HOW THE COMMISSION SET ABOUT ITS WORK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1762, 29 August 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW THE COMMISSION SET ABOUT ITS WORK.

The Tall M.ill Gazette of Bth and 10th July details the work of the commisMOu as follows: — At an early sta^e of the inquiry I waited upon the Archbishop of Canterbury. He deprecated the risk, ph.y-.ical and moral, which would be run by member.-, of our commission, and did his best "to dissuade me personally, with the utmost kindness, from an enterprise which might end iv my being killed. But he was very cordial, and promised that he would use his utmost exertions to further the obiect I ha-1 in view. The Bishop of London, Dr Temple, to whom the operations of the commission were communicated, was equally hearty in his assurance of support. Iv addition to 'these prelates of the establishment, I discussed the whole matter with the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, from whom I received the warmest welcome, the heartiest support, and the kindliest counsel. To him and to his devoted clergy, especially to Canon Ring, I am deeply indebted for their ready help and Christian sympathy. From the Gougregational Union also the commission received ungrudging aud constant support. Mr Mearns, and the indefatigable men who assisted in getting up the facts on which was based " The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," threw themselves heartily into the work, and their assistance iv our inquiry in the East vas invaluable. Mr Charrington also rendered us good service. His work in the East is only beginning to be appreciated. He is a good earnest man, who has a personal acquaint auce with so many of the worst characters, reclaimed and yet to be reclaimed, that he was able to furnish us wilh many hints and some most valuable introductions. From the chaplains of the Westminster and Clerkenwell caols I received the most valuable information, and not less valuable encouragement and support. Besides the churches, I placed myself in personal communication with most of the associations formed for rescue or preventive work, the matrons of hospitals and homes, and generally with all those whose philanthropic or religious zeal placed them in dimrt, contact with actual facts. The Minors' Join* Protection Committee, of which Mr Charles Mitchell and Mr Bunting are leading members ; the White Ribbon Army, which has Miss Elice Hopkins as its Joan of Arc : the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children — an excellent society, not to be confounded with that half moribund association the Society for t.he Protection of Women and Children ; the London City Mission, to which I was recommended by Lord Shaftesbury; the Reformatory and Refuge Union, of which MiMadison is the secretary at: Charing Cross ; the Rescue Society, in Finsbury pavement ; Mr Thomas' rescue work, the Pimlico Ladies' Association, the various vigilance associations, that excellent society the Moral Reform Uziion, whose indefatigable secretary, Miss Albert, furnished me with much useful informatiou — all were enlisted in the cause,, and assured us of their hearty support and sympathy in the attempt to drag this great evil to light. Members of our commission visited the Lock Hospital. Miss Steer's Bridge of Hope, Mrs Wilkes' Home at Poplar, the Church of England Homes for Little Children at St. Cyprian's, Hurlinjrham, Waltharastow, &c., the Rescue Home which Mrs Brumwell Booth has established at Clapton, and various other public institutions. All this may be said to have been preliminary. The collating of information from the good went ou side by side with the direct investigation into the crimes of the bad. How the commission conducted its investigations in the subterranean region from which it is now at last emerging in unexpected safety I shall not say, beyond remarking that it was caried out on the sound journalistic principle of the universal interview. Individually and collectively we interviewed every one from Lord Dalhoume and Archdeacon Farrer to Mesdumes X and Z and

Mrs Jeff eriesi And Here let me say one • word for that much, maligned 1 woman. . She , was.good enough to accord one, of the ablest 1 and most , indefatigable of my staff two interviews of several hours' duration, in the course of which she shed a flood', of light upon the profession of which she has'^ been fpr many -years tae acknowledged" chief ! So, far as our . inquiry, goes, Mrs Jefferies kept her business .'on as respectable a footing as that ghastly • calling permits. Compared with other keepers ; (concerning whom Mrs Jefferies was very j' communicative), the houses of accommodation i which she is said to have kept, for < Cabinet ■; Ministers and Judges, and_which, according to her | own story, were frequented hy personages who j would take precedence of either, were well conI ducted, and it was the irony of destiny that they j should have been singled out for prosecution , while so many others so much worse were ' allowed to flourish uutouched. As an instance of the thoroughness with which the inquiry was , conducted, I may say that in the execution of I my duty I even interviewed Mr Cavendish Ben- ' tinck. To avoid exciting undue expectations, I may say it was disappointing.