure Lymfh,"
Do not he misled by the cry "pure lymph." There is
no pure lymph ; vaccine is a disease ;' moreover, it i»
impossible to tell whether it contains other diseaaee ; it
may contain even two or three different sortB. Dr. ¥am,
the Government microscopiBt, told the Eoyal Commission
on Vaccination that he was unable to guarantee the purity
of lymph ; that he was unable to tell whether it contained
the virus of syphilis or not. Again, Mr. Bradlangh asks-
Professor Crookahank, M.B. : —

" Do I imderBtand that lymph might bo tested by any test
you are at present able to apply, and that you would he unable
to diBtrnguish between a, lymph which wsa harmless, and one
which might be bnrmful to the extent of communicating
Byphilia ?— We have no known test by which we could possibly

'Mr. .

. W. Hutt.

I, thoug-b not a physician, remtttkB from thn
oommon-senBe point of view, "Wiiy Bhovild cow-pox, alone BmoDg>
diseases, never do any haiml' Other diseases of nniTn.i. snob aa
glanders, or antbrux, or rabiea, are known to be pecnUarlj deadly-
irhen nccidently inouulated on to roin." — " The Vaocination QuM-
tion,"p. Sl-a.

39

'diBting^uish We do aot know tha nature of fiv^ con-

tagium of Byphilis at all."

Meeare. Savory and Foster try to discount these plain
, whereupon Mr. Bradlaugb characteristically de*
majided : —

" Do you know any kind of test of any character whatever
which you could apply to a lymph-tube which would enable
you to ascertain that it was haroiful to the extent of c
iDunicating syphilia ? — No."

Lord Berkeley's Committee ol 1802, which received
Jenner'a PetitioOj and took a sort of evidence on it, re-
ported as foUowa, among other things, of Jenner's cow-
pox — "that it does not excite other humors or disorders
in the constitution ; that it has not been known in any
-one instance to prove fatal ; that the inoculation may be
safely performed at all times of life (which is known not
to be the case with regai'd to the inoculation of the small-
pox) in the eai-Hest infancy," etc. This is a, guarantee on
the part of the Committee against any possible recoi'd
such as the Eegistrar-General now annually gives us of
deaths due to "cow-pox and other effects of vaccination."
The amount of evidence showing that arm-to-ann virus is
a not infrequent cause of serious constitutional disease
brought before the Eoj'al Commission on Vaccination is
■conclusive and incontrovertible ; hundreds of cases of
blood-poisoning, eczema, erysipelas, Byphilis, and leprosy
being jnvaceinated are adduced. In order to avoid the
■perils of vaccination, the Grocers' Company some yeata
ago considerately ofEered a prize of £1,000 for a less
■objectionable virus ; in other words, " the discovery of a
method by which the vaccine contagion may be cultivated
Apart from the animal body in some medium or media, not
otherwise zymotic ; the method to be such that the coo-

i

ta^OD may by means of it be multiplied to an indefiuite-
estect in successive generatioiLs, and that tbe product,
aftoi" any number of sucb gpupyationa, shall prove itself
of identical potency with standard vatwine lymph."
Eepeated efforts have been made botii by direct applica-
tion to the Local Government Board, to learned vaccine
specialists, and more recently to the Govemmeut witneseee
before the Royal Commission, to obtain a definition ol
"standard vaccine lymphs," but without success. The
only information we can gather is that standard lymph is
anything the Government like to provide for public vacci-
nation. In England it is chieflj- the ann-to-arm variety,
which, in order to allay public anxiety, the President oi
the Local Government Board, Mr. Eitchie, dehberately
declared in Parliament in reply to Mr. Arthur O'Connor on.
June 22nd, 1887, was never used for public vaccinations.

The Eeix Facts about Oalf-Lymph.
Ab to calf lymph, beloved of German but scorned by
English officialism,' though its use is strongly recom-
mended by many English dootoi-s, who use it extensively
in private pi'actice. Professor Crookshank says there is
a considPrable difference between it and the so-called

' The OovemmsDt does not enpply Hod does not approve of caU-
Ijmph, and refers malcontent Board of Qoai^lians to the official
iiutmotiaita to the effect "tliat the public vaccinator shall not, nnder
ordinary ciToumEtanoes, adopt any other method of vaccination than-
with liquid lymph directly from aim-to-ann." I cannot undecatand
the Local Ooverument Board's words as to this. For in the Iiocal
Government Board Beport for 1894-5, under he head of "DiBtzihn-
tdon of Vaooine Lymph," ia —

Human points ,. 221: Tabes ,. 6,ST4

Calf do. ,. 14,029; do. ., 78!

Ii it possibb that the calf-lymph is sent out for priiate praotitionBra?

31

humBaiBed lymph. Calf lymph, he thinks, ia not better,
hnt rather worse, than the human lymph. BaciDi, he says,
are much more common in calf lympli, hut there is a great
variety in different human lymphs and in different calf
lympha- Dr. Creighton, in hi& erudite work on "Cow-pox
juid Vaccinal Syphilis," tells us that all vaeeiue matter now
in use is lemoved by several hundi'eds of generations from,
its parent source ; and citing the Brituh Medical Journal, he
ehows that a purveyor of calf Ijiupli in London was
advertising his stock as from Eotterdam, and that the
Eotterdaui stock had been kept going on the calf's helly
for 592 generations. Dr. Cory, of the Local Government
Board, supports those views, by saying that if as many
complaints were made about human lymph as are made
about calf lymph there would be many thousands of com-
plaints in this country in a year. In Dr. Seaton's
"Handbook of Vaccination," which, one might say is.
almost the official authority on the subject, we have on
page 397 : —

" There is no one in England whose opinion on this subject
will be received with, so much respect as Mr. Ceely's, becnuBe-
there is no one who bas nearly the knowledge that he possesses.
of the disease of the cow, and of its transplantation to the
htuuan species. He looks upon this proceeding as not only-
open to the objection of impracticability as applied to the
gnneral population, and of imauccess ; but he says also that so ,
far from being likely to produce fewer ailments and cutaneous
eruptions in the predisposed, he knows from experience that it
would, as being more irritating, produce more."

Gangrenous ulceration has frequently followed the use-
cf calf lymph, much more fi'equentlj-, perhaps, than ig.
kLCiwn or suspected ; but a doctor, who, alas, is our-
onlj source of information, seldom says iiuything about

eucb cases.' Mr. Jonathan. Hutcliiiison, in Lie "Ai-chiTM
of Surgery," has recorded one caaft of (j^angrenous ulcera-
tion from vaccination with, lymph from the <:alf which
came under Ids own personal observation in a professional
respect. There are also the deaths of Emma liable .\llen
ajid of Beatrice Ida Woodhouse from the invaceination of
■contaminated calf lymph. A horrible affair also happened
at Castigliono d'Orcia, in Italy, reported in the Gatette
iPItalia, May, 1879; and another wretched case is des-
cribed by Dr. lloliere in the Lyon Midicale, June, 1879;
both these disasters happened in one and the same year ;
they are now historic. Undoubtedly the practice of calf
lym.ph vaccination constitutes a greater dang'er, and is a
graver error than that of vaccine virus, for it has by
official admission the effect of de -cultivating bad to

The Mahupacturb of Calf-Lthph.
The "glamour" of calf Ij-mph— it is the custom to label
it "pure"^ — has vastly strengthened the hands of the
vaccinationists. Not hundreds only, but thonaanda upon
thousands of fathers and mothers have had their mis-
givings quelled by the doctor's simple unwritten promise
that he would do the operation with great care, and use

' lu fact, a sinister defioe not micommoD, wxaidiDg ia the erideDc.«
of nnmennia witnesses before the Royal Commisaioii on VHociiiation,
is the BuppresBion of the primary cause of death in fatal vaocination
oasea. 3fr. Henry May. Medieal Offictr of Health, oandidly kx-
plaing in a paper read before the Aaton Medical Society, and
paUi^ed in the Birmmghant Midiial SecifK; vol. iii., pp. 31 and 36,
how this, in the intereet of raooiiiation, is maoa^ped. The following
are the paaaages referred to : "In certificates given by as voluntarily,
and to which the public have aocess, it ie scarcely to be expected that
B medical man will give opmioBS which may tell against or reflect
tiimself in any way As instonoes of cases which may

'pure" calf lymph. "What, then, is the composition of
-this wonderful charm which will aonter protection against
■the dread smaU-pox without endangering the health and
life of the subject? How is it prociu-ed ? Fii-st, we have
the revolting preamble with the hapless calf or heifer. In
the Government Vaccine Inetitute, Lamb's Conduit Street,
ealves are operated on in the year. The
follows. A kind of table, with a turning
top, is arranged in an upright position, and the calf is
firmly secured to it with straps. The table top is next
turned flat, ao that the calf hea on it. Portions of the
belly skin are shaven, and then the poor animal is stabbed
in from forty to sixty places, the vaccine matter from
a child's ripe arm is inserted, or matter taken from a
former caK that has been used in this way ; or human
small-pox matter, taken from a person ill with the disease,
is put in. The suffering calf is then loosed and takon to
the stable, and the disease allowed to run its course for
five days, after which, when the sores are at their height,
it is again strapped firmly down upon the table, legs,
body, and even mouth tied — a cruel sight! The operator
sits down, opens the vesicles on the animals' belly, and the
lymph is squeezed out with clamps, the pressure almost

ten agatnst the medical man lumaelf, t will mmtioii eiysipeloB i
vacoination, and poerperal Sever. A death from the first c
occurred not long ago in my practice, and allliongh I had net Ti
nated the diild, yet, in mj desire to preserve vaccination i
reproach, I omitted alt mention of it from mj certificate of di
.... Speaking from my own knowledge, I can say that cas
pnerperol fever are not always certified ondcr that name.^' Mr. ]
in thnn speaking, seems to have eipresaed tte genera senNe o(
medieal profession, and described the general practice : for I an

-AWare that be has ever been censured or repudiated in any me<

Joomal.

invariably causing tlie lymph to contain an admixture of
blood.' TJuB "pure" lymph, is collected on ivory points,
and IB sometimes stored long aftat taken, then iteed for the
vaccination of children and adults.

It is interesting to note that it is fundamental dogma
with the vaeoinationists that lymph tinged with the
amalleat blood corpuscle is unfit for use. Dr. J. Chambers,
writing in a London paper on September 15th, 1886,

" I have the personal authority of one of the chiefs of &»
Qovemment Vaooine Establishment that little is known of the-
diaeaaea of calves ; that calf lymph cannot be got without the
admixture of blood, and that in consequence he wished thfr
calf lymph at the bottom of the saa."

The late Dr. W. J. Collins, a public vaccinator of twenty
years standing, strongly denounced the fallacy of attri-
buting miscbief solely to ensanguined lymph, painting out
that the merest tyro in physiology knew that lymph comes
from, and is part of, the blood itself. The lym.ph, he said,
contained precisely the eame microscopic particles as are
found in fluids capable of producing the acutest blood-
poisoning.

The name, too, of this product is interesting from the
point of nomenclature, for it is highly misleading. The
so-called calf lymph is in reality not calf lymph at

' In about BCren days the oalf la returned to the batoher, 1 aio.
told. See also an artide in the Mn/ltenth Century, 1878, by 8ij
ThomaB Watson, who states that tlie creature is " none the worse for
what has happeued." A transaction of thia kind took place lately in
Yorksbire. The animal was dniy slaoghtered. On the caioase being
opened, the calf's longs were fund to oontain tnbeicleB, a butcher who-
saw it deoloring' that he had nevraseen a worse case. Th<> corporatimi
meat inspeator was called in, and be eondemned the body as ' ' imiit for
human food."

all. The real lymph is the natural fluid that circulates iii>
the lymphatic veBsels of the call — a healthy thing in a
healthy calf, aB far remote from scabs and pox as day is
from night, for, as I hare shown, the false is the pus of a
particular diseaHe of the calf thrown out upon the skin,
due to an minatural and cruelly induced pro cess,

Jenner'a horse-grease-cow-pox is supposed by many
authoritiea to have lost its power to avert small-poi; many
other doctors, again, hold that calf lymph is perfectly
iiseleas in this respect. While the doctors wrangle and
tight, that crushing, cooBcienoe- destroying machine of
police compulsion is entering in legal liuthority the homes
of England's sons and daughters — not, mind you, the
homes of the careless and ne'er-do- weele, hut of those
who have highly-developed moral ideas of the sacredness
of parental duty — the homes of those who know the crime
of going against conscientious feeling ! The whole scheme
of racdnation is one of protecting the rich against the
poor. It ia not rf the democracy, not will it ever be.

Facts which should Make Pahejtts Pausk.
The following is a mother's statement of her experience-
of Tscciuation. I quote from Baylight, a Norwich
weekly:—

"Sinoe the inqaest hrid by the Coroner, Dr. Danford
Thomas, on my cliildren MUed by vaccination, I have been
asked for particulara of my terrible experience, which Z will
state briefly. Adela, aged two-and-a-hali years, and Ethel,
aged fifteen months, were each vaccinated in three or four
places by the doctor of St. Pancras Workhouse, where, owing
to painful circumBtancea, I was obliged to take them. They
were lovely children and in perfect health, but in a few days
their arms became infiamed, the punctures on Ethel's arm
; into one large ulcer and presenting a truly shocking

I

«pp«aranoe. TfaeiT eyes became ■very aore; fheir faces, par-
"ticiilarly the youngeat, were much disfigured with an eruption,
and, after auSerings too painful to describe, they both died.
Sly earueat request that I m^ht be allowed to atay and uiirae
my dying child was unfeelingly refused. The children were
vaccinated without my consent, and I am told that this is the
law, (uid that there is no tedreas."

