Note 19 — Chapter V · THE QUESTION CONSIDERED IN ITS SOCIAL BEARINGS.

What is the actual state of society in Great Britain and even in this republic, that pseudo-civilization, in her superlative delicacy, should so fastidiously scruple to speak of or to sanction a simple, moral, effectual check to population? Are her sons all chaste and temperate, and her daughters all passionless and pure? I might disclose, if I would, in this very city of New York—and in our neighbour city of Philadelphia—scenes and practices that have come to light from time to time, and that would furnish no very favourable answer to the question. I might ask, whether all the houses of assignation in these two cities are frequented by the known profligate alone? or whether some of the most outwardly respectable fathers—ay, mothers of families—have not been found in resorts supported and frequented only by “good society” like themselves?

As regards Great Britain, I might quote the evidence delivered before a “Committee of the House of Commons, on Labourers’ Wages,” by Henry Drummond, a banker, magistrate, and large land-owner in the county of Surrey, in which the following question and answer occur: Q. “What is the practice you allude to of forcing marriages?” A. “I believe nothing is more erroneous than the assertion, that the poor laws tend to imprudent marriages; I never knew an instance of a girl being married until she was with child, nor ever knew of a marriage taking place through a calculation for future support.” Mr. Drummond’s assertions were confirmed by other equally respectable witnesses; and from what I myself have learnt in conversation with some of the chief manufacturers of England, I am convinced, that the statement, as regards the working population in the chief manufacturing districts, is scarcely exaggerated.

I might go on to state, that the spot on which the Foundling Hospital in Dublin now stands, formerly went by the name of “Murderer’s Lane,” from the number of child murders that were perpetrated in the vicinity.

I might adduce the testimony of respectable witnesses in proof, that, even among the married, the blighting effects of ergot are not unfrequently incurred; by those very persons, probably, who, in public, would think fit to be terribly shocked at this little book.

But why multiply proofs? The records of every court of justice, nay, the tittle tattle of every fashionable drawing-room, sufficiently marks the real character of this prudish and pharisaical world of ours.