FEMALE MORAL RUIN UPON SYSTEM.

Wellington Independent, Volume VI, Issue 482, 25 May 1850, Page 4

FEMALE MORAL RUIN UPON SYSTEM.

We took occasion recently to say a word on behalf "of tho London Female Penitentiary, Pentenville, and find that our endeavour to serve the good cause has been, by the friends of the fallen, estimated beyond its value. But in this, as in every other thing appertaining to moral delinquency, prevention is better than cure; we must, therefore, take leave to day, to enter a plea on behalf of an institution, the object of which is to anticipate ruin, and thus prevent it. The London Society for the protection of of Females. There is, and there has long been, carrying on in our midst a system of the direst atrocity, upon a scale the most gigantic, against which it behoves every friend of his kind, in all possible ways, to raise his voice and his arm for its exposure, overthrow, and destruction. We lately reported the case of Murray, proprietor of fifty London brothels, which will be seen is a new mode of investing capital—fifty sets of human shamblesplaces fitted up expressly for destruction —fifty pits descending straight to hell! And these dens of murder are hired out to the traffickers in infamy—dealers in death and damnation—at the goodly price of £1 a-day—£3so a-week, and &18,200 a-year! The recital produces a mortal shudder, and makes the blood run cold ! To think that the fair face of England should thus be polluted by the breath of men thus rapidly waxing rich by the wages of iniquity, occupying splendid residences, sporting carriages and ser vants in livery, and taking rank with the gentry and nobles of our land to think of this fills the soul with indignation and horror! With the fact above recited, brought casually before us, now appears to be the time for adducing a letter which has lain for some weeks on our table, written by a Christian man who has the means of seeing what passes in the great metropolis.-—

'_' Many evils are tolerated among us which are a disgrace to us as a Christian nation ; but that which produces the most injurious effects is the system, so cxten sively carried on, of procuring females for unmentionable purposes. As I pass through the streets of this great metropolis especially between St. Paul's and the West end, my soul is grieved and vexed at witnessing the conduct of those human monsters who prowl about seeking whom they may entrap or efceoy. Indeed, I have several times interfered, by boldly going up to the young persons and warning them of their danger, and in four or five, instances the warning has been regarded, and the young persons escaped. But if one is delivered, it is only that some others may be entrapped. Sir, when I think of the great number of light-hearted, simple, and unwary it may b -, but virtuous young females, most of

whom would become useful members of society,- that are made meretricious and turned on the streets, a pest of tho community, every year—when I reflect on the amount of sorrow and suffering they undergo, and the awful end to which most of them come, and the many groans aud tears, and broken hearts of parents and friends—my feelings areo verwhelmed ! The idea hangs on my mind, and at times, interferes with my rest. So infested are the streets with procurers and procuresses, even from an early hour in the morning, that it is not fit for young persons to go through them unaccompanied with a male friend or an elder female ; for, if even they arc so wise or prudent us not to notice or listen, still they are liable to be annoyed, if not in ■ suited. I believe, Sir, this is increasing, and will increase, unless some law is enacted stringent enough to check it. I believe the influx of foreigners into this country will increase it. And are slavecatchers the cause of more misery than procurers or seducers ? Let the Female Asylumns answer! Let the Lock Hospitals answer! Let a voice from the London bridges answer ! Let the thousands on our streets answer! Yea, let the families, who have had their peace destroyed, the parents who have had their hearts broken, answer ! Sir, if you had a note from each family in the kingdom who have had to mourn over a child lost, I expect your table would groan under the weight; and that the magnitude of the evil, as well as the general character and connexions of those who are its victims, would astonish you."

We approve of the general tone and spirit of this communication, aud entirely agree with the writer that there is far too much delicacy on this suhject— fiends, in human shape, profit by our prudery. Society is, to a fearful extent, the architect of the ruin of its own virtue. It is a question which, next to the pulpit, concerns the press ; hut the press, for the most part, has shrunk from its full and faithful discharge. But when the pulpit and press have done their utmost, they will have done little, unless society itself individually, collectively, locally, and generally, shall take the matter up aud place its own omnipotent hand upon these haunts of iniquity, and stamp its burning brand upon all those who either own or uphold them.

Stag Hunting in a Public-house. —A correspondent of the Bucks Advertiser states that on Friday week, Baron Rothschild's hounds, when in pursuit of the stag, drove him to St. Leonard's, where he sought shelter in a public-house occupied by Mr. N. Turner. The "door was forced open by the stag, and the landlord being in the way, was at once very nimbly turned heels upwards by the buoyant fleelness ofthe affrighted stag on his way through the tap-room to the parlour; but this house, which is sometimes a solace for men, was not so for this sobbing thirsty creature, which immediately after, he arrived was followed and tormented by the yelling pack till he made off a little way, and then returned to the same spot, and went down the cellar; in which dreary abode he remained about 20 minutes, when a person descended and succeeded in driving him out into the tap-room, where the hounds renewed their attack. The gentlemen of the chase then had the gratification of seeing the victim of their wanton cruelty flying and dashing from room to room, amidst the deafening yell and outrageous onset of the hounds, while the blood from his wounds, and the breath from his nostrils, issued as if it were steam from an engine. The excited neighbours, hearing Mr. Turner's doors, furniture, and vessels of various kinds smashing to pieces, closed their doors and windows-shutters to prevent a similar occurrence in their dwellings. The poor stag was then soon dragged into the yard where the hounds began to devour him alive, and one of the pursuers with a knife made a deep incision in his throat, which increased his convulsive bounds till his sinews were torn asunder, and then down he sunk, writhing in his gore, and was torn to pieces.