(Signed) Emma Packek.
"When the Fourth Interim Report of the Eoyal Com-
miBsion was published a shrill invective appeared in the
Times in review, in which was given a garbled, almost
"burleaque, accoimt of the case of the infant Annie Hart,
which has been much discussed. It is not neceesaiy t
notice in detail the evidence of numerous witneBseB
testifying that the child was "perfectly healthy" previous
to vaccination, and tliat three days after the operation had
been performed "she began to swell ju every joint that
she had — her anns, knees, fingers, every joint in the
child's body ; they made three places upon the child's arm,
two of which did not take at all, and in the oue that took
it went into a large black hole .... large enough to
drop a pea in" ; since Dr. W. J. CoUios' (L.C.C.) rathei'
persistent questions finally led to the remai'k that Dr.
Emma, the vaccinator of the child, had "had such a
sickener over the case that I do not want to have any-

"thing more to do with vaccination." A suggestive ad-
mission ! I subjoin a case of only a few weeks old, com-
municated by the father of the poor little victim to Mrs.
J. Toung, Secretary of the London Anti-Vaooination
Society, who published it in the £!chQ. The statement is

^ven in his own words : —

" I complied with the law. and my child was duly vaccinated
ML weeks ago by the Public Vaccinator, at Tottenham. The

child was not right soon after the vaccination, and £ve weeks

after the wounds were still discharging and luflwoed : there-
fore my wife took the ohild to Dr. Mowat. of Stamford Hill,
who said the child hod etydpelas severely in the arm, and the
child is now covered from the neck to the lower parts with
the disease, and is likely to die at any time. I called upon Dr.
Pliuster, the public vaccinator, and told him the result of the
vaccination, and received anything but sympathy from him. I
.asked him to see the child if he liked, but he abruptly refused.
The child is now five months old, and was strong and healthy
previous to vaccmation. I have been at great expense and
"would rather have gone to prison than my child should suSer

KO."

Since this etatemeut was made the child has died. The-

name of the father is Albert Golding. Under the heading

" Death frgm Vaccination," "St. P. B." writes to Farm and

^Somt of Septemher 28tli, 1S9.5 :—
. " An inquest was held lately by Dr. Danford Thomas oa the

txxiy of a six months' old ohild named Emily Mil man. The
Lohild was vaccinated with calf lymph by the public vaccinator
[.■t the Tottenham Court Boad vaccination station, and, the
j'rBrm being unprotected, the dry scales got rubbed off, and
I coysipelas supervened.' Before death occurred the child suffered
I from diarrhcea and vomiting. The medical evidence showed that

at the time when the racoiuatiou wounds should have healed,
■ tiiey were still sloughing, and there was an eryaipelatic rash

above and below the wounds. The public vaccinator stated
I that the Government discouraged the use ot protectors, which

were apt to get silted up with dirt, and were thus more likely
1 to lead to friction than if the arm was left bare. In reply to a

jnror, this witness stated that he did not think vaccination

contributed to the child's death in the shghtost degree. An

' ErysipelaH is one uf the most frpquent cunHequonDes of oow-poz
I inoculatioii, and, in tact, the iUaatrionB Jenner eipressly declared that
I )u> vaocinatioii can be proteotive without it. The usual toctio of the
I dootor U to say that erjrHipalos is dmply an accident, which has nothing
to do with vacdnation itself. — J. 0.

le opinion ^Kt 1

-onnecesBaiy qneatioD tbis surely. Did any jaryman a<
s public vaccinator udmit that there can be 1
Tacoination F One of the jurors expressed the opinion t
compulsory vaocinatiDn should be ' done away with.' ^le
verdict was that death was due to exhaustion from diarrhcea
and vomiting when the child was Buffering from inflamma-
tion of the arm folIowinK vaccination."

The following case is one of lost year. The article is
extracted from the Star, one of the few organs of the press
'which has taken up the anti-vacciaistB' cauee with a spirit
both persistent and determined : —

" Very instructive indeed is the cuae of little Minnie Cohen.
When she was t«n weeks old she was vaccinated. When she
-w&e four months old she died. An inquest was held on the
poor baby's body yesterday, and it was proved that aiter
vaccination she had never been well. ' Her mother took her to
the vaccinator a week afterwards, but as the body was covered
with Borea and was in a cruel state, nothing was done to the
arm. Dr. Blackwell told the mother it was only the humour
"that had been put into the child, and that she would get
right again. The child, however, was found dead in bed on
Tuesday.' Now mark the anxiety of the Coroner and thn
medical witnesses to suggest that it was not the dangerous and
cruel practice of vaccination that had caused the child's death.
The Coroner said that it was a great pity that another doctor
'was not called in, ' as the question whether vaccination had
anything to do with the cause of death was very important '' —
just as it the answer to this question had not been abundantly
proved. A doctor added that death was ' due to syncope from
the weak condition of the child.' Perhaps bo; but the weok-
-ness waa due to the effects of vaccination. A discerning yay
-returned a verdict of ' natural death.' A death more grosaly

r, the late Coroner for Middlesex, held an inquest w
' Jnfy 19th, ISBS, on a child of Hr, Emery, and, an the jnrr bringing
to a Terdiot " Died from ery^pelaB caused by vBocination," the
Coroner falnfied it by retumiiig " Death from missdveDtore." — J, C.

mmatnral, more obviously artificial, could not be conceiTed,
Now the caae of Minnie Cohen does not stand alone. It. and
saaes like it, ought to be a terrible warning to the public. In
-view of cuaea like these we marvel at the pathetic docility ol
parents who blindly obeying a stupid nnd half-hearted law,
and accepting the onqaeBtioiied advice of interested aud preju-
diced doctors, submit healthy children to the appalling risks of

A Sebious Sociai. Daij^beb.
Haj'piiig hack, to calf- vaccination ; in addition to the
pathological danger, this practice is also inseparable from
a most eerious social danger, and one which, unhappily, is
deal- and beyond dispute. The case against vacoino-
ajphiliB is bad enough, as witness the noloriouB Leeds
Oaee, in which the Local Government Board attempted to
prove that the parents and not the vaccination were the
real cause of the disaster; but when calf lymph has been
used the case becomes doubly serious —

" But there ie one aspect of it which, to my mind, is the
gravest of aU. Calf lymph, by its very eiiatenoe, constituted
a social danger of the worst kind."

"Whatever do you meaul'"

" Think a minute. If your youngster is vaccinated and
developes syphilis, there are only two possible explanations of
that syphilis, are there ? If the complaint ii
must he hereditary, mustn't

lymph ? "

' ' Think again. Suppose you tackle the vaccinator about it
and he chooses t« reply that he used calf lymph. Could you
prove that he did not ? "

a not vaccinal it

But I don't see what that has to do with calf

"Ofo<

enotP

" Then don't yon see ? Those two words ' calf lymph,' will
flufBoe to tie your hands hetplessiy. Am I not right in des-
orilnng as a social danger a means by which, without any
poBsibility of rebuttal by you, the blame of such a disaster

I
I

40

could be truisfonned from the operation to yourself, or even —

forgive me the suggestion — to "

*' Good God ! what a horrible idea ! "
—(From <' What About Vaccination/' by Alfred Milnes, MJL^
A deyer little work written and arranged in a popular vein.)

**Thb Law is Monstrous."*

The pains and penalties of vaccination — ^by which we-

mean those simply official — have been growing lesa^

numerous and less severe, year by year, as the case^

against the practice has been made popular. The general

humanising of our prisons may be credited for the ending

of many atrocities meted out to imprisoned vaccination

recalcitrants. In some towns the vaccination prosecutions-

and persecutions have ended in freeing the citizens, as in

Leicester, Keighley, Luton, Coventry, and several other

places ; but not without much sacrifice and hardship being

encountered and endured by the emancipated — ^in &ct,

the deep injustice which has been perpetrated under the^

existing Vaccination Law is one which will never be

forgotten, and which has but one equivalent in history,

that of the Fugitive Slave Law of America. Li some

cases its tyrannical nature has been felt so keenly, that

it has led to the most desperate suicides ; one case of a

poor heart-broken mother is very clear before my mind.

Referring to this case, the DaUi/ Chronicle said : —

** Mary Clarke appears to have lost her senses owing to the

dread of having her little one vaccinated Her youngest

child was not in robust health, and therefore when she found
that the operation, already long delayed, could be deferred my
longer, she tore up the flooring of one of the rooms of her
house, and, in the cistern beneath she managed to drown both,
herself and her infant."

1 The late John Bright, M.P.

41

The compolsoiy Taccination and re-vaccination of
priBonere is a mercileBs and indiscriminating rule, an
witneBB the lollowing caBe of Catharine Thomson, whose
death was reported in the Qlaigow Evening Citiun of
Jannary 2nd, 1895 r—

"The woman waa forcibly re-T£wcinat«d in Dute Street
Prison on or about December 13th. Seven days afterwards, on
her release from prison, her arm was swollen and inflamed, and
from the vaccine wound a dark coloured matter was running.
The woman complained of extreme pain in her arm, and in a
lump that came in her breast. The inflammetion increaeed
OBtil it extended from the tips of the fingers to the face, round
the lower jaw, and embraced the shoulder and part of the
breast. The woman continually complained of the pain, and
of a coldness in the arm and down the side. A neighbour was
kind to her and rubbed her shoulder with muatard oil to relieve
her, hut with httle effect. The woman, on her release from
prison, attempted to follow her usual occupation as char-
woman, but had to desist, her arm was so bad. She got
weaker daily, and died on Jannary Ist, some 17 days aftei
vaccination. Before her death her cry was ' The vaccination
has killed me; what call had they to vaccinate an old body
like mef" The official finding as to the cause of death
was effusion into the pericardium due to inflammation;
heart disease ; both lungs and hver diseased. The certificate of
death is no doubt perfectly proper, but might it not be advis-
able that more care should be exercised in the choice of subjeota
for the lancet ? Vaccination ia surely gone mad when a poor,
puny, miserable old creature, with heart, lungs, and liver
diseased is operated npon.

"W. G. UlfKLES."

Passing over such features of the vaccine coercion as
Bummonses, fines, distraint sales, by which parents are
rewarded for their devotion to their principles — mention-
ing but incidently the extra compulsion applied to oui'
soIdierB, Bailors, policemen, postmen, aud other Govern-
ment employees, which is no trifling subjection, and again,

the compulaion whicli ie employed in public 'worts, in
pu1)lic echools, and in masy private families — we have to
consider the heartleBBneBs of the workhoUBe vaccinations.
In this ease you frequently see a mother who suffers from
oompulsion in the first iustattce, in that she is compelled,
through starvation, to go to the workhouse to give birth to
her child. Children bom under audi circumstancea have
no ordinary difficultiea to cont«nd with, for endowed with
but a feohle physical vitality, they would need the
tenderest nurture, and much mora favourable surround-
inga to give them anything like a fair chance in the
struggle for esintence, without having inoculated into
their systems a disease which causes such a lionstitutional
disturbance aa does cow-pox, as usually applied. But
what will be said of vaccinating such children when bat
a few days old?' Yet with the sanction and under the
authority of the local Government Board this is the
habitual practice in some of the Metropolitan workhouses.'
A circular addressed to Clerks of Guardians, dated
January 27th, 1881, and sent to all the Unions, says: —

" Some Boards o! Ghiardians have passed a resolution re-
qoiring the medical officer, subject to the exercise of his
judgment as to making exceptions in particular cases, to secure
the Vaccination of all children bom in the workhouse as soon
as possible after birth ; and it has baeu found practicable, as a
rule to vaccinate children when ax days' old, and to inspect
the results on the thirteenth day, as the mothers, in such cases,
rarely leave the workhouse within a fortnight after their
confinement."

' All children bom in prisons are vaooinated "aa soon after birth."
SB the medical officer thinks it safe and deBirable to perfoira the
operation.

' The CamberweU Onardians deserve the thante of all hamane
people for ebecfain^ thia brutal prsctioa of vacdnating new-born
infanta in vorkbonaes.

43

EieroiBing hie judgment, the medical officer of the
Ijambeth. Inflrmary waa in the habit ol vaccinating
'Children 24 hours old ! I am not aware that the custom
In this institution has been altered or huuiatuBed. This
is indeed a striking example of how a mere official may
"exercise his judgment." Happily this instance haa no
parallel, to my knowledge; but my object in citing it is
to show to what extent the abuse may he carried, and
that there is nothing to prevent any doctor who chooses,
to satisfy a caprice, from doing the same. There are,
however, plenty of milder cases, such as vaccinating
infants under seven days old, and so on.

The Evasuel of Sanitation.
A word as to sanitation. Who but ignorant re-
actionists would think of enforcing on us by pains and
penalties a silly and injurious rite in preference to a
Bound body and a sanitary life. DarHngton, for instance,
has had national experience on a small scale. Small-pox
used to be a constant pest in a part of the town which,
under the Artisans' Dwellings Act, was demolished. This
deadly place, this plague-spot, disappeared, and with it
nearly aU the small -pox, Only a very few cases have
since been in the town; but typhus went at the same time.
The two diseases travel hand in hand, and the sanitation
which bEinishes the one as surely stamps out the other.
The ease of Leicester, now so well-known, is undoubtedly
the most striking example of the value of sanitary
measures. This is ably presented in the Fourth In-
terim Blue Book of the Commission on Vaccination, by
Mr. J. T. Biggs, of Leicester, who ably held his own
against the banded critics whose professional reputations
In Leicester actual legal

are involved i

powers do not erist ; vacoination is wholly optionaL All
the thirty importations of small-pox hetwoen 1874-89
inclusive, were, say* Mr, Biggs, promptly stamped out,
and io that period of sisteen yeare the town saved £ 11 , 1 20
by their system. The saving of life that would result if
the Leicester ratio could he spread over the whole popula-
lation of England is given by Mr. John Pickering, F.S.8.,
in his work on " Sanitation and Vaccination," viz. :

"No fewer ttan 146,992 lives would have been saved
annually, which were otherwise lost presumably through the
untoward influence of vaccination. Sven if we allow the
46,992 lost lives to be deducted from the calculation for
possible error, the result is sufB.oiently apjjalling to arrest the
attention of the most thoughtleaa mind in the country,"

What but sanitation and science destroyed the terrible-
sting of those most mortal of plagues — e.g., sweating sici-
nesB, black death, Oriental plague, and the lesser scourges?
Yes, what of the more devastating European plagues, in
comparison with which small-pox is a trifle? What
protects us from euch opidemicB now ? Isolation and
disinfection ; BufBcient and good sanitation ; better homea
and better food. For a verity, these. Had England
— say of 1660-79 — been left as she was, with one-fifteenth
part of it lakes, stagnant water, and moist places, the
chill damp of marsh fever everywhere, houses of wood
and mud, small, dirty, ill -ventilated, no sunHght, the
floors covered with foul-smelling rushes or straw, the
food scanty (little varied, with few vegetables, a,nd
little fruit and much salted meat) ; would any form
of inoculation have accomphahed what sanitation has
done ? Ton think not, yet it is now proposed to inoculate
and re-inoculate with animal poisons for all and such
zymotics! One thing is certain, cleanliness is becoming

the evangel of oar ixme. True, side by side with, its
growth glows the craze for inocidatioa. But the procesa
oi forcing the humaa body into febrile states is vain and
cidpably erroneous. Prophylaxis depends upon hygienic
■discipline and on sanitary environment. Shame must go.
The only perfectly clear and intelligible course is to teach
that zymotic diseases, if at all, are alone preventable by
cleanliness. While the laws of health are totally dis-
regarde'd, one or another of the epidemic forms of disease
will keep knocking at the gate to remind us of our duty —
that what we need are good coaditiona of living, and
wholesome ness of food, clothing, and abode. No good
ever came of vaccination since it was discovered, and no
good ever can. The civilisation and cleanliness which
banished the plagues of the seventh century will do the
same with small-pox : for vaccination will not, whether
with human lymph, or calf lymph, or kind ; or with
one mark, four marks, twenty marks ; and in the form
and application in which it is compulsory on child life and
adult life; it is an utter and disgusting failure. The
people of this country would never submit to com-
pulsory vaccination and re-vaccination again and again,
said by the secretary of the Tenner Society to be the only
efficient protection, which ia tantamount to keeping the
body for ever in a state of fever and poison, on the
eupposition that if you have one disease you cannot take
another, until that has run its course — a general: sati on
which will not bear the teat of inquiry, like all generali-
sations of such a nature, and which is, indeed, far from
being well-founded. Such an assault of the person is,
iowever, altogether out of reckoning; we have to deal
in the present case with vaccination in its compulsory
aspects only.

Kefbai, the Acts and Disexdo'R' th8 PBAonos.

It JB no exaggeration to say that there is no moro
unjust and cruel law on the English statute-book than
tiiat of the Vaccination Acts. It enforces by fines, dia-
traiats, and inipriBonmenta — in a word its paina and.
penalties are ciuniilatiTe — an operation which is at once-
dangerous and useless — an operation which Professor
Alfred K. Wallace has declared to be " utterly powerlesa
for good," " a certain cause of disease and death in
many cases," and "the probable cause of about 10,000-
deaths annually of five inoculable diseases of the moat
disgusting kind." ANTierefore, the law enjoining this
operation, which affects not the rich and the well-to-do,
pressing most hardly and cruelly upon the poor, and
offending against the consciences of honest men and
women, good parents aU — this law then is a criminal
despotism, and ought certainly to be repealed, if, indeed,
it would not be within the pale of reason — as it would
certainly of humanity — to restrain those deluded people-
who would submit their infant and utterly helpless off-
spring to its grave and appalhng risks.

At least this much — the immediate abrogation of the
iniquitous penal laws enforced by the Acts of Parliament
of 1853, 1867, and 1871, together with the disestablish-
ment and diseadowment ty the Government of the practice
of vaccination. "Against the body of a healthy man,"
Bays Professor Newman, "Parliament has no right of
assault whatever under pretence of the Public Health;
nor any the more against the body of a healthy infant.
To fortid perfect health is a tyrannical wickedness, just as-
much aa to forbid chastity or sobriety. No lawgiver can
have the right, The law is an unendurable usurpation,
and creates the right of resistance."

THE HUMANITIES OF DIET.

THE HUMANITIES OP DIET.

"Httmasised Mak."

A FEW years ago, in an article entitled " "Wanted, a New
Meat," the Spectator complained that dietetic provision ia
made nowadays " not for man as humaniBed [mc] by
Bchools of cookery, but for a race of fruit-eating apes."
We introduce bananas, pines, Italian figs, pomegiunateB,
and a variety of new friiitB, but what ia really wanted is
'.' some new and large animal, something which shall
combine the game flavour with the substantial solidity of
a leg of mutton." Surmising that there must exist " some
neglected quadruped, which will furnish what wa seek,"
the Spectator proceeded to take anxious stock of the
world's resources, subjecting in turn the rodents, the
pachyderms, and the ruminants to a careful survey, in
which the claims even of the wart-hog were conBcientiousIy
debated. In the end the rnnmianta won the day, and the
choice fell upon the Eland, who was called to the high
function of supplying a new fleah-food for " humanised "

I must say at the outset that this is not the sense in
which I am about to speak of the "humanities" of diet*
Zoophilist though I am, I have not been fired by the
Spectator' g enthusiasm for the rescue of some "neglected
quadruped " {delicious term !), nor have I any wish to see
eviscerated Elands hanging a-row in our butchers' shops.

On the coDtrarj, I suggest that in proportion oa man is
truly "humanised," aot by schools of cookeiy but by
schools of thought, he wQl abandon the barbarous habit of
his flesh-eating ancestors, and will make gradual progresB
towards a purer, simpler, more humane, and thereforo
more civilised diet-system.

iha reiorB |

Principle and Purpose of Vegetaeiasism.

An article by Dr. T. P. Smith, .
which appeared in the Fortnightly Review for November,
1895, ia one of many recant signs that the public ia
awaking to the fact that there ia such a thing as food-
reform. The reception of a new idea of thia sort is
always a strange process, and has to pass through
several successive phases. First, there ia tacit contempt;
secondly, open ridicule ; then a more or less respectful
opposition, and, lastly, a partial acceptance, which may
or may not becom.e general. During the third period, the
one at which the vegetarian question has now arrived,
discussion is often compHcated by the way in which the
opponents of the new idea fail to grasp the real object of
the reformers, and pleasantly substitute some exaggerated,
distorted, or wholly imaginary concept of their own ; after
which they proceed to argue from a wrong basis, crediting
their antagonists with mistaken aims and purposes, and
then triumphantly impugning their consistency or logic.
It ia therefore of the utmost importance that, in debating
the problem of food-reform, we should know exactly vhat
the reformers themselves are aiming at.

Let me first make plain what I mean by calling
vegetarianism a mw idea. Historically, of course, it ia
nc*: new at all, either as a precept or a practice.

3tice. A. great

portion of the world's inhabitaiLtB hare alwaya
praottcally vegetarians, and some whole races and
have been so upon principle. The Buddhist canon in the
east, and the Pythagorean in the treat, enjoined abstinence
from flesh-food on humane, as on other grounds ; and in
the writings of such "pagan" philosophers as Plutarch
and Porphyry, we find a humanitarian ethic of the most
exalted hind, which, after undergoing a long repression
during medieeval churchdom, reappeared, albeit but
weaHj and fitfully at first, in the literature of the
Eenaiasance, to be traced more definitely in that school of
" aensibihty," the eighteenth century writers. But it was
not until after the age of Eousseau, from which must be
dated the great humanitarian movement of the past
century, that vegetarianism began to assert itself as a
system, a reasoned plea for the disuse of flesh-food, as
advanced in the writings of Eitson, Nicholson, Lambe,
Shelley, Gle'iz^s, and Sylvester Graham. In this sense it
is a new ethical principle, and its import as such is only
now beginning to be generally understood.

I say tthical principle, because it is beyond doubt that
the chief motive of vegetarianism is the humane one.
Questions of hygiene and of economy both play their part,
and a very important part, in a full discussion of food-
reform ; but the feeling which underlies and animates the
whole movement is the instinctive horror of butchery,
especially the butchei-y of the more highly organised
animals, so human, so near akin to man. Let me quote a
short passage from the preface to Mr. Howard Williams's-
" Ethics of Diet," the acknowledged test-book of

ya been ^^^
nd sects ^^|

" It has been well said," remarks Mr. Williams, " that there
3 steps on the way to the summit of dietetic reform, and if

only one step be token, j'et that single st«p will not be without
importance emd without influence in the world. The step
which leaves for ever behind it the barbariam of elaughtcring
our fellow-beings, the mammals and birds, is, it is superfluona
to add, the moat important and moat infloential of all."'

Lot it therefore be clearly understood that this step — the
"firet step," as Tolstoi has called it, in a Bcheme at
humane living — has been the main object of vegetarian
propaganda from the establishment of the Vegetarian
Society in 1847 to its jubilee in the present year. To
secure the discontinuance oi the shocking and inhumaa
practices that are inseparable from the slaughterhouse —
this, and no far-fetched doctrinaaro theory oi abatinenea
from all "animal" aubstances, no fastidious abhorrence
of contact with the " evil thing," has been the purpose of
modem food -reformers. They are, moreover, well aware
that a change of this sort, which involves a reconsideration
oi our whole attitude towards the "lower animals," can
only be gradually realised ; nor do they invite the world,
at their opponents seem to imagine, to an immediate hard-
and-fast decision, a revolution in national habits which ia
to be discussed, voted, and carried into effect the day after
to-morrow, to the grievous jeopardy and dislocation oi
certain time-honoured interests. They simply point to
the need of progression towards humaner diet, beheving,
with Thoreau, that " it is part of the destiny of the human
race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating
animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating
each other, when they come in contact with the more
oivilised."

' "]:)tMos of Diet," 1883. A new editiim has been issued (
br the Ides] Fnblialiiiig Umon, 112, Fleet Stieat.

Some MjaxraDKEaTAXDncos Removed.

I SouE fSia

I It ia needless for me to reply in detail to Dr. Smith's

argumenta, because, unfortunately, in writing his paper
on "Vegetarianism," he had not grasped this ethical
principle by which vegetarianism ia inspired, and there-
fore his contentions, whether correct or incorrect when
judged from hia own standpoint, have small relevance to
the subject of hia criticisms. 80 little aware ia he of
the Bupreme importance of the humanitarian aspect of
food-reform, that, like the Hebridetin mimster who
referred first to the Great and Little Cumbrfe, and then to
the "adjacent" islands of Great Britain and Ireland, he
alludea to it, almost incidentally, as "another assertion,
often made by vegetarians, to the eSect that the nn-
neoeasary destruction of sentient existence ia an inunoral
act," Anolher assertion ! Why, it ia the very heart and
and stronghold of the vegetarian position. But thia is
nothing to the astounding argument that follows. "The
moat enthusiastic vegetarians," says Dr. Smith, " will
BCarcely venture to deny that the destruction of many
animala is requisite for bimian existence. What vege-
tarian would allow his premises to be swamjing with
mice, rata, and similar peats ? Does he permit caterpillars,
anaila, and slugs to devour the produce of liis vegetable
garden ? Perhaps he satiafiea hia conacience with the
Tefieotion that the destruction of vermin is a necesaai^
act."

I am not a viviaectioaist, but I must own to some
scientific curioaity as to the brain of a man of science who
could pen that sentence. The perhaps takes one'a breath
away. Perkapt the vegetarian draws a diatinction between
the avowedly necessary destruction of garden and house-

told pests, and the quite uimeceBsary (from the Tegetarian
standpoint] butchery of oxen and sheep, who are bred for
no other purpose than thiit of the slaHghter-hoiiap, where
they are killed, as Dr. Smith himseLf admits, in a most
barbarous manner. Ptrhapt the vegetarian "satisfies his
conscience" with this distinction. I should rather think
he did.

No wonder that food-reformers seem a strange and
unreasonable folk to those who have thus failed to
apprehend the very raiion J'Slri of food-reform, and who
persist in arguing as if the choice between the old diet
and the new were a more matter of personal caprice or
professional adjustment, into which the moral question
scarcoly enters at all. To this same misunderstanding is
due the futile outcry that is raised every now and then
against the term " vegetarian," when some zealous
opponent undertakes, as Dr. Smith does, to "expose the
delusions of those who boast that they live on vegetables,
and yet take eggs, butter, and milk as regular artiolea of
diet." Of course the simple fact is that vegetarians ore
neither boastful of their diet nor enamoured of their
name ; it is the title that sticks to them, and not they to
the title. It was invented, wisely or unwisely, a full
half-century ago, and whether we like it or not,- has
evidently "come to stay" until we find something better.
It is worth observing that this technical objection is
seldom or never made in. actual everyday life, where the
word "vegetarian" carries with it a quite definite meaning,
viz., one who abstains from fiesh-food but not necessarily
from animal products ; the verbal pother is always made
by somebody who is sitting down to write an article
against food reform, and has nothing better to say. It all
comes from the notioTi that vegetarians are bent (

kBrren, logical " conBifitency," rather than on praotical
progreBB towardB a more humane method of living — the
only sort of "consistency" which in this, or any other
tranch of refoi-m, ia either posaihle ia itself, or worth a
momeat'e attention from a eeneible man.

To show, however, that thiei question of the temporary
use of animal products has not teen shirked by food-
reformers, I quote the following from my "Plea for
Vegetarianism," published ten years ago.

" The immediate objeot which food-reformers aim at, is not
BO much the disuse of animal substaacea in general, as the
abolition of fleah-m.eat in particular ; and if they can drive
their opponents to make the import^ant admission that actual
flesh-food is unnecessary, they can afFoid to smile at the trivia]
retort that animal subatancQ isstiD used ineggs and milk, . . .
They are well aware that even dairy produce is quite un-
necessary, and will doubtless be dispensed with altogethei
under a more natural system of diet. In the meantime, how-
ever, one step is auf&cient. Let us first recognise the fact that
the slaughter 'house, with all its attendant horrors, might
easily be abohshed ; that point gained, the question of the
total disuse of all animal products is one that will be decided
hereafter. What I wish to insist on is that it is not ' animal '
food which we primarily abjure, but nasty food, expensive
food, and imwholesome food."

It may be added that some food-reformera eat fish ; and
though the name " vegetarian " is rightly denied to such
persons, and fi^h eating is not tolerated by the rules of the
Vegetarian Socieiy, it ia evident that, regarded from the
lumane standpoint, there is an enormous difEerence
hetween fish-eating and fiesh-eating, and that if medical
men, instead of quibbhng about the word " vegetarian,"
would recommend to their clients the use of animal
podoots, or even fish, as a substitute for '

meat," there would be a gireat gain to the hnmaaities of
diet. Incidentally, it must be remarked, the doctors
quite adcoit the efficiency oi auch substitutes ; for in their
eagemesB to convict the " vegetariane" of mconsiBtency in
using animal products, they guilelessly give away their
own case by arguing that, of oourae, on fhia diet the
" vegetarians " do well enough ! As for those ultra-con-
sistent porBons who sometimes write as if it were not worth
while to discontinue the practice of cow-killing, unless we
also inuuediately discontinue the practice of using milV —
that is to say, who think the greater reform is worthless
without the lesser and subsequent one — I can only
express my respectful astonish meat at such reasoning. It
is as though a traveller were too " eonaiatent " to start on
a long journey of life or death, because he might be
Required to "change carriages " on the way.

SLAUQHTBK-HOUaB H0£BO£S. WhO IB EkSPONSIBLE?

But it is said, why not introduce "humane" methods of
daughtoring, and so remedy the chief evil in the present
system of diet? By all means introduce improved m.6thods,
but remember that though they can mitigalo the evil,
they cannot remedy it. " Humane alaughtering," if it be
once admitted that there is no necessity to slaughter at
all, ia a contradiction in terms ; and though there might be
a great reduction of suSeriag, if all reformers would com-
bine for the abolition of private slaughter-houses and the
substitution of well-ordered municipal abattoirs, conscien-
tious flesh-eaters would be still faced by the difficulty that
these changes must take a long time to carry out, opposed
i^ they are by powerful private interests, and that even
onder the best possible conditions the butchering of tha

13

larger animals muet alwaya be a horrible and inbiuuaii
bueinesB. Yegetarianism, as a, movement, has nothing
whatever to fear Irom the introduction of improved
slaughtering ; indeed, vegetarians may take the credit of
having worked quite as zealously as flesh-eaters in that
direction, feeling, as they do, that in our complex society
no individnals can exempt themselves from a share in the
general responsibility — the brand of the sweater and the
slaughterer is on the brow of every one of us. But there
is no half-way resting-place in humane progress ; and we
may be quite sure that when the public consoienee is once
aroused on this dreadful subject of the slaughter-house, it
will maintain its interest to a mnch more thorough solu-
tion of the difficulty than a mere improvement of
methods,'

One thing is quite certain. It is impossible for £eeh-
eaters to find any justification for their diet in the plea
that animals might bo slaughtered humanely; it is an
obvious duty to carry out the improvements first, and to
make the excuses afterwards. Dr. Smith's remarks on
this point are an example of the evasive reasoning to
which I allude. Admitting that the vegetarian, in Ms
indictment of the slaughter-house, "hits a grievous blot
on our much-vaunted civilisation," he tries to escape from
the inevitable conclusion as follows; "His allegations,
however, tell not against the use of animal food, but
against the ignorance, carelessness, and brutality too
often displayed in the slaughter-houses." Now I wish to

^ A *' HuMASK DrET Depaktmeptt " of the HnnxBnitarian League
has been organiBed to lulvooata ( 1 ) the reform, as far SH may be, of
■langrhter-liouBe methods; {'!) aelf-cetorm in diet, i.e., abstinence
from nich linda of fond an CB,u»e the greatest suffering in their
preparation.

14

Bay moBt emphatically, thia will not do. It is a libel on
the working men who have to earn a livelihood by the
diHguatiug occupation of butchering. The real " ignorance*
careleaanesB, and brutality," are not in the rough -handed
slaughtermen, but in the polite ladies find gentlemen
■whose dietetic habits render the slaughtermen necesaary.
The reaponaibility rests not on the wage-slave, but on the
employer, "I'm only doing your dirty work," was the
recent reply of a Whitechapel butcher to a gentleman who
expressed the same BCutimentH as Dr. Smith's. "It's
such as s/eu makes such as us," he added ; and I think it
must be admitted that the gentleman waa intellectually
pole-axed.

At this point in my article it would presumably be th,o
right thing to give some detailed description of the horrors
enacted in our shambles, of which I might quote numerona
instances from perfectly reliable eye-witnesses. If I do
not do 80, I can assure my readers that it is not from any
desire to spare their feelings, for I think it might fairly
be demanded of those who eat beef and mutton that they
should not shrink from an acquaintance with facts of their
own making; also we have often been told that it is the
vegetarians, not the flesh-eaters, who are the "senti-
mentalists" in this matter. I refrain for the simple
reason that I fear, if I narrated the facts, thia article
would go unread, and I have yet some things to say which
I think may otherwise be tolerated. So, before passing
on, I will merely add this — that in some ways the evils
attendant on slaughtering grow worse, and not better, as
civilisation advances, because of the more complex coa-
4itJons of town life, and the increasingly long jonmeyB to
which animals are subjected in their transit from the
grazier to the slaughterman. The cattle-ships of the

present day reproduce, in an aggravated form, some of
the woret horrors of the slave-ship of fifty years back,'
I take it for granted, then, aa not denied by our opponents
(it is frankly admitted hy Dr. Smith), that the present
eystem of kilhng animals for food is a very cruel and
tarbarous one, and a direct outrage on what I have
-termed the " humanities of diet."

Esthetic Considebationb.
It is also an outrage on every sense of refinement and
^ood taste, for in this question the sesthetics are not to be
dissociated from the humanities. Has the artist ever
■considered the history of the " chop " which is brought ao
elegantly to his studio ? Not he. He would not be able
to eat it if he thought about it. He has first employed a
slaughterman ("it's such as you makes such aa us") to con-
vert a beautiful living creature into a hideous carcase, to
be displayed with other carcases in that ugliest product of
civilisation, a butcher's shop ; and then he has employed a
cook to conceal, as far as may be, the work of the
slaughterman. This is what the Spectator calls being
"humanised" by schools of cookery; I should call it
being de-humaniaed. In passing a butcher's I have seen
a concert -program pinned prominently on the corpse of a
pig, and I have mused on that suggestive though unin-
tended allegory of the Haais of Art. I deny that it is the
right basis, and I maintain that there will necessarily be
something porcine in the art that is so upheld and
■exhibited. Nine -tenths of our literary and ai-tiatio
gatherings, our social functions, and most sumptuous

' Bes " Cftttle-SLipB and oar Meat Supply," " Behind the Scanes
fa) Slaug-hter-hooBes," "The Evils of Butchery." — Humanitarian
lieagae Pamphlets.

Bntertainmenti, are tainted from the same aonrce. You
take a beautiful girl down to supper, and you offer her —
a h.am eaadwicli ! It is proverbial folly to cast pearls,
before svrine, What are we to say of the politeness whiclL.-J
casta Bwine before pearls ?

What the Doctors Say.
It ia no part of my purpose on the present ouoaaion t
argTie in detail the posiibilily of a vegetarian diet ; nor i
there any need to do so. The proofs of it are eyerywheri
— in the history of races, in the rules of monastic ordora
in the hahita oi large numbers of working po])ulationa, ijii
the remarkable achievements of vegetaiian athJetea, iit
biographies of weU-known men, in the facts and inatajioe
of every-day life. The medical view of vegeta
which at flrat (as in the 8im.ilar ease of teetotal!
e.-spreased by a severe negative and ominous head-ahal
has very largely changed during the past tea or twenqi
years, and, in so far as it is still hostile, dwells rather on thM
superiority of the "mixed" diet than on the insufficiency
of the other, while the solemn waniinga which used to h
addres-sed to the venturesome individual who had 1
hardihood to lonve off eating his fellow-beings, have i
lapsed into more general statements as to the probabUJ
failure of vegetarianism in the long run, and on
extended trial. Well, we know what that means. It iM
what has been said of every vital movement that the woit
has seen. It means that medical specialists need time ti
envisage new truths, but they do envisage thera some dai^
It is a hopeful sign that already, when they chance to t
moved by some strong iiapulse, such as the desire to t
auti-vivisectionists with iccciiisistency, doctors frequenl

17

-ask why So-and-So, if he holds zoophilist opiniouB, is
not a vegetarian. A year or two ago the Timi» seTeiely
■censured a hishop for the same reason, and stated in a
leading article that the plea of impossibihty was ahsurd.
■Sir Henry Thompson has stated that it is " a vulgar error
to regard meat in any form as necessary to life" ; in short,
the medical preference for a flesh diet may now he
■summed up under two heads — that flesh is more
■digeatihie, more easily aseimilated, than vegetables, and
that it is unwise to hmit the sources of food which (to
■quote Sir H. Thompson's words) " nature has abundantly
provided."

The first argument, aa to the superior digestibility of
flesh, is flatly denied by food-reformers on the plain
grounds of experience ; the notion that vegetarians are in
■the habit of eating a greater bulk of food, in order to
■obtain an equal amount of nutriment, being one of those
amazing superstitions which could not survive a day's
■comparative study of the parties in question. My own con-
viction is that the average flesh-eater eats at least twice aa
much in bulk as the average vegetarian ; and I know that
ihe experience of vegetarians bears witness to a great
reduction, instead of a great inci-ease, in the amount of
their diet. As for the second medical argument, the
nnwisdom of rejecting any of niiture's bounties, it ignores
the very esisteuce of the ethical question, which is the
-vegetarian's chief contention ; nor does this appeal to
"natxire" strike one as being a vei-y "scientific" one,
inasmuch as (ethics apart) it might just as well justify
■<!annihalism as flesh-eating. "We can imagine how the
medicine-men of some old anthropophagous tribe might
■deprecate the new-fangled civilised notion of abstinence
Jrom human flesh, ou the ground that it is foohsh to

ent liopeleealy |

refuse the benefits which " nat
provided.

Mb. So-AND-So'a Exfbrimeat.
But what of the failures of those nho have a
the vegetarian diet ? Is not the movement hopeleealy
blocked by Mr. So-and-So's six weeks' experiment ? He
became so very weak, you know, until his friends were
quite alarmed about him, and he was really obligsd to take
something more nourishing. All of which eymptODB, I
would i-emark, could be matched by thousands of similar
instances from the records of the temperance movement—
and prove clearly enough, not that abstinence from flea
or alcohol ia impossible, but that (as any thoughtfi
person might have foreseen) a great change in the habita
of a people cannot be effected suddenly, or without ita
inevitable percentage of failures. Every propagandi
movement, religious, social, or dietetic,
to itself a motley crowd of adherents, many of whoi
after a trial of the new principle — some after a
trial, others after a very superficial one — ^revert; to thei
former position. I wish to look at this questio
reasonable spirit, and I ask my readers to do
same. Let it be freely granted that a habit ao ingrainei
as that of flesh-eating ia likely, and indeed
in some particular cases to bo very hard to eradica
What then? Is not that esaotly what might
been expected in a change of this kind ? And oi
other side, it is equally certain that a large number <
the reported failures— nine -tenths of them, I should a
— are caused by the half-hearted or ill-advised manner jt
which the attempt is made. It is just aa possible '\
commit suicide on a vegetarian diet as on any othoi^.'l

19

you are bent on that conoluBion ; and really one laiglit
almoBt imagine, from the extraordinary folly sometimes
Bhown in tlie selection of a diet, that certain experimenta-
liats were "riding for a fall" in their dealings with
' vegetarianism — taking up the thing in order to he able to
say, " I tried it, and see the result ! " I knew a
a master at a great public school, who "tried vege-
tarianism," and he tried it by making cabbage and
potato the substitute for flesh, and after a month's trial he
felt "veiy flabby," and then he gave it up; which,
indeed, was the only wise step taken by him during the

The poetical confession of a trial of vegetarianism made
by Lord Tennyson is often quoted by our opponents. To
ehow the value I set upon such evidence, I will make
them a present of another notable instance — hitherto un-
published, as far as I know — that of Emerson. I have
been told by a friend of Emerson's that, having heard
much, talk of vegetarianism among his transcendentalist
friends, he determined to try it, and instructed Mrs.
Emerson to provide him daily with a dinner of — bread
and water ! This continued for a week, and he then
instructed Mrs. Emerson to provide him with something
else. Here was a heavy blow to the cause of food reform;
the sage of Concord had tried it, and it had unmistakably
failed.

Is it worth while, after that, to talk any more of the
" hiimEinities of diet " ? I almost think that it is ; and I
would now venture to confide to my readers a belief which
I fear may to some of them seem fanciful, that an im-
portant factor in the success of a change of diet is the
spirit in which such change is undertaken. As far as the
isere chemistry of food is concerned, the majority of people

may doubtless, with ordinary 'wiadom in the conduct t

the change, substitute a vegetarian for a "mixed
without inconvenience. But in some cases, owing perhaps
to the teraperament of the individual, or the natuii? of hie
surroundings, the change is much more difficult ; and
here it will make all the difference whether he have
really at heart a Binccre wish to take the first step towarda
a humaner diet, or whether he be simply experimenting
out of curiosity or some other trivial motive. It is one
more pi-oof that the moral basis of vegetarianism is tiia
one that sustains the rest.'

Some Anciekt Fallaoieb.
But are there not other reasons alleged against '^n
practice of vegetarianism ? Ah, those dear old Fallacioa
80 inmiemorial yet ever new, how can I speak diai'espeo
fully of what has so often refreshed and entertained maS
Every food reformer is famihar with them — the
nature " argument, which would appmximate hui
ethics to the standard of the tiger-cat or rattle-s'
the " necessity -of -taking -life " argument, which coa^
scientiously ignores the qu-Jstiou of Hnnecessary killin|
the blubber argument, or, to put it more exactly,
" what-would-become-of-the-Esquimaux?", to which 1
only adequate answer is, a system of state-aided emigi
tion; the " for-my-sake " argutaent, which m,ay be c
the family fallacy ; the " what-should-wo-do-withoid

' It does Dot oome wttbin the scope of thia atidole to disc
question, How to begin ; but if anyone BnppoeeB that this p
point has been negUeted by food refcirmerg, I may be pennitted t
refer Mm to the literatore of the Vegetariun Society, Peter B
Manohester, or the London Vegetarian AssociatioD, Memorial 1
E.C.

SI

leather?", that lurid picture of a world left shoeleHs by
inetaiitBiieoua convereion to vegetaiianiBiii ; and the dis-
" what -would -become -of -the-animola ? ", wtich
foreseea the grievous wanderingB of homeleHS horda who
«aii find no kind protector to eat them. Best of all, I
think, IB what may be termed the metaphysical argument,
beloved of learaed men, which urges that it is better for
the animals to live and he eaten than not to live at all —
-an imaginary ante-natal choice in an imaginary ante-
natal condition ! liack of space prevents my now furnish-
ing the answer to this philosophical fallacy, nor do I think
that, for ordinary persons, any explanation is required ;
but if any dietingTiished metaphysician or philosopher is
tmable to see it, 1 will gladly explain it to him in private.*

The Diet of the Futube.
I have now shown what I mean by those "humanitieB
<}t diet " without which, as it eeems to me, it is idle to
dispute over the "rights" of animals, and the pro* and
emu of " zoophily." A lively argument was lately raging
between Zoophilists and Jeeuits, as to whether animals are
" pereone " ; but the battle appears to be an unreal one,
80 long as the " persons " in question are by common
agreement handed over to the tender mercies of the
butcher, who will make exceeding short work of their
"personality". For, as the vegetarian rhymer has it;—

"Te ' animal -lovers,' in blindness
Tour heart-felt affection je boart;
To love them in meadow, what kindnesa —
If ye love them far better ir

' Mr. Leelie Stephen falls a victim to this fallaof in hia " Social
Kghta and DntiBB " (Library of Ethios), 1896, and Profeasor D. Q.
Ritchie in his "Natural Rig-hts " (Library of Philosophy), 1

I advance no exaggerated or fanciful claim for vege-
tariaoism. It is not, aa some have asserted, a "panacea"
for human ills ; it is something much more rational — an
essential part of the modeiTi humanitarian movementr
which can make no true progress without it. Vege-
tarianism is the diet of the future, as flesh-food is th&
diet of the past. In that striking and common contrast,
a fruit-shop side by side with a butcher's, we have a most
aignificant object -lesson. There, on the one hand, are the-
barbarities of a savage custom — the headless carcases,.
stifEened into a ghastly semblance of life, the joints and
steaks and gobbets with their sickening odour, the harak
grating of the bone-saw, and the dull thud of the chopper
— a perpetual crying protest against the horrors of flesh-
eating. And, as if this were not witness sufficient, here,,
close alongside, is a wealth of goldeu fruit, a sight to-
make a poet happy, the only food that is entirely eon-
genial to the physical structure and the natural instincts.
of mankind, that can entirely satisfy the highest human
aspirations. Can we doubt, as we gaze at this contrast,
that whatever intermediate steps may need to be gradually
taken, whatever difhoulties to be ovei-oome, the i)ath of
progression from the barbarities to the humanities of diet^^
lies oleai and unmistakable before us ?

LITERJ: HIIMANIORES:

an appeal to teachers.

LITEE^ HTTMATflOEEE
AN APPEAL TO TEACHEES.

" Among the Dobleat in the land,
Tbou^ ho mav count himself the least,
That man I honour and revere
Who, withoat faiout, without fear,
In the great city dares to stand,
The friend of every friendless beast."

The Need of HuuAitE Education.

, Boyez humains f C'est votre premier devoir. Quelle-
sagease y a-t-il pour tous, hors de I'limtianite P

(" Humana, be hwnnne ! It is your first duty. What wisdom is
there for you, apart from humanity?")

It would be well ii this admirable precept of EouBaeau's
could be engraved in goldea letters on the walla of every
Bchool and college in the kingdom. One would think that
tbe futility of mere book-learning, when divorced from
the deeper instincts of hnmanenesB, would be apparent to
all thoee who are entruated with the education of the
young ; but alas, in how many English schools, public or
private, can it be truly said that the duty of humBnity to
animalH, or even of humanity to men, is taught with any
approach to thoroughness or consistency ? In the large
majority, we feat, it is simply not taught at all; it has
no place whatever, directly or indirectly, in the school
currictdum. Oblivious of the fact that cruelty is every-
where one and the same vice, and that cruelty to animals
cannot in the long run he dbsociated from cruelty to men,

OBT teacherB appear to have accepted, with a Bort of placid
indiilerenoe or lesigDation, a dispoaitioa in. their pupils
vhich ought to bo combated and mitigated with all
possible energy. "Boys are oruel," they aay ; and pro-
ceed to treat their charges, as iar as this particular fault
is concerned, ifith that not uncommon form of education
which George Eliot styled the "undivided neglect" of
the teacher. But we have no right whatever to assume,
in thia wholeaalo way, that " boys are cruel." Of course
they are cruel, as long as the example is everywhere set
them by their elders, and ob long as those who are respon-
sible for their religious and moral welfare, are content, or
compelled, to leave them without instruction on the most
important of ethical Bubjectfi. It is nothing short of
Bcondalous that members of school-boards who will
attempt to force a disputable theology on children should
take no measures at all for the inculcation of the broadest
and simplest precepts of humanity.

In this matter the chief public schools and colleges are
the more deserving of blame, in proportion as their means
and opportunities are greater. It is necessary to draw a
sharp distinction between that surface "humanism," a
culture of the gentlemanly (qualities of scholarship and
reSnement, much in vogue iu academic and fashionable
circles, and the sense of sympathetic "humanity" which
springs from the profounder culture of the heart. It
would be difficult to find a more suggestive comment on
the anomalous state of our civilised society than in the
fact that it is the former, the superficial kind of culture,
which is honoured with the title of lit^rm humaniore»,
"humane letters." A "Professor of Humanity" ia a
teacher of Latin grammar — such is the bathos to which
our academic pedantry has conducted us ! There is, i

may ttbII believe, do ultimate antagoniBm between cultiire
And nature, between humaiiista and humaaity (botb
Tiglitly underBtood) ; but we must be sure that we are
cultivating the true natural instincts, the living germs at
'thought, and not the mere husks and superficialities and
Tefinements of some cut-and-dried intellectual formula.
Xet those who think of education and literature as studies
-to be pursued above and apart from humanitarianism,
remember what was said oE John Brown, the great hero
of American abolitionism, " Such wore his humanities,
«nd not any study of grammar. He would have left a
"Greek atcent slanting the wrong way, and righted up a
ialling man."

We do not wish to suggest to English teachers anything
■eo alarming as that Greek accents should be loft slanting
the wrong way. But we do insist that the " righting up "
of falling men, and of falling animals also, is a duty
which is worth far more consideration that is now ac-
■corded to it. It is astonishing that our educational
authorities shoidd so wholly neglect the wise advice of
Xocie, as given in his famous treatise on education,

" This [a tendency in children to cruelty] should be watched
■in them, and if they incline to any such cruelty, they should be
taught the contrary usHge. For the custom of tormeoting and
ruling of beasts will by degrees hanlen their hearts even
-towania men ; and they who delight in the suffering and
destruction of interior creatures will not bo apt to be very com-
passionate or benign to those of their own kind. Children
flbould from the beginning he bred up in an abhorrence of
iilhng or tormenting any living creature '"

In another notable passage of the same work he
describes the destructive propensity as " a foreign and

a habit boriowed from custom

iotroduoed dispositioL
conTersation."

" Peojile teach children to strike, and laugh when they hart,
or BBS harm come to uthere : and they have the eiample of
most about them to confirm them in it. All the entertainment
and talk of hiatory ia of nothing but fighting and ktlling, and
the honour and r*iuown that is bestowed on conquerors (who
for tlie most part are hut the great bittcbera of mankind}
farther mislead the youth,"

The present apjieal is addressed to teachers of every
class and denomination, in the hope of inducing them to
recognise the humane treatment of animals as a necessary
part of any moral " education" worthy of the name. Some
attention, however insufficient it may be, is now paid in
English schools and lecture-rooms to the great social
questions where the well-being of our human fellow-
workers is concerned ; but the rights of animals, and the
duty of justice and humanity to animals, remain practi-
caUy untaught, with the result that, as far as the
authorised teachers are concerned, a horde of young
savages is yearly turned loose into society, devoid alike ot
knowledge, of sympathy, and of humaneness, in regard
to whole races of sensitive and higlily- organised beings
who are placed in large measure in their power. Were
it not for three private agencies, the "Bands of Mercy"
which have been organised in many places to provide the
instruction that should have been provided elsewhere,
the essay. competition encouraged among London middle-
class schools by the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, and thirdly the "Children's Column "
which is now being adopted by a good many newspapers,
it would be no exaggeration to say that English children
arc left entirely without instruction in this most vital

etbical question, whicli can hardly fail to have a lifelong
iiifluence on their habits and character.'

That there are great and serious obstacles in the way
ol this humane reform, and that progress can only be
slow, cautious, and indirect, will be admitted by all who
know anything of the cooservatism of school methods.
A school is in many ways a microcosm— a miniature
reflection of the greater world that is around and before
it — and it is difficult or impossible for the most liberal-
minded teacher to counteract successfully the example (in
so many cases an evil example] which is set by society.
The tone of society, even of cultured and sesthetic society,
towards the lower animals is deplorable, as shown in the
general iadifferonce or hostility to the most elementary
animal rights ; and this tone spreads inevitably and im-
perceptibly from parent to child, from home-circle to
school-circle, beyond the power of repression by any
individual remonstrance. No wonder, then, that even
humane teachers, themselves sensible of the mischief,
have despaired of the possibility of improvement, and

' The only official refereooe to the snbjeot is contained in one of the
latest Inetmctions to luapeotora, which deals with the leit of Roading-
boote in Oovemment Bohools. The wonls are as follows : "PasBu^^t
impiesBiiis on the children the daly of g^Qtlenesa and conBideratioD
for others, and that of the huioane troatment of animals, may also be
wisely introdaaed." This is not very definite. I am informed bj
one who has eioeptional knowledge of the work of the Bandfl of
Meroy that the schools have been hardly at all penneated or influenced
by this homane movement. There is no time in schools to oany ouC
this teaching ; and although there are cases where a zealous maeMc
iatrodaces humanity into an object lesson, or chooses (if he is aJJowed
the choice) a, humane reading-book, leachers usually look a^snoe at
the Bands of Mercy as caumng theia extra work and trouble. The
Hecoy classes have tu be held preoarionalj, at odd times, and are
altoEother at a disadvantage in comparison with any other teaohing.

ould often I^^^|
.task. ^^H

tion whicli giw^^^

have ahiunk trom uadertaking what would <
proved to be a thankless and unprofitable task.

There is, moreover, another conaideration t
aa pause at the outset. It is most undesirable, as all
true humanitarians will be ready to admit, that the
details of horrible and revolting eubjects should be forced
on the minds of the young, whose humanity, in a proper
state of society, would be instinctive and unconscious, the
result of pure and beautiful eurronudings rather than an
acquired ethical creed. If any class have a right to be
exempt from the debasing aspects of the seamy side of
civilization, it is those of tender years, who, whether their
birth be high or lowly, should be brought up in affluence
and gentleness, and protected from all contact with what
is mean and repellent and foul. As will be made more
evident in a later section of this pamphlet, we humani-
tarians do not wish, as is sometimes wrongly supposed, to
take undue advantage of the natural sentiment of the
young.

Yet, while the reality of these difficulties ia fully
acknowledged, it is equally certain that something
can and must be done by the responsible authorities tc
remedy the present state of affairs. It is not a question
of introducing children's minds to hortors with which
they are happily unfamiliar, for these barbarities already
throw a shadow on their daily lives. When cruelty is
everywhere, and when children are themselves tainted by
it, it is surely the merest hypocrisy to aSect to be un-
aware of its esistence ; it is wiser to recognise the
mischief, and do what can be done to lessen it, than to 1st
it work its work unreproved. And it is obvious, that
without obtruding humanitarian doctrines in a formal
manner, w exercising aaj undue pressure on their pu|nls*

, teachers may indirectly avail themBelTeB ol
numberless opportimitiee for eugg eating thoughts whicli
will be of priceless value to the mind which assimilates
them. Shall the rising generation of Englishmen and
Englisbwomea grow up as callous and indifferent to tho
«normoua sum of unnoeeasary animal suffering, as are
(with a few exceptions) the Englishmen and English-
women of to-day ? Or ehuU the spread of education bring
with it not only a more brotherly regard for the interests
of human fellow- creatures, but also, and by a precisely
similar process of enlightenment, a more humane con-
aideratioa for the "lower animals" who hold their lives
by the same tenure as mankind. That is the q^uestion
which is put to all teachers who may happen to read this
appeal; and the result will depend very largely on the
spirit in which an answer is given.

Let me now proceed to a discussion of some of the
particular instiinces where there appears to be need of a
humaner and more rational education.

Petthto.
The domestic animals are necessarily the first with
which children are brought in contact ; hence such
attempts as are made by parents and teachers to inculcate
the duty of kindness are directed in most instances to
animals of this class. And here, at the very outset, it
seemfi to me that a mistake, however natural and pardon-
able in itself, is often made by zoophilists in trying to
teach humanity by the system of "petting." In face of
the shocking ill-usage to which animals are so generally
subjected, it is of course extremely difficult to know where
and how to begin the lesson of humaneness; and the

10

practice of encoura^ng childrea to keep pete, and i
keep them properly, has tbe advaatage of being tn
readieet and most obvious method, and up to a certain
point a fairly successful one. In the long run, I believe
it to be wrong and disastrous, and for this reason, that
petting, tike persecuting, draws away the attention from
the very fact which it ia most urgently neccBsary to
emphasise — the fact that animals are not mere "things,"
not mere chattels and automata to be used (however
kindly) for the amusement and recreation of man, but
intelligent and highly- developed personalities, whoae in-
numerable services to human kind, faithfully performed
through the centuries, have rendered them an integral
aad important element of civilised society. It is tha
indiciduality of animals that needs to he impressed oa
children, and for that matter, on adults also, who for the
most part treat animals sa if they were utterly devoid of
individuality or intelligence. What we should aim at ia
to make animals our friends, not our pets; for a pet,
however carefully it ia petted, can hardly be respected ;
and it is precisely this lack of retpecl for animals as
intelligent beinga that is at the root of so much brutality

For the same reason great care should be exercised in
appealing to the humane sentiment of children by means
of poetry and 6ction, as is frequently done in zoophilist
pamphlets and journals. There ia no more precious gift
than the innate sense of humanity, when it is balanced
and safeguarded by consistency and judgment ; but it
should be remembered that, without these qualities, it ia
apt to degenerate into that false sentiment, or "senti-
mentality," from which it ia most important that genuine
human itarianism should be kept free. It is so easy to

produce a temporary influence on young minds by litera-
ture of an emotional order, that there ia a danger of
using this power unwisely and indiscriminately by the
dissemination of writings which, though excellent in
intention, are intellectually feeble and commonplace.
Trashy poems and vapid fowery tales do no permaneat
good. In the long run children see through the pioua
artificea that are spread for them, and detect tho cant that
(nnoonaeiously perhaps, but none the less surely) la at tha
bottom of all such mediocrity. Be certain that false
sentiment will eventually produce either hypocrisy or
contempt, and that in either case the cause of real
humaneneBs will be retarded, not advanced, by it. Let
US use poetry and anecdote by all means ; but let us he
moat careful that ^e use good material only, and not the
first frothy stuff that comes to hand.

I would further remark, though I do not wish to da
more than briefly allude to this subject, that the competi-
tive prize-system appears to be a very hazardous and
questionable expedient for inculcating humanity. Prizes
have become so much a part and parcel of our educational
methods that it is no doubt difEcult to dispense with them
altogether in any branch of study ; but surely if there is
any virtue which brings its own reward, humaneness ia
that virtue ; and to ofEer a prize for what should be the
simplest of human instincts, is to sbow a lack of faith in
the sincerity of the student, and in many cases to put a
premium upon priggishness and self-seeking.

I suggest, then, that the flrst object of the teacher —
and in this case the parent and the teacher will often be
identical— should be to diminish, rather than encourage,
the practice of keeping "pets," and to lead their pupils
to regard animals seriously as intelligent friends, and not

4

to sentimentalise over them as puppets and playthings.
There is no more miserable being than a lap-dog ; and the
Up-dog is the sign and symbol ol that spurious humanity
which is the final outcome of " petting."

The false pity must he eliminated before the true pity
can take root. Neither the domestic animals nor the wild
animals are unhappy, unless through the mismanagement
of man. "An impartiality that pets nothing and perse-
cutes nothing," says the naturalist, Mr. W. H. Hudson,
*' is doubtless man's proper attitude towards the inferior
animals ; a god-like benevolent neutrality ; a keen and
kindly interest in every form of lite, with indifference as
to its ultimate destiny ; the softness which does no wrong,
with the hardness that sees no wrong done," These
are wise woids, and deserve to be carefully pondered
by teachers.

COLLECTIKO.

Still more objectionable than the practice of petting is
the practice of collecting, for if the " pet " is a doubtful
incentive to humanity, the " epecimenj" in nine cases out
of ten is a positive obstacle to it. And here we are
brought face to face with the vitally important choice
between two divergent ways of teaching Natural History
— a science which, according to the spirit in which it is
handled, will inevitably influence the youthful student's
mind, in one or the other direction, with regard to the
treatment of animals. These two divergent methods may
he called the anatomical and the natural. Under the
former, the prevalent method, which is in accord with
the materialistic tendencies of the age, we recklessly
foster the airwiily of children— a perilous quahty which.

IS

perhaps above all others, needs to be wisely guided and
tempered — by permitting or even encouraging them to
indulge their fancy to the utmost in the pursuit and
collection of " specimens." It is accepted by moet
parents and masters as quite a matter of course that
boys should hunt down, kill, and " preserve " in a cabinet
as many of our beautiful English moths and butterQies as
happen to come within their reach ; that in the process of
" bitd's-neating," they should commit the most wanton
havoc in order to gratify the idlest whim of the collector ;
or that they should sacrifice any amount of gold and
silver fish, minnows, sticklebacks, and other small fry, for
the scientific purposes of the "aquarium."

It is quite inevitable that much callousness and actual
cruelty of disposition should result from these practices.
Instead of teaching our children the lessoa of the in-
finite beauty and sacredness of natural life, we deliber-
ately send them out into the wild places of Nature, as
youthful marauders and murderers, and then wonder
that they grow up brutal, stupid, and unfeeling. If
anyone thinks that there is exaggeration in the statement
that the unbridled mania for " coUeccing " breeds a
positive love of slaughter for slaughter's sake, let me
refer him to a passage in pamphlet No. 15 of the Society
for the Protection of Birds.

" Last spring," says one of the contributors, Colonel W. L.
Coulson, "I spoke to some boya about the birds' -nesting
pi'evslent in the neighbourhood where I was staying. I asked
them what they did with the young birds after they had
taken the nest. ' Oh,' said one of the boys, ' we slits 'em.' I
said ' What do you mean by slitting them ? ' He replied, ' We
polls off their legs and wings, and then chucks them into the
water.' A. few daya afterwards I met some more boys

hen I put ^^^^H
e anatomical II

Apparently engaged in a similar; amusement, when
same qneetion to them, and received a 1"

There you have a fair typical result ol the i
method of tesuhing Natural History to children. " We
slite 'em" might appropriately stand as the motto of that
Bcieuce.

Is it surprising that a nation which aUowa its rising
generatioQ to he depraved in this manner, should tolerate
or even sanction, as the fine flower and ne plug ultra of
scientific curiosity, the unspeakable rileneas of vivi-
section? Collecting and dissecting easily become identi-
cal and interchangeable terms ; and the youthful ruffian-
ism which "slits" young birds byway of recreation in
the springtime may develop, in the maturity of years,
into the more polished fiendishness of the laboratory.
We have recently seen in this country in one of the
publications of the " Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge,'" how experiments on animals may even be
recommended to the young (by a religious and educational
organisation!) aa a worthy means of self -instruction ; and
ia America the case appears to be even worse. In a
recent circular sent out by the American Humane Associa-
tion attenttou is drawn to " those methods of instruction
obtaining to some extent in public schools, whereby the
facts of physiology are set forth by means of actual
experiments upon living animals, etherized for that pur-
pose. Animals such as frogs, pigeons, dogs, and
particularly cat^, are dissected before mixed classes of
boys and girjs— sometimes the teacher operating, some-
times the pupils." Could anything be more horrible and
demorahaing?

1 '■ Our Secret Friends aiid Foes," by Dr. Peroy Fninkland.

But it is not only hy its cruelty that the anatomical

method staads coademned ; viewed from an intellectual
standpoint also, it is radically Tinaatisfaotory and unsound.
Our vhole system of studying and collecting animals, as
80 many " sub]*ect8 " for the muBeum and menagerie, the
laboratory or dissecting-room, is barbarous and un-
scientific, and yields a miserable result. Take as an
example, the Zoological Gardens, perhaps the best in-
stitution of its kind. The popularity of the Zoo, as a
place of recreation and instruction for young
undoubted ; nor is there any reason to deny that this
popularity is well deserved, so long as we do not look
beyond the present limited conception of man's moral duty
to the lower animals, and the equally limited scientific
notion of the right method of studying them.

The accepted system, then, is to cram the largest possible
variety of animal life into a certain given space, where,
for the payment of a small sum, the spectator may have
the satisfaction of seeing aa immense number of "speci-
mens" in the course of a single afternoon. Here for
instance is a "Prairie Fox," confined in a small kennel
which does duty for the prairies, It is assumed that it is
amusing and instructive to see a Prairie Fos under such
conditions ; and it is quite unrecognised that in the first
place there is much cruelty in the infi.iction of this sort of
life-imprisonment, and secondly that an animal thus
exhibited without a single cbara<:teristic feature of its
natural environment is, from the true scientific standpoint,
a very sorry spectacle indeed. Both for humane reasons
tific, it would be a better shiliingsworth to see
i single animal under conditions of space where it might
) its natural faculties, than to see B
bundred poor creatures reduced to a state not much

I

vital tlian that of stuffed specimens in a mueeum. Add to
this the possibility of laying out the Qardens with a view
to a proper grouping of the animals, in accordance with
geographical distribution— artic district, tropical districtr
etc., — instead of the present indiscriminate juxtapesition of
the most alien species, and it will be seen how much rooni
there is for improvement in the scientific no less than the
humane management of a great national collection.

This criticism holds good of the whole system of
"collecting," to which children, on a small scale, are so
commonly devoted, and which freq^uently results, through
the ignorance or neglect of the keepers, in the miserable
death or deterioration of the specimens concerned. How
different might it bo if teachers could be persuaded and
empowered to substitute the contrary, the natural, method,
of studying the open book of ^Nature, and to instruct their
charges to observe the free and living animals, instead of
brooding over stu&ed corpsea in a museum or dead-alive
prisoners in a menagerie. " The most important reijuisite
in describing an aiviraal," says Thoreau, " is to be sure
that you give its iharaoter and spirit, for in that you.
have, without error, the sum and effect of all its parts
known and unknown. Surely the most important part of
an animal is its am'ma, its vital spirit, on which is based
its character and all the particulars by which it moat
ooocerns us. Yet most scientiJic books which treat of
animals leave this out altogether, and what they desoribe-
are, as it were, phenomena of dead matter."

Let me again refer to an example (and a contrast) which
is familiar to Londoners. The "aviaries," with one or
two exceptions, are perhaps the most dismal parts of the
Zoological Gardens ; for what can be more depressing,
□r less instructive, than aa exhibition of winged creatures'

17

ho cauQot exercise their wings? On the other hand,
there is a very real interest to be enjoyed in the Londoo
Parks, where wild free birds, such as the wood-pigeon
and moor-hen, are seen dwelling fearlessly in the very
heart of civilisation, simply because they have learnt that
they will not there be wronged by man.

Here is a suggestion of the lines on which a new and
nobler study of Natural History may be pursued. The
old anatomical method has no doubt dona good service in
its time ; it represented a certain phase of science which
had to be realised and worked out. But it is over now,
for all higher educational purposes, and will soon itself be
no more than a shelved specimen in the great museum
ol the Past — to be taken down, perhaps, as occasion
requires, for reference and re'exami nation, but no longer
to dominate our school-rooms and leoture-halla. We have
collected and dissected the fauna and flora of our native
islands till our books are full to repletioa of the descrip-
tions and illustrations. Is it not time that we began to
apply and utilise this knowledge, such as it is, towards
the acquisition of a better and more natural knowledge,
in the direction which the great humane naturalists, such
aa Michelet and Thoreau, have so wisely indicated ? For
children, at any rate, there can be no doubt which should
be the prevalent method of instruction.

They should be taught to cage and imprison no animal
or bird, but to respect the freedom and self- development
of all other sentient beings, even as they claim the like
privilege for themselves. Quite lately there was an ad-
vertisement in the papers ol a cheap bird trap, with the
zecommendation that " every boy should possess one."
This is precisely the sort of implement that no boy should
possess. Boys and girls should be early initiated into

thoBe habits of quiet, observant, and loving watchfulness,
by which the true nature-lover, as distinguiahed from the
collecting scientist, is always able to win the confidence
of nature, and to learn the secrets of field and forest witii
far mora penetrating eye. They should feed the wild
birds that flock to the gardens in winter-time, and then
in summer they would have the full enjoyment of their
soDg. The catapult, the air-gun, bird-lime, and, worst of
all, the abominable steel-trap, should be unknown and
unused by children. The wantonly destructive habit of
stringing birds' eggs in hundreds should be discontinued.
It has been suggested by Mr. W. H. Hudson, and the
idea has been elaborated by another humane writer,' that
by encouraging the manufacture of artificial coloured wax
eggs for collections (an imitative art which can be carried
to great perfection with care and skill) much might be
done to prevent the cruel and mi.sehiovous destruction of
nests, and at the same time increase rather than diminish
the interest in Natural History which children properly
feel. Numerous such expedients, in all branches of study,
will suggest themselves to wise teachers, and enough has
now been said to make the principle clear.

Blood - Sports.
There is no more demoralising influenoe on the minds
of the young than so-called "sport," the chasing and
killing of animals, in many cases harmless animals, for
mere pastime and amusement — "for fun," as the saying
^es. Sport is so commoa, so universal, that habit blinds

' Miss B. CarringtoD, in her pamphlet on ' ' The Kxb^nniiiatioii of
Birds," Humanitariiui League Series, No. 10. See egpedaHf the
sections cot "Birds' Nestjn^" and "THe Caging of Birds".

our eyes to tho esaontial horror of the thing, for it ii
Dothidg less thaa horrible that children should
acciutomed to inflict suffering and death, or to watoh
others inflict them, in the quest of pleasiire and recreation.
Yet so it is ; and few indeed are the boys, at any rate
among the well-to-do classes, who have not this example
of "amateur butchery", as aport has well been called,
set before their eyes by parent or friend or teacher. To
hunt aomething, to shoot something, to worry something
— this is the schoolboy's idea of a meritorious occupation.
A lat-catcber is almost a demi-god to him, A gamekeeper,
whose profession consists in about equal proportions of
skulking and killing, is an object of intense and idolatrous
rovetenoo. How should it be otherwise, when the influ-
ence of " Society," that horde of overgrown schoolboys, i»
all in the same direction '?

At the root ol the evil lies the false notion of " manli-
neae," a notion handed down generation by generation,
and accepted by unthinking people without the least criti-
cism or inquiry. It was ones manly to hunt dangerous
beasts under natural conditions of peril, hardihood, and
wild life. Therefore (so runs by implicatian the strange
argument) it ia now manly to hunt or shoot harmless
creatures, under entirely artificial conditions, and without
the smallest show of necessity or need. Such an obvious
fallacy could not have survived to the present time, were
it not for the extraordinary power of habit and associa-
tion. For unluckily the same false glamour which ia con-
nected in the popular mind with the name of soldier, is
connected iu no small degree with the name of sportsman ^
and in either case a scarlet coat is responsible for much of
the mischief. " Dress a man in a particular garment,"
says Bentham, " call him by a particular name, and he

shall hare authority on divers occasions to commit everji
apeciea of offence — to pillage, to murder, to destroy."
These words are applicable to the hunting man as well as
"to the military.

Now it ought not to be difficult to eaplain successfully
to children the Sagrant uitmanliness of sport, for boys,
whatever their shortcomings may be, have a strong sense
of " fair play," and modem sport, iu which a multitude of
armed or mounted heroes go forth to do to death, with the
least iacoavenience to themselves, some torrified little
iugitive, is about as unfair and one-sided a conflict as
could possibly be imagined. Blood-sports, moreover,
flhould always be carefully distinguished from the
honourable and really manly sports of the gymnasium
-or playing-field; and it may be pointed out that the
Greeks, who brought the culture of physical perfection
to its highest pitch, were as a nation comparatively free
from the practice of inEicting pain on sentient beings.

Again, ridieult, that most formidable weapon, which is
so commonly employed to throw discredit on humani-
tarians, may be very easily, and very effectively, turned
to exactly the contrary use. Ohildren are now often pre-
Tentcd from showing gentleness and mercy for fear of
being called " milksops" by their companions; but a wise
teacher might soon bring the laugh to the other side by
showing the inherent silliness and folly of sport, as pur-
sued under its present conlemptible conditions, and the
glaring faUacies of the eicuees put forth by sportsmen for
the continuance of their pastime.

I am aware that many schoolmasters are themselves
ffportsmen iu their holidays, and that therefore it is use-
leea to ask them to teach a humanity which they h^re
themselves yet to learn, But even sportsmen are begin-

21

ning to recognise that aome further reform of their blood-
sports will aooQ be inevitable, inasmuch aa there has been
no legislative action since the abolition of bull and bear
baiting over fifty years back, though humane feeling has
largely intreased among the public during that time. At
least it must be admitted that th« yimng ought not to be
thus early initiated into the art of killing, and that aa
long as children are taught to take pleasure in the death
of any creature — even of the lowest "vermin" — it will
be quite futile to preach to them about [ho duty of
"kindness to animals." At present the morality of
English schools, and especially the great public schools,
in this respect, is exceedingly low. At Eton the boys
are even permitted to keep a pack of Beagles, and the
school journal, written by boys for boys, contains periodic
reports, worded in the disgusting jargon that sportsmen
affect, of the " breaking-up," etc., ot the hunted hares.
Truly a strange education for the future " gentlemen " of
England ! But the idea of gentleneti has always been
dissociated from gentility.

I have spoken so far of practices in which boys are
chiefly concerned. But that girls are also demoralised by
these sordid sights may be judged from the sanction
-which many women give to blood aports by their presence
on the hunting-field and at the battue. The effects of the
same cauae are seen in the utter indifTerence of the
majority of the female aez to the horrors of the feather
trade, and the callouaneas with which they wear the
barbarou a trophies which " murderous millinery " estorts
from many beautiful but rapidly periahing species of
birda.' Such faahiona are nothing less than blood-sporta

'See ■•The Eitemiinntioii ot Birds," HumaDitiiiian League's
Publications, No. 10.

i

''at one remove"; and the wamen who indulge in &»
fashions are exactly as responsible tm the men who indulge
in the eportB. It would be impossible that women should
be 80 cruel, if they received any sort of humane instruc-
tion in their girlhood. At present they receive none.
Lady superintendents and principals of so many "superior"
training schools for girls, might not this matter be worth
just a trifle of your attention ? Even humanity may have
its uses as an " accomplishment " in polite education.

BH-FOOD.

It is quite possible that some of my readers may a little
reeent the introduction of the diet question in this-
appeaL Until recently this question has been usually
passed over by zoophilists, perhaps because they felt a
sort of latent despair at the enormous mass of sufEering
inflicted by the work of the butcher, and because at the
same time they regarded the use of flesh-food as perma-
nently necessary and indispensable. Children, in par-
ticular, have been left almost uninstruoted as to the
origin of the food which they were taught to consider ae
the chief support of life ; so that in many cases, perhaps
in the majority of cases, there has been complete ignor-
ance or indifEerence as to the connection between the ox
or sheep in the fields and the "beef" or "mutton" on
the table. The whole subject is a darh and disagreeable
one ; and teachers (from their point of view not un-
naturally) have been content to ehirk it as much as
possible, and to trust to the powers of custom and usage-
to gloss over its unpleasantness.

But of late the question has received increasing
attention, and it will not be possible for it to be

^e 1
his- I

mudi longer eradod. And aurely, i( we are to think
at all honeatly and conecientiously about a just treat-
ment of the lower races, aud if -w& are to teach an
intelligible humaneness to our children, ve cannot refuse
to Bubject to the light of critical examinatioa a syetem by
vhich, for the sake of a necessity, real or supposed, we
devote countleaa multitudes of harmless animals to a most
painful death. Anyone who is willing to know the facta —
and it is a plain duty to know them — can now obtain
reliable information about Cattle-ships and Slaughter-
houses,' and the various methods that have been proposed
for their supervision and reform ; moreover, anyone can
leam what progress Tegetarianiem has made in this
ooantry during the past ten or twenty years. So that
there is positively no excuse for the further omission of
(biB all-important subject from humanitarian consideration.
No judicious person would for a moment suggest that
children's minds should be wantonly invaded and troubled
by morbid or unwholesome reflections. No child ought
to see or even hear of the intolerable scenes of the
shambles. But what I wish to point out is that the
mischief is already done; for even as things now are
it is not possible to prevent more sensitive boys and girls
from speculating on these matters. Nor is it only specu-
lation ; for it not unfrequently happens, in the poorer
quarters of large towns, that mere children are actual
eye-witnesses of the demoralising spectacle of slaughter-
ing. Among the children of the well-to-do classes, who
are spared such experiences, there is often much half-
awakened curiosity and repressed (unwisely repressed)

i

a SkiUghterhoiia

HumanitariBii

94

lenaibilit; on this ghastly subject. What have our
teachers to Bay about it ? If they are to be taochers in
aDythiog but the name, they must be prepared to give
some guidance and inatruction to those who look to them
for advice. It cannot be a right course to parry by
denials or subterfuges the natural questions which
children ask of their instructors.

The responeibility of man can no more be evaded in
the caae of animab slaughtered for food than in that of
the so-called "beasts of burden;" in either case there
is, at the very least, a moral obligation that no unneces-
sary suffering bo inflicted. If we wish to educate our
children humanely, we cannot do leaa than inform them
of this duty ; and if we are honest we shall be compelled
to add that at present the duty is very insufficiently pet-

Further, a word as to the actual diet of children. In face
of the facts above mentioned, it Eeems, to say the very
least, a terrible error of judgment oa the part cf parents
and guardians to force children, as is often done, against
their natural inclination, to eat Oesh. There is abundant
evidence to show that children in almost all cases thrive
well on a diet of fruit, vegetables, and milk. Let me
quote the authority of Sir B. W. Eichardaon in hia
" Foods for Man " :

" The food which is moBt enjoyed ia the food we call bread
and fruit. In all my long medioal career, extending over
forty years, I have rarely known an instance ia which a. child
has not preferred fruit to animal food. I have many times
been called upon to treat children for stomachic disorders
induced by pressing upon them animal to the exclusion of fruit
diet, and have seen the best results occur from the practice of
reverting to the use of fruit in the dietary. I say it without
the least prejudice, as a lesson learned from simple experience,

29

that the most natural diet for the young, after the natural

milk diet, ia fralt and nhole-meol bread, with milk and water
for drink. The desire for this same mode of sustenance is
often continued into after years, as if the resort to flesh were a
forced and artificial feeding, which required long and persistent
habit to establish its permanency as a part of the system of
everyday life."

The instinctive loathing of flesh-food, which is so often
to he ohserved in the young', ia a sign which no ^
teacher will disregard. It is the petition of Nature that,
if grown men and women still think it necessary (in spite
of accumulating proofs to the contrary) to eat the flesh of
animals, they will at least allow their children to subsist
awhile on a, more healthful and innocent food. At present
the common practice of cramming children with "meat"
is simply the hygienic counterpart of that moral negligence
which permits them to"experiment" at the coat of bo much
Buffering, and make a "sport" of the death and torture
of animals.

Uuch of the vice and immorality now prevalent in
large schools may be traced to the same cause — a failure
to recognise the importance of a simple and natural diet.
"One of the proofs," says Eousaeau, " that the taste of
flesh is not natural to man is the indifFereuce which
children eshibit for that sort of meat, and the preference
they give to vegetable foods, mi Lit -porridge, pastry, fruits,
«tc. It is of the last importance not to denaturaUae this
primitive taste, and not to render them carnivorous, if
not for health reasons, at least /or thd lahe ofth-ir charaeUr.
For, however the experience may be explained, it is
certain that great eaters of Sesh are in general more cruel

and ferocious than other men Let us preserve to

the child as long as possible its primitive taste; let its
nourishment be common and simple; let not its palata

be familiariBed to any but natural Sarours ; and
ercluaive taste be formed."

What Teachers Can Do.

Tliis appeal is addressed especially to teaohets, b
until they as a class are brought to feel the need of
humane education, theie is not the stigbtest hope of such
education being granted. It is a case of Quit dacehit
doctores ? We must convert the guardians first, in order
to gain the desired access to the pupils.

It may be objected, perhaps, that the humanitarian
program set forth in this essay is too drastic to be
practical, and that more might be gained from those
to whom the appeal is addressed if less were required
of theip. Well, of comse it would be the easier and
pleasanter plan to make no severe demands upon anyone's
conscience, and, instead of tellbg disagreeable truths of
the causes of juvenile cruelty, to be content with the usual
pious platitudes about the " thoughtlessness " of children,
ending with a general recommendation to preach and
practise " kindness to animals " — under conditions where
consistent kindness is impassible. But what would be
the profit of once more repeating what has already been
80 often preached in vain ? Let it be freely admitted
that the reforms here advocated can at present be only
partially carried out ; still it is better and more practical
to face the problem fairly, even with no immediate result,
than to potter benevolently over mere formulas and
trivialities, which, however they are treated, must stiE
leave the essential issues untouched.

And as a matter of fact, a good deal can be done, even
at the present time, by the small minority who feel the
truth of what has been said. Individual teachers, by

27

personal example and precept, can appreciably influence
for the better tbe general tone and attitude of their pupils
towards the lower animals ; and by more and more intro-
ducing euch subjects into the course of instruction, can
help to give a definiteneBa and reality to the departmental
notice above quoted. We have already the Government
permission that such teaching may be given ; what is
needed is the insistence that no education shall be con*
sidered sufficient without it. Still easier would it be for
the principala and assistant- masters of public and private
schools to do something towards a reform, by making the
treatment of animals a subject of freq^uent reference in
the pulpit and elsewhere. Hundreds of addieases and
exhortations are annually given to schoolboys, by those
who have charge of their moral and spiritual welfare ;
yet it is rare indeed to hear a word spoken in protest
against the worst of all human vices — inhumanity.

Although, for reasons already stated, the inculcation of
gentleness by means of prizes is to be regarded with some
suspicion, there is no doubt that the system of essay-
writing out of school hours has certain distinct advantages.
It seta boys and girls thinking on subjects which perhaps
would otherwise be overlooked ; and not unfrequently
when the competitors are day-scholars and write the
essays at homo, the whole family becomes interested in
the work, and the awakening of one mind to humane
ideas causes the awakening of many. Thus the " mercy "
writing, like the quality of mercy itself,

" is twice blest ;
It blesgeth him that gives and him that takes."

That still mote excellent results might be obtained from
a systematic instruction of children in the duty of
humanity to animals, may be judged from the success

<

98

irbiclL has attended the efforts of the few pioneera in thia
cause, as for esamplo K. do Saillf, a Frencli achool-
maetBr in Algiers. I quote a portion of his own lecord

of the eiperiment,'

" I have long been convinced that bindnesa to animals is
productive of great reanlts, and that it ia not only the moat
powerful eauge of material prosperity, but also the beginning-
of moral perfection. I therefore began my wort in IBol, and
at the same time introduced agriculture into my school ; for I
Bavf the dose connection between the doctrine of kindnesa to
animals and the important science of agriculture, since there
can be no profitable farming unless animals are well tept, well
fed, and well treated. And, besides, how can children bettor
learn the pleasures of country life than by understanding the
importance of agriculture, the methods in use in their own
country and the profit which may be derived from intelligent
farming and kind treatment of animals ? Do they not become
attached to country life ? Do they not fee! kindly towards all
dumb creatures ? Do they not receive ideas of order and
domestic economy? Do they not love Mother Earth, who pays
ns HO freely and so generously for our work ? And does not
this love tend to check the growing evil of emigration from the
country to the city.

" My method of teaching kindness to animals has the advan-
tage of in ao way inferfering with the regular routine of my
flchool. Two days in the week all our lessons are conducted
with reference to this subject. For instance, in the reading
class, I choose a book upon animals, and always find time for
naeful instruction and good advice. My " copies " for writing
are facta in natural history, and impress upon the pupils ideas
of justice and kindness towards useful animals.

" In writt«n exercises, in spelling and composition, I teach
the good care which should be taken of domestic animals, and
the kindness which should be shown them. I prove that by
not overworking them, and by keeping them in clean and
loomy stables, feeding them well, and treating them kindly
and gently, a greater profit and larger crops may he obtained

' from Our3umb Animali, the or^anof the Massachusetts B. P. C. A.

as

than by abusing them. I also speak, ia tbla connection, of
certain small uniiuals which, although in a wild state, are very
useful to fanners.

" The results of my instmction have been, and e
iDgly satisfactory, 'yly ideas hare deeply impressed uy pupils,
and have exercised the best influence upon their lives and
characters. Ever since I introduced the subject into my echool
I have found the children less disorderly, but, instead, :
gentle and affectionate towards each other. They feel n
and more kindly towards animals, and have entirely given up
tbe cruel practice of robbing nests and kiUing small birds.
They are touched by the su£Fering and misery of animals, and the
pain which they feel when they see them cruelly used b
the means of exciting other persons to pity and compassion,"

The central principle which should be steadily kept in
view ID all humane education ie that which the Humani-
tarian League has made the basis of its Manifesto — that
"it is iciquitoua to inflict suffering on any sentient b
except when self-defence or absolute necessity can be
justly pleaded." It cannot be difficult to teach children
to distinguish between neceuary suffering and unneceasari/ ;
yet in this distinction (so often forgotten by our oppo-
nents), and in its practical application to the details of
life, Ilea the whole ethic of humanitariauism. The idea
that humanitarians are " sentimentalists " is the very
reverse of the truth. We fully recognise that it is often
a Btern necessity to inflict pain or death. Let us do bo,
when we are satisfied that the necessity exists, with as
few words as possible, and not shrink from any action
that is rightly incumbent on us. But to hurt or kill for
mere caprice, or fashion, or amusement ; to cage animals
when they need not be caged ; to hunt them when there
is no necessity for such hunting ; to torture them in the
supposed interests of a barren and futile " science " ; to
treat them, when domesticated, with an jasensate rough-

4

QesB vhicli defeats its own eads — these are mhumanities
which eve^y boy and girl should learn to regard with
loathing and detestation.

The question of nomenclature is an important one, to
which a brief mention must be given. It waa remarked
by Jeremy Bentham that whereas human beings are
Btjled parsons, " other animals, on account of their in-
terests having beea neglected by the insensibility of the
ftncient jurists, stand degraded to the class of thinffs."
The German philosopher, Schopenhauer, has also com-
mented on the in appropriateness of the English neuter
pronoun " it," when applied to highly intelligent beings.
The common use of such contemptuous terms as " brute-
beasts," "live-stock," etc., is undoubtedly an obstacle to
the humaner treatment of the lower races ; and children
should be taught that it is absurd for man, himself an
animal, to ignore his natural kinship with the " other "
animals, as Bentham correctly eaUa them,

"Without perfect sympathy with the animals around
them, no gentleman's education, no Christian education,
could be of any possible use." 80 said Mr. Buskin in
1877; and one of the rules of his Society of St. Georgs
runs as follows :

" I will not kill nor hurt any living creature needlessly, nor
destroy any beautiful tiling; but will strive to savs »nd com-
fort all gentle life, and guard and perfect all natural beauty
npou the earth."

I would put it to those who may chance to read this
pamphlet — how is it possible to make any progress to-
wards a "perfect sympathy" with the animals, or to
strive towards the high ideal of the Society of St. George,
imlesB on the humanitarian lines which I have here
advocated? It ia useless to think of "comforting all

81

gentle life " until we deliberately set ouraelvea to eradi-
cate the bvUm by which, social life is at present brutalised
and degraded. I have already admitted that this educa-
tional process must perforce be a elow and laborious one ;
it is all the more desirable, therefore, that it should at
once be taken in hand.

Moreover, we shall do wisely to remember that no
great social improvement can come alone, and that Uie
humanising of our school system oau only be fully effected
side by side with the general and gradual spread of
justice and enlightenment. For as there ia undoubtedly
a natural connection and interdependence between the
various wrongs by which society is at present afflicted, bo
is it also evident that no great progress can be made on
any isolated line of reform ; there may for a time be a
rapid advance in some particular direction, but such
advance will then be succeeded by a halt until the other
lines are brought up. There is nothing diacouraging to
homanitariauB in this solidarity of progress ; on the con-
trary, we see in it the only true aseuranoe of ultimato
and permanent success.

Much has been done in recent years for the better
instruction and the better protection of English children.
We have recognised that it is a national duty to give a
sound intellectual education to every child in the kingdom,
and a national duty to safeguard every child from cruelty
and violence, even if its own parent be the aggressor.
We have now to realise that there is one thing yet lacking
— the education not of the intellect only, but of the heart.
It is useless to teach the young to become clever, if we
permit them to remain cniel ; it is useless to pass laws to
repress parental tyranny, if we encourage children ia
in their turn to indulge the most tyrannous propensities 1

S2

towards bfiinga yet more deteaceleaB than themselTss.
It is a mockery to talk of religioo, aad art, and educa-
tion, and " humane lettera ; " if ws allow tlie gentloQess
which can alone give vitality to these accomplishmenta to
be poisoned at its source by the lesteriag plague of
cruelty. There can be no Ultra kumaniores while
brutality still exists. As was nobly said ot the curse of
negro slavery, " While these things are being done.
Beauty stands vailed, and Music is a screeching lie."

For these reasons our appeal is now made to that educa-
tional class whose power, though sharply limited by facte
and eircumatanees, is yet greater than that of any c
class to initiate a reform. It is for teachers tosay wheth
an earnest eSort shall, or shall not, be made to inform tl
rising generation that animal* have rights, and that t
man who violates those rights, however cultured ■
learned or influential he may be, is deficient in the highea
and noblest wisdom ot which the human mind is capabloil
From such an attempt, though the immediate results be-fl
but slight, who can say how rich a harvest may not 1
reaped hereafter, or that the time may not c
there shall indeed be that "perfect sympathy" betwefl
mankind and the lower races which is to us but a viuol
and a dream. In Shelley's words,

" No longer now the winged habitants,
That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,
Flee froia the form of man ; but gather roand,
And prune their sunny feathers on the hands
Which little children stretch in friendly aport
Towards these dreadless partners ol their play.
All things are void of terror : man has lost
His terrible prerogative, and stands
An equal amidst equcda. Happiness
And science dawn though late upon the earth."

"WtTMANITARIAN LEAGUE'S'
PUBL ICATIO NS.

PAMPHLET SERIES.
TWOFElfCE EACH.
No. I.— Humanltarlanism: Its Qeneral Principle!

Progress. By Henrv S. Salt.
No. 4 — The Horrors of Sport. By Laov Flohencb Dixie.

No. 5.— Behind the Scenes In Slaughter- Houses. By H.

F, Lester,
No. 6. — 'Vivisection. By Edward Cahpenter and Edward

No. 7.— "I Was in Prison"; A Ple« for the Amelioration

of the Criminal Law. By Robert Jo?
No. S. — Women's Wages, and the Conditions under

which they are earned. By Isabella O. Ford,
No. g.— Dangerous Trades. By Louisa T. I
No. 10.— The Extermination of Birds. By Edith Carhingtom-
No. II.— The Horse: his Life, his Usage, and his End.

By Colonel W. L. B. ConLSON.
No. 12.— A Plea for Mercy to Offenders.— By C. H. Hop-

WPOD, Q C,

No. 14. — Liters Humanlores : an Appeal to Teachers.
No. 15.— Cattle Ships and our Meat Supply. By ls\

Greg and S, H. Towers.
No. 16,— Public Control of Hospitals. By Habry Roberts,
Ho. 17.— The Evils of Butchery. By Joscah Oldfield
No. iS.— The Dog : his Rights and Wrongs. By EaitH

No. 19,— The Shadow of the Sword. By G. W, Foots.

No- 21.— What It Costs to be Vaccinated: The Pains and
Penaltlesof an Unjust Law. By Joseph Collinson.
No. 23— The Sweating System. By Maubic;
No. 23.— The Humanities of Diet. By Henrv S. Salt.
No. 24.— The OaI1ow» and the Lash. By Hyfatia Bradlaook
Bonner.

lumane Science Lectures.'

By Edward Carpenter, J. Arthur Thomsos, M.A.,

Rev. W. Douglas Morrison, and Dr. J. Milne Bramwell.

Clolk, 2S.

The New Charter;

A DISCUSSION OF THE RIGHTS OF MEN
THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS.

By J, C. Kenworthv, Josiah Oldfielj>, Rev. A.

FliEDERic Harrison. G, W. Foote, and C. W. Le
Paper Covers, 1 1- : Cloth. 2/-.

"A powerfully writlcn little volame .... wherein the phyalc
thasclenceofavolmion."— Daily Nmi.

Cruelties of Civilisation:

A PROGRAM OF HUMANE REFORM.

In Two Vols. Paper Covers, i/-; Cloth, 2/-, each VoIhku,

Volume I. contains :— Hdmanitarianism : Its General Pris-

c:ple5 ano Progress; "I Was :n Prison": A Plea for the
Amelioration of the Criminal. Law ; A Plea koh Mbk«
to Offenders ; Women's Wages, and the Conditions uhdrk
WHICH thev ake Earned : Dangerous Trades ; The Humam-
iziNG OP THG Poor Law,
Volume II. contaln,s :— Vivisection : Sport ; The Extermima--
TioN OF Birds; The Horse: his Life, his Usage, and Hit
End ; Cattle Ships, and our Meat Supply ; Behind th*
Scenes in Slaughter Houses,

Animals* Rights,

CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO SOCIAL PROGRESS.

By Henry S. Salt.
In Paper Coven. 1/-; Clotlt, a/-.
■"Animals' Rights,' b; Mr. Henry Salt, seeks to set the prlncliile of 1
righlB on » conSalepi and inlelHgihle fooling. Many oETMr. Sb'— -
humanity wlli win universal asaenl."— rimo.

HXJBiIANITY :

'|t Jiramal »f % f mnanilarian Staj

Valumt I. (1895-1896) bound in cloth, 3s. ad.

Animal Life Readers.

STASt

) I.

Our Old Friends. 8d. Rover and his Friends,

*ND OTHER TaLBS. 8d.

Tame and Wild. lo^. Dick and his Cat,

AND OTBBH TaLES, lOd.

Standard III,

From Many Lands, i^- History of the Robins.

Standard IV.

Man's Helpers, is. The Animals on Strike,

AND OTHER TaLES, IS.

Standard

Nature's Wonders, i^. Featherlattd.

By Manville Fenn. is.
Standard VI,

The Friendship of Animals, is.

Tuppy, the Life of a Donkey, is

Sta^jdard Vll.

Ages Ago, the Ancestry of Animals is.
& Poor Blossom, is

Lan'

iTERN Lectures for Children.

By Mrs. SUCKLING.
Price Foiirpeiice each, net.

THE DOQ. With 4(5 Slides.
THE CAT. 47 Slides.
THE HORSE. 140 Slides
SHEEP AND GOATS.

37 Slides.
CATTLE. 41 Slides.
RABBITS AND HARES.

ag Slides.
' RATS AND MICE. 31 Slides.
SPIDERS. 15 Slides.
ANTS. 18 Slides,

WARBLERS. 44 Slides.
USEFUL BIRDS. 39 Slides.
FARM BIRDS. 47 Slides.
BEETLES, MOTHS, Etc.

36 Slides.
WASPS. BEES, Etc.

13 Slides.
TOADS AND FROGS.

18 Slides.
THE EARTHWORM.

II Slides.

Others Preparing.

N.B.— The Lectures, with numerous Outline Illustrations, make

interesting books for reading.

MANIFESTO OF THE HUHAMITAmN lUI

TsB HuTnanitarian League has been established on the basiB of wie}^ '\
•and consistent prinoiple of humaneness — ^that it is iniqnitooB to iS-v
ingf directly or indirectly, on any sentient being, except -when mH
■absolnto necessity can be justly pleaded.

This principle the Humanitarian League will apply and c
those cases where it appears to be most flagrantly overlooked, taai
not «nly against the cmelties inflicted by men on men, in the n 4.|
authority, and conventional nsage, but also (in accordanoe id ttj-
sentiment of humanity) against the wanton ill-treatment of the lo Cl|'

The Humanitarian League will therefore propose a thoror 4l {
and more equitable administration of the present Criminal Code, tfll^ '
a very large amount of injustice and oppression is constantly perpMlifi 1

It will deprecate the various provocations and incentives *
warfare, and will point to the evils that result from the ever-inc
of military and "naval armaments.

It will inculcate the public duty of aft'ording protection to -V-'
helpless, and will urge the need of amending the present sooi - •
under which a large portion of the people is in a stete of chroni '

It will contend that the practice of vivisection is incompa* iVC-^
fundamental principles both of humanity and sound science, i'g"'
infliction of suffering for ends purely selfish, such as sport, f fj^ ^
or professional advancement, has been largely instrumental ir «m
general standard of morality. .'y^

Furthermore, the Humanitarian League will aim at the pre tF.
terrible sufferings to which «.Tn'mRla are subjected in the^cattle- .\i
shambles, and wiU advocate, as an initial measure, th^ abolition w
slaughter-houses, the presence of which in our large centres is a ei
wide-spread demoralisation.

The Humanitarian League will look to its members to do their
both in private and public, to promote the above-mentioned scheifi&
work will involve no sort of opposition to that of any existing
on the contrary, it is designed to supplement and reinforce such
have already been organised for similar objects. The distinctive
and guiding policy of the League will be to consolidate and give
expression to those principles of humaneness, the recognition of
essential to the understanding and realisation of all that is highest audi

humanity.

Ootnmunieations to he addressed to the Son. Secretary,

53, Chancebt Lane, London, W.G,

I

rie

illilillllllHilil

a bias oil lib 17